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Addressing the subject of women in IslamThe Creator addresses women as being on an equal footing with men, their status as beings and

believers is the same as mens and the requirements of worship are absolutely identical

By Tariq Ramadan | Special to Gulf News

Published: 20:00 October 28, 2013

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When it comes to religion, it may well be over the womens issue that tensions, contradictions, and

concerns are most frequent and complex. This involves human relationships, deep-seatedrepresentation, and relationship logic that, beyond scriptural sources themselves, have to do with

age-old cultural and social heritages that remain deeply ingrained and highly sensitive. Speaking

about women in any human group means interfering with the groundwork of social structures, of

cultural symbolisms, of gender roles, of the position of the family unit, and of authority and power

relationships.

It also means speaking about human beings, their freedom, their autonomy, and their individual,

spiritual, and social aspirations. Discourse about women reveals collective mind-sets, confidence

and fear, the protective strength of what is said and the unsaid, and the deep-rooted foundations of

social structures and their role. This is no simple matter: complex, interdependent issues are

involved, and focusing on one dimension rather than another can sometimes lead to excess and

distortion in both criticisms and claims. Yet debate is necessary.In recent years, debate in the West, and subsequently in Muslim-majority countries, has focused on

the more visible aspects of the status of women in Islam. This is indeed an essential issue, but

reducing it to a passionate, oversimplified debate about a list of problem practices has led to

evading the heart of the matter. The issue of Muslim women is being bandied about today as if it

characterised the irreconcilable relationship between Islam and the West, the opposition between a

universe of submission and another holding the promise of freedom, with, of course, the leitmotiv

of the contrast between patriarchal traditions and western modernity said to be an increasingly

feminine viewpoint.

Then the list of discriminations related to dress, polygamy, violence, inheritance, and other issues. is

repeated again and again. Aside from the fact that the substance of the claims presented here is open

to debate (while of course, the nature of the discriminations Muslim women may face today mustnot be understated), it seems imperative to broaden the scope of the debate and return to the sources

and fundamentals of representations and discourses.

Many Muslim women and men have already started this essential work on the contents of scriptural

sources: how they should be read and interpreted, and how they relate to surrounding cultures and

social structures. Such studies must be carried out, although two main pitfalls must be avoided. On

the one hand, one must beware of focusing too much on some sensitive issues having to do with

text interpretation while neglecting a more comprehensive approach that would link texts, the social

environment, and the logics that in this latter case legitimise specific readings and sometimes result

in inducing false religious truisms. On the other hand, one must avoid thinking about this process ofcritical reconsideration only in terms of the West, no matter whether the latter is praised or rejected.

Clearly, the internal debate in the light of scriptural sources must be thought through and started

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from within, and it cannot simply and naturally identify with, or be assimilated with, categories

introduced by women and feminists in western societies. It would, however, be wrong and

inconsistent to reject the reflections produced by the long and intense debates and confrontations in

modern societies about the issue of womanhood, of womens autonomy, their sexuality, their roles

(in the family, in society, or economically and politically), as well as logics of power and processes

of alienation. Starting from a divine Revelation, some questions are bound to be highly specific and

must be tackled as such, but one should also study all possible interactions between earlyinterpreters, their cultural environment, and social structures.Related Links

Need for a reset in western view

Eid al Adha and tiding over contradictions

The feminine equation includes several factors and requires that certain standpoints be taken from

the beginning, even before starting to discuss the nature of the research and proposed solutions.

Regarding the issue of women, I think it will not be enough to rely on a few bold legal opinions

opening the way to new prospects to further the cause of women in any fundamental way. In this

field, seeking justice, ending discriminations, and promoting reform require us, as a priority, to

reassess the framework and methodology that have been determined in order to understand and

remain faithful to scriptural sources through history and in different sociocultural environments.Later in the process, this implies integrating the latter into the reflection and understanding of male-

female relations and the distribution of roles and power.

This also means carrying such reflection to its logical extent by giving thorough consideration to the

alienation situations in which women, instead of being subjects, become the objects of mens or

societys representations. This includes studying the perverted logics through which some demands

have backfired and caused women to move from one form of alienation to another. Many women,

among them feminists, have dealt with those developments and sometimes those paradoxes, and

their reflections should be read and studied. They shed light on possibly converging views about

sociopolitical and cultural issues and emphasise essential differences as related to oneself, to the

being, to others, and consequently to freedom.

Initially, Quranic verses used only the masculine plural form to refer to the women and men in the

new faith community. For years, believers (Al Muminun), and the truthful (As Sadiqun), either

referred specifically to men or to the men and women who constituted the Prophets (PBUH) first

Companions. Once, a woman (or several, according to the different traditions) asked the Prophet

(PBUH) why women were not explicitly mentioned in the revealed message. The Book which,

while revealing a universal message, also included responses to the questions asked by the men

around the Prophet (PBUH) was later to mention women and men distinctly.

This evolution of the message is part of divine pedagogy in the process of revelation carried out

over 23 years: the faithful are thus led to evolve in their understanding of things and critically

reconsider some of their cultural or social practices. The status of women, who were sometimes

killed at birth because of the shame they might bring, was to be reformed in stages, as verses wererevealed. It thus appeared more and more clearly that the Qurans message and the Prophets

(PBUH) attitude were apt to free women from the cultural shackles of Arab tribes and clans and

from the practices of the time. The Creator addresses women as being on an equal footing with

men, their status as beings and believers is the same as mens and the requirements of worship are

absolutely identical. They are partners on the spiritual path, in which support and protection are

needed: They are your garments as you are their garments. Love and mercy [kindness] are the

hearts resources that make life together possible: love to combine qualities, mercy to overlook

failings and weaknesses. Exile from Makkah to Madinah also played a major part in the evolution

of mindsets among Muslims: women in Madinah were more evident, more involved, bolder and

more assertive, and they surprised the Prophets (PBUH) Makkahan wife, the learned Aisha, who

said: Blessed be (what excellent women were) the Ansar women, whom modesty did not preventfrom seeking instruction [in religious affairs]. The Madinah period helped sort out religious

principles from Makkahan Arab customs and bring about changes in womens status: the reform

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movement was thus started and accompanied by the Revelations, by social experiments, and, of

course, by the Prophets (PBUH) attitude as the example the Companions were to follow.

The different verses were therefore to be read and interpreted in the light of that movement, and

early readings and interpretations of revealed texts were to be viewed in the ideal mirror of the

Prophets (PBUH) behaviour. Accordingly, highly original interpretations regarding women, their

status, and their rights appeared very early on. The inner reform movement was perceived,

understood, and commented on from the first centuries, during which the Text sciences wereestablished, but it remains true that early readers were mainly men who read the Revelation through

the double prism of their gender and of the culture in which they necessarily lived.

The Companions and early ulema could not but read the text in the light of their own situation,

viewpoint, and context. While the Book spoke about women, their being and their heart, fuqaha

(experts in Islamic law) set out to determine their duties and their rights according to the various

functions society imparted them. Women were therefore daughters, sisters, wives or

mothers; the legal and religious discourse about women was built on those categories. It is indeed

difficult for a man, and what is more a jurist, to approach the issue of women primarily as beings in

their integrity and autonomy whatever the internal process initiated by the different revelations

or historical experiences, such an approach inevitably orients and restricts the reading and

interpretation of texts. Their concern was to impart a function to women, to draw up a list of rightsand duties. A closer reading of the texts, however, shows that the purpose of the inner evolution just

mentioned, revisiting womens status step by step, is in fact to bring the believing conscience to

perceive women through their being, beyond their different social functions. This inductive

movement towards the primacy of being naturally involves an effect on the issue of social status;

this, however, implies allowing full scope to the interpretation process and accepting all its

consequences.

Tariq Ramadan is professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at

Oxford University and a visiting professor at the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Qatar. He is the

author of Islam and the Arab Awakening. This article is the first in a three-part series on women

and Islam.