[PDF] WOMEN IN ISLAM – FEMINIST ORIENTATIONS AND STRATEGIES

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WOMEN IN ISLAM -

FEMINIST

ORIENTATIONS

AND STRATEGIES

FOR THE

21
ST

CENTURY

DOCUMENTATION

PAGE 2WOMEN IN ISLAM

Editor:

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Politische Akademie

Interkultureller Dialog

Hiroshimastraße 17

10785 Berlin

www.fes.de/BerlinerAkademiegespraeche

Editing:

Dr. Johannes Kandel

Translation:

Claire Labigne, Elisabeth Moucors (French)

James Turner (English)

Proofreader:

ad litteras, Dr. Christian Jerger

Layout:

Pellens Kommunikationsdesign GmbH

Photos:

Sepp Spiegl

www 2009

Herausgeber:

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Politische Akademie

Interkultureller Dialog

Hiroshimastraße 17

10785 Berlin

www.fes.de/BerlinerAkademiegespraeche

Redaktion:

Dr. Johannes Kandel

Übersetzung:

James Turner (englisch)

Korrektorat:

ad litteras, Dr. Christian Jerger

Layout:

Pellens Kommunikationsdesign GmbH

Fotos:

Sepp Spiegl

Webfassung 2009Éditeur :

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Politische Akademie

Interkultureller Dialog

Hiroshimastraße 17

10785 Berlin

www.fes.de/BerlinerAkademiegespraeche

Rédaction :

Dr. Johannes Kandel

Traduction :

Claire Labigne, Elisabeth Moucors (français)

James Turner (anglais)

Correcteur :

ad litteras, Dr. Christian Jerger

Mise en page :

Pellens Kommunikationsdesign GmbH

Photos :

Sepp Spiegl

www 2009

WOMEN IN ISLAM -

FEMINIST ORIENTATIONS

AND STRATEGIES

FOR THE

21
ST

CENTURY

DOCUMENTATION

OF THE

FES-CONFERENCE 2008 LES FEMMES

DANS L'ISLAM

ENTRE

OPPRESSION

ET ÉMANCIPATION

DOCUMENTATION

DE LA CONFÉRENCE 2008

DE LA FES

FRAUEN IM ISLAM

ZWISCHEN

UNTERDRÜCKUNG

UND

SELBSTBESTIMMUNG

DOKUMENTATION

DER FES-KONFERENZ

20083 69 143

213 213 213BiographiesKurzbiographienProfi ls des intervenants

Muslims" views on the role of women in Islam are of great diversity, all the more so as there is no homogeneous “Islamic world view". Above all, however, the traditional conception of women in the Arabic world as well as in mainstream Islam is shaped by an understanding which is fundamentally different from Western countries. Men and women, so Muslims usually say, are “equal in value" before God. This, however, is not equivalent to the “equality of rights" claimed by the West, in the sense of the universal human rights, i.e. equality on earth, in society. The traditional, in most cases patriarchally moulded Islamic conception of women assumes a basic gender inequality, allegedly intended by the Qur"an. To harmonise this inequality man and woman are supposed to “complement each other". Nowadays many Muslims do no longer accept this (very roughly outlined) tra d- itional “image of women" in Islam, rather is there an increasing number of Muslims, particularly women, all over the world, who are striving for and propa- gating a new, up-to-date viewpoint. They do this in different ways - some by translating the respective Qur"an verses in a woman-friendly manner, others by trying to view these verses within their historical context and thus come to a new up-to-date interpretation. These courageous women are often ignored and left alone by Muslim men, especially by traditional Islam scholars and imams. There are a signifi cant number of Muslim men who hardly appreciate the emancipation efforts of women and who watch them with suspicion. Moreover, there are hardly any exchange networks between individual Muslim women and their often very small groups in the various countries. Such linking networks would allow them to advance more effectively with united strength, so as to gain acceptance and appreciation with their “women"s power" in public life. In order to offer a forum to Muslim women with very different social and polit ical backgrounds and to strengthen their individual and public self-reliance, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation had already carried out a fi rst special conference on “Women in Islam" in Cologne in 2007. In June 2008 a follow-up conference gave the opportunity to deepen the subject, this time focussing on “Feminist Orien-

Preamble

WOMEN IN ISLAMPAGE 3

tations and Strategies for the 21 st Century" - again under the patronage of Lale Akgün, an SPD member of the German parliament, who is also responsible for Islam in the Social Democratic Party. The women activists coming from countries all over the world welcome this conference as a forum for exchanging experiences, getting to know each other and to establish links for the future, in order to progress in their work for gender justice and also to encourage one another in their fi ght for women"s rights. Prominent experts were invited to speak about their work. Their lectures (shortened in some parts) are to be found in this documentation of the conference.

PAGE 4WOMEN IN ISLAM

WOMEN IN ISLAMPAGE 5

I begin as always in the name of Allah whose grace I seek in this and all other mat- ters. The work I have been doing for three decades now is based on two principles that are equally important to me. One is belief in Allah and the other is the belief that women and men are equal before Allah. The Qur"an began with the single imperative “Iqra!", which means “Read!" or “Recite". “Iqra!" opened one of the greatest transformations known to human kind, the origin and epitome of Islam. And the historical movement Islam is a movement in time. As it developed across the pages of time, much has been distorted from the core of that original moment and the essence of the message by the human fear and frailty. Patriarchy is one of these frailties. The long reach of patriarchal fi ngers has nearly choked the very life"s breath from the throats of well-meaning Muslim women and men before the end of colonialism, this time through the hands of the white men on the collective Muslim"s throat. Removing these hands has freed a voice, a song and a message of one half of the population of the umma or Muslim community - the women. And so it is, Muslim women speak. Two cooperative sources authenticate this voice: the Qur"an itself, both at its core and in its content, and the ever unfolding reality of a road made by the feet that travel it - experience. In my lecture I will focus on why the voices and experiences of Muslim women matter to Islam, to Islamic reform and to global pluralism. This is not merely a consideration of human rights and gender, it is also part of the very consideration of what it means to be human and how gender, inclusive hermen- eutics, unveils the feminine voice within the Qur"an and authenticates the female interpreter of the Qur"an - a voice, almost silent in the past 1,400 years. Any consideration of Islam directs our attention back to the Qur"an as revealed word of Allah to the prophet Muhammad. His normative practices or Sunna built upon that text constitute the two primary sources of Islamic thought and practice. Therefore I start with these, most notably the Qur"an. I start with a few signifi cant quotations, with the commentary that helps to indicate why this source is instru- mental for reforming Muslim laws and public policies. It is worth noting that these two sources, the Qur"an and the Sunna, are also considered primarily for under -

Prof. Dr.

Amina Wadud

Why Women

Matter in

Islam - Feminist

Perspectives

on Qur'an and

Tradition

PAGE 6WOMEN IN ISLAMPAGE 6WOMEN IN ISLAM

standing Islamic law, sharia, and in the developments of Islamic jurisprudence or fi qh. Muslim scholars, who are human agents, have developed fi qh as a compre- hensive fi eld of study in order to help Muslim societies become more just and equitable. Giving our new experiences and current realities, we should likewise continue to engage in the process of establishing just and equitable societies. This must include new ideas about justice and about the values, about the valuable roles played by women as individuals, as members of family and as public servants in Muslim civil societies and global citizens today. I start from the premise and belief that Islam is a fair and just way of life. My comments are focussed on the ory in relationship to practice and on ideas about the understanding of the nature of the divine in Islam. According to Qur"anic discussions of revelation there are three signifi cant stages of human development: creation, the hereafter, al-achira, and all of life between these two. In order to think about reforms, certainly what concerns us most is that life in between the two. However, it is important to set a framework based upon the other two (rooms). This is because the Qur"an emphasises the relationship between these two (rooms). That is what human beings are expected to do here on this earth is relative to what we believe about the nature of Allah and about his creation as well as relative to what we believe about the ultimate outcome of our actions in al-achira. The Qur"an says: “All human kind have taqwa before your Lord who created you all from a single soul and created from it its mate and spread from the two countless men and women." Starting with a single soul, and its mate, we eventually move to all of human kind, countless men and women. This means that plurality is part of the Qur"anic scene or of the divine design. The signifi cance of the idea of plurality is more relevant in this time in human history than at any other time because the world is clearly interconnected through its technology and sciences. The meaning of one human life clearly affects other human lives for good or for ill. Therefore we must think and act in ways that indicate our awareness of the interrelationship of all human life and with the creation as a whole. Whatever is done about, for example, nuclear weapons or reserves, the way we understand and maintain families or the way we understand what it means to be a human being and to achieve human excellence have an affect on others on the earth - male and female, Muslim and non-Muslim. The foundation for the idea of pluralism is already a part of the Qur"anic world view. The ways that we par- ticipate in and transform Muslim societies, laws and cultures through the Qur"an towards a more complex global reality are therefore already forewarned by the text. “All human kind, we created you from male and female and made you intoquotesdbs_dbs29.pdfusesText_35

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