PREAMBLE.
It is a position taken up by the uninformed western mind as
a matter of convenience and confirmation bias, that Islam
does not concern itself, grapple with modernism, in particular,
the manner in which Muslim women are expected to comport themselves
in respect to dress codes, dating and sexuality. The article
below is intended for local consumption but its perhaps unintended
larger reach is to disabuse the West of its set-in-stone presumptions
about Islam, the Quran and what constitutes, as a work in
progress, proper conduct between the sexes. Ed.
Helen (of
Troy) is guilty finally
not because of anything she's done
but because of who she is,
how she appears, what she looks like;
because of the effect she has, hormonally/emotionally,
on men who are ready to kill & die over
what they're made to feel.
David Foster Wallace
The
Muslim woman has been the subject of severe debate among the
extremist thinkers both Muslims and non-Muslims. The rigorous
understanding and the rigid mentality of Muslim extremists
imagine women in and of themselves as the source of evil and
temptation which should be contained and confined in its home
to limit its poisonous nature from seducing men who can’t
help but fall prey to every woman who walks down the street.
This kind of mentality led to the belief that women should
be fully covered from head to toe including her face and hands
and should be donned in black drapes in a desperate attempt
not to grab attention. Women should consequently be segregated
from men in all fields of work as being in a mixed environment
opens all doers of evil. Walking down the street alone without
a male guardian is unquestionable as it is seen as an inviting
gesture to lonely wolves out there.
This
humiliating look at women as a potential sexual object which
should be concealed from all eyes and confined in home detention
is very similar to another bleak look at women by non- Muslim
extremists who think that women should be liberated from all
social norms and unleashed from the fear of becoming sexual
object and thus her body becomes totally lawful to be exposed,
manipulated, plastered 
and
exploited. This extreme idea of liberating the woman’s
body from the confinement of thick clothes led to the dangerous
idea of thinking of women with little or no clothes. They
failed to look at women as human beings who enjoy intellectual
abilities and can reach out to their full potentials in different
fields of life. They rather turned women to be part of the
world of ‘matters,’ a “soulless object”
which can be plastered for product advertisement to guarantee
the success of top- edge marketing plans, posing either nude
or in revealing clothes for magazines to assure higher circulation,
become an actress in movies which displays sensual hot sex-
scenes to gain higher ratings and make block-busters. Not
to mention the top professional fashion designers, who are
mostly men, and who are eager to reveal the woman’s
body by designing low cut tops, miniskirts and hot shorts.
This obsession with the woman’s sexuality and this mania
of total concealment or extreme promiscuity represents a distorted
understanding and degrading evaluation of the woman as a human
being who is a lot more than only her assumed ‘sexuality.’
The consistent effort and relentless persistence of combating
the potential sexual hazard of every female led to the establishment
of unhealthy environment where the two integral parts of the
society are totally segregated in a fashion which is in total
opposition to the natural composition of societies. By the
same token, thinking of the woman’s body as an object
which can be lawfully manipulated and legally exposed is no
less humiliating to women. Such way of dealing with the woman’s
body strips her of her basic right of becoming more than just
a beautiful body or a cheap means of promoting lustful desires.
THE
BALANCED APPROACH OF ISLAM TOWARDS HUMAN SEXUALITY
Islam took a balanced approach which assured the woman’s
right as a full human being who enjoys a dignified social
status, equal religious obligation and same contribution to
the development of the world both on the intellectual and
functional levels. At the same time Islam acknowledges the
created sexuality of both men and women and did not call for
suppressing such sexual drive but rather guided us to lawful
ways of handling our human sexuality without feeling ashamed
of our sexual zeal and at the same time protected humans from
falling prey to sexual obsession which strips human of their
dignified status of intellectual beings to the degraded status
of sexually-driven animals.
Therefore, Muslim men are obliged not to think of women as
potential sexual objects who are designed to give momentary
sexual gratification and therefore are prohibited from looking
at women seductively or stare at their body parts; an act
which is both offensive and humiliating to woman as an equal
partner in humanity. From this dignified understanding for
women comes the prohibition of having sex outside wedlock
because Islam does not look at the relationship between men
and women as a one night stand which aims at sexual satisfaction
but rather emphasizes the establishment of long term relationships
based on love, respect and mutual goals for building a warm
and healthy family. Men are also asked to respect their bodies
and not to reveal their sexuality through wearing tight-fitting
clothes or certain clothes -- fashion which leads to the incitement
of sexual desires.
By the same token women are asked not to reveal their sexuality
and to prevent others from thinking of them in terms of sexual
objectification. Therefore adult Muslim women are asked to
cover their hair and body except for her face and hands. The
reason for revealing the face and hands in public is to ensure
the woman’s full ability to interact and to reach the
maximum level of communication with people and production
at work without feeling any hindrance. This way she is assured
to be an active participant in society while keeping her dignity
intact.
There
are claims that one of the benefits of total exposure of women’s
body and free sexuality is the guarantee of the safety of
women from any sexual harassment as men are not teased to
look behind the covered body, but these claims lack authenticity.
Checking facts revealed by the United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and Empowerment of Women states that between 40 and
50 percent of women in European Union countries experience
unwanted sexual advances, physical contact or other forms
of sexual harassment at work. Across Asia, studies in Japan,
Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea show that 30 to
40 percent of women suffer workplace sexual harassment. In
the United States, 83 percent of girls aged 12 to 16 experienced
some form of sexual harassment in public schools.
By the same token, places where women are thought of as a
potential sexual danger and should have limited or no access
to public life result in creating an degraded environment
of illicit sexual acts as a reaction to the abnormal notion
of women’s potential sexual promiscuity.
These
two extremist views of women represent a deviant understanding
of the Islamic teachings and goes directly against the numerous
Prophetic traditions which state that “Women are the
twin halves of men” and this statement establishes the
law of equity between men and women in terms of the appointed
legal responsibilities and religious obligations and the legal
rights they enjoy and the religious rewards they receive.
Differences in some Juristic rulings and social responsibilities
between men and women are directly related to their differing
natural characteristics such as motherhood for women and hard
labour for men. The relationship between men and women are
not based on severe competition where survival is for the
fittest but it is rather built on a shared responsibility
and complementarity of each other’s social roles.
WOMEN
AND THE CONCEPT OF FITNA
Some
people developed a false understanding of women to be some
source of fitna or temptation in and of itself and thus should
be treated with utmost caution and be under constant surveillance.
This warped logic goes against the merciful teachings of Islam
which granted women equal rights and dignified their status
through granting them a share in inheritance, the right of
financial independency, right to vote and to hold political,
scientific and social leading positions. Islam encouraged
women’s civic engagement and praised its role as an
active part of the civil society. The misinterpreted hadith
of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in which he says,
“I did not leave after me a more dangerous temptation
on men than women,” is taken by extremists as a slogan
for thinking of women as a serpent who seduces men at every
corner. Having a closer look at the hadith, we would discover
that the problem does not lie in women in and of themselves
but it lies in men’s thinking of women as a potential
temptation which might lead them to commit erroneous acts.
Therefore the hadith revolves around men and how, according
to their natural inclination, may view women and thus has
nothing to do with women as equal human beings with full potentials.
The concept of fitna is not only about men who can be tempted
by women to commit erroneous acts but actually the lexical
meaning of the verb “f t n” means to overwhelmingly
capture the attention and it has another meaning of testing
and examining.
According to these two meanings, it would be easy to understand
that the concept of fitna could apply on many notions such
as money for example, it is a huge source for temptation as
it is desired and thus forms a test for human beings which
they ought to pass through being honest and not to steal,
not to accept bribes etc.. This explains the Quranic verse
in which God the Almighty says, “And know that your
properties and your children are but a trial (fitna) and that
Allah has with Him a great reward.” (8:28)
Also other elements which are seen as the sources of fitna
or temptation is revealed in the verse in which God says “Beautified
for people is the love of that which they desire -- of women
and sons, heaped-up sums of gold and silver, fine branded
horses, and cattle and tilled land. That is the enjoyment
of worldly life, but Allah has with Him the best return.”
(3:14)
The listed items in the verse such as women, children, wealth,
food and drinks, prestige and status are not sources of temptation
in and of themselves, but actually carries the potentiality
of becoming a source for misguidance if people failed the
test of using them wisely. The excessive zealotry and intense
love of these sources of happiness could very well be correspondent
to the Seven Deadly Sins in Christianity which warns against:
• Lust – to have an intense desire or need
•
Gluttony – excess in eating and drinking.
•
Greed - excessive or reprehensible acquisitiveness
•
Laziness – disinclined to activity or exertion: not
energetic or vigorous
•
Wrath – strong vengeful anger or indignation
•
Envy – painful or resentful awareness of an advantage
enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same
advantage
•
Pride - quality or state of being proud
Therefore waiving the card of fitna against women as a potential
source of evil is a flagrant attempt to degrade women and
their noble status in Islam.
ARE WOMEN SEEN AS A BAD OMEN?
Another famous Prophetic tradition which is widely misquoted
is the narration of Abu Hurairah in which he reports that
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “Bad omens
do not exist except for three things; women, houses and horses.”
This hadith was collected by al- Bukhari. In the luminary
book of “’Umdat al- Qary” for Sheikh Abu
Muhammad Badr al- Din al- ‘Ayni, he explained that this
hadith is not complete and was only partially heard by Abu
Huraira. He reported through an authentic chain of narration
that when Lady ‘Aisha heard about Abu Huraira’s
narration, she was infuriated and said “By the one who
revealed the Quran on Muhammad, peace be upon him, the Prophet
never said that. The Prophet rather said, “The people
at the time of Jahiliyya (pre-Islam error) used to think of
these three things as ominous.” This means that Prophet
Muhammad was only narrating what the people of Jahiliyya used
to think and not that the Prophet believed in it. The narration
of Lady ‘Aisha was authenticated by Ibn ‘Abd al-
Barr who received the narration from Abu Hassan al- A’raj.
Abu Hassan is authenticated by Yahya and Ibn Hibban and a
group of hadith collectors including al- Bukhari who authenticated
his narrations.
This elucidation of the reported hadith corresponds with the
Quranic verses which states, Say, "Never will we be struck
except by what Allah has decreed for us; He is our protector."
And upon Allah let the believers rely.” (9:51)
And another verse says,” No disaster strikes upon the
earth or among yourselves except that it is in a register
before We bring it into being - indeed that, for Allah , is
easy –(57:22)
Also this elucidation of the hadith corresponds to another
Prophetic tradition in which the Prophet emphatically negated
the existence of bad omens or the permissibility of believing
in superstitious omens.
In conclusion, the extremist look at women as a potential
source of seduction which deserves total concealment is no
less degrading than the flagrant look at women as an ‘object’
in which her body can be the subject of harassment, exploitation
and abuse under the false guise of freedom. The truth of the
matter is that women have the right to have a choice of concealing
her body and not to expose it to others except to the one
whom she chooses to share her life with. The woman has the
right to be treated as an intellectual human being and not
as a sexual seductive object. Islam raised the intellectual
status of women and granted her the full right to be a full
human being without being condemned as a serpent evil or exploited
as a sex object due to her body and sexuality.
This
article was originally published and copyrighted in Dar
Al-Ifta.
