Modern Islam and Feminism

The following cartoon was shared recently on my Facebook newsfeed by some relatives and Islamic Facebook pages.

As you might be able to tell the cartoon has been heavily edited by someone.  Something from the calendar has been (quite badly) removed, the mother's breasts has been censored, the man is watching a blank TV and the writing in red (which reads "super mother!!!") is clearly an addition that the original cartoonist didn't include.

So, partially because I have a bit of free time this morning and partially because I was curious, I decided to search for the original image.  I quickly found the unedited version with a reverse image search on Google and also found out for what it's worth that the cartoon is originally from Morocco.

So what has been edited out by the Islamic page?  The woman's breast obviously, but more curiously the TV and calendar.  The TV says "International Women's Day" and the calendar says "8 March".

hmmm...so why would the International Women's Day offend an Islamic page?  Well it could be because International Women's Day not only recognizes the hardship women go through, but is also a day to recognize the need for gender equality, the importance of women's suffrage movements and the lack of women's rights in the world and particularly in Third World countries.  Simply editing out any reference of the IWD had an effect that could be seen in the comments to the image.  All the comments ranged from "may god bless the hands of mothers" to "may god help mothers".  Support for mothers? Sure.  Support for women's rights and comments about patriarchy in the Arab world? Nothing.  The hardships faced by women shown in this cartoon is recognized by Arabs, but is seen as the natural order of things.  It's not seen as a problem that needs a solution, but rather an example why we should pat women on the head every now and then for slaving away within society. 

Yes, this is the predominant face of the so-called "moderate" Islam's change in attitude towards women.  Without changing anything in society, without advancing the legal, social and private rights of women, what Muslim leaders decided to do is recognize the hardships and praise women for persevering while promising them a lot of rewards in heaven (although the Islamic version of heaven is very male orientated with hardly any mention of women - but that's another story).  

I do need to add that it might not be completely fair to say there is no change in attitude towards women within the household, as there is always this:

This is Ahmad al Shugairi, described as a "Saudi media figure" on his Wikipedia page, he shows up a lot on Islamic TV programmes trying to give a modern face to Islam.  The quote above is an attempt at modernising Islam's view of women, but honestly is completely mind-boggling for me how this is supposed to be a positive quote.  If anything it shows that men should tolerate women (not respect, but tolerate them like a baggage you have no choice but to live with), and treat them like house pets (or as he says, children).  But unfortunately, a lot of Muslim girls fall for this nonsense and, not knowing what it really means to be free and treated as equals, they think this is an example of how Islam is pro-women.  That specific screenshot above is from my personal newfeed shared by a relative, but if you search the quote on the internet you will find thousands of Muslims (men and women) who think this attitude towards women is healthy.

Consider the Youtube comment below.  In red is a comment I made on a video where a hijabi vlogger is arguing how hiding herself behind a veil is somehow empowering to women. 

Her response (in green) is very telling.  She not only admits that Islam treats women like house pets, but is proud of the fact.  Is there any self respect here?  Not even an inkling.  This attitude is surprisingly common amongst Muslim girls who grew up with Western influences and are trying to associate Islam with a degree of feminism - and failing miserably.  Feminism and gender equality doesn't take you from being beaten with a stick and having your husband marrying three other women all the way to being treated as a retarded child that requires special care.  Feminism is about being equal with men and having the same rights, responsibilities and opportunities as men.

Which is why whenever you demand details on what the "modern" Muslim means when he or she talks about Islam giving women equal rights, you will most likely hear the discussion entering gender roles.  "Women and men are equal, but they each have a role to play", not surprisingly, the role women have to play is serving the men.  It reminds me alot of the anti-suffrage propaganda that existed before women won the right to vote in the West.  

Yes, women who leave their homes to have equal rights and opportunities as men will cause a disaster!  - or so a few people thought, and amongst whom are women even.  So it's not a uniquely Islamic thing to crush women's spirit so far that they will even defend their oppressors, but in the modern era of communication and with greater pressure from a dominating Western culture of freedom and equality, Islam is being pushed more and more into a corner and both Muslim men and Muslim women are scrambling for argument to defend their iron-age traditions.  

The Historic Roots of Islamic Shariah

Khalil Abdel Karim

Recently I started reading an Arabic book written by Khalil Abdel Karim titled The Historic Roots of Islamic Shariah and found it absolutely fascinating as it shows where a lot of rules and laws within Islam today have come from - no, not from Allah, not even from Muhammad himself.  The book (although an abridged version of the original) goes into detail of several Islamic traditions and shows that most of them came from pre-Islamic tribal cultures and religions predominant in the region as well as opinions of individuals around Muhammad.  Things like fasting during Ramadan, the importance of the Hera Cave, how much needs to be paid for blood money (100 camels if you're wondering - and it was the Prophet's grand father Abdul Mutalib who came up with it, just like cutting the hand of the thief both of which Muhammad adopted into Islam later on) forbidding alcohol and pork, the effects of envy (الحسد) and its cures, and many more.

So as I felt this book is important for a larger audience than the Arabic one only, I decided to begin translating it.  I divided the book into several sections where each section will be my daily allotment for translation and (if I stick to the plan) I should be able to finish it within 4 or so weeks.  One thing I found difficulty in is that Arabic literature tends to be very long winded and written in a way that would make it uncomfortable for an English reader.  I never really realized this until I started translating.  When reading a book in its original language, it all seems very normal, but when you try and convert that text into another language, it's not so much translating the words and sentences that's the most difficult part, but rather translating the whole book for a different audience!  However I wanted to stay true to the author's work as much as possible, but one thing I did add are descriptions in the footnotes.  The author took for granted the Arab audience will know several things without being told what they are, but obviously this doesn't apply to an English audience, and rather than intrude on the author's text, I just added footnotes where I felt required.

Obviously I'm not going to paste a huge section in a blog post, but I felt I could put the first page for people to enjoy.  It's a very brief outline so it's quite an easy read.  I'll probably post more sections here and there in the future.

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The Spiritual Traditions Inherited from the Hanifiah

The Hanifiah is a religious movement that spread across the Arabian Peninsula before Islam.  It was preached in Yathrib[1] by Abu Omar al Rahib (Abu Omar the Monk) and in Taief by Amiah bin al Sult.  As for Mecca it had many preachers amongst whom are Warraqa bin Nawfal, Zaid bin Amro bin Nafeel (Omar bin al Khattab’s uncle), Abdullah bin Jahsh, Ka’ab bin Luai bin Ghalib (the great grand father of the Prophet) and Abdul Mutalib (the Prophet’s grand father – who is considered by Dr. Saied Mahmoud al Qamni in his book al Hizb al Hashimi (The Hashemite Party) as the teacher of the Hanifiah and its leader) and they were all known as the Hunafa’ah. 

The Hunafa’ah were introduced by Dr. Abd ul Azeez Salim in his book Dirasaat fi Tareekh al Arab Qabl al Islam (Essays on the History of the Arabs before Islam) as a group of intellectual Arabs who refused both idol worship as well as Judaism and Christianity.  They proclaimed the oneness of god and had amongst their followers Zuhair bin Abi Salmah, Uthman bin al Harith and Assa’ad Abu Karb al Humairi.  Mr. Abbas Mahmoud brings more light onto this movement in his literature where he says that they knew that worshipping one god was the correct way over worshipping idols.  Their belief stems from the opinion that monotheism is the religion of Abraham.  Amongst their practises were the following.

• The abandonment of idol worship and sacrificing of animals for polytheist gods and goddesses.  This also came with forbidding the consumption of meat that has been slaughtered in the name of idols.  Both these practices were adopted from Arabian Jews.
• Forbidding usury – another practising adopted from Arabian Jews who permitted it to foreigners but banned its practise from amongst themselves.
• Forbidding fornication (adopted from Jews), alcohol and the punishment of those who practise them.
• Cutting the hand of the thief, a punishment ordained by Abd ul Mutalib the grand father of the Prophet.
• Forbidding the consumption of carrion, blood and pork (Jewish practises).
• Forbidding filicide due to the gender of the child[2] and making it obligatory for a parent to raise their children.  It was told by Ibn Sa’ad[3] in his book Tabakaat al Kubra that Saieed bin Zaid bin Amro bin Nafeel used to say to men who want to kill their daughters: “Don’t kill them and I will pay for their sustenance.”
• Fasting (adopted from Arabian Jews)
• Female circumcision (adopted from Arabian Jews)
• Ritual washing to cleanse from impurity (adopted from Arabian Jews)
• Faith in resurrection and judgment day
• Retreat and worship within Hera Cave during the month of Ramadan as well as giving alms.

Islam has then adopted all of these practises and beliefs and in the words of Al Hafiz Abi al Faraj al Jawzi[4]: “Islam later agreed with them about these issues and preached them.”

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[1] Yathrib is the original name of the city of Medinah before the prophet Muhammad migrated there.

[2] There have been recorded incidents in Islamic literature that pre-Islamic Arabia practised filicide where the first born child is a girl as that would be considered shameful amongst pre-Islamic Arab men.

[3] D. 844 AD

[4] D. 1200 AD