Fighting gender bias in Islam<\/p>\n
Muslim feminists believe that male values in the
\ninterpretation of Islamic teachings have given the religion a
\nreputation for oppressing women. The Jakarta Post's Devi M.
\nAsmarani talks to experts about the issue in conjunction with
\nKartini Day - the day commemorating the birth of Indonesian
\nheroine of emancipation on April 21.<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): To be a Muslim has not been easy for Musdah
\nMulia. The core thing is to live a life fully without drifting
\ntoo far away from the religious teachings. She learned the hard
\nway from her grandfather, a traditional kyai (Muslim scholar).<\/p>\n
"When I was growing up, I wasn't allowed to laugh freely,
\nbecause it was seen as corrupted," she said.<\/p>\n
She once won first prize for a Koran reading competition, but
\nher grandfather forbade her from entering more contests after she
\nreached puberty, "I was told a woman's voice is her aurat (the
\npart of the woman's body that must not be revealed)."<\/p>\n
But it was only after she finished elementary school and was
\ntold that a young woman must go to an Islamic school, instead of
\na public school, that Musdah felt her first twinge of unfairness.<\/p>\n
Decades later, after years of extensive schooling in Islam and
\nthrough academic researches and studies she has become an element
\nthat drives a movement promoting a new understanding of gender-
\nsensitivity in Islamic teachings.<\/p>\n
Musdah, now a senior researcher in the Ministry of Religious
\nAffairs, is contributing something to benefit every Muslim woman
\nin this country: a reinterpretation of Islamic teachings on
\nwomen.<\/p>\n
She is not alone. Along with her is a brave group of Muslim
\nmen and women who want to set the records clear. They see that
\ncenturies of male values in the interpretation of the religious
\nteachings have given Islam a reputation as one that oppresses.<\/p>\n
"The existing interpretations of Islamic teachings are infused
\nwith patriarchal values and gender bias," Musdah said.<\/p>\n
Musdah said oppression and discrimination against women has
\nbeen legitimized and justified by the understanding, or
\nmisunderstanding, of Islam.<\/p>\n
The Muslim feminist movement is not something new. The world's
\nMuslim societies have seen great female figures, including Fatima
\nMernissi and Riffat Hasan, pushing for reforms in religious
\nteachings.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, the movement began in the late 1980s, but has
\ngotten big again since Soeharto's resignation from 32-years of
\nrule in 1998.<\/p>\n
One of the promoters of the efforts to teach a women-friendly
\nIslam is none other than the first lady herself, Sinta Nuriyah.
\nNuriyah is currently "reconstructing" a standard guidebook of
\nreligious edicts called the "yellow book", the content of which
\nemphasizes a woman's obligations with little reference to her
\nrights.<\/p>\n
Muslim scholar Komaruddin Hidayat attributes the movement to
\ntremendous progress in women's emancipation in the western world.
\nProgress in the west influences women in Muslim society.<\/p>\n
"This is a rebellion of existential conscience, a rebellion at
\nthe structural and cultural levels," Komaruddin, who chairs the
\nParamadina foundation, said.<\/p>\n
Its progress has been hampered by the level of education and a
\nreligion that, in practice, excludes them.<\/p>\n
"The first thing to do is change the mind-set, the
\nideological, theological and religious barriers," he said.<\/p>\n
What has actually caused such a misperception in Islamic
\nteaching?<\/p>\n
The most dominant argument was that the holy scripture Koran
\nand hadith, Prophet Muhammad's sayings and tradition according to
\nthe way the religion is practiced, were written at a time when
\nsociety was driven by males.<\/p>\n
"The Koran and hadith, although they are divine, were born in
\nthe rough regions of the desert, and many of the verses were
\ndescriptive, instead of prescriptive," Komaruddin said.<\/p>\n
The Koran "prescribes" that man and woman are equal, he said,
\nbut the descriptive verses tell of how men are dominant because
\nthey have to conquer the savage nature of the desert and go to
\nwar.<\/p>\n
Verses in the Koran can be separated into two groups. The
\nfirst ones are those that have universal and absolute meanings,
\nand the second ones are those that are open to contextual
\ninterpretation.<\/p>\n
A research by the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs
\nshows that verses that fall into the first category are smaller
\nin number than the second. Because of this there are many books
\nof interpretation or fikih on Islam.<\/p>\n
The ministry's research of 100 Islamic fikih books published
\nin this country, some originally written in Indonesia and others
\ntranslated from Arabic, found that only 18 of the books were
\ngender sensitive. The remaining 82 were written from the male's
\nperspective. Unsurprisingly only eight of the books surveyed were
\nwritten by women.<\/p>\n
Islam<\/p>\n
When Prophet Muhammad introduced Islam, he offered a religion
\nthat would free people from their societal shackles and eliminate
\nimmorality in the male-dominated tradition. The Prophet started a
\nradical concept of treating women as a human beings.<\/p>\n
Prior to this, women were commodities. They were something to
\nbuy or to inherit. Islam requires a man to give mahar (dowry) to
\nhis future wife instead of to her parents, thus the woman's
\nstatus was no longer "something" but "somebody" who is entitled
\nto property.<\/p>\n
Musdah said in the Prophet's time Islam was practiced in its
\npurest form. But after that, under the Umayyah and Abbasiyah
\ndynasties, during which Islam was spreading to the regions of
\nPersian, Greece and Rome, the religion started adapting local
\ncultures that treated women as less than human.<\/p>\n
"The Islam that came to Indonesia and that developed in Arabic
\ncountries is the Islam that no longer adopts universal values,"
\nMusdah said. There is a large gap between the universal values
\ncontained in Koran and sunnah and the interpretation that is rife
\nwith historical context, she said.<\/p>\n
"What we know now is the historical\/empirical context that is
\nrife with exclusivism, small-mindedness and fanaticism," she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
But her understanding of Islam is shared with only a handful
\nof people, mostly from the academic and activist milieu. Musdah
\nsaid that even at her office she is often labeled a "leftist" or
\n"troublemaker" for her unconventional views.<\/p>\n
But this she blames on poor religious education. Most Muslims
\nonly learn their religion from oral tradition, their Koran
\nreading teachers or ulemas.<\/p>\n
Komaruddin tells of the existence of a "comfort zone" in which
\nmen guard their security, domination and interests by using
\nreligious teachings. That is why the challenges to a woman's
\nawakening in Islam would most likely come from the woman's own
\nhusband, he said.<\/p>\n
Misperception<\/p>\n
Musdah underlines three misperceived Islamic teachings on the
\nrelationship between man and woman. One is the creation of men
\nand women.<\/p>\n
"What we were taught is that women or Eve was created from
\nAdam's rib. But the Koran said that men and women were created
\nfrom one source, one essence. There was no text that said that
\nwoman was created from man," she said. This perception, she said,
\nreduces woman to a second human being.<\/p>\n
Her second argument is the verse on the fall of Adam and Eve
\nfrom heaven.<\/p>\n
"It is widely known that Adam was tempted by Eve, and this
\nimplies that women are weak, a human being that is easily tempted
\nand swayed. And worse, women are viewed as seducers," she said.<\/p>\n
Musdah said in the Koran, the verses that deal with Adam and
\nEve's fall from heaven actually uses the pronoun "they", meaning
\nEve should not be judged as the one who tempts Adam.<\/p>\n
The third disputed teaching was the verse on man's leadership
\nover woman.<\/p>\n
"The Koran says that men are leaders to women, but this verse
\nactually refers to the fact that man is at the helm of the family
\nbecause he has bigger responsibility. Anyone who has bigger
\nresponsibility is entitled to more compensation."<\/p>\n
The most radical of her points, however, is that being a man
\nitself does not automatically make one the head of the family.<\/p>\n
"It isn't the biological part of a man that gives him the
\nright to head his family, but the sociological factors, that is
\nbeing the one who earns the living," she said.<\/p>\n
"Men shouldn't think that they are the leader because they
\nposses all the biological traits of a man. They must first play
\ntheir sociological role as a man."<\/p>\n
Reinterpretation of these verses would bring radical changes
\nto the teaching of Islam on women. Issues highlighted in the
\nteachings like polygamy, women's obedience to her husband, female
\ncircumcision and even the headscarf now can be decided in the
\nlight of the historical context.<\/p>\n
Some women, however advanced and open-minded, see that
\nacceptance is sometimes the only way to make sense of the Islamic
\nteaching. Jilliah Ardy, an Iranian native who was raised most of
\nher life in the United States, said she has been a practicing
\nMuslim all her life, and when she lived in a western civilization
\nshe did not always see eye to eye with her belief.<\/p>\n
"The way that I've managed with Islam and with Iranian
\ncultural things is that I don't question them," Jilliah said.<\/p>\n
"The minute I question them, I would get angry and say why am
\nI doing this. So I don't ask questions. It's a matter of respect,
\nand I like it on a certain level," said Jilliah, a medical doctor
\nwho chairs the board of International Community Activity Center.<\/p>",
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