Denying education to women defies Islam
Denying education to women defies Islam
By Mehru Jaffer
JAKARTA (JP): The conclusion of an international seminar on
women in Islam held here last month was that the secret to
problems facing Muslim societies around the world lies in
providing women with proper education.
This may not be a new idea but the constraints faced in
ensuring education for women in many countries continue, as those
conference participants active in projects focusing on women
described.
"As mother, educator and custodian of traditions in all
societies, women have tremendous influence on the way the world
evolves," said Assietou Kannediagne from Senegal.
She added that children could only be educated if the mother
herself was first educated.
Kannediagne runs a project at the Dar al Quran al Karim Shaykh
Ibrahim Niasse Institute to help Muslim girls from poor homes
educate themselves. She quoted the long held but barely practiced
belief that to educate a boy is to educate a person, but to
educate a girl is to educate a nation.
She strongly feels that problems like prostitution and poverty
would be greatly reduced if women were educated. She said at the
institute she tried to provide a home for poor, teenage girls
where they could study up to university level along with Koran
lessons.
Her experience with poor parents is that they prefer to
educate their boys. For those girls who do not want to go for
higher studies, the institute helps them to get professional
training in sewing, cooking, farming and poultry rearing.
The talks held by the Islamic University of As-Syafifiyah
(UIA) and the Majelis Taklim Coordinating Board were held in the
hope of getting Muslim thinkers, intellectuals and leaders to
exchange views on the state of women in the Muslim world.
The seminar attracted participants from countries as wide
apart as South Africa, Senegal, Lebanon, Nigeria, Sudan and
England and, within the Asian region, from Singapore, Thailand
and Malaysia.
Aida Vitayala Sjafri Hubeis from Bogor Agricultural University
said she felt that women remained ignorant of their rights and
unaware of the importance of their equal participation in power
sharing and in decision making.
About 85 percent of Indonesia's labor force are women.
Statistics prove that the education level of these women is lower
than that of men. One reason for this discrepancy, she said, is
the perception that educating women at home was enough.
Womens' roles are still considered to lie mainly within the
domestic domain, although the demands of development expect them
to also participate in economic and public life.
Women's participation in social and religious activities is
encouraged but they are under represented in development
activities.
The truth is that illiterate women in villages and those from
low-income groups in the city have been involved in income
earning activities for a long time, and not because they want to
neglect their domestic duties or to compete with men, but due to
necessity, she said.
Today it is clear that women have been working for centuries,
much more than men will ever do as they continue to combine their
domestic duties with other activities that bring them money.
The head of Women's Solidarity Organization of Lebanon, H.
Afaf Alhakim, pointed out that Islam gives equal rights to both
women and men to learn and to teach.
Whenever families have adopted the true path of religion,
women's involvement in learning and economic activities has
flowered. It is very important for women themselves to understand
and enhance their own position in society, she said.
Tutty Alawiyah, president of Majelis Taklim and Rector of UIA
asked for a creative reinterpretation of parts of Islamic texts
that were a source of unnecessary controversy.
"The reinterpretation should not take just a textual approach
but also keep in mind the historical context," she said before
calling for newer, fairer and more impartial laws that would
allow many more women to diversify their roles as wives and
mothers to be able to better deal with the challenges of present
day society.
Such a reinterpretation has been going on for some years here,
involving no less than First Lady Sinta Nuriyah.
Fatima Khan from South Africa's Muslim Women's Federation
called a mother's lap the first school of all human beings, from
prophets to paupers.
At the federation's learning center the goal is to help
students heighten awareness of the world around them, she said.
The participants at this seminar reflected the many thinking
Muslim women around the world, who are alarmed at the way most
male dominated societies choose to attack the weakest in society,
including women, to prove their religiosity.
They may wonder, when did Islam ever say that half of the
world's population was entitled to little justice, equality or
freedom?
The writer is a freelancer in Jakarta.