The subject of the status of women in Islam is one that captivates minds today to an extent that makes it difficult to appreciate how historically recent this obsession really is. This begs the question to what extent is it an artifact of the currently prevailing values of Western feminist thought and inherited colonialist narratives about Islam and Muslims. More importantly, the parameters set for this discourse and the questions raised by it are not as they appear; stemming from genuine concern for how a large segment of half of the human population on this planet live their lives. Rather, they are founded on Eurocentric conceptions of freedom, self-actualization, and how the tension between individual and communal rights and responsibilities should be resolved. The concern for Muslim women here and their “plight” (whatever that means) is more of an incidental fact used as cover to sell the self-refuting idea that the highest achievement a woman can make is to be accomplished in what have stereotypically been Western post-industrial capitalist masculine pursuits: career above family, and the accumulation of power and money over friends and relationships.
This is not to say that Muslim women are not subject to maltreatment and various forms of abuse at the hands of Muslim men. They are, in the same fashion as non-Muslim women also undergo maltreatment and various forms of abuse at the hands of non-Muslim men. Although non-Muslims can have valid critiques that must be heeded and addressed if they point to genuine problems in Muslim conduct, it is disingenuous to treat Muslim women as unique in the facts of their oppression from their non-Muslim sisters. Where it gets pernicious for Muslims is in the deployment of religious arguments to justify such behaviour and attribute it to the Quran or the Sunnah of the Beloved ﷺ. The differences in legal rulings pertaining to women in Islam can be manifested as a mercy from God that takes into account the complementarian relationship the two genders are meant to have, or manipulated into an exploitative force by the terrestrially dominant male gender against the female.
Shaykh Mohammed al-Ghazali (d. 1996) said that “half of the weight of the spread of disbelief in the world is carried by religious people who made God detestable to His creation through their terrible conduct and terrible speech.” The attraction of Western feminist thought for some Muslim women lies in the perverse application of Islamic law by some Muslim men who selectively appeal to it when it advantages them, and disregard it when it does not. It would not be a stretch to assert that every Muslim knows at least one story about how Islamic laws on inheritance, marriage, or divorce were deployed in familial conflicts by men in ways that harmed women quite significantly. The problem, if we can call it a problem, with Islamic law is in one of its foundational premises – that those who apply it will be conscious, God-fearing Muslims who seek to realize Divine Justice in the world as part of maintaining the Divine Balance in God’s order. Without this Taqwa no amount of reformation in Islamic law will stop the transgressions of men against women, for a lack of Taqwa indicates a loss of a transcendent compass to guide behaviour.
One can proclaim a belief in God and His Messenger ﷺ, pray the five daily prayers, fast the month of Ramadan, and perform all the obligatory and Sunnah actions that make them appear from a ritualistic standpoint as Muslim as one can be. However, in their social behaviour a different face that is incongruent with their ritualistic appearance might emerge. “And among people is one whose speech about the life of this world impresses you, and they call on God to testify as to what is in their heart, yet they are the most extreme of adversaries. And when they turn, they run along in the land to sow mischief in it and destroy the tilth and the stock, but God does not love mischief. And when it is said to them, ‘have taqwa of God’, pride carries them off to sin. Therefore, Hell is sufficient for them, and certainly, it is an evil resting place.’ [Quran 2:204-206]
We assert in no uncertain terms that violence carried out against civilians has no place in Islam. Faced with religious rhetoric from political extremist groups who claim they are merely acting in accordance with Islamic law, Muslim scholars have been writing and speaking extensively to refute this notion. A group of men using religious rhetoric and banding together under a modernist political ideology where they abuse the Ummah is a case of domestic violence, not a form of Jihad. In the same vein, men picking and choosing within Islamic law whatever suits their desires for sexual gratification and control over women is not a problem with Islamic law; it is a problem with men.
The attraction Western feminist ideology has for some Muslim women lies in a conflation between Islam and Muslim men. Adopting it is an attempt at realizing the objectives of Islamic law. However, despite the diverse forms of feminism, some of which appear on the surface to be compatible with Islam, the foundation they all rest upon stems from a rejection of God, religion, and the metaphysical sources of the masculine and the feminine as they manifest in creation as I expounded upon previously:
If we mean by equality that men and women are the same, the Qur’an asserts otherwise. Before the birth of the Virgin Mary her mother, believing that she would give birth to a boy, had vowed to devote what she had in her womb to God’s service in the temple:
“When the wife of Imran said: My Lord! Surely, I vow to You what is in my womb, to be devoted (to Your service); accept therefore from me, surely You are the Hearing, the Knowing. So, when she brought forth, she said: My Lord! Surely, I have brought it forth a female — and God knew best what she brought forth—and the male is not like the female, and I have named her Maryam, and I commend her and her offspring into Your protection from the accursed Satan.” [3:35-36]
Unless equality is equivocated with sameness, declaring that “the male is not like the female” should not be controversial. Indeed, on face value most people would acknowledge and even accept this. However, actions speak louder than words. When the current discourse on gender equality and social engineering propositions to establish it are examined closely, declaring that men and women are inherently different is blasphemous in a world where education and public platforms are dominated by liberalism for an ideology and philosophical naturalism for a faith. In fact, this Quranic declaration is nonsensical within such a paradigm, because the male and the female are not merely matters of biology in Islamic cosmology. What we call “man” and “woman” are material manifestations of the created duality referred to in the Quran where God says, “And that He created the pair, the male and the female” [53:45], which act as vehicles in this world to manifest the duality of Divine Attributes, those of Majesty coming forth predominantly in the masculine form, and those of Beauty dominating in the feminine form. It is balance between the masculine and feminine that should be sought to create harmony, not sameness.
Given this context, a recent sermon by Imam Zaid Shakir delivered at the Muslim Community Center – East Bay (MCC East Bay) in Pleasanton, California on Friday, March 23, 2018 where he spoke about feminism and the gravitation of an increasing number of Muslim women towards it might be better understood. The recording of the sermon has since been removed from YouTube and at the time of writing this no explanation has been provided, leaving much room for speculation given the passionate tone of Imam Zaid and the strong rhetoric he employed against this phenomenon. Before its removal several downloads of it have been made, one of which is provided below.
It is important to note a couple of things about the sermon. Having heard Imam Zaid in person discuss feminism in more than one occasion with different people in smaller settings, I caution you to not be misled by the generalized statements he makes about feminism into thinking he is not well-informed. Though there are clear differences between various feminist movements, these movements are not all equal when it comes to who gets the public platform the most and who gets the biggest megaphone to have the loudest voice. A Friday sermon is meant to be directed at the most commonly acknowledged and publicly manifest formulation of the issue being discussed. Based on what makes the rounds on social media, the articles that get published in prominent websites and blogs, and the questions and comments that come up in person at events and conferences, the type of feminism manifesting itself mostly among Muslim women today is at the root of it an anti-religious secular feminism. It may not seem as such from a superficial glance, mainly because it utilizes religious rhetoric and I, for one, believe the sisters engaged in it are genuinely sincere and voice grievances that must be addressed. Nevertheless, this type of feminism is one in which the Quran and the Sunnah are viewed from a secular anti-religion prism that is used as a hermeneutic tool to re-interpret Islam to fit within postmodernist liberal ideologies. In other words, rather than having Islam inform activist efforts to address grievances Muslim women have, secular naturalism and postmodernist philosophies that arose more specifically out of France become the epistemological sources that inform Islam and become the final arbiters of what is just.
Imam Zaid mentions various social problems and links them to feminism. Due to the nature of the platform, which is not designed to deliver academic lectures and the time limitation of a Friday sermon, he does not clearly establish the connection. Hence, it might come across as a number of non sequitur statements against feminism. He does allude to the logical connection in his comment about the feminist reconstruction project of society along masculine lines, part of which actively undermine the family because it views it as another oppressive social institution that suffocates women and prevents them from achieving their aspirations. These aspirations, as the imam mentioned in the sermon, are in reality ones that men naturally seek but women, in general, do not necessarily consider as high callings. Imam Zaid contends that a consequence of the pursuit of traditionally masculine goals by women on a mass scale is the delay of marriage and children because high achievement in the career realm does not give room for a family.
There is more to elaborate on, but I believe this is sufficient to appreciate why this sermon, while short, is very significant. In my opinion, the extreme reactions some have had against it are more due to ideological commitments Imam Zaid was challenging than it was to mischaracterizations he made or misunderstandings he had about the current zeitgeist that seeks to undermine the Islamic Tradition while presenting itself under its veil.
