The Most Common Myths about Muslim Women and Why They’re Wrong
By Ruby Hamad
September 30, 2014
The western perception
of Muslim women is often contradictory. Although generally pitied as objects of
oppression, visibly Muslim women also bear the brunt of anti-Islam sentiment.
Last week two Australian Muslim women, Randa Abdel-Fattah, and Anne Azza-Aly
appeared on ABC’s Q&A and expertly cut through many of the myths and
distortions surrounding Islam and terrorism.
As the tension mounts in the wake of Australia’s recent raids”, I
enlisted the help of Randa, a former lawyer and current PhD student, and Anne,
a counter-terrorist researcher, in order to dismantle some of the common myths
around Muslim women.
Myth: Muslim Women
Are All Oppressed
The assumption that
all Muslim women are oppressed owes much to Islamic dress requirements (Hijab).
While the Quran calls for both men and women to be “modest,” in practice it is
primarily women’s dress that is policed, and the various denominations have
differing interpretations of what this means. While women belonging to the
small Alawite sect stopped wearing any form of Hijab in the 1960s, Sunni Islam
(which encompasses Salafism, by far the strictest interpretation), has seen a
trend towards ever-more conservative dress, with more and more women covering
their face as well as hair.
It should go without
saying that any woman who is forced, whether by the state or her own family, to
wear the Burqa or headscarf is indeed oppressed. Nonetheless, many Muslim women
do choose to veil of their own volition. That this choice is required only of
women does lead to legitimate questions of whether such a choice can actually
be free. However, Randa cautions that, “We are all subject to the influence of
certain norms and expectations about how we dress, behave, express ourselves…I
don't think much of any of our decisions are completely 'free' whether we wear
Hijab or don't, whether we are religious or not.”
In other words, all of
our choices are limited by the patriarchal society we live in. The perception
that all Muslim women are subjugated is linked to the mistaken belief that the
liberation of women in the west is complete. However, the idea that women’s
bodies exist largely as sexual objects is just as entrenched in the west as it
is Muslim societies, the difference is that Muslim women are called upon to
conceal their sexuality whilst western women are encouraged to exploit it.
Overturning these
systems of oppression is not as simple as banning certain items of clothing.
Just as western women took the reigns of their liberation into their own hands,
so too must those Muslim women who feel constrained by their culture. Anne says
one way for Muslim women to do this is “to start a discourse on the Niqab
(Burqa) that takes it away from the question of rights and looks into the
political symbolism of it and the religious interpretations.” Ironically, the more the west fixates on the
Burqa and attempts to dictate what Muslim women should wear, which only serves
to put Muslims on the defensive, the more Muslim woman are actually denied the
opportunity to have this conversation.
Myth: Muslim Women
Are (Or Should Be) Uneducated.
While anyone who saw
last weeks’ Q&A would know that Randa and Anne put paid to this notion, the
perception that Islam itself frowns on women’s education is fanned by the
hostility towards women’s education in some Muslim nations.
“It is a travesty that
Muslim majority countries have forgotten or chosen to ignore the rich history
of Islamic jurisprudence which featured at the centre- not in the periphery- so
many amazing Muslim women,” says Randa, “There is a huge gap between Islamic
doctrine, our history and what we see today.”
Indeed, the world’s
oldest university was founded by a Muslim woman in the 9th century, and today,
Muslim women are working tirelessly to ensure women have access to education.
This includes, of course, Malala Yousafzai, but also women like Sakeena
Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute for Learning, which began
surreptitiously educating under the Taliban in the 1990s.
The sad truth is,
misogynistic fundamentalists deny women (and some men) their education simply
because it makes it all the easier to oppress them. This, however, far from
being sanctioned by Islamic doctrine, is actually in opposition to it: the
first words in the Quran are, “Read. Read in the name of your Lord.”
Myth: Muslim Women
Are A Security Risk
When Liberal Senator
Cory Bernardi used the recent “terror raids” to once again call for a ban on
the Burqa, he was quickly joined by PUP Senator Jacqui Lambie, with both
claiming the veil is a security risk.
Anne says that while
some Arab countries have indeed banned the Burqa for security reasons,
Australia has “not had any incidences to warrant a level of concern.”
Furthermore, “there are some very high level fatwa’s (religious decrees) that
dictate that the Niqab (Burqa) should be removed in circumstances that require
identification for security or medical purposes. So religiously there is
already an avenue for mitigating risks associated with wearing face coverings.”
The upshot is, there
is no point blaming women for terrorist activity perpetrated primarily by men.
“There is no proven relationship between terrorism and Niqab wearing,” Anne
says. “It really is a non-issue.”
Myth: Muslim Women
Are Inferior To Men
Growing up as an
Alawite Muslim, I certainly felt my brothers were given preferential treatment.
However, I also recall that the reasons (or excuses), given by my parents were
more related to status and reputation than religion, including the all-too
familiar refrain, But we can’t let you go out! What will people say?
There is a fine line
between culture and religion. My friend Sofia, a university lecturer, says that
religion is culture, and that regarding it as a separate phenomenon only
obscures the reality - that human societies shape and modify religion according
to their own peculiarities and practices (which is indeed what we are seeing
with modern terrorist groups).
But that doesn’t
change the fact that the often-abhorrent treatment of women in Muslim societies
is largely at odds both with Islamic history and with what is written in the
Quran. Whilst I view Islam through a secular rather than spiritual lens, for
Randa, every day is “a struggle to reconcile my deep conviction in, and
devotion to, the Islamic faith with the sickening reports of abuses of many
women in the name of Islam.”
However, she adds,
“Not for a moment do I think that the oppression and brutality directed against
women stem from sincerely held religious beliefs. Whether it is targeting girls
who seek an education in Afghanistan or treating women like second-class
citizens in Saudi Arabia, the fact is that the oppression of women is
essentially about coveting power and dominating women.”
For all their
differences, the underpinnings of both Muslim and western societies are
fundamentally the same, for each is built on the shaky foundation of
patriarchy. As much as we like to blame religion for much of the world’s ills,
the truth is, much of what we recognise as religious oppression is actually
cultural misogyny.
On that note, I’ll
leave the last word to Randa, who calls for, “A kind of radical surgery in Muslim
countries in order to remove the festering, diseased pustule of patriarchy that
attempts to define one half of society as walking sex organs…This would entail
promoting theologically grounded arguments that would empower women to make
dignified choices based on their own religious tradition.”
Amen.
Source:
http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/the-most-common-myths-about-muslim-women-and-why-theyre-wrong-20140928-3gszu.html
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