What is more, it is no secret that the status of women, such as it is conceived currently in traditionalist and dominant readings of Islam, remains the obligatory breach through which a certain Western hegemony continuously seeks to interfere in order to discredit an entire system of thought. The current meta-discourse on the veiled, oppressed and reclusive Muslim woman is merely a continuous reproduction of the orientalist and colonialist vision still in vogue in contemporary postcolonial representations.
This eternally accusatory discourse serves in particular as an alibi for all political attitudes of cultural domination and supports the binary analysis which pits, utterly unquestionably, the universal model of the free Western woman against that of the oppressed Muslim woman in need of liberation … The opposition of these two models allows Muslim women to remain categorised as second-class citizens and in particular allows the image to be used as a foil in relation to modernity, civilization and freedom. It is ironic to note within a certain western discourse, which claims to be liberating and has universalist pretentions, the obvious signs of a language of paternalistic domination, which struggles to break with its colonial vocation of a civilizing mission. The desire is not to free Muslim women in order to simply free them, but rather to showcase western freedom and, thus, maintain the power relations which best enable domination of the other. It is not a question of demonizing the West and of accusing it of all ills. The contribution of western ideas to the long process of modernization is undeniable. But the critique is directed towards a certain strand of thinking which, in the name of its conception of the universal, claims to behold a monopoly on modernity and truth. It is not about denying the existence of a culture of oppression of women in Muslim lands but, rather, about denouncing what a given hegemonic western vision wishes to do to this culture by hyper-essentialising it. A Western perspective which maintains Muslim women in a one-dimensional grid in which they have been carefully enclosed and through which western values and norms are promoted as the only means of liberating those poor Muslim women.
Between these two diametrically opposed visions, the Muslim woman ultimately remains a prisoner, despite herself, of a discourse which in both cases, ignores her person, her aspirations and her will … Between a frozen Islamic thought which assiduously ring-fences women’s issues and a western ideology which takes pleasure from denigrating Islam through those same issues, one struggles to think of a third way, through which Muslim women can emerge from this ideological impasse.
The problem is that women and their status in Islam is a contentious subject and it would be difficult for anyone to deny this. But what is the truth of the matter? Is it truly religion, as a system of values, which oppresses us or a collective social reality which appropriates the religious in order to reformulate it according to a hierarchical representation which suits it and which allows it to better affirm its powers?
It is undeniable that when religion comes into being in an already sexually ascribed social order, it can only be absorbed into it, despite itself. It is also obvious that one is within one’s right to question, and to remain perplexed in the face of the real contradiction which exists between the spiritual message of the Qur’an and the lived reality of Muslims. On one hand, Islam carries, like other monotheistic religions, a message of peace, love and justice, coming from a God who, in creating human beings, men and women, has made them unequivocally free, equal and dignified … on the other hand, the traditionalist understanding of that same religion seems to contribute to a certain preponderance of men at the level of social reality and seems, therefore, to be one of the main vectors of discrimination against women. In a large number of interpretative readings of the Qur’an are found classic patterns of male domination where women are marginalized, even excluded in the name of the sacred …A One can understand that the different religious interpretations can carry the imprint of the geopolitical contexts from which they emerge and of the socio-cultural environment which produced them. But it is harder to understand how, in the long term, these same interpretations have become themselves, immutable and entirely closed to all critical reflection. Interpretations which have removed the profound meaning of the message and which with time have become insurmountable barriers for those who wish to return to the initial impulse of the text and find within it answers to the needs of our time.
The confusion is such that it has become very difficult to distinguish between what is from the sacred text and what is from the domain of subjective human interpretation.
And yet, between the humanist spirit of the Qur’an which favours the human being Insan, without distinction according to gender, and certain classical interpretations demeaning towards women, there is a substantial misunderstanding which means that the lived reality of Muslims has become to this extent removed from their spiritual references.
The spiritual message is, as described by the Qur’an in several passages, a ‘reminder’ (dhikr) which consists in awakening in human beings the most noble side of their conscience in order that they remain in a continuous state of proximity with the Creator. And through this remembrance, there is an intimate conviction in Divine justice … Nothing in the Qur’anic text can justify or support any sort of discrimination against women. It is this conviction which stems from profound faith but which truly struggles to materialize in our Muslim reality, which needs to be reformulated and put into practise on the ground, in daily life.
It is here that Islamic thought needs to evolve, in order to redefine itself, to be re-thought and to make the necessary distinction between the spiritual message and some interpretations which have fixed the text and at times, killed discussion.
This is what is happening, God willing, today in the Muslim world where the premises of a serene and well-thought through change are beginning to appear.
Despite an overall chaotic general assessment in the Muslim world, one discerns the clear though timid emergence of an innovating discourse, which seeks to reform religious thought that is currently dwindling and virtually entirely focused on its moralising tendency.
In fact, it is comforting to note the current emergence of an Islamic trend, albeit still marginal, which whilst still trying to find itself contributes to redrawing new spaces where the religious debate can evolve without losing its soul ….
Within these new spheres of reflection, that concerning the status of women in Islam is taking shape and affirming itself day by day. The question of women in Islam has always been at the heart of the debate, possibly even of all debates in the Islamic world. However, what is currently new is that at the heart of this intellectual effervescence, Muslim women are trying to reclaim their voice, in order to re-appropriate what has persistently remained in the hands of men, namely their own destiny!
Indeed today many intellectual Muslim women, living in Muslim societies but also in the West, through their academic research, social and theological, and particularly in the name of their faith, are questioning a significant amount of prejudice on this topic. They contest in particular a classical analysis which stipulates that the inequality between men and women and its corollary of discriminatory measures are an inherent part of the sacred text by demonstrating that, in fact, it is certain biased readings, bolstered by patriarchal customs, which have rather legitimated these same inequalities.
It is important to underline that these new positive forms of resistance are the prerogative of Muslim women who, whilst having a critical approach to certain religious readings, are practising believers and it is in the name of their faith that they assert their right to assess the text.
It is an effort to demarcate oneself from a women’s movement coming from Muslims which seeks changes outside of the religious framework. Whilst one must respect this desire to define oneself outside of the religious framework, it is sad to note that these Muslim women who are rebelling against the alleged diktats of the religion are those most heard and given the greatest amount of airtime … This is not surprising in and of itself, since the only acceptable or even expected critique in Western circles today is that which challenges the Islamic tradition.1
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