The Idea of Women in Fundamentalist Islam
- ISBN: 0813026067
Abstract
In an attempt to create a working prevalent theory about gender in Islam, this book deconstructs the religio-political writings and political practices of the nine Islamic ideologues of the twentieth century who masterminded the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism: Hasan al-Banna, Abu al-'A'la al-Mawdudi, Sayyid Qutb, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Mortaza Mutahhari, Zaynab al-Ghazali, Hasan al-Turabi, Rashid al-Ghannoushi, and Sheikh Hussein Fadlallah. It demonstrates that although these ideologues have individual peculiarities, their consistent emphasis on the subordinate status of women in society and in their relation to men constitutes a vehicle for attaining political power. By examining the spectrum of 20th-century Islamic fundamentalist discourse on the subordinate role of women, Shehadeh builds a bridge between political ideology and gender theory. She determines how the diversity of political, social, and economic domains within the discourse of the nine ideologues-male or female, Sunni or Shi'ite, radical or moderate-applies to gender relations, and whether their discourse is distinctive or remains within the classical or traditional mold of Islam. She demonstrates that the importance given to gender issues by fundamentalist ideologues and the constraints imposed on women in society are not so much due to patriarchy as to the manipulation of such issues for purely political purposes-to assure overwhelming male support and to divert attention from the real problems of society. Shehadeh's study, the only work that compiles and critiques the gender theory of the major Islamic fundamentalist ideologues, offers a unifying theory elucidating their stand on women's rolein society and the centrality of women in their politically ideal Muslim society. This book provides new perspectives and insights into the 20th-century concept of political Islam.
The Idea of Women in Fundamentali...
Given the centrality of the family in Islamic institutions, the sacraliza-
tion of motherhood, sexual segregation, and the principle of male domina-
tion of the public sphere, it is only natural that the traditional subordinate
status of women is revived and emphasized, providing the masses with the
eagerly anticipated moral safeguards and everyday security. The expedi-
ence of Islamic ideology as a strategy of political consolidation is best ob-
served in Sudan, Tunisia, Pakistan, and Iran. Hence, it is the precarious
possession of the reins of power, the factionalism that may pervade the
political elite or arena, or identity reformulation, that force the elite to
legitimize their power by a traditional ideology. In this case, Islamic ideol-
ogy is resorted to because Islam is still the most acceptable and adhered-to
basis for authority for the majority of Muslims. Moreover, since brute
force as a means of political domination is short-lived and the cause of
subsequent subversive activities and rebellion, the shortest, most effective,
and most popular means of domination is the subordination of women
legitimated by their own particular reading of Islam. Bernard Lewis de-
scribes “Islamic political language” as “full of metaphor, some of it dead,
buried, and forgotten, some of it to varying extents alive and conscious.”
The commonest of these metaphors “are those which are called spatial,
denoting position and direction in space . . . Sometimes the metaphors of
power are not merely verbal, but material, and appear as symbols.”
53
This
is best manifested in the role assigned women. Changing these religious
prescriptions or requesting their change becomes blasphemous as a brazen
insult to divine authority.
Thus, Gustav Thaiss drew attention to the use of women as metaphors
in the sermons of the clergy during the seventies in Iran. The Islamic
community was portrayed either as a pure innocent virgin violated by
the aggressive West, or impure adulterous woman “having an affair” with
the West, thereby cheating and dishonoring her husband. Such sermons,
Thaiss maintained, aroused male apprehensions regarding gender rela-
tions and stimulated their sense of masculinity and virility.
54
Wilhelm
Reich argued further that attempts to influence the masses by correlating
political and national notions with family and honor are to be found in
fascism as well. Family, according to him, “is the nation in miniature . . .
thus, nationalistic sentiments are the direct continuation of the family tie
and are likewise rooted in the fixated tie to the mother.”
55
Thus, Kho-
meini achieved national prominence in 1962–63 for his opposition to the
shah’s attempt to enfranchise women rather than to his implementation
of land reforms, which had immediate consequences on the clergy’s in-
come. Khomeini, with nine other clerics, issued a communiqué denounc-
41. Fadlallah, Ta ammulat Islamiyyah, 161–63; Fadlallah, Dunya al-marah,
104–7; Fadlallah, al-Masail al-fiqhiyyah, 2:434.
42. Fadlallah, Dunya al-marah, 306; Fadlallah, Ta ammulat Islamiyyah, 26, 63–
64, 127–29; Nimeh, al-Mutah, 7, 209–11.
43. Nimeh, al-Mutah, 213; Fadlallah, Dunya al-marah, 289–95, 307–10;
Fadlallah, Ta ammulat Islamiyyah, 130.
44. Fadlallah, Dunya al-marah, 315, 318–19.
45. Ibid., 325–27, 336, 341.
46. Fadlallah, Ta ammulat Islamiyyah, 92–93.
47. Fadlallah, Dunya al-marah, 259–60; Fadlallah, Ta ammulat Islamiyyah,
136–143; Fadlallah, al-Masail al-fiqhiyyah, 2:428.
48. Ibid., 442–45; Fadlallah, Ta ammulat Islamiyyah, 145–48; Fadlallah, Dunya
al-marah, 102–4.
49. Ibid., 131–33, 147–48, 161; Fadlallah, Ta ammulat Islamiyyah, 31–32, 171–
72; Fadlallah, al-Masail al-fiqhiyyah, 1:243–45, 250–52; Fadallah, Qiraah jadidah,
81–82, 134.
50. Sivan, “The Enclave Culture,” 31.
51. Abu-Rabi, Intellectual Origins, 230.
52. Ibid., 229.
53. Fadlallah, Qiraah jadidah, 66.
54. Fadlallah, al-Masail al-fiqhiyyah, 2:421.
Chapter 11. Conclusion
1. Mernissi, Beyond the Veil, 44.
2. Mir-Hosseini, Marriage on Trial, 32.
3. Shehadeh, “Women and Sayyid Qutb,” 50.
4. Ibid.
5. Stowasser, “Women’s Issues,” 18.
6. Dwyer, “Law and Islam”; Engineer, Rights of Women; Ahmed, “Early Islam”;
Afshar, “Development Studies”; Hassan, “Muslim Women”; Engineer, Justice;
Bulliet, Islam: View from the Edge; Mueller, “Revitalizing Old Ideas”; Fischer, “Le-
gal Postulates”; Parvin, “Islamic Rule”; Mir-Hosseini, Marriage on Trial; Ayubi,
Political Islam; Esposito, Islam and Politics, 3d ed.; Liebesny, “Stability and Change”;
Coulson, A History of Islamic Law; el-Nimr, “Women in Islamic Law”; Musallam,
“The Ordering of Muslim Societies”; Haddad, Islamic Impact; Roded, Women in
Islam; Rahman, “Islamic Modernism”; Husain, Global Islamic Politics; al-Nowaihi,
“Problems of Modernization”; Lewis, Political Language; Rahman, Islam and Mo-
dernity, 70.
7. Coulson, History of Islamic Law, 6–7.
8. Cited in Engineer, Justice, 28.
9. Ibid., 28. See also al-Nowaihi, “Problems of Modernization,” 176–77.
10. Rahman, “Islamic Modernism,” 323–24.
11. Al-Nowaihi, “Problems of Modernization,” 180.
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