Islam Vs. Feminism

The Role of Women in Islam

The most important and most emphasized role for women mentioned in Islamic sources is that of wife and mother, but the role of woman in Islam is by no means limited to this. Women may be entrepreneurs, as was Khadijah, the first wife of Prophet Muhammad (S) and the first convert to Islam. They may also take a strong political stand even leading to martyrdom, as did Fatimah, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad (S), wife of Imam 'All and mother of Imams Hasan and Husayn, peace be with all of them. Some positions, however, such as leading prayers for men, are considered inappropriate for women.

Westerners often assume that because social relations between men and women are restricted in Islamic societies in ways that seem strange to them, that Muslim women are not socially and politically active. The following anecdote reported by W. Morgan Shuster regarding events in Tehran in 1911 provides some indication of how mistaken this assumption is.

With the dark days when doubts came to be whispered as to whether the Mejlis would stand firm [against Russian threats], the Persian women, in their zeal for liberty and their ardent love for their country. . supplied the answer. Out from their walled courtyards and homes marched three hundred of that weak sex, with the flush of undying determination in their cheeks. They were clad in their plain black robes with the white nets of their veils dropped over their faces. Many held pistols under their skirts or in the folds of their sleeves. Straight to the Mejlis they went, and, gathered there, demanded of the President that he admit them all. What the grave deputies of the Land of the Lion and the Sun may have thought at this strange visitation is not recorded. The President consented to receive a delegation of them. In his reception-hall they confronted him, and lest he and his colleagues should doubt their meaning, these cloistered Persian mothers, wives and daughters exhibited threateningly their revolvers, tore aside their veils, and confessed their decision to kill their own husbands and sons, and leave behind their own dead bodies, if the deputies wavered in their duty to uphold the liberty and dignity of the Persian people and nation.20

This is not an isolated incident. Women in Muslim societies are and always have been active in social and political affairs, even if they have rarely taken publicly visible leadership roles. A careful reading of the Qur'an shows that this is no historical accident. God directly addresses women through the revelation of the Qur'an by assuring them that their deeds will not go unrewarded, and by offering as exemplars women who have courageously taken positions in unfavourable social conditions, not however, to secure their own rights or interests, but in obedience to God. Thus Mary, peace be with her, is rebuked by her people for having the child Jesus ('a) out of wedlock. She agreed to have the child when visited by the angel out of obedience to God. In response to the taunts directed against her, Mary offers no excuses but points to the child prophet, who miraculously speaks to them.21 The wife of Pharaoh refuses to obey her husband and king in his idolatry because of her acceptance of the message of the Prophet Moses ( a).22

The primary roles accorded to women in Islam are those of wife and mother, and it is precisely these roles with which feminists are most uncomfortable. Feminists are concerned with liberating* women from expectations that they should marry and have children. They see progress for women in terms of employment opportunities, income, opportunities to experiment with non- traditional sexual relations and political power. Although Islam does not bar women from wealth and power, it places greater emphasis on marriage and the family. It seems that this accords with the interests of the vast majority of the women of the world. Al- though they are not averse to wealth and power, their primary concerns tend to centre around marriage and the family. Islam dignifies these primary concerns while feminism tends to undermine them

Of course, the most important role for woman in Islam is no different that that assigned to men-servant of God. It is as servants of God that Muslim women and men take on the roles of mothers and fathers and wives and husbands, buyers and sellers, teachers and pupils, workers and employers, etc.