322 Feminism in Islam

Autobiography: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Educator," in Sidonie Smith and

Juha Walson (eds.), De/Colomizing the Subject: The Politics of Genderin Women's
Autobiography (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992). pp. 270-293.
43. Firstpublished in 1992 in Kuala Lumpur by Penerbit Fajar Bakati and re-
published in 1999 by Oxford University Press, New York.
44. The EFU not long after her
praised Zain al-Din in their journal, l'Egyptrienne,
book appeared. See Badran and Cooke (eds.), Opening the Gates, pp. 257-269;
Bouthaina Shaaban, "The Muted Voices of Women Interpreters,
in Afkhami
14
(ed.), Paith and Freedom, pp. 61-77.
feminist,
45. Fora compelling analysis of al-Chazali's words and deeds as an islamic MOVE
see cooke, Women Claim Islam. See also Valerie Hoffman, "An
lslamic Activist: ISLAMIC FEMINISM ON THE
in the
Zaynab al-Ghazali," in Elizabeth Fernea (ed.), Women and the Famiby
Texas Press, 1985),
Middle East: New Voices of Change (Austin: University of
Pp. 233-254. 1 discuss
al-Ghazali in Margot Badran, "Competing Agenda:
in
Feminists, Islam and the State in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Egypt,"
which now is nearly two decades
Deniz Kandiyoti (ed.), Women, Jslam, and the State, (London:
Macmillan and
I shall reflect on Islamic feminism, rearticulates a
University Press, 1991). pp. 201-236, and chapter
I in this the move. Islamic feminism
Philadelphia: Temple old, and is resolutely on
volume. Al-Ghazali died in 2005 at the age of 9. Islam rooted in a Qur'anic ethos. It
was affected by the wanton use of misogs
gender-egalitarian, socially-just
46. Tuksal recounted to me how deeplyshe and practice (rampant in the socicty
hadiths as an intimidating device:
interview with Hidayet Tuksal, Ankara exposes the patriarchal thinking insinuated itself
ynist was revealed) that
28 June 2001. into which the Qur'anic message
"Feminism Ialamic
death of the Prophet Muhammad and
47. Mir-Hosseini, "Stretching the Limits"; Najmabadi,Feminism.
in an
into Islam not long after the
of Islamic been inscribed in books ofjurispru-
Republic"; Moghadam, "The Emergence that by the ninth century c.B. had
48. Göle, The Forbidden Modern. schools of fiqh. The key
11 December 200i dence with the consolidation of the major
49. Interview with Sibel Eraslan, Istanbul, feminism are the Qur'anic principles
of gender
concepts of Islamic
50. Gole, The Forbidden Modern.
Gender and Authority: The Power to Speal
and Be
Equality and justice cannot be fully actual
51. Margot Badran, "Religion,
Center in Eopt Bullenn, 183
(Fal-Winter cquality andsocial justice feminism is trying to
Heard," American Research ized within a patriarchal system. Islamic
expel the traces of patriarchy
advance the Islamic message and
2002-2003). pp. 20-22. to
lslam«
Alsoswa, "Women's Rights are
Human Rights are
52. Amat al-Aleem
the Gates, 2nd ed. pp. 397-404. from Islam.
Rights," in Badran and cooke (eds.),forOpenmg
the Nobel Peace Prize, Oslo: 10 December feminism aims to recuperate the
idea of the umma or
53. Taken from her acceptance speech Islamic
shared space shared by women and men
2003. Islamic community as
feminism
equally and as a pluralistic global community. Islamic
and secular-
transcends dichotomies of East-West, public-private,
divide and rule, divide and contain,
or
religious. It is in opposition to tactics and not an expres
divide and discipline, which are hegemonic
sion of the Qur'anic message.
of the "people of the
Islam, uniquely among the three religions
Qur'an as the Word of God-intro-
book," throughitsscripture-the
of women and men as
duced a message of the fundamental equalitry
women's rights, and social justice, yet this
human beings (insan),
in the name of Islam itself. The patriarchal
message was subverted
the Quran had come to temper and ultimately
ideas and practices Islam was
eradicate (inArabia and other societies into which
324 Feminism in Islam Islamic Feminism on the Move

introduced over the centuries) proved is rather about the transforming of what has passed as "Islam
highly resistant. Islam was
embraced while patriarchy was retained. The
hegemonic manipula- through a realignment of Islam with the Qur anic message of human
the notion of "transformatio
tion was such that the notion ofa
patriarchal Islam became natural- equality and social justice. I borrow
ized, and the inherent contradiction between the revealed Word and from the linguistic lexicon connoting the process by which
patriarchy was obscured and lslam's call for gender equality and converted into "surface structures." The
"deep structures" are
social justice was thwarted. It is a sad
irony that the only religion that Transformation is about restoring the deep Qur'anic message to
In this sense the
appeared with a message of gender equality embedced in its scripture the surface of awareness and articulation.
as the Word of God, is
now considered to be the most
patriarchal of Transformation, we might say, is returning Islam to itself (through
all, with the myriad insults and
injustices that accompany this. the Book); it is not metamorphosing Islam into something else.
Muslim patriarchalists (in state, Islam is a world religion. The Islamic Transformation is a global
society, and farnily) and detractors of
Islam, for their own very different reasons, have over the phenomenon. Islamic feminism is a global movement. 1slamic femi-
had a vested interest in centuries
perpetuating the fiction of a patriarchai Islam. nism, like Islam, is not about East and West, and North and South, as
In the beginning of Islem was the Word and the
Word of
Qur'an as the
God was the starting point of Islamic feminism. ljtihad, the
geographical locations (physical spaces) or ideological constructions,
of the mind). Feminism, such, Muslims as
exercise of rational thinking and
(spaces as
isseenby many
independent investigation The of "Western,"a code word for "alien to Islam." Such persons are uneasy,
gious sources, is the basic methodology of Islamic feminism. reli at the very least, about the juxtaposition of Islam and feminism. The
starting point in the elaboration of what came to be called Islamic term "Islamic feminism" is both contentious and tenacious. Terms
feminism is tafsir, or interpretation of the Qur'an. Two treatises that can crystallize and provide frames for examination and debate. They
are considered seminal texts
of Islamic feminism- based upon re can also draw fire and be demonized along with what they stand for.
readings of the Qur'an explicate the intersecting notions of gender
-

In reflecting on the dynamics of Islamic feminist thinking and

equality and social justice and deconstruct patriarchy and disentang'e practice over the past two decades of its existence I shalllook at: (1)
itfrom Islam. They are well known: Amina Wadud's Qur'an and
Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective and the question of naming and claiming; (2) the contexts in which
Islamic feminism emerged, and (3) Islamic feminist discourse and
Asma Barlas's "BelievingWomen" in lslam: Unreading
Patriarchal activism.
Interpretations ofthe Qur'an.?
I have defined Islamic feminism as a feminist discourse and prac-
tice that derives its understanding and mandate from the Qur'an and
seeks rights and justice within the framework of the equality of
NAMING AND CLAIMING

women and men

in the totality of their existence part and parcel of
as
the Qur'anic notion of equality of all human beings (insan) It cals
for the implementation ofgender equalityin the state, civlinstit
tions,andeverydaylife.Isamic feminism rejects the notion of a pub-
lic-private dichotomy; it conceptualizes a holistic umma (Muslim
community) in which Qur'anic ideals are operative in all space. It
does not seek or endorse the idea of an Islamic state, even though in
some places it, of necessity, works within islamic states
see Islamic feminism at the center of a Transformation within
Islam, struggling make headway.
to I call thisa Transformation rather
than a Reformation. The islamic Transformation is not about the
reforming of patriarchal claims and practices insinuated into Isiam; it
Phenomena exist, of course, before they are named. To name is to rec
ognize, to bring to atrtention, to stimulate engagement. Gesturings
toward what soon became known as "Islamic feminism" were
occur
ring in the 1980s. It was not, however, until the 1990s that the term
Islamic feminism was coined. Some phenomena are named by their
creators, while others are named by outsider observers. lIn the case of
Islamic feminism as an emergent discourse, the name was bestowed
not by its creators but by witnesses to something new
underway.
These were Muslim women public intellectuals, journalists, and
scholars who could be described as secularists and feminists
who were sympathetic observers of a turn in gender thinking and
practice that they recognized as a new form of feminism: a feminism
 326 Feminism in islam thhe Move 327
Islamic Feminism on

articulated in an Islamic paradigm. of the East and

These women coined the term movements originated simultaneously in parts
simultaneously in different parts of the
globe. În the mid-1990s, I West. At its most basic, or generic, feminism is a critique of women's
found Muslim women from Iran, subordination and a challenge to male domination (in various con
Occan Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia women's situa
using the term Islamic feminism in space) and includes efforts to rectify
print.' Their writing locations texts in time and
were to be found in both the East and the West. The term
was also tion. History shows that multiple expressions of feminism, or
circulating orally, When I visited South Africa for the first time at the time in diverse
multiple feminisms, have been generated over
end of the 1990s I found progressive Muslims locations around the globe.
using the term Islamic with
feminism. Muslim women in Egypt, for example, who, together
The creators of what came to be called Islamic feminist discourse, Christians, embarked on an organized, collective movement for
those who were conducting new tafsir or Qur'anic exegesis, were women's rights and liberation in the early 1920s, employed the term
seeking answers in scripture to questions about women and gender feminism" (precisely in French and more equivocally in Arabic)
around the time it first began to be used in the United States, which
and about equality and justice, Although the Qur'anic message of was not long after it had come to Britain from France,
where it had
gender equality and women's rights/human rights they articulated
resonated for others as a "feminism within Islam" the pioneering been originally coined. Egyptians and women from various other
countries in Asia and Africa in the first half of the twentieth century,
exegetes themselves shied away from the word feminism. This was in
part, as some have told me, because offeminism's "Western" associa- as the historical record attests, did not import feminism from the

tions. Instead they regarded what they were doing as giving voice to West." They constructed theirown feminismsfrom amalgam of
an

another reading of Islam. With time, however, some grew less resis
tant to the term when applied to them, especially when they saw it
defined in a way that reflected their work. Yet the exegetes do not tend
to proclaim an lslamic feminist identity. I think it is important to rec-
ognize these different approaches to naming and laiming
The Internet quickly became a rapid transit lane for the flow of the
lslamic feminist discourse and for interaction
new
a locus wide
ongoing debate. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, newe
producers of Islamic feminist discourse and expanding numbers of
activists, especially the younger generation, were enmbracing the ter
Tslamic feminism and claiming the identity.
East-West dichotomy
The controversy surrounding the tem "Islamic feminism" is con
nected to the notion that "feminism is Western and as such alien, if
not anathema, to Islam. This idea may arise out of real ignorance or be
enlisted as a tool to delegitimize any kind of feminism. The Islamic
feministproject itself, whatever it is caled, is deeply threatening for
focus
many. A on terminology conveniently distracts attention from
the project itself.
nationalist, religious reform and humanitarian discourses, as Kumari
layawardena shows in her 1986 book examining feminist movements
in several Eastern countries from the late nineteenth through the first
half of the rwentieth centuries"
Not only did Eastern Muslims not borrow from the West, but as
feminist nationalists they countered Western colonialism, including
the imposition ofcolonial patriarchal policy and practices, while con-
and currently as nationalist feminists they struggled against the indige
nous patriarchy that was embedded in the state, which had intruded
into ideas of Islam and into law enacted in the name of Islam in vari-
ous national locations, and which was simultaneously rife in the
everyday life of family and society. The feminism that Muslim
women, together with their compatriots of other religions, created
last century was called "secular feminism" to connote a feminism
that, like the secular nation, was organized around a nationalist dis-
course ofequality of all citizens irrespective of religion, race, and gen
der and that recognized and protected religions and the religious
affiliations of citizens. Secular feminism was another way of saying
national feminism or EErptian feminism, Syrian feminism, etc.
To allege that feminism is Western not only advertises ignorance

demonstrates that feminism has been neither

of historical experience but serves to perpetuate the notion that has
historyconstruct
Attention toWestern widely circulated in the West that Muslims and Easterners areinca
an excusively nor monolithic. Feminist ideas and
pable ofgeneratingcritiquesofpatriarchy andfemale subordination
328 Feminism in Islam Islamic Feminism on the Mo.

and incapable of
organizing movements to put things right, that is, to rather an polarization induced and fanned by politic
acrimonious
produce feminism. As we know all too well, this Islam (or Islamism). Islamist women and men let it be known
widely used to denigrate Islam and Muslims- allegation has been and actions that "secular" Muslim women and
and is today the trump through their words
card in thehand of Islam-bashing, trotted out to
"justify" all sorts religiouslydefined" Muslim women must be kept apart and in a state
incursions and invasions. Islamicfeminism lays claim to its own ter- of mutual antagonism.
ritory, upholds its own understanding of Islam
rigorous ijtihad, and employs its own
derived from its own Along with being tarred by the "Western brush," Muslims' femi
nisms-painted in grotesque and stereotyped ways as a Western aber-
the ideological language, moving beyond
categories
of East and West and related claims of ration were also tarred by the "secularist brush" as religiously
knowledge production, ownership, and authenticity. deviant Muslims or anti-Muslim. Women associated with or sympa
thetic to Islamists claimed that their take on issues ofwomen and gen
Secular-religious dichotomy der was the authentic interpretation. Islamist women, along with
Islamist men, were instrumental in keeping the tension focused on
While tension has arisen from Western
there has also been tension connected
connotations of feminism religion versus secularism, Islam versus the West. They were not
with the terms "secular" and interested in free debate on women and gender. Meanwhile, some
"secularist" and an imposed
polarization between secular and reli- secular feminists for their part displayed simplistic notions of "reli-
gious. Words have histories, and there are moments when meanings gious women," and sometimcs conflated patriarchal practices
are radically altered. The original meaning of the term secular within imposed in the name of lslam with the religion itself- precisely the
a Muslim or mixed religion context, as seen in the Egyptian example tanged skein Islamic feminism undertook to unravel.
just cited, did not connote an absence of religon, but an equal These days there is increasing interaction between secular and
embrace of and freedom for all
religions within a collective national Tslamic feminists, as well as with women religious scholars (the 'ali
space. Secular implied a separation of state and religion.
there were varying degrees However mat, who have joined the ranks of the 'ulama), who possess a vital
of separation. In formerly-colonized Arab stock of knowledge. Notwithstanding what some would have us
countries, for example, there were within the corpus of laws of secu- believe, Islamic feminism and Muslims' secular feminism are not in
lar states state-promulgated religious laws in the form of Muslun
sonal law or family law, as well as state-enacted
per. opposition to each other; rather, they are mutually reinforcing.
rebgion-based
laws for Christians, in countries where they existed.
family Liberal and progressive women in Muslim societies in the East are
increasingly using both the arguments of lslamic feminism and secu-
Withtherise of political Islamin the 1970s and 1980% alamists ( lar feminism. They are also pooling organizational, communications,
its protagonists are called) in different parts of Africa and Asia
began to and academic disciplinary skills to advance the cause of all women. In
re-cast the words "secular" and "secularist" as un-islamic, anti-Islamic the complex worlds in which we are variously positioned we all
and even non-Muslim. Meanwhile, the notion of a secular-religioes engage multiple discourses and we all possess plural identities,
dichotomy became exaggerated. In the context of lslarnic revival whether or not we publicly assert them.
Muslim women who began to observe religion with arenoned crupu Islamic feminism is an important chapter in
global feminist his-
losity were referred to as "religious women. These religious women tory, and is making its own unique contributions. Naming helps us to
whether or not they were asociated with Islamist groups, were pirtéd recognize and locate this.
by Jslamist forces against secular Muslim women-and especially fem-
inists Clichés abounded and feminism was recklessiy demonized.
The deeper tension, however, was between Mushms as
gender cONTEXTS IN WHICH ISLAMIC PEMINISM EMERGED
progressives and Muslims as gender-reactionaries. It was a tension
between ways of thinking and being Muslim, and between competing IfMuslims' secular feminisms burst on the scene as social movements
definitions of Islam. It was not a simple secular-religious tension, but rooted in rational space within an overarching nationalist discursive
 Islamic Feminism on the Move 331
330 Feminism in Islam
ACTIVISM
DISCOURSE AND
frame in various countries in the East under colonial domination (as ISLAMIC FEMINIST
well as in Turkey during the dedine of empire or Iran under
dynastic
ic Occa decline), Islamic feminism surfaced as a new global discourse in dif Tafsir
ferent locations in the East and West. By now, however, Islamic fem- feminist theory is an ongoing process
The development of Islamic
is at the center of this process.
inism's universalist discourse is catalyzing the formation of a broad and, as noted, Qur'anic interpretation considered foundational to
work is
transnational social movement. Women as exegetes, whose
of scripture as a timeles text,
Islamic feminism first appeared in places in the East where Islamic feminist theory, ask questions own experi-
movements of political Islam had been around longest and had tried their quest from the vantage point of their
approaching before
with different degrees of success to roll back earlier feminist gains ence, knowledge,
and observation, as all Qur'anic interpreters
o w n time and
are rooted in their
which often took the form of attempts either to evacuate women from them have done and, like them,
articulates a Qur'an-based idea of
feminism
thepublicsphere(as in Egypt, although this was soon abandoned for place. When Islamic of sex, race, o r ethnicity (or
strategic reasons) or to control women's appearance and movements equality of all human beings irrespective
it stresses that scripture makes clear that different attributes-
in public (such as in Iran, where women were needed inthe work tribe) modification or
force,
especiallywith the eruption ofthelIran-Jraq
war) slamicfem or differences-do not modify human equality: Any of
would constitute a negation of the basic principle
inism not only arose among Muslim women from outside qualification not simply an
movements of political Islam but also among disaffected women equality. islamic feminism also insists that equality is
abstract notion, but must be applied.
inside Islamist groups and parties, as happened in Turkey Ialamic different. The
feminism emerged in South Africa following the end of the ant Males and females are equal and biologically
where it is significant
apartheid struggle, much as secular feminist movements
hacd Qur'an addresses this biological difference
is the
appeared in the wake of anti-colonial struggles in Muslim societies that is, in the domain of procreation. Related to equality
context of the conjugal
earlier in the rwentieth century principle of balancing (tawwazun). In the
In various parts of the East Islamic feminisrn appeared at a time relationship when a woman is involved in childbearing and nursing
is given responsibility to
when Muslim women in unprecedented numbers had achieved (whichonly women can do), the husband of labor
access to the highest levels of education in all
fields and disciplines provide material support, which is seen as a balancing
including the religious sciences. Islamic feminism emerged as new The Qur'an does not lay out specific roles, but instead affirms the
groups and classes (including recently urbanizing citizens) were con notion of the mutuality of the conjugal relationship: that spouses are
fronting the challenges of modernity, and rew opportunities and
us*
protectors of each other, or mutual helpers. It is patriarchal thinking
of space. that specifies and imposes roles, and does so in a social order that
Islamic feminism appeared in the West in the context of apidly
places males above females in a complex hierarchical power grid, jus-
permanent Muslim populations comprising immigrants tifying this in the name of Islam. The designation of specific roles in
growing
new and second-generation citizens, and growing numbers of con- the and society is simply the product of social or cultural
family
in Western
verts, of whom the majority are women. Muslin women construction.
cOuntries originating from Muslim societies in Africa and Asia were To use biology as a pivot for human inequality in family and soci
confronted with social practices imposed in the name of Islarn that ety is as absurd as it is un-Qur'anic.To draw lines in space and desig
many found difficuk to accept, and sought answers through their nate one space private and the other public, or one female and the
own investigation ofthe lslamic religion on issues ofgender, equality, other male, and to patrol the borders between them is
and justice. Muslim women converts, many of whom were uneasy
nothing more
with what they saw as conservative culturl norms imposed in the
than socialconstruction and a product oftime, place, etc.It cer
tainly is not Qur anically inspired. When confusion sets in, and Islam
class,
name of Islam, were also impelled to examine the religion for is used to shore up un-Islamic notions and practices, there is a need to
themselves."

332 Feminism in Islam
re-articulate the Qur'anic principles, which is exactly what Islamic
feminism has set out to do.
Islamic feminism's articulation of gender equality is more radical
than Muslims' earlier secular feminist discourse, which articulated
the notion offull gender equality in the public sphere but accepted the
notion of gender complementarity (rather than gender equality) in
the private sphere, and with this accepted the idea of separately
ordained roles for women and men and the notion of a male-headed
family. This idea reflects patriarchal thinking rather than Qur'anic
thinking. The Islamic feminist articulation of gender equality, asinte
gral to ful human equality without spatial or contextual limitations,
dismantles the notion of an artificial public-private divide, and the
idea and practice of gender equality stopping at the border of the pri-
vate or the family sphere.
If inspiration is drawn from a fresh look at the Qur'an, Islamic
feminism is meanwhile applying its renewed understanding of
Qur'anic equality and justice to scrutinizing hadiths (the sayings and
deeds of the Prophet Muhammad) and figh (Islamic jurisprudence)
as important to righting wrongs.
Hadiths
Examination of hadiths, or the sayings and deeds of the Prophet
Muhammad, using investigative procedures developed within the
Islamic sciences, contributes to the elaboration ofthe Islamic feminist
project by rejecting anti-woman elements in what purports to be
Islamic concerning women and gender. The words and acts of the
Prophet Muhammad, encapsulated and preserved as Hadith, provide
guidance in translating the scripture's message into practice, and
serve as the highest exemplar of lived Islam. When people use hadiths
to denigrate women, and to keep them, or put them, in "their place"
claiming that they constitute the authentic words and deeds of the
Prophet Muhammad, this is tantamount to saying that the Prophet
himself was misogynist. Misogynist hadiths which fly in the face of
Qur'anie principles, and which within the realm of Islamic logic
could not possibly be associated with the Prophet Muhammad, have
circulated over the centuries as "true," to undermine women.
Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi' and Turkish religious studies
scholar and specialist in Hadith Hidayet Tuksal have both used classic
Islamicinvestigative methodologies to expose misogynist hadiths as
Islamic Feminism on the M
spurious Mernissi belongs to the secular feminist tradition. Tuks
o
an Islamic feminist, now working with the Dinayet or Department
misogynist hadiths
Religious Affairs in Turkey on a project to remove
from collections that the Dinayet, which oversees 76,000 mosques,
publishes, along with other religious books, for broad circulation.
Fiqh
Islamic feminism also investigates fiqh, or Islamic jurisprudence
Gender-sensitive critics have found figh to be markedly patriarchal
reflecting the society in which the foundational schools of jurispru
dence were consolidated by the end of the ninth century The
attempt to stopijtihad, or independentrationalinvestigation ofreli-
gious sources, following the consolidation of the four major schools
ofjurisprudence, reveals efforts to monopolizethought thenceforth.
As two major sources of fih are the Qur'an and Sunna (encapsulated
in the hadiths), the new gender-sensitive tafsir and deconstruction
and exposure of misogynist hadiths are crucial to rethinking Islamic
jurisprudence. While works ofclassical figh reflect patriarchal think
ing, figh is a complex corpus that puts checks and balances on patriar
chal thought and contains tools for the implementation of equality
creators of the classic schools
andjustice. The ofjurisprudence, it is
important to point out, were more cautious than their followers, who
have translated this caution into doctrine.
Nowhere has fiqh been more pervasively used to disrupt the
Qur'anic notion of equality and gender balance than in modern
shari'a-backed Muslim personal status laws or Muslim family laws
enacted as state law.' The dual weight of the religious establishment
and the state together created the legal scaffolding of the patriarchal
family in many Muslim-majority countries in Africa and Asia. From
the start Muslim women's secular feminism(s) included demands
supported by religious arguments for changes in Muslim personal
codes in various Musäm-majority states that would help restore to
women their Qur'an-based rights. Generally, they met with very
limited success because of the hold of patriarchal politics and its
manipulation of religious thought.
Iranian anthropologist Ziba Mir-Hosseini, in her extensive writ
ing on figh, reemphasizes the distinction (all too often wilfully or
otherwise overlooked) between jurisprudence deriving from human
interpretation and shari'a or "the path" as revelation embodied in the
 Islamic Fenminism on the Move 335
334 Feminism in Islam

Qur'an. The collapsing of fiqh and shari'a has created a cordon sani- condemned to death for adultery. Their partners, meanwhile, got off
scot-free. The defense culled arguments from fiqh that led to acquit-
taire around patriarchal constructions of jurisprudence, effectively
tals of the that now serve as powerful precedents. The
locking out the ideas and practices of egalitarian readings and prac-
two women
cases were won within the framework of Islamic jurisprudence. It
tices of Islam."
After the beginning of the twenty first century there was a signal may also be noted that Muskm and Christian activists worked

victory for Islamic feminism and demonstration of how fresh inter- together in their NGOs in joint defense of justice for two of their
sisterNigerians (in a country where Muslims and Christians are
pretations of fiqh can be marshaled to amend Muslim personal laws,
bringing them into greater conformity with egalitarian prinaiples. I roughly equal in number).
speak of the Muslim family law in Morocco, the Mudawwana, which
was overhauled to express and safeguard an egalitarian
model of the
Religious professions
The revised Muslim family law makes wife and husband equal
family. slamic feminists promote equality for women in the religious public
heads of family, virtually eliminates polygamy, and makes it posible
phere, demanding access to religious professions. It is striking how
for women, along with men, to effect divorce, etc. The legal revisions women have attained remarkable equality in secular professions
were made after a longand concerted struggle on the part of feminists,
while they continue to be kept out of most religious professions The
human rights activists, lawyers, scholars, religious specialists, etc
ecular QFur'anic principle of human equality, ironically, does not apply to
This could be seen as a joint victory for Musim women's the domain of the religious public sphere.
feminism(s) and Islamic feminism.
domain Women specialists in Islamic jurisprudence are using their knowl.
In figh the patriarchal model does not predominate in the of Islamic learning
con edge and training acquired in higher institutions
of crime and punishment. Jn islam it is so onerous to accuse, credentials as
adultery as a such as al-Azhar (where they have obtained the same
demn, and carry out a death sentence for "the crime of male choars, or 'ulama) to demonstrate that Islarnic jurisprudence
departure from what is deemed licit sex in islam that stringent cond does not preclude women from entering religlous professions
such
tions have becn elaborated in fiqh, rendering conviction and imple-
tha: of mufti, or dispenser of religious readings called fatwas, or
the
mentation of death sentences for both sexes virtually inpossibie. Suad Salih, a scholar of comparative fiqh
judges in religious courts.
Within Islamic jurisprudence the severe punishment for adultery,
it s
ad professor at al-Azhar, has been leading a campaign for women
to
a sentence to be meted
as a strong deterrent rather than in Egypt. However, in
argued, serves
be officialy appointed to the position of mufti
out. Yet in practice, in countries where
hudud laws exist, women are
women are appointed as
have been car- many other Muslim-majority countries,
often summarily condemned to death, and sentences muftis, such as, for example, in Indonesia.
in Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabis), while the
ried out (for example,
men involved routinely go free.An important exception is the case of
in the last
where hudud or lslamic penal laws were created The mosque
Nigeria, been no stoning
few years in several northern states. So far there has a contentious
been had it not Gender equality within the context of the mosque is
to death ofwomen for adultery. But there might have sSue today. The mosque is the site of public communal worship,
been for the rigorous appeals made in higher shari'a courts
ir two

involving poor women convicted of adultery anc

high-profle cases
sentenced to death by stoning in the lower shari'a courts in states
in
Islamic
northern Nigeria. Feminists, NGO activists, lawyers, and
scholars banded together, under the leadership of Baobab for
Women's Human Rights and Women's Rights Advancement, anc
another team was formed by the Women's Rights and Protectior
Association (WRAPA) to provide a legal defense for rwo women
weekly congregational prayer on Yaum al-Jum'a (day ofgathering)
make the pilgrimage
andfeast prayers and rituals. When Muslims women and men pray
(one of the five pillars of Islam) they find that
together in the Grand Mosque and appear together in the mataf(the
circumambulation area) as they circulate around the Ka'ba. This holy
site has been place of deeply meaningful ritual practice for Muslims
and a powerful symbol ofequality (of gender, race, ethnicity, class)
 Islamic Feminism on the M
336 Feminism in Islamn

ofthe
women's equal use citedmosque
and of wom
where women and men have historically
gathered together in prayer hadiths in support of scholars the Qur'an, Hadith,
in shared space. It has been an exemplar of the ideal and practice of imams. Male religious
acting as arguments pro and
con.

equality-at the site of revelation- while practice in the and other religious sources, advancing
Qur'anic sur-
rounding country reflects the patriarchal inequalities and injustices In arguing for equal access to main mosque space for communal
the pil-
that Islam came to redress. feminists have pointed to experience during
prayer, Islamic site of
where in proximity to the Ka'ba, the holiest
For Muslims in old Muslim-majority countries in Africa and Asia grimage to Makka make the tawwaf, or cir
together and
the sense of communal space is broader than the terrain of the Islam, women and men pray
source ofinspi-
cumambulations in unison. This has been powerful
a
mosque. For Muslims living in new communities in the West, as well in Islam, and is said
as for older minority communities in Africa and Asia, the mosque is ration for women anda sign oftheir equal place
since the beginning of Islam. Practice
the physical and symbolical site and center ofthe Islamic community. to be a continuation of practice
Makka has been a beacon for women who are reclaiming mosque
Mosque space and practice in new Muslim communities in the at
their place in the religious community.
West have reproduced patriarchal templates from the older Muslim space and resuming
to remove w o m e n from
Saudi Arabia recently announced plan
a
societies in Africa and Asia from which Muslim immigrants to the
relocate them further away
West have come. The mosque has been a spatial expression ofa patri- the area near the Ka'ba (the mataf) and
from women,
in because oflack of space. There was a huge global outcry
archal ethos: men areaccorded the main or central space the
assume the including women inside Saudi Arabia, protesting,
via the media and
mosque, which they enter directly by a main door,andthe in a petition campaign (a thousand signatures),
their removal as
role of imam, leading the
communal and giving
prayer sermon, or
khutba. Women typically enter the mosque through a separate door gender discrimination that makes a mockery of the Islamic principle
that the decision was taken for
and are usually relegated to upstairs, downstairs, or adjacent facilities of human equality. They also objectedSaudi historian Hatoon al-Fassi
of the without their participation.
that are often inferior, cramped, and out of sight or hearing
women

vocal in the press, saying the proposal to remove women contra-

imam or, if allowed access to the main prayer space, are typically
was
the
dicted women's right "to pray at the holiest place on earth, near
positioned behind rather than alongside men. the earliest
tob Holy Kaaba" and contravened historical practice from
Growing numbers of women are now demanding equal
access
constraints at the
main mosque space. In 1994 South African women in mosque
a in days of Islam. She also noted that women face
Prophet's mosque in Madina, where women "unlike men
are not
in enter-
Cape Town (the Claremont Main Road Mosque) pioneered in allowed to face the grave of the Prophet and can only pass by the
ing the main mosque space for congregational prayer, sitting paral-
that occasion, was the side of it."
lel rows with men. The Cape Town mosque, on
the visiting Less than a month after the plan was announced, the deputy chief
site of the first pre-sermon talk to be given by a woman, Two Holy Mosques declared that the moveto
American theologian Amina Wadud. In North America women have ofthe Presidency of the
relocate women had been dropped. In conveying the news, Nasir al-
also claimed equal use of main mosque space for congregational footing
the front door. In Morgantown, Khuzayyam stressed that "women and men stand on an equal
prayer and equal access through in Islam."The announcement came after a strong and concerted
led other women in
West Virginia, a few years later, Asrar Nomani
the local through the front door and taking their global outcry from Muslim women and worldwide attention.
entering mosque
place in the main hall.
the
In North America women have also paved the way assuming
in
role of imam, leading women and men in congregational prayer. There is a wide cyber-network of Islamic feminists
who share news
When Amina Wadud led a group of women and men in prayer in near and far support each
but also occasioned dis-
of local issues and events, and who from
New York in 2004 it attracted a great outcry, as shown in the case, above, of
the mataf in
other as needed
and electronic media on the subject. Islamic in local and global space as they
in the
cussions print Makka. Islamic feminists act both
referenced the Qur'an and
feminists and women religious scholars