Shattering Illusions - Western

Conceptions of Muslim Women

"Islam in its original state gave women privileges and
imposed no harsh restrictions or double standards upon
them.," says Saimah Ashraf, a 1997-98 winner of the
Stanford University Boothe Prize for Excellence in
Writing.

"Rose Hamid is as American as they come. She

drives a Ford station wagon, leads a local Girl Scout
troop, shops at the Gap and just attended her 20-
year high school reunion" writes Laurie Goodstein in
a recent New York Times article (A1).

From this brief description of Rose, readers may

have formed a particular picture of her in their
minds. If they were told, however, that "Rose Hamid
wears a head scarf in keeping with her Muslim
faith,'" that picture might take a drastic turn
(Goodstein A1).

She's Muslim? Images of suppressed, meek, black-

enshrouded women submitting to the demands of
their dominating husbands race through some
readers' minds. But why is this the case? Would we
see Rose any differently if she were Christian or
Jewish? The answer is probably no, but since she is
a Muslim woman, it is difficult not to have some
preconceptions of her.

I don't understand why, in the West, Muslim women

are clumped into one large group and viewed as
homogenous clones of one another, while their
Christian and Jewish counterparts are rarely ever
stereotyped in this way. Many people don't realize,
due largely to biased media interpretations, that
there are a large variety of Muslim women around
the world, from areas such as the Middle East, South
Asia, South East Asia, Yugoslavia, Northern Africa,
and the Southern parts of the former USSR, just as
there are Christian and Jewish women in various
countries.
For instance, one probably wouldn't classify a
Mexican woman with a French woman, though both
may be Roman Catholics and hold the same beliefs.
In the same way, American Muslim women are
different from Pakistani Muslims, who are different
from Saudi Muslims. In these three countries,
women are accorded different rights and privileges
because of the government and customs in the
area. For example, many American Muslim women
are discriminated against because they cover their
heads; Pakistani women have political rights but are
often exploited by men; Saudi women have no
public role, yet they are "protected" by Saudi men.

The negative stereotypes of Muslim women

probably arise from this varying treatment of
women. The Western media, for some reason, latch
on to a few examples of unjust behavior in the
Islamic world, brand Islam as a backwards and
"fundamentalist" religion, especially in its treatment
of women, and ignore that it was the first religion to
accord women equal rights. While Christian and
Jewish women were still considered inferior, the
originators of sin, and the property of their
husbands, Muslim women were being given shares
in inheritance, were allowed to choose or refuse
prospective husbands, and were considered equal to
men in the eyes of God. However, through time,
slowly changing customs, and the rise of male-
dominated, patriarchal nation-states, Muslim
governments began placing restrictions on women
which had no grounds in the Quran, the Islamic holy
book; or the hadith, the teachings of the Prophet
Muhammad. On the other hand, Christian and
Jewish women in the West have slowly been
awarded rights not called for in the biblical tradition.

Traditionally, Judeo-Christian women were thought

to be inferior to men and were given a low status in
society. These negative attitudes toward women
arose because Judaism and Christianity placed such
a heavy emphasis on Eve's role in the expulsion
from Paradise. Because Eve, rather than Adam, was
the first to be seduced by Satan and eat fruit from
the Tree of Knowledge, she supposedly caused the
fall of mankind. Therefore all women, as the
descendants of Eve, were thought to be evil and
morally weaker than men (Sherif 2). In the Bible,
there are several references to women in this
uncomplimentary light: "I found more bitter than
death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a
trap and whose hands are chains. The man who
pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will
ensnare" (Ecclesiastes 7:26-28). "No wickedness
comes anywhere near the wickedness of a woman. .
. .Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all
must die" (Ecclesiastes 25:19,24). Early church
fathers such as St. Tertullian reiterated these
negative concepts of women by making statements
such as, "Do you know that you are each an Eve?. . .
. You are the Devil's gateway. . . .You destroyed so
easily God's image, man. On account of your desert
even the Son of God had to die." In Christianity,
women carried the extra burden of causing the
death of Christ, as Tertullian points out (Sherif 2).
Because Adam and Eve passed on their sin to all
future generations, Jesus had to purge humankind
from this "original sin" by sacrificing his life (Sherif
2). Thus, by causing the fall of man, Eve also caused
the death of Christ. In the Jewish tradition, women
receive no less harsh treatment. Because of Eve, all
women have to face punishment on Earth including
pregnancy, pain in childbirth, menstruation, and
subjugation to men (Sherif 3). Orthodox Jewish
males still recite in their daily prayers: "Blessed be
God King of the Universe that Thou has not made
me a woman . . . . Praised be God that he has not
created me woman" (Menahot 43b)

These early prejudiced attitudes gave rise to

discriminatory treatment of women. Because the
Judeo-Christian tradition spans such a vast amount
of time, it is difficult to deal with the condition of
women in any specific period. Therefore I will deal
with women mostly as they are referred to in the
Bible and by influential church fathers and rabbis.
Often, the discrimination against females began
immediately upon birth since baby girls were
thought to be shameful, a view found several times
in the Bible: "The birth of a daughter is a loss"
(Ecclesiasticus 22:3). Jewish rabbis also expressed
displeasure at the birth of a female, saying that
boys brought peace into the world, whereas girls
brought absolutely nothing (Sherif 4). This
unhappiness at a female's birth arose partly
because of the large dowry that had to be given to a
Jewish or Christian girl's husband upon marriage, a
tradition adhered to until recently (Sherif 8). Hence,
a girl was often thought to be a "liability and no
asset" (Sherif 8).

Additionally, as Kevin Harris, senior lecturer at the

University of New South Wales, puts it, "women are
portrayed in the bible quite consistently as
appendages of men; as possessions of men; as
goods which may be sold, disposed of, given away,
traded, or just ordered about by men" (30). One
section in the Bible which is a testament to this view
is Exodus 21.7, which expressly condones a man
selling his daughter into slavery or concubinage:
"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall
not go out as the male slaves do." A man also
controlled the sexuality of his daughter, as can be
seen in the case of Lot (among many others), who
offered his virgin daughters to the homosexual men
of Sodom in Genesis 19.8: "I have two daughters
who have not known a man. . . . do to them as you
please." When a woman was married, in which she
usually had little or no say, she became the
property of her husband rather than her father, and
he then had the right of "purchasing and selling" her
(Schmidt 127). He owned not only her person, but
also all of her property. "The household articles,
even the crumbs of bread on the table [were] his.
Should she invite a guest to her house and feed
him, she would be stealing from her husband" (San.
71a, Git. 62a). A woman could regain her property
only upon divorce or her husband's death, but she
was never allowed to inherit any of his property
(Sherif 8). In fact, Western women had no property
rights at all until the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.

Because of the inferior status of women in the

Judeo-Christian tradition, there often existed a
double standard between men and women,
especially in areas of sexuality. For example, if a
woman was not a virgin at marriage, she could be
taken to her father's house by her husband and
stoned to death (Schmidt 112). The man, on the
other hand, was never subjected to this punishment
or indeed to any codes of conduct governing his
sexuality (Schmidt 112). In fact, even if he raped or
deflowered a virgin, he was not put to death but
was instead forced to marry her and give money to
her father, which seems more of a punishment for
his female victim than him! (Harris 57). After
marriage, a Hebrew male could arbitrarily accuse
his wife of adultery, even with the slightest
suspicion, and make her take the humiliating "bitter-
water" test to determine her innocence or guilt
(Schmidt 121). If she was found guilty of having
slept with another man, regardless of his marital
status, she would be stoned to death (Sherif 6). A
Hebrew man, whether married or not, on the other
hand, was only said to have committed adultery if
he slept with a married woman (Schmidt 118). As
Vern Bullough, author of Subordinate Sex, explains,
"Adultery was not a sin against morality, but a
trespass against the husband's property" (Schmidt
118). Since the wife was the husband's property,
she could not be violated without his permission.
This view of adultery changed with the advent of
Christianity, when Jesus introduced the idea that
adultery could be committed against a woman also,
but later many of the church's theologians "reverted
to the patriarchal understanding of adultery"
(Schmidt 122). In present-day Israel, however, the
old law still pertains. A married man can have an
affair with an unmarried women and have children
that are considered legitimate (Sherif 6). If a
married woman, on the other hand, has an
extramarital affair, her children "are considered
bastards and are forbidden to marry any other Jews
except converts and other bastards" for ten
consecutive generations (Sherif 6).

Judeo-Christian practices also often ignored

women's rights in cases of divorce. In original
Christianity, divorce was expressly forbidden, and
Jesus supposedly said that "anyone who divorces his
wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to
become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the
divorced woman commits adultery" (Matthew 5:32).
This harsh view failed to take into account the
possible incompatibility of a man and woman and
condemned unhappy couples to stay together
against their wills. This situation was especially
difficult for women because society did not allow
them extramarital relations but condoned the
relations of married men with prostitutes and other
single women (Schmidt 50). In Judaism, divorce was
allowed and even encouraged at times. Early Jewish
scholars disagreed over the reasons a man could
divorce his wife, and their views can be found in the
Talmud: "The school of Shammai held that a man
should not divorce his wife unless he has found her
guilty of some sexual misconduct, while the school
of Hillel say [sic] he may divorce her even if she has
merely spoiled a dish for him. Rabbi Akiba says he
may divorce her even if he simply finds another
woman more beautiful than she" (Gittin 90a-b). The
Hillelite law predominated among the Jews and now
Jewish men can divorce their wives for any reason
whatsoever. The Talmud even obligates divorcing a
woman if she "ate in the street drank greedily in the
street suckled in the street" or if she does not bear
a child within ten years of the marriage (Sherif 9). A
Jewish woman, however, could not and cannot
divorce her husband. He must give her a bill of
divorce voluntarily and even the courts have no
power to make him do this (Sherif 9). A man may
desert his wife, marry another woman or simply live
with one, and have legitimate children, while his
first wife is trapped because she cannot have
extramarital relations (Sherif 9). This sort of woman
is known as an agunah (chained woman); there are
approximately 1000 to 1500 Jewish agunah women
in the United States today and around 16,000 in
Israel (Sherif 9).

Suffering such blatant discrimination, it seems

amazing that most Judeo-Christian women have
overcome the odds and achieved equal rights with
males. However, this has been a fairly recent
development, largely occurring in this century.
Within the past hundred years, women began to be
considered citizens of states, were given voting
rights, property rights, and easier access to divorce.
Now many Muslim women hold the former position
of Judeo-Christian women, but generally all they
receive from the latter is scorn, derision,
misunderstanding, or pity. It is ironic that the
religion which significantly improved the status of
women as compared to both Judaism and
Christianity, and indeed was the first religion to
grant women equal rights in all areas of life,
including religion, sexuality, inheritance, and law, is
now regarded as one that oppresses women.

One of the basic principles of Islam is justice for all

humans and equality in the eyes of God. Women are
considered no less than men in aspects of religion
and are not denigrated anywhere in the Quran. First
of all, in the Quranic Creation story, Eve is not
mentioned as being seduced by the Serpent and
taking the first bite of forbidden fruit. Rather, it
says: (my italics) "by deceit he [Satan] brought
them to their fall: when they tasted the tree their
shame became manifest to them (7:19:23). Both
Eve and Adam were held equally responsible.
Hence, women in Islam do not bear the stigma as
the daughters of a sinful Eve nor are they to be
blamed for corrupting innocence (Sherif 3). Nor
were women created as inferior to men, or solely for
pleasure and procreational purposes as the Judeo-
Christian scriptures sometimes imply "the man is
not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the
woman for the man" (Corinthians 11:3-9). In
contrast, the chapter in the Quran entitled "Women"
begins with the passage saying, "O humanity, be
reverent to your Lord who created you from one soul
and created its mate from it, and from these two
disseminated many men and women." Here, in very
blatant terms, it is stated that women and men are
made from the same soul, and therefore, how could
one gender possibly be inferior? In fact, neither
gender is inferior, as the Quran states: "And their
Lord answered them: Truly I will never cause to be
lost the work of any of you, Be you a male or
female, you are members of one another" (3:195).

This concept of gender equality in Islam begins

immediately upon birth. When baby girls were born
in Pre-Islamic Arabia, they were often buried alive to
prevent shaming the tribe or family. In response to
this infanticide, the Quran forbade treating a female
child as disgraceful and states that both baby boys
and girls are equally a blessing from God: "To Allah
belongs the domination of the heavens and the
earth. He creates what He wills. He bestows female
children to whomever He wills and bestows male
children to whomever He wills" (42:49). Prophet
Muhammad even guaranteed Paradise to those
fathers who bring up their daughters with
"benevolent treatment" and also encouraged both
males and females to pursue knowledge and
education (Bukhari, Muslim).

Furthermore, in Islam girls are not considered the

property of their fathers and have complete control
over their sexuality, in contrast to the Judeo-
Christian tradition (Sherif 8). A free woman can
never be sold it would be abhorrent for a father to
sell his daughter as a concubine nor can she be
married against her wishes, or the marriage can be
annulled. After the marriage, a woman does not
become the possession of her husband and is
supposed to retain her own name and identity. "An
American judge once commented on the rights of
Muslim women saying: A Muslim girl may marry ten
times, but her individuality is not absorbed by that
of her various husbands. She is a solar planet with a
name and legal personality of her own'" (Sherif 8).
Additionally, Islam does not imply that a woman is
made entirely for the pleasure of her husband but
refers to spouses as equal partners: "They are your
garments and you are their garments," the function
of garments being to protect, cover, and adorn
(Quran 2:187). Today, Western media often convey
the idea that Muslim women are completely
submissive to their husbands, but in fact, even the
wives of the Prophet Muhammad (the most
important and noble man in Islam) used to fight with
him if they didn't get their way; they were far from
the submissive, meek stereotypes of Muslim women
today.

Another area in which Muslim women had greater

rights than those of Judeo-Christian women is
property. In an Islamic marriage, rather than paying
the husband a dowry, the wife receives a
substantial gift from him which then remains under
her control, not his or her family's, even if she is
later divorced. "In some Muslim societies today," Dr.
Mohammed Sherif, author of the published essay
entitled "Women in Islam Versus Women in the
Judaeo-Christian Tradition: The Myth and The
Reality" says, "A marriage gift of a hundred
thousand dollars in diamonds is not unusual" (8).
Any other property a woman may happen to own at
the time of the marriage is also exclusively hers and
the husband has no right to use it. Even if she earns
her own income, it is the husband's responsibility to
maintain her and the children, and she has no
obligation whatsoever to provide for the family.
Furthermore, a woman in Islam can inherit money or
property from any one of her relations, including her
husband.

In the early years of Islam, a woman's rights were

also protected concerning sexuality and divorce; a
double standard did not exist between males and
females. According to Islam, both genders are
supposed to remain chaste until marriage, not just
the women, and adultery consists of any married
person engaging in sexual intercourse with
someone other than a spouse. The punishment for
both men and women who commit adultery, if the
actual act is witnessed by four other people, is
death by stoning. If a husband arbitrarily accuses
his wife of being unfaithful, they both take an oath
upon God, and if the wife swears that she is
innocent and the husband swears that she is not,
the marriage is irrevocably over and the woman is
not considered an adulteress. However, throwing
loose accusations around about any woman is
highly discouraged in Islam. A woman's dignity
should not be toyed with and one should not, under
any circumstances, speculate about her sexual
conduct without very secure evidence (Quraishi
299). The Quran sets forth a very harsh punishment
for those people who do: "Those who defame chaste
women and do not bring four witnesses should be
punished with eighty lashes, and their testimony
should not be accepted afterwards, for they are
profligates (24:4). Asifa Quraishi, author of "Critique
of the Rape Laws of Pakistan," writes that, "In the
face of any hint of a woman's sexual impropriety,
the Quranic response is: walk away. Leave her
alone. Leave her dignity intact. The honor of a
woman is not a tool, it is her fundamental right"
(299).

A similarly just attitude prevails in cases of divorce.

First of all, divorce is not at all encouraged in Islam
but allowed under compelling circumstances, and
both men and women are allowed to obtain one.
The Prophet said that "among all the permitted acts,
divorce is the most hateful to God" (Abu Dawood).
Couples are told in the Quran to live with one
another in kindness: "Live with them on a footing of
kindness and equity. If you dislike them it may be
that you dislike something in which Allah has placed
a great deal of good" (4:19). In the hadith, this view
is reiterated: "The believers who show the most
perfect faith are those who have the best character
and the best of you are those who are best to their
wives (Tirmidthi). However, in some cases, divorce
is inescapable, and Islam attempts to make it as
amicable as possible.

The last way I will mention that Islam uses to

protect women is the hijab, or the veil. This is ironic
because Western media often portray the Muslim
veil as a suppressive force in a woman's life. Every
Muslim woman is required to wear a scarf or some
sort of head-covering and loose-fitting, modest
attire. This is not a means of controlling a woman's
sexuality or suppressing her but rather, is used to
protect her. It is hoped that by dressing this way she
will not be seen as a mere sex symbol but will be
appreciated for her mind. Furthermore, it will not
subject her to unwanted sexual advances or
harassment. It is interesting to note that the head-
covering for women is not an Islamic innovation but
was practiced by Judeo-Christian women centuries
earlier, and yet is scoffed at by the West today
(Sherif 15). Dr. Sherif says: "It is one of the great
ironies of our world today that the very same
headscarf revered as a sign of holiness' when worn
for the purpose of showing the authority of man by
Catholic Nuns, is reviled as a sign of oppression'
when worn for the purpose of protection by Muslim
women" (16).

Hence, Islam in its original state gave women

privileges and imposed no harsh restrictions or
double standards upon them. However, with the
progression of time, the rights of Muslim women
began deteriorating, and today, very few Muslim
countries adhere to the Islamic ideal in their
treatment of women. This deviance from Islam can
be seen when evaluating the rights that women
possess in different countries. The three main
countries I will deal with are the United States,
Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia simply because I am
familiar with them, having either lived or visited
each extensively.

Though the United States is not a Muslim country, it

is supposed to be the "land of freedom," and it is
interesting to see how Muslim women are treated
here. A Muslim woman is allowed to practice Islam
without restrictions placed upon her by the
government. As an American citizen, she has the
rights of any woman to vote, to voice her opinions,
and to move around as she pleases. Rose Hamid,
the woman mentioned earlier, is one such American
Muslim. This is not to say, however, that American
Muslim women do not face prejudice, and Hamid is
a good example of this. When she began wearing a
headscarf recently, she was promptly fired by her
company of ten years. Anjum Smith, another
American Muslim, faced this same problem as did
Shabana who was fired from her job at The Gap
because, with her headscarf, she was an
"undesirable" saleslady. There have been reports
that women with covered hair have been "spit on,
denied service, and [had] their scarves pulled off"
(Goodstein A1). Goodstein reports that "Recently, on
a highway near Orlando, Fla., one driver in a head
scarf was stopped and berated by a state trooper
who later formally apologized" (A1). This
discrimination, even if unintentional, is rampant in
the US; people just don't treat you the same once
you start covering your hair: "They try and cheat me
out of change. They think I'm a foreigner, and I've
been here a long time. I wear American clothes, but
I wear a scarf. The scarf changes everything," says
Tayyibah Taylor, editorial director of Sisters! A
Magazine of Dialogue Among Muslim Women
(Goodstein A14).

In contrast, Saudi women are compelled by law to

cover their hair, and they are instructed to wear a
black cloak known as the abaya to cover their
bodies. Saudi Arabia is one of the most
"fundamentalist" Islamic nations in the world, and it
supposedly implements Islamic law to ensure peace
and justice. Yet, many of their laws, especially those
geared at women, are unjust and stem from
patriarchal customs. For example, the covering of a
woman's face is not a requirement in Islam, yet
many times women are harassed by the mutawa, or
"purity police," for not doing this. Furthermore,
women are not allowed to sit in the front seat of a
car or walk alongside a man if he is not her husband
or close relative; nor are women allowed to drive.
Havva Kurter, author of the essay "An Outline
History of the Oppression of Women," exclaims,
"The Saudis think that women will go make sin if
they drive a car! Now some non-Muslims may think
of this as part of Islam" (116). But to give the Saudis
some credit, women there are given certain
privileges not awarded to Muslim women of other
countries. First of all, Saudi women are almost never
harassed (it is usually the foreigners who encounter
this) and are extremely protected by their families
and government. Additionally, in accordance to
Islamic law, they are offered dowries, often very
high ones, and are entitled to keep their own
wealth.

This is hardly ever the case in Pakistan. Most women

have virtually no control over their own property
and are usually accorded minimal dowries unless
they are of the upper classes. What is usually the
case is that the bride's family has to provide all
sorts of gifts to the husband and his family. These
gifts, which range from money to cars to houses,
are often what determines the choice of a bride.
This obviously is not an Islamic practice but one that
stems from the Hindu culture of nearby India.
Moreover, women in Pakistan are often exploited by
the law, sexually harassed, or raped, many times by
police officers and other influential government
officials (Quraishi 291). It is ironic, then, that
Pakistan has surpassed even the United States in
gender equality in that it has had a female head of
State: the former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto. In
fact, there are quite a few influential female
politicians in Pakistan. Among other rights Pakistani
women retain is their freedom of dress; most
Pakistani women don't cover their hair and no type
of dress code is enforced upon them, but this is not
to say they won't be harassed if wearing revealing
clothing in public. Additionally, women are allowed
to drive, vote, attend co-educational universities,
and hold paying jobs. However, this blend of
restriction and privilege still does not make
Pakistan's treatment of women very Islamic.

In fact, I can't think of any country that really treats

Muslim women the way they are supposed to be
treated as stipulated in the Quran and hadith. Most
Muslim countries' approach to women falls between
the two extremes of complete oppression and
encouragement to behave like Western Judeo-
Christian women, which is certainly not what Islam
intended. I have dealt, to some extent, with the
former case and believe that most people who read
this paper will sympathize with the plight of these
Muslim women. Their solutions might involve the
"modernization" or "Westernization" of these
women, but this is not at all what I am advocating.
It's true that Western Judeo-Christian women have
achieved freedom and independence for
themselves, but has this necessarily been beneficial
for them or society? One look at the ever-rising
statistics for rape, sexual harassment, divorce,
broken homes, latch-key kids, teenage pregnancies,
and AIDS cases in the West indicates that something
is definitely not right in society. Is it just coincidental
that many of these issues became actual problems
only after the Sixties' Sexual Revolution and
feminist movement arose? Are these social
problems just part of a growing trend in modern
society or do they have some direct correlation to
"women's liberation?" These are some questions we
need to ask ourselves before we prescribe the
"Western remedy" to any other society. The last
thing Muslim women need to add to their problems
at this point is more problems. Rather, the solution
for achieving true freedom, independence, and
happiness must come from within from the
teachings of the Prophet, from the depths of the
Quran, and from the wealth of rich Islamic tradition.