The holy month of Ramadan has arrived once again for the more than one billion adherents of Islam around the world. From dawn to dusk, every Muslim, translated as 'a person who submits to God,' must refrain from eating and drinking for four weeks. Only the sick, the old and infirm and a limited number of others are exempted by the Qur'an. Along with limiting the intake of food and water between sundown and sunrise, Muslims freely give money to charity and re-read the Qur'an to reflect on its teachings..
As with any other text, no two people read a book in the same way. Readers often debate each other on the meaning of certain words, the intent of the author and where the correct emphasis lies in various passages. In short, it is all about interpretation, and Muslims have been interpreting the Qur'an quite a bit differently in the past two or three decades due to the intellectual and scholarly contributions of progressive-thinking men and women. By scrutinizing the Qur'an and re-examining the history of the time of the Prophet Mohammad (570-632), Islamic feminists, progressive Muslims and non-Muslim Western historians have uncovered a less patriarchal and more egalitarian set of principles from the text.
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Mohammad: A Prophet of Feminism
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If a feminist is a person who believes that women ought to have the same rights and opportunities as men, then Mohammad, by the standards of the seventh century, was a feminist in most respects. Among people in the West, it is commonly believed that the Qur'an allows men to have four wives. While true, two formidable caveats exist in the text prevent more than one marriage at a time. Consider the following line on marriage in the Qur'an:
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"Marry those women who are lawful for you, up to two, three or four, but only if you can treat them all equally." (4:3)
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Muslim men of wealth and supreme confidence, who may believe themselves to be up to the task, are then dissuaded from having multiple wives with a later verse worded in more direct terms.
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"No matter how you try, you will never be able to treat your wives equally." (4:129)
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Since fairness among two, three or four wives can never be achieved, monogamous marriage is what God prescribed through the Prophet. This is how a vast majority of Muslims understand their faith on the subject. Why did Mohammad choose to make a disjointed statement rather than an unequivocal one (i.e. 'Men are to take only one wife.')? As the Qur'an was not composed in a vacuum, Mohammad had to negotiate his ideas among Bedouin tribes. Bedouin culture, which was extremely patriarchal, allowed women to be taken and traded as prizes of war. Hence, Mohammad may have been forced to use shrewd and subtle language to impose his will (or God's will) on the surrounding tribes. In any case, Mohammad strongly preferred marriage between one husband and one wife - a progressive improvement for women on the Arabian Peninsula.
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Qualifying polygyny to the point of rendering the practice all but dead was not the only contribution of the Prophet for the sake of 'the better half.' In outlawing infanticide, Mohammad ended the horrific practice of killing newborns - of which female babies constituted the largest number as unwanted additions to ultra-patriarchal families. Furthermore, married women were given dowries and some rights of inheritance. Not only was the lot of Muslim women improved in the Arabian desert but their new status was higher than that of many women on the European Continent.
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What about the hijab or covering? Interestingly, only one verse exists in the Qur'an concerning head or facial covering for women.
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"And when ye
Ask (his ladies)
For anything ye want
Ask them from before
A screen (covering): that makes
For greater purity for
Your hearts and for theirs" (33:53)
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The 'ladies' in this passage refers to Mohammad's wives. Hence, Muslim women are not required by the Qur'an to wear any head or facial covering at all. It was only a request or perhaps a necessity for women visiting the Prophet and his family.
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In terms of prayer (salat), one of the 'Pillars of Islam,' Mohammad was quite content to allow men and women to pray together. As the Qur'an repeatedly declares men and women equal in the eyes of God (4:1, 33:35, 3:195), it was only fitting that all believers worship as one. At some point in the century after his death, men and women began praying separately under a patriarchal interpretation of the Qur'an by religious leaders.
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Hence, feminist and progressive Muslims argue that allowing men to take up to four wives, forcing women to wear headcovering, imposing extreme forms of gender-segregation and denying women the right to vote or drive a car (Saudi Arabia) have no basis in the Qur'an and are un-Islamic. From a historical point of view and an objective exegesis of the Qur'an, they are entirely correct.
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The Most Dangerous and Destructive Qur'anic Verse To Women
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"Men are the maintainers and protectors of women, because Allah has given one more (strength) than the other, because they support them from their means. Therefore, the righteous women are devoutly obedient..." (4:34)
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No intellectually honest person can interpret these lines as anything other than the utter subjugation of women, and this translation (or similar one) can be found in most copies of the Qur'an on bookshelves across the non-Arabic speaking world. If accurate, one of two things must be true. Either the progressive-feminist reading of the Qur'an is wholly mistaken or an intractable contradiction exists between this statement and other ones that clearly give both genders equal status. Yet, this translation is most likely not accurate. Due to the incredible elasticity of the Arabic language, another interpretation has been offered to solve the dilemma.
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"Men are the support of women as God gives some more means than others, and because they spend of some of their wealth (to provide for them)" (4:34)
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From men being 'maintainers and protectors' and having more 'strength' than women to acting to 'support' women is quite a difference. The Arabic phrase qawwamuna 'ala an-nisa can be fashioned into a patriarchal statement of subjugation or as a mutually supportive one for men and women. Again, only the second translation is consistent with other verses proclaiming gender-equality in the Qur'an. These lines only constitute half of 4:34, however. Note the chasm between the following two translations of the rest of the verse.
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"As to those (women) on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them"
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"As for women that you feel are averse, talk to them suasively; then leave them alone in bed (without molesting them) and go to bed with them (when they are willing)"
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While both statements are problematic, the first one, which still remains ascendant among Quran'ic scholars in both the East and the West, poses an obvious threat to a woman's life and well-being. When Laleh Bakhtiar, an Iranian-American Muslim, came upon 4:34 a few years ago during her project to produce a new translation of the Qur'an, she almost quit due the presence of the word 'beat.' Indeed, her reaction has been shared by Muslims and non-Muslims alike for centuries. The idea that a compassionate and merciful God could advocate violence against women at any time ought to strike anyone as both illogical and appalling. Fortunately, Bakhtiar decided to pursue further investigation. After weeks of research, she came to the conclusion that the word daraba from the root word drb had been misconstrued for centuries. Rather than 'beat', drb or daraba meant 'to go away.' Placed within the context of Muhammad's empowering reforms for women, her translation is the only one that makes sense. The change is revolutionary.
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"Husbands who fear adversity on the part of wives, admonish them, leave their bed and go away." (4:34, Bakhtiar translation)
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While the Arabic language lends itself to two or more possible translations for the first half of 4:34, Bakhtiar seems to have irreversibly corrected drb from 'beat' to 'to go away' in the second half of the verse. As such, 'support' rather than 'maintain and protect' in the first line naturally complements 'to go away' in the last line. If woven together, 4:34 becomes quite palatable.
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"Men are the support of women as God gives some more means than others, and because they spend their wealth (to provide for them) ... Husbands who fear adversity on the part of their wives, admonish them, leave their bed and go away."
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Why is the phraseology important? Although it may sound postmodernist, language is power. It does not take a PhD to understand that some male Muslims, who read that they are to 'maintain and protect' their women due to having more 'strength' and are given a license to 'beat' their wives if necessary, will do so (and have done so) under this inaccurate translation. For anyone with even the slightest conscience, the reading and translation of 4:34 with the verb 'beat' cannot disappear fast enough.
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At the North American Council for Muslim Women in the United States, founder Sharifa Alkhateeb discovered that Muslim women were more frequent victims of domestic violence than their non-Muslim counterparts due to being ignorant of the non-violent teachings of the Qur'an and men who believed themselves fully justified in beating their wives as part of God's instruction in 4:34 translated with 'beat'. (see her report below)
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To think about how many women have needlessly suffered under the inaccurate reading and translation of the second half of 4:34 (beat) in the Muslim world across time (centuries) and space is to approach the unthinkable. Relatively few people ever question the order - especially if the order is built upon God's word. Yet, everything must be questioned and questioned again as the welfare of the world is on the line. Islamic theocracies, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and others, have interpreted the Qur'an through the false prisms of their patriarchal cultures and corrupted the true Islam of equality for all - including women. That is the essential argument of progressive-feminist Muslims, and they have both history and a far more objective interpretation of the Qur'an on their side.
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The New Islam = The Old Islam and The West
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When Manal al-Sharif and the Women2Drive movement challenge the ban on women's driving by Riyadh and Muslim women all across the Middle East and Africa protest against patriarchal regimes, they are representing a new Islam derived from Islam at its roots and a mixture of Western values from the Muslim diaspora. One element is central to the socio-political movement of Muslims across the world - ijtihad - the Arabic word for making an independent judgment on the meaning of the Qur'an. Although circumscribed to the Muslim holy book, is not ijtihad another form of 'reason' - the same 'reason' that led the French Revolutionaries of 1789 to question the God and the logic behind the ancien regime (the divine right of kings) and revolt with Marianne, the goddess of reason and liberty, as their symbol? Although not as radical, this questioning and application of reason has led to a reshaping of Islam.
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In truth, everyone - North, South, East and West - needs to be open-minded enough to learn from all parts of the globe. No single person, government or institution has a monopoly on truth. As all peoples and all nation-states are flawed to some degree, the world needs to be able to conduct a respectful dialogue among its religions and cultures.
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The stakes of the burgeoning progressive-feminist movement in Islam are monumental, and it is only appropriate to close with the words of the late Dr. Fathi Osman - a Muslim and one of the most learned Islamic scholars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century:
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"Muslims cannot reactivate their societies, secure a positive role in the contemporary world and get their message heard by all people, while a half of their population is suppressed or neglected."
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No truer or wiser words exist on the challenge for Islam to redeem every member of its most precious resource - its faithful women.
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Key Sources and Recommendations
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Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).
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Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of The Holy Qur'an (Beltsville, Maryland: Amana, 2001).
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Sharifa Alkhateeb, "Ending Domestic Violence in Muslim Families." Please click onto the following link to read the report: http://www.themodernreligion.com/women/dv-ending.htm
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Dilshad D. Ali, "The Power of Muslim Women" on beliefnet.com. To read the article on the new translation by Laleh Bakhtiar, please click onto the following link: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Islam/2006/09/The-Power-Of-Muslim-Women.aspx?p=3
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Reza Aslan, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam (New York: Random House, 2005). Highly recommended. See especially p.23-74.
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Lynn Hunt et al. The Making of The West: Peoples and Cultures, Volume I: To 1740 (Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2003), 257-270.
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Neil MacFarquhar, "New Translation Prompts Debate on Islamic Verse" New York Times, 25 March. To read about Laleh Bakhtiar's struggle with 4:34, please click onto the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/us/25koran.html?ei=5088&en=835924e5b6d16c52&ex=1332475200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
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Fathi Osman, "Muslim Women: The Family and The Society" posted on the website of the University of Southern California Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement. To read his paper of superior erudition in the progressive tradition, please click onto the following link:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/private/cmje/issues/MUSLIM_WOMEN.pdf
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Amina Wadud, Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Texts from a Woman's Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
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Translations of Qur'an 4:34 were taken from Aslan (see above), Bakhtiar in the article by Ali (see above), The Meaning of The Holy Qur'an (2001) by Abdullah Ali (see above) and the three-translation Qur'an on the USC - Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement at the following link:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/ Click on 'resources' to read the Qur'an and the Hadith in translation. Click on 'issues' to read Dr. Osman's progressive scholarship on several key issues surrounding Islam - including human rights.
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(Picture: The symbol of Islamic feminism)
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This article is dedicated to all Muslims working for peace and justice around the world - especially on the behalf of women. Thank you.
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J Roquen