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Feminist and Islamic Perspectives New Horizons of Knowledge and Reform

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Feminist and Islamic Perspectives New Horizons of Knowledge and Reform FEMINIST & ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES NEW HORIZONS OF KNOWLEDGE AND REFORM EDITED BY OMAIMA ABOU-BAKR The Women and Memory Forum 2013 1 FEMINIST AND ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES NEW HORIZONS OF KNOWLEDGE AND REFORM Edited by: Omaima Abou-Bakr Women and Memory Forum 2013 Editor and Introduction: Omaima Abou-Bakr Coordinator: May El Sallab Translator: Yasmin Motawy Language Reviewer: Walid El Hamamsy Copy Editors: Dalia El Hamamsy, May Hawas Cover Design and Layout: DNA Edition: First edition 2013 Deposit Number: 20074/2013 ISBN: 978-977-5895-30-1 © The Women and Memory Forum 2013 Printing: Promotion Team 34 Degla st, Mohandeseen – 33367449 In cooperation with The Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute (DEDI) and The Danish Center for Research on Women and Gender (Kvinfo) 01 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Why do we need an Islamic Feminism? 04 Omaima Abou-Bakr 05 Keynote Speeches: 10 Paradigms of Knowledge in Islamic Feminism 11 Amani Saleh To be a European Muslim Feminist: The Reconciliation of Identities 21 Asmaa Abdol-Hamid Part I: Islamic Feminism and Women’s Activism in the Arab World 26 Is there a Saudi Spring along the Arab Spring and What is the Status 27 of the “Feminist Question” within that Context? Fowziyah Abu-Khaled Potentials and Pitfalls: How Islamic Women’s Activism Meets Arab 43 Women’s Needs Julie Pruzan-Jørgensen Challenges of Islamic Feminism in Personal Status Law Reform: 58 Women’s NGOs in Egypt between Islamic Law and International Human Rights Marwa Sharafeldin Part II: Feminisms and Dialogue in the European Context 84 Empowering Muslim Women in Germany 85 Kathrin Klausing Between the Rosary and the Qur’an: Cooperation between Catholic 95 Women and Islamic Feminists in Italy Anna Vanzan Islamic Feminism in the French-speaking Post-colonial European Context 107 Malika Hamidi 02 Part III: Islamic Legal Thought: Theory and Practice 118 From Where do we Derive “God’s Law”? The Case of Women’s 119 Political Leadership: A Modern Expression of an Ancient Debate Nevin Reda Reflections on Islamic Feminist Readings of Jurisprudence and their 136 Significance in the Egyptian Context Mulki Al-Sharmani Part IV: New Discourses and Re-interpretations 150 Towards an Alternative Feminist Discourse: A Critical Reading 151 Hind Mustafa Ali Contemporary Interpretations of qiwamah 165 Nasr al-Joueli The Principle of Equality in Divorce: The Qur’anic Perspective 177 Asmaa Lamrabet Annotated Bibliography: 194 General and Foundational Trends in “Islamic Feminism” in the Arab 194 World Hosn Aboud Contributors 220 03 INTRODUCTION WHY DO WE NEED AN ISLAMIC FEMINISM? Omaima Abou-Bakr The notion of arguing for women’s rights through an appeal to Islam’s basic values was manifest in the calls of a number of pioneering women writers and activists in the Arab region since the end of the 19th century. A’isha Taymur (1840-1902), Malak Hifni Nasif (1886-1918), A’isha Abd al-Rahman (1912-1998), Hoda Sha’rawi (1879-1947), and Nazira Zayn al-Din (1908-1976) – despite their diverse contexts, social backgrounds, and nature of their activism – all expressed their demands for women’s rights within the family, in education, work, and political participation within an assumed Muslim frame of reference. Nevertheless, their early output may have lacked enough theorizing and systematic analytical methodologies for an in- depth re-interpretation of Islamic sources, specifically for the purpose of creating new paradigms of knowledge on women in Islam. In the last twenty years, the idea of an Islamic feminism, as both a critical practice and an ontological stance, has developed into the application of feminist consciousness on understanding the gap between the original message of Islam and the translation of its values into equal opportunities and partnership on the ground, as well as taking into consideration equal human dignity for both Muslim women and men. More specifically, the idea of ‘indigenous’ or ‘organic’ form of feminism meant using feminist tools of analysis to sift through the Islamic sciences—from the perspective of committed Muslim women. Doors of ijtihad (independent reasoning) are to be open in order to facilitate to them producing an Islamic knowledge that revives and emphasizes gender justice, equality, and partnership—a knowledge alternative to the processes of exclusion and sense of male superiority we find in most traditional discourses. Despite the scholarly efficiency of the classical ‘ulama (male religious scholars) and their efforts in adhering to the shari’ah (God’s revealed Way)1 in deducing laws and rulings, they were products of their own eras and cultures, naturally not aware of or interested in establishing equal status for men and women. Hence, it is time for the Islamic body of knowledge to conceptualize and articulate this justice and equality in status, capabilities, and opportunities, as well as activate it in laws and cultures. The main incentive behind Islamic feminist research today is the interweaving of women’s perspectives and a faith position that subscribes to the Islamic doctrine and basic revelation, towards the activation of its ‘just’ and ‘fair’ principles and the production of gender-sensitive knowledge within an Islamic frame of reference. Besides critiquing patriarchal discrimination, the ultimate aim is reform and reconstruction. The process entails “drawing upon enduring principles of human rights, enshrined in the text” to extract specific and relevant meanings, upon which to construct “a system of legal reforms that can be implemented today for the full status of women as moral agents at all levels of human society.”2 In other words, the “long-term success of this project lies in the fact that it is all happening within 04 Islam,” and the “rationale for change comes from the most trustworthy and reliable source of Islam itself – the Qur’an.” This centrality of the Qur’an and its mandate of moral agency for all humans represent two significant pillars upon which Islamic feminist interpretive project rests. Khaled Abou El Fadl explains this interactive relationship between “the overall moral thrust of the Qur’anic message” and “moral probity on part of the reader.”3 He gives the example of one of the general moral imperatives that the Qur’an refers to in 4: 135, which is justice: The idea that Muslims must stand up for justice even against their own self-interests is predicated on the notion that human beings are capable of achieving a high level of moral agency. As agents, Muslims are expected to achieve a level of moral conscientiousness, which they will bring to their relationship with God. In regards to every ethical obligation, the Qur’anic text assumes that readers will bring a preexisting, innate moral sense to the text. Hence, the text will morally enrich the reader, but only if the reader will morally enrich the text. (15) Just as this hermeneutical principle can readily be adopted by the proponents of Islamic feminist research pursuing gender equality and justice, another recent trend in the study and application of Islamic law, undertaken by contemporary progressive scholars, is the revisiting of the traditional concept of maqasid (the objectives or purposes behind Islamic rulings). Jasser Auda’s whole book is a comprehensive study of this Islamic juridical theory’s formation in history, but also about the potential of its being developed and re-conceptualized to play a role in the “contemporarization” (1) of Islamic law in general: Maqasid are…the group of divine intents and moral concepts upon which the Islamic law is based, such as, justice, human dignity, free will, magnanimity, facilitation, and social cooperation. Thus, they represent the link between Islamic law and today’s notions of human rights, development, and civility. (1) Added to the above also is gender justice and equality. Indeed, applications of this new, contemporary conception of maqasid al-shari’ah to gender issues and feminist hermeneutics is the subject of Adis Duderija’s article on “non-patriarchal Qur’anic hermeneutics” for the purpose of reforming Muslim family law.4 This book contains presentations on a range of diverse issues related to the meeting ground of Islamic and feminist perspectives. In fact, as the outcome of a two-day conference that was held in Cairo, March 17-18, 2012 with participants from the Arab region and Europe, the topics of its chapters represent ‘bridges and dialogues’ on more than one level. Initially, the event itself hosted researchers from a number of European countries – Denmark, Italy, Germany, France – and from Egypt, Tunis, Morocco, Lebanon, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia for an exchange on Islamic feminist views and activism in different contexts. Papers were presented in both Arabic and English, the former group translated for this volume. Hence, it provided a bridge for Muslim feminists in Arab societies and European Muslim feminists to explore common issues and concerns, yet other divergent interests as well. At the same time, the issues discussed in the chapters demonstrate the importance of internal 05 dialogues between European Muslims and their own mainstream societies and communities, on one hand, and between Muslim women feminists and their Arab societies and cultures, on the other. Lastly, bridging the gap, or estrangement, between feminist consciousness and Islamic research was a major goal of the conference, both on a conceptual and an applied level. Two keynote speakers were invited to set the tone and share their thoughts on Islamic feminism, as both a field of study and a lived experience. Amani Saleh and Asmaa Abdol-Hamid initiated the discussion, first with Saleh offering basic definitions and analysis of the distinguishing features of Islamic epistemology and its encompassing the “feminist idea.” Abdol-Hamid, then, raised the issue of living overlapping identities, thus highlighting the ideas of bridging distances, dialoguing, mutual understanding, and the dispelling of stereotypes or misconceptions on the part of all.
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