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Women's Liberty in Religious Discourse Vol. 9, No. 1, June 2021 page 11—22 https://jurnal.ugm.ac.id/poetika https://doi.org/10.22146/poetika.v9i1.61327 WOMEN’S LIBERTY IN RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE (NAWĀL AL-SA’DĀWĪ’S FANTASY IN ZĪNAH) Yulia Nasrul Latifi UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta-Indonesia Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Zīnah. This study focuses on the The objective of this research is to reveal Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī’s fantasy and to find out why she builds a fantasy inconsistenciesof women’s autonomy of the shackling in religious Symbolic. discourse Fantasy as depicted is also in an her estuary latest of novel, meaning that confirms the existence ofconcept a divided of fantasy and dialectical in Žižek’s subject theory that of continuessubjectivity, to movewhich in sees search fantasy of self-fulfillment. as a screen covering The research the lacks method and is hermeneutic, namely by interpreting the actions and fantasies of al-Sa’dāwī’ as a subject. The analysis shows that al-Sa’dāwī’s fantasyZīnah is her realization of a transcendental humanist religious discourse which gives women full autonomy, internally and externally. Zīnah, the main character in the novel, is a symbol of this autonomy. Internally, has been set free from the patriarchal shackles of religious discourses. Externally, Zīnah is able to change the structure and create a new humanist, transcendental, and progressive structure in religious discourse to liberate human beings. Zīnah is al-Sa’dāwī’s fantasy to cover up the lacks of Keywords:The Symbolic, liberty, the estuary woman, of meaning, religion, andZīnah, confirmation Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī, of her existence fantasy as a divided and dialectical subject. ABSTRAK ZīnahTujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengungkapkan fantasi Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī dan mengapa Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī membangun fantasi otonomi perempuan dalam wacana agama yang tergambar dalam novel terakhirnya, muara. Penelitianmakna yang ini mengukuhkanmemfokuskan eksistensipada Fantasi subjek yang yang ada terbelahdalam teori dan subjektivitas berdialektik Žižek. yang terusFantasi bergerak adalah layar yang menutupi kekurangan dan inkonsistensi dalam the symbolic yang membelenggu. Fantasi juga untuk mencari pemenuhan diri. Metode penelitian adalah hermeneutik dengan cara menafsirkan tindakan dan fantasi Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī sebagai subjek. Hasil analisisnya, fantasi Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī adalah terwujudnya wacana agama humanis transendental yang memberikan otonomi penuh perempuan, internal dan eksternal. Tokoh Zīnah adalah simbolisasi otonomi tersebut. Secara internal, Zīnah telah terbebas dari belenggu patriarki wacana agama. Secara eksternal, Zīnah mampu mengubah struktur dan membuat struktur baru eksistensinyayang humanis, sebagai transendental, subjek yang dan terbelahprogresif dan dalam berdialektika. wacana agama untuk membebaskan manusia. Zīnah adalah fantasi Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī untuk menutupi kekurangan the symbolic, muara makna, dan pengukuhan Keywords: kemerdekaan, perempuan, agama, Zīnah, Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī, fantasi Poetika, Vol. 9, No. 1, June 2021 INTRODUCTION The hegemony of masculine Islamic discourse religions always carries the main mission of upholding continues to roll. There are various studies on contextualhuman autonomy, idea related both men to a and number women. of historical-Therefore, the idea of ​​gender-biased verses in scriptures is a discrimination against Muslim women in different particular factors, not a universal idea in ​​religions countries, including studies on the oppressive (Al-Sa’dāwī, 1974, 1980; Al-Sa’dāwī & Newson-Horst, hegemonyorthodoxy ofof Arabic Islamic and law Islamic-Iranian (Issaka-Toure, works 2016; of 2008; Al-Sa’dāwī & Rauf Izzat, 2000). The autonomy Mattingly, 2019; Salaymeh, 2019), the patriarchal of humanized women was also practiced during the time of Prophet Muhammad. (Al-Sa’dāwī, 2003: 53– literature (Dadīsy, 2017; El-Miniawi, 2021), the 73; Latifi, 2019). Zīnah (official supremacy masculinity in modern Islamic politic EnglishAmong title Zeina Al-Sa’dāwī’s works which presents (Muhibbu-Din, 2019), and discrimination against the fantasy of women’s autonomy is Zīnah is Al- diasporic-Muslim women in Canada (Marcotte, 2010; , translation by Amira Nowaira, ofSulaiman the masculinity et al., 2018). of religious discourse has Saqi Books, 2011). Written in 2009, finallySeeking been arising. for women’s These include liberation, criticisms criticisms of the theSa’dāwī’s masculinity final novel. of religious It tells the discourse. story of theThe radical novel tellsupheaval two majorand resistance lines about of female the lives characters of its two against main masculinity of religious discourse in Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity and female characters, mother and child -Badūr and Islam (Sharma, 2006). Such as liberation from the Zīnah-, which are filled with upheaval, resistance and masculinity of Moroccan Islamic theology (Boumlik struggle. Badūr is a literary criticism professor of high & Gray, 2018), the movement and struggle for Islamic standing and popularity. Still, she suffers from being feminism (Hesová, 2019), the feminism movement positioned as an object of domestic violence due to a of Malaysian muslims (Mir-Hosseini, 2019), gender sincepatriarchal infanthood interpretation due to her of illegitimatereligion. Zīnah, status on as the a struggle in Indonesian novels from patriarchal other hand, gets separated from her mother (Badur) Quranic interpretations (Muzakka & Suyanto, 2020), the struggle of female Iranian theologians of the 19th bringingchild born changes out of wedlock. to her country. However, Zīnah grows to and 20th centuries (Rahbari, 2020), and the gender- become a talented and extraordinary girl capable of Islamic criticism of Middle Eastern literature (Hearty, 2015). in creatingThe purpose a fully autonomous of this research women is to in reveal religious the In her effort to liberate women, Nawāl al- thoughts of Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī in relation to her fantasy Sa’dāwī came up with a different, unique strategy. In their effort to liberate women, most Muslim feminists discourse. This fantasy is important to study because herwould fantasy describe describes women the as conditions a group that of fully still sovereign struggles it describes her freedom as a subject that is capable toward gender equality. However, al-Sa’dāwī, through of breaking through the patriarchal order of religious discourse that has eliminated women’s autonomy for autonomy.women humanized human being, fully present, and autonomousthousands of womenyears. The in religiousresearch’s discourse twofold questionand why independent in her actions and decisions with high is: How did Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī’s fantasy create that gave birth to this fantasy of freedom as it voices theory of fantasy in subjectivity using hermeneutics It is important to study Al-Sa’dāwī’s thoughts, did she create this fantasy? This study employs the the optimism and high confidence of a subject. Al- as a qualitative research method. Sa’dāwī’s fantasy can not be separated from her According to Žižek, the subject exists and hasconvictions existed thatin the women’s matriarchal autonomy structure is a historicalsince the andis capable The Symbolic. of existence. The subject The threecontinues phases to move of the in beginningand theological of human fact. Historically, history which women’s later autonomyformed a searchsubject’s of self-fulfillmentsubjectivity are by The destroying Real, The The Imaginary, Symbolic matriarchal culture (before patriarchy and class lacks which confines him. To cover up The Symbolic systems emerged). Theologically, the substance of all inadequacy and tyranny, the subject then builds 12 Latifi. - Women’s Liberty in Religious Discourse (Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī’s Fantasy in Zīnah) fantasies as well as becomes an estuary of meaning (Endraswara, 2013: 179–180). The hermeneutic style and interpretation (Žižek, 2008b). chosen here is the emic one, which is the presentation lacks worsenedFantasy byis anthe importantBig Other to concept the level ofin tyranny. Žižek’s of interpretation based on data. theory, for it becomes a screen covering the Symbolic Nawāl al-Sa’dāwī is a controversial novelist is a “transcendent scheme” which does not notice the who was born in Kafr Thahla -Egypt- in 1931. According to Žižek, among the veils of fantasies there Her works of fiction and of nonfiction are mainly transcendence: a fantasy is our desire and it teaches concerned on social, political, and historical themes, drive in hallucinations similar to Kant’s schematics of breakas well down as the the theme sacred of women’sboundaries liberation and were themes often of fantasy is as a mediator between res cogitans and (Al-Tamīmī, 2005). Her writings are courageous, they resus how extensa to desire. In Descartes’s philosophy, the role labeled as propagandist, apostate, and infidel. Due , between formal symbolic structures and to the sharpness of her words, she lost her job as the the positivity of objects we find in reality. Fantasy becamedirector-general a fugitive of and the wentEgyptian into ministry exile before of health’s being provides a scheme that fills the empty spaces opened education department. Her works were censored, she by the formal symbolic structures (Žižek, 2008a: 7). Lacan mentions “traversing the fantasy”; the subject manyput in internationaljail. Al-Sa’dāwī awards is a guest in literatureprofessor andat various other suspends the fantasy frame of unwritten laws that universities in Europe and America and has received make the subject free to choose (Žižek,
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