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1 Introduction 210 Notes Notes 1Introduction 1 See Taj I. Hashmi, ‘Islam in Bangladesh Politics’, in H. Mutalib and T.I. Hashmi (eds), Islam, Muslims and the Modern State, pp. 100–34. 2The Government of Bangladesh, The Constitution of the People’s Repub- lic of Bangladesh, Section 28 (1 & 2), Government Printing Press, Dhaka, 1990, p. 19. 3See Coordinating Council for Human Rights in Bangladesh, (CCHRB) Bangladesh: State of Human Rights, 1992, CCHRB, Dhaka; Rabia Bhuiyan, Aspects of Violence Against Women, Institute of Democratic Rights, Dhaka, 1991; US Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Prac- tices for 1992, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1993; Rushdie Begum et al., Nari Nirjatan: Sangya O Bishleshon (Bengali), Narigrantha Prabartana, Dhaka, 1992, passim. 4 CCHRB Report, 1993, p. 69. 5 Immigration and Refugee Board (Canada), Report, ‘Women in Bangla- desh’, Human Rights Briefs, Ottawa, 1993, pp. 8–9. 6Ibid, pp. 9–10. 7 The Daily Star, 18 January 1998. 8Rabia Bhuiyan, Aspects of Violence, pp. 14–15. 9 Immigration and Refugee Board Report, ‘Women in Bangladesh’, p. 20. 10 Taj Hashmi, ‘Islam in Bangladesh Politics’, p. 117. 11 Immigration and Refugee Board Report, ‘Women in Bangladesh’, p. 6. 12 Tazeen Mahnaz Murshid, ‘Women, Islam, and the State: Subordination and Resistance’, paper presented at the Bengal Studies Conference (28–30 April 1995), Chicago, pp. 1–2. 13 Ibid, pp. 4–5. 14 U.A.B. Razia Akter Banu, ‘Jamaat-i-Islami in Bangladesh: Challenges and Prospects’, in Hussin Mutalib and Taj Hashmi (eds), Islam, Muslim and the Modern State, pp. 86–93. 15 Lynne Brydon and Sylvia Chant, Women in the Third World: Gender Issues in Rural and Urban Areas, p. 39. 16 ‘Women’s Struggle for a Dignified, Place in Society: Bangladesh Sce- nario’, Editorial, The Independent (Bangladesh), 5 May 1998. 17 Md. Mahbubar Rahman and Willem van Schendel, ‘Gender and the Inheritance of Land: Living Law in Bangladesh’, in Jan Brenan et al. (eds) The Village in Asia Revisited, pp. 248–50. 18 Ibid, pp. 254–74. 210 Notes 211 2 Women in Islam: a Reappraisal 1 Yvonne Y. Haddad and Jane I. Smith, ‘Women in Islam: “The Mother of All Battles”’ in Suha Sabbagh (ed), Arab Women: Between Defiance and Restraint, Ch. 19. 2 Roy Anderson and et al., Politics and Change in the Middle East: Sources of Conflict and Accommodation, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1990, p. 279. 3Diane D’souza, ‘Women: Status and Comparative Religions’, The Firmest Bond (Al-Wurwat al-Wusqa), No. 64–65, Special Winter & Spring Is- sue, 1996–97, pp. 56–7. 4Ibid, p. 57. 5 Ibid, pp. 36–7; Qamaruddin Khan, Status of Women in Islam, pp. 13–15; Moghadam (ed.), Identity and Politics, p. 331. 6 Jan Hjarpe, ‘The Attitude of Islamic Fundamentalism’, in Bo Utas (ed.), Women in Islamic Societies, p. 12. 7Ibid, p. 13. 8B. Stowasser in F. Hussain, p. 22, Daily Star, 26 April 1999. 9 Kari Elisabeth Borresen, ‘Women’s Studies of the Christian Tradition: New Perspectives’, in Ursula King (ed.), Religion and Gender, Blackwell, Oxford, 1995, p. 247. 10 Ibid, p. 253. 11 Erin White, ‘Religion and the Hermeneutics of Gender: an Examination of the Work of Paul Ricoeur’, in Ursula King, pp. 80–81. 12 F. Max Muller (ed.), The Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 25, The Laws of Manu, translated by G. Buhler, V: 147–8, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1988 (first published in 1886), p. 195. 13 Ibid, V: 154, p. 196. 14 Ibid, V: 155–64, p. 196–7. 15 Ibid, IX: 14, p. 330. 16 Ibid, IX: 18, p. 330. 17 Ibid, IX: 104–38, pp. 345–54. 18 Humayun Azad, Nari [Bengali], Agami Prakashani, Dhaka, 1995, pp. 50–3. 19 Paul Lunde and Justin Wintle, A Dictionary of Arabic and Islamic Proverbs, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1984, pp. 5, 85, 87. 20 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1992, p. 29. 21 Ibid. 22 Philip K. Hitti, History of the Arabs: From the Earliest Times to the Present, Macmillan Press London, 1958, p. 432. 23Madelein Tress, ‘Halakha, Zionism and Gender: The Case of Gush Emunim,’ in Valentine M. Moghadam (ed.), Identity, Politics and Women: Cultural Reassertions and Feminisms in International Perspective, Westview Press, Boulder, 1994, p. 309; Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender, pp. 26–35. 24 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender, p. 36. 25 Ibid, pp. 5, 13–26. 26 A BBC (Radio) Feature on Current Affairs, 11 May 1995. 212 Notes 27 Time, 17 November 1997, p. 9. 28 Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-anbiya [The Stories of the Prophets] cited in Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions and Interpretation, Oxford University Press, New York, 1994, pp. 47 and 147 n. 55. 29 The Economist, 25 April 1992, p. 44. 30 Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1951, pp. 155–8. 31 Gamal A. Badawi, ‘Women in Islam’, in Khurshid Ahmad (ed.), Islam: Its Meaning and Message, The Islamic Foundation, Leicester, 1988, p. 133. 32 John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women, Hackett Publishing Com- pany, Indianapolis, 1988 (first published in 1869), p. 32. 33 Summit Sarkar, ‘“Kaliyuga”, “Chakri” and “Bhakti”: Ramakrishna and His Times’, Economic and Political Weekly, 18 July 1992, pp. 1549–51. 34 Frank F. Conlon, ‘Hindu Revival and Indian Womenhood: The Image and Status of Women in the Writings of Vishnubawa Brahmachari’, South Asia, Vol. XVII, No. 2, 1994, pp. 48–53. 35 Naila Minai, Women in Islam: Tradition and Transition in the Middle East, John Murray, London, 1981, p. 4. 36Haleh Afshar, ‘Fundamentalism and Women in Iran’, in Oliver Mendelsohn and Upendra Baxi (eds), The Rights of Subordinated Peoples, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1994, p. 283. 37 Asghar Ali Engineer, Islam and Liberation Theology: Essays on Liberative Elements in Islam, Sterling Publishers, New Delhi, 1990, p. 171. 38 See for details Minai, Women in Islam, p. 19, Engineer, Islam and Libera- tion Theology, pp. 171–2; Aishah Lemu & Fatima Heeru, Women in Islam, p. 18. 39 Ahmed Ali also feels that the term wadribu (which appears in this verse) has been incorrectly translated by others as ‘beating up’, while the actual meaning would be ‘have intercourse’. He cites Raghib’s Lisan al-Arab and renowned Arab scholar Zamakhshari’s works in this regard. He also cites the hadis, ‘Never beat God’s handmaiden’, in support of his interpretation. See Al-Qur’an: a Contemporary Translation by Ahmed Ali, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993, pp. 78–9. 40 A.A. Engineer, Islam and Liberation Theology, pp. 172–3. 41 Daniel W. Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 24–5. 42 Naila Minai, Women in Islam, p. 20 43Wiebke Walther, Women in Islam: From Medieval to Modern Times, Markus Wiener Publishing, New York, 1993, p. 48. 44 A.A. Engineer, Islam and Liberation Theology, pp. 173–5. 45 Ibid, pp. 176–7. 46 Al-Qur’an: A Contemporary Translation by Ahmed Ali, p. 73. 47 Wiebke Walther, Women in Islam, pp. 57–8. 48Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Muslim Society, Al Saqi Books, London, 1985, p. 70. 49 Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 7, Translated by Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Islamic University Al-Madina (n.d), pp. 129–30. 50 Ameer Ali, The Spirit of Islam, Methuen & Co. Ltd, London, 1964, pp. 227–9. Notes 213 51Ibid, pp. 229–30. 52Ibid, pp. 233–4. 53 Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: a Western Attempt to Understand Islam, Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1991, p. 145. 54 Ameer Ali, The Spirit of Islam, pp. 234–6. 55 Ibid, pp. 234–5. 56Ibid, p. 237. 57Ibid, pp. 235–6; Karen Armstrong, Muhammad, pp. 196–7. 58 Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, Traditions and Interpre- tation, Oxford University Press, New York, 1994, p. 122. 59 Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil, pp. 70–1. 60 Ameer Ali, The Spirit of Islam, p. 255. 61 P.K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, pp. 237–8. 62 Fatima Mernissi, Women and Islam: an Historical and Theological En- quiry, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1991, pp. 192–3. 63 P.K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, pp. 238–9. 64 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: pp. 76–7. 65Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil, pp. 50–2. 66 Aziz Ahmad, Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan, 1857–1964, Ox- ford University Press, London, 1967, pp. 53, 63, 95; Gail Minault, ‘Sayyid Mumtaz Ali and “Huquq un-Niswan”: an Advocate of Women’s Rights in Islam in the Late Nineteenth Century’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1, 1990, pp. 147–72. 67 Ameer Ali, The Spirit of Islam, p. 231. 68 Minou Reeves, Female Warriors of Allah, p. 35. 69 Barbara Freyer Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, pp. 6 and 121. 70 Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, Anchor Books, Sydney, 1996, pp. 109–11; Leila Ahmed, p. 53. 71 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender, 60–1. 72 Fatima Mernissi, Women and Islam, pp. 141–4. 73Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender, pp. 73–4. 74 Minou Reeves, Women and Gender, pp. 47–50. 75Wiebke Walther, Women in Islam: From Medieval to Modern Times, p. 70. 76 Fatima Mernissi, Women and Islam, pp. 85–92. 77 Ibid, p. 92. 78Barbara Stowasser, Women in the Qur’an, pp. 90–1. 79 Ibid, p. 93. 80 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender, pp. 164–8. 81 Zakaria Bashier, Muslim Women in the Midst of Change, pp. 13–17. 82 Katy Gardner, ‘Purdah, Female Power and Cultural Change: a Sylheti Example’, Journal of Social Studies, No.
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