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Muslim Women & Public Space

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Muslim Women & Public Space MUSLIM WOMEN & PUBLIC SPACE: THE DEBATE BETWEEN CONSERVATIVE AND FEMINIST THINKERS By NIGHAT PARVEEN SALEEM A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theology and Religion School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion University of Birmingham September 2014 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis seeks to resolve the debate between conservative and feminist thinkers over Muslim women’s participation in public space. It is divided into two parts. The first part examines the discourses of both partisans of the debate, taking Abu A ‘lā Mawdudi as representative of conservative thinking and largely Barbara Stowasser as representative of feminist thinking. This examination identifies that the debate rests decisively on conceptualizations of hijab and the pivotal role of the hadiths in informing these but that both conservatives and feminists are selective and literal in their use of hadiths. The second part examines the hadiths in the collections of Bukhari and Muslim in a full and comprehensive manner in their original Arabic text on the topics of women’s mosque attendance, visitation of graves, joining funeral processions, travelling, jihad and veiling. The findings largely uphold feminist positions but seriously challenge conservative conceptualizations of hijab, demonstrating that these are informed as much by cultural factors as by their reading of the hadiths. Above all, they confirm the hypothesis that apparently “restrictive” hadith when read within the context of other hadiths are found to be predicated in considerations other than to maintain gender segregation. For my late Mother and Father Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to my supervisor Professor David Thomas who provided me much constant constructive feedback and greatly helped me in refining and developing my thoughts. My gratitude also goes out to other members of academic staff at the University of Birmingham. I am grateful to Dr. Haifa Jawad for her encouragement and motivation and Dr. Deyn Guest for her assistance in helping me in my preliminary research. Finally but not least I am also grateful to Dr. Salwa el-Awa who inspired in me the desire to search for the egalitarian voice in the hadiths. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1 I Statement of Problem ....................................................................................................................... 1 II Significance ......................................................................................................................................... 4 III Literature Review ........................................................................................................................... 7 IV Methodology .................................................................................................................................. 13 V Chapterization ................................................................................................................................ 16 THE CONSERVATIVE DISCOURSE ................................................................................ 18 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 18 1.2 Overview of Mawdudi’s WorKs and Discourse on Women ........................................... 23 1.3 The Sociological Argument ..................................................................................................... 25 1.4 Scriptural Evidence .................................................................................................................... 32 1.4.1 “Islam’s endorsement of Division of Labour” ........................................................................... 33 1.4.2 “Islam’s institutilization of gender segregation” ..................................................................... 42 1.5 The Hadith Narrative ................................................................................................................ 52 1.5.1 Mawdudi’s interpretation of the seClusion direCtive ............................................................. 52 1.5.2 Hadiths as an ExegetiCal Tool & Principles of Hadith Interpretation ............................. 54 1.5.3 “Divine laws for the movement of women.” .............................................................................. 59 1.5.4 An Evaluation of the “Divine Laws of Movements” ................................................................ 65 1.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 70 FEMINIST DISCOURSES ..................................................................................................... 73 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 73 2.2 Stowasser: WorKs & Overview of Position ......................................................................... 74 2.2.1 SCriptural Evidence .............................................................................................................................. 77 2.2.2 Nature & Provenance of Hadith ...................................................................................................... 84 2.2.3 Hadith Narrative: Prophet’s wives ................................................................................................ 89 2.2.4 Hadith Narrative: The Ordinary Women .................................................................................... 94 2.2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 108 2.3 Other Feminist approaches .................................................................................................. 109 2.3.1 Fatima Mernissi .................................................................................................................................. 109 2.3.2 Asma Barlas .......................................................................................................................................... 116 2.4 An Overall Evaluation of the conservative-feminist debate ..................................... 124 MUSLIM WOMEN’S LEVEL OF ACCESS TO PUBLIC PRAYERS ..................... 127 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 127 3.2 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 128 3.3 An Overview of the Conservative- Feminist Position On Women’s Level of Access to Public Prayers. ............................................................................................................................ 138 3.4 Findings ...................................................................................................................................... 140 3.4.1Hadiths DepiCting PraCtiCe .............................................................................................................. 141 3.4.2 Hadiths DepiCting ProphetiC Sayings and Contextual Information .............................. 155 3.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 170 i MUSLIM WOMEN’S LEVEL OF PARTCIPATION IN PUBLIC SPACE ............. 174 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 174 4.2 Visiting Graves and Following Funeral Processions .................................................... 176 4.2.1 IntroduCtion .......................................................................................................................................... 176 4.2.2 Findings: Women’s visitation of graves .................................................................................... 178 4.2.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 187 4.2.4 Findings: Following Funeral Processions ................................................................................ 188 4.2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 196 4.3 The Travelling of Muslim Women ...................................................................................... 196 4.3.1 IntroduCtion .........................................................................................................................................
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