Today as we stand looking at significant scientific, economic and
technological advances that had been made in the last fifty years, you can’t
help wondering how come the situation of women has improved so little or in
parts of the world got worst. The reality is that millions of women are
suffering and being oppressed under religious laws and Islamic cultures in many
different parts of the world. The past fifty years have been some of the
darkest in women’s lives. With the anti-secularist backlash, the rise of
political Islam, and efforts over the past two decades to impose religion on
the people, thousands have been executed - decapitated or stoned to death - and
medieval laws to suppress women have been revived.
Islam is the ideology in power in most Muslim countries. In all of
these, society has suffered serious setbacks in civil rights in general, and
women’s rights in particular. Yet many voices seek to justify Islam: western
academics, the mainstream western media, so-called moderate Muslims and some
Eastern intellectuals all try to justify the operation and rationalize
brutality. They tell us that what we are seeing is not the real Islam; they
divide Islam into good and bad, moderate and fundamentalist. They tell us it’s
their culture and that’s how they live. The British imams going on media to
keep reminding us that all Muslims are not terrorists. Outrageous and racist but because they are
Imams or religious leaders their remarks are tolerable. They fail to address in
any constructive way cultural, social, political and economic factors that has
bedeviled Muslims across the world. Here are a few cultural issues that the Muslim
leaders need to address.
1.
Equality of rights for women
Women are deemed to be inferior to men. Women are men’s belongings
and women can have no authority over men. That a woman counts as only half a
man in legal and financial matters; this is enforced widely and those Muslims
who justify this rely on Islamic script. “And call into witness two men; or if
two be not men, then one man and two women” (Koran, The Cow. Verse 282) and “
God charges you concerning your children: to the male the like of the portion
of two female” (Koran, Women, verse 11)
2.
Sexual oppression of Women
Women earn God’s grace by obeying their husbands. The message is
clear: men dominate, women obey. From a religious perspective, women are there
merely for the sexual enjoyment of men and for purposes of reproduction. In
Islam female sexuality is acknowledged, but limits and confines women to their
sexual and reproductive roles. Most muslim has taken this too far by
considering women as a potential danger by distracting men from their duties
and corrupting the community. Orthodox interpretation place restriction on women’s
sexuality, whilst men are given the right to marry up to four wives and the
right to temporary marriage as many times as they wish. Free male–female sexual
relations are considered a sin in Islam. This is justified by literal
interpretation of Koranic verses that define which sexual relations are
permitted under Islam, and the punishment for any transgression (called zena) outside these limits. Zena is punishable by flogging, imprisonment
and stoning to death.
3.
Legal practice and women
Despite modernisation and reform, family law and the penal code have
remained largely untouched, on the contrary in the last three decades fundamentalists
have inserted their interpretation. Polygamy, men’s unconditional right to
divorce their wives, the law regarding sex outside of marriage, men’s decision
making over their wives’ employment and travel, and a woman’s lack of right to
custody of her children are among them. Hijab is the definitive form of
clothing for women. According to widely practice Islamic law, the legal age for
a girl to wed is nine – an obvious case of sexual abuse and rape.
Conclusion
The state is a prerequisite for women’s liberation from religious
oppression. A strong social movement and international support is needed with long-term
commitment to build modern and stable states across the Muslim world.
