Inside the Gender Jihad: Women's Reform in Islam (47 page)

236 inside the gender jihad

marriage is consummated. There is a considerable lack of reciprocity vis-à- vis what happens in the marriage itself.

A prime theoretical contribution of the contemporary analysis of women’s oppression can be captured in the slogan “the personal is political.” What this means is that the subordination of women by men is pervasive, that it orders the relationships of the sexes in every area of life, that a sexual politic of domination is as much in evidence in the private spheres of the family, ordinary social life, and sexuality as in the traditionally public spheres of government and the economy. The belief that things we do in the bosom of the family or in bed are either “natural” or else a function of personal idiosyncrasies of private individual is held to be an “ideological curtain that conceals the reality of women’s systematic oppressions.” For the feminist, two things follow upon the discovery that sexuality too belongs to the sphere of the political. The first is that whatever pertains to sexuality – not only actual sexual behavior, but sexual desire and sexual fantasy as well – will have to be understood in relation to a larger system of subordination; the second, that the deformed sexuality of patriarchal culture must be moved from the hidden domain of “private life” into an arena of struggle, where a “politically correct”
sexuality of mutual respect
will contend with an “incorrect” sexuality of domination and sub- mission.”
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(emphasis mine)

In addition, according to another article

on sexuality, Muslim scholars

apparently were already ahead of the feminists here:

In comparison with many other religious traditions, it has often been noted that Islam is a religion that has evaluated sexual life positively. Articulating the integral relationship between spirituality and sexuality is one way that the Prophet Muhammad challenged his society. It remains for us, today, to continually struggle with that challenge. The system of norms, rules, and laws created by Muslims in the past (a collective body we call
shari‘ah
) does not absolve us of this challenge. It may, in fact, create complexities that drive us to reinvestigate the topic while pre- senting obstacles to a just resolution of those complexities. Scholars in the contemporary period have not lived up to the standards and frankness of pre-modern Islamic scholars, and much work has yet to be done on the question of sexuality in Islamic scripture, law, and society. Many scholars and Islamic leaders in the present shy away from honest discussions of sex and sexuality, with all its promise and problems. Muslims in pre-modern times certainly were not shy about discussing matters of sex and sexuality,

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so why should we be so prudish? The most basic goal of this essay is to return to us, the contemporary Muslims, the “awe and bewilderment” that al-Ghazali felt when considering sexual pleasure.
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So sexuality is connected not only to spirituality, but to politics as well. What is required of us in political situations is an acute sense of justice. But Muslim neo-conservatives often ignore or obscure justice when it comes to matters of sex, gender, and sexuality. We need to think more clearly about “intimate citizenship,” how personal, emotional, and sexual dimensions of our lives, which are often locked away as “private,” actually have very public and often political consequences.
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Coincidentally the article cited above takes a thorough look at the issue of homosexuality and presents the reader with various classical inter- pretations of the story of Lut from the Qur’an. Yet even in the new territory being forged by this article, Scott Kugle never manages to disentangle his compliments of the past and critique of the present from the extent to which even his struggle to look more affirmatively at sexuality at that time was still only based on male sexuality. What he does consider here is Islam’s lack of prudishness in the classical period, when the predominant notion of a human being was the male human. Furthermore, the Qur’an itself, as well as the
shari‘ah
, is founded upon male sexual experience. In addition, I have looked at a few places when the Qur’an
seems
to affirm masculine pleasure and experience. I point to three specific incidents that give a cross-section of male sexuality and fantasies without ever responding in an equivalent manner to women and women’s sexuality.

Foremost, however, is the Qur’anic affirmation of marriage in general, which should be considered gender-neutral. The underlying assumptions, of an overwhelmingly heterosexual social order, are that women and men should be engaged in and enjoy healthy sexual exchanges. However, the first indication that there are disproportionate elements in this general gender-neutral formula is in the attention given to men’s “right to satis- faction” from the several places in the Qur’an: the verse on women as
tilth
, then to the conditional permission for multiple wives, and concluding in the afterlife with meticulous details concerning the
huri
s of paradise. Not only do no equivalent articulations exist in the Qur’an about women’s sexual

satisfaction, the Qur’an refers to post-menopausal women as

being

“beyond want” despite ample evidence to the contrary. Following closely upon this, the emphasis on sexuality in the law is overwhelmingly on male heterosexual satisfaction.
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An H.I.V.-positive woman is not an indictment of the promiscuity of the

238 inside the gender jihad

woman, since “men are
qiwamuna
” (responsible, though to many this is taken as “in charge”) (4:34) can be seen as recognition of the unequal power dynamics of masculine and feminine sexuality. It is not in the im- perative, implying perhaps the idea that it is an edict, to be fulfilled by the mere nature of being a man. It is stated in the form of an active participle recognizing agency and being. A man may fulfill
qiwamah
.Therefore wom- en must yield sexually to this
qa’im
(responsible male), whether he is acting in a manner that is straight (
mustaqim
), or crooked. An analogy could be made between the sexual moralities of an H.I.V.-positive married Muslim woman and pregnancy in an unmarried Muslim woman. Neither is proof of a woman’s sexual misconduct or indiscretion. With today’s fertilization sciences, pregnancy is not even proof of intercourse. Further evidence shows multiple causes of pregnancy without a woman’s consent. However, both the case of women with A.I.D.S. and unmarried pregnant women lend themselves well to the idea that women are more vulnerable in Muslim societies. Hence, some efforts greater than veiling, isolating, and silencing them are ethically mandated. The simplest suggestion: have men confront other men about their sexual misconduct and the thought patterns under- lying them, in order to distinguish such misogyny from being misappro- priated as “Islam” or surrender to the divine will.

Vulnerability and Gender

Much of my information in the following is taken from the World Health Organization.
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“In most societies, girls and women face heavier risks of the H.I.V. infection than men because their diminished economic and social status compromises their ability to choose safer and healthier life strat- egies.” Gender roles powerfully influence the course and impact of the epidemic and affect the extent to which A.I.D.S. affects vulnerability. Gender inequalities, the different attributes and roles assigned to women and men in society, affect their ability to protect themselves and cope with its impact. “Reversing the spread of H.I.V. therefore demands that women’s rights are realized and that women are empowered in all spheres of life,”
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especially sexually. The factors that increase the vulnerability of women and girls to H.I.V. “include social norms that deny women sexual health knowledge and practices that prevent them from controlling their bodies and deciding the terms on which they have sex.” In addition to this are “women’s limited access to economic opportunities and autonomy, and the multiple household and community roles they are saddled with.”

The proportion of women living with H.I.V./A.I.D.S. has risen steadily. Women are often affected at an earlier age than men. Girls are five or six

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times more likely to be infected than teenage boys. There is also growing evidence that a large share of new cases of H.I.V. infection is due to gender-based violence in homes, schools, the workplace and other social spheres, to say nothing of situations of civil disorder and war where women and girls are systematically targeted for abuse, including sexual abuse.

H.I.V.-positive women are also discriminated against when trying to access care and support. Meanwhile the burden of caring for ill family members rests mainly with women. Discrimination in care support and women’s own indispensable support roles often mean that many will seek assistance for their own illness much later than will H.I.V.-positive men. Without women-specific programs being integrated with other services such as ob-gyn, social support, substance abuse, nutrition, and the like, women’s particular needs and vulnerabilities will be hopelessly problematic in formulating any agenda effective enough to assist in the reduction of the spread of A.I.D.S. and will render it null and void.

The
la taqrabuna al-zina
formula

is one

such problematic agenda. It

does manage to increase the stigma of all H.I.V.-positive cases. Muslim women who are described in the Qur’an in terms particular to their sexual virtues especially feel the concern for moral propriety. The significant role played by stigma in reducing the gains of a battle against H.I.V./A.I.D.S. needs its own attention. As with rape, women are more clearly the ones most victimized, but they are also the ones more likely to be stigmatized by its occurrence and as such will more than likely hide their experience in order to avoid the negative social and spiritual consequences of such a confession. On the other hand, when a woman stands forward to pro- nounce her opposition to those factors that increase women’s vulnerability,

she herself may be cast in
a negative

light, with suspicions about her

morality
being whispered behind her back.
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In this force of stigma, it is no wonder that women are still among the minority of those who have worked comprehensively to help construct a more compassionate paradigm, including an “Islamic” religious paradigm, to confront such an issue.

Yet only with women’s full participation and empowerment can the

disease actually be arrested. In this

regard,

an Islamic perspective on

H.I.V./A.I.D.S. is impossible without simultaneously addressing women’s empowerment, including their sexual empowerment in the context of the patriarchal paradigm that still predominates in our notions about sexuality in Islam. A new paradigm is needed that promotes women’s rights to know,

i.e. be informed; to say no, i.e. refuse; or otherwise independently determine the exact nature of their full sexuality, and to offer their responses to the

240 inside the gender jihad

predominance, not only of male-pleasure-oriented heterosexuality, but to the tyranny of it against women.

How does “Islam” Resolve this Problem?

There are no Qur’anic verses on epidemics, whether of the immune- deficient or S.A.R.S. type. Yet Muslims must address these problems. Furthermore, if a Muslim is efficient at bringing about a cure, or resolving issues about the spread of these diseases, we might want to associate his or her “Islam” with the consequence of the research or medical findings. If we do make this association, however, it would at best be indirect. Even if the successful researcher makes an explicit or direct statement that the work was accomplished as a result of his or her being Muslim, it will be impos- sible to refer to a specific Qur’anic verse or prophetic
hadith
that could stand as the foundation of the technical skills, medical know-how, or research methods that could actually prove to bring about solutions. In a sense this gives us, as Muslim, the greater freedom in participating fully and responsibly in the search for a cure. If we fail, we cannot be indicted as bad Muslims. On the other hand, if we are successful, we cannot associate our success explicitly to Islam, even as we take inspiration from it.

Likewise, we cannot blame a failure of Islam as the cause for A.I.D.S. If we address shortcomings within family law, as conditional upon the safety and security of those whose lives suffer from existing family structures, then we can help to reconstruct the law to remove those factors which help the spread of A.I.D.S. Although these structural problems may be seen as secondary causes of the spread of the virus, the process of reducing the spread of it has shown the need to address all causes. Furthermore, these structural changes have other positive results in formulating more egali- tarian families and society.

As a non-medical person, and one who does not contribute to disease research, I am clear that I cannot propose a solution to H.I.V./A.I.D.S. My concern here is to address the ways that hollow Islamic theological rhetoric is made hallow or sacred by authoritarian means. Religious leaders, scholars, and medical personnel cannot resort to these empty platitudes to excuse them from dealing directly with a problem of this catastrophic proportion.

H.I.V./A.I.D.S. and Zina

If H.I.V./A.I.D.S. was merely the result of immoral or un-Islamic behavior, then non-Muslim countries should consistently have higher percentage rates of cases. However, highly industrialized countries like the U.S.A. have

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more active measures to curtail the spread of the disease perhaps
because
they do not resort to such an equation and reduce the problem to morality. When the emphasis is on reducing the spread of A.I.D.S. and not on taking the moral high ground, then more effective means for its reduction have resulted. Again, the underlying presumption that this disease can be directly linked to some un-Islamic level of moral behavior precludes the efficacy of other factors to determine the actual spread or safety and protection from its fatalities. The U.S.A. began its campaign against the spread of A.I.D.S. without the religio-moral high ground that Muslims have allowed to thwart effective responses to the epidemic. Without persisting in the earliest name- calling, isolation, silence, and denial, the U.S.A. actually took up means and strategies to address the spread of the disease. Simultaneously, they also launched the first ever such public campaign to promote celibacy among American youth. Commercials show popular and sophisticated young people occupied in a number of activities – going to school, earning and saving money, or creatively engaged in sports or the arts – articulating their reasons for abstaining from sex until they are married. It has promoted a public discourse that more effectively advocates for abstinence, without requiring it to be limited to religion.