Yvonne Ridley is a British renowned journalist, captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, while on assignment with the London’s Sunday Express in 2001. She subsequently converted to Islam and now works for the Iranian-based 24-hour English language news channel Press TV, where she fronts her own London-based current affairs show, The Agenda. She was a regular contributor and columnist of defunct Muslims Weekly-New York, the parent newspaper of DailyMuslims. com. She continues her weekly column for DailyMuslims. com.
I HAVE been a feminist for as long as I can remember and have always stood up for women's rights.
But as soon as you mention feminism it has certain men raising their eyes heavenwards and creates an 'us and them' division.
Actually this irrational male fear of feminism is pretty much universal and crosses nationalities, skin colour, cultures and religions, so we can't blame the usual suspects.
Sadly, the Western feminist movement of the 70s neglected the needs of Muslim women and failed to address cultural differences.
The net effect excluded non-Western women or forced Muslim sisters to compromise their beliefs to fit in with a lifestyle at odds with Islam.
There are so many misconceptions about feminism but I would suggest that false male superiority is more evident in the Christian Church than in Islam.
For instance, the Rev Pat Robertson, a man who has the ear of the President of the United States, is horrified at the thought of empowered women.
He has his own TV station with a following of millions and is one of the most powerful figures in America's Bible Belt. He said: “Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
The term feminism was first used in France in the 1880s by writer Hubertine Auclert, to criticise male domination. She was merely trying to highlight the fact that the women's rights and emancipation which had been promised by the French Revolutionaries had not materialised.
Ever since then the term feminism has inspired many movements and continues to do so today.
There are those who believe that Islamic Feminism is a contradiction in terms.
I would humbly suggest that Islamic feminism, has nothing to do with those poor, confused sisters like Irshad Manji, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Amina Wudood – who talk endlessly of Islam’s need to modernize.
I would say to them if you want to go off and start your own movement, just do it. The Islam you talk about never has and never will exist. There’s no compulsion in religion … just don’t let the door whack you on the way out!
They are as deluded as those backward brothers who simply do not see an equal when they look at a sister.
Strive as they might to treat all women as equals, they simply can not shake off their mentality or culture.
I did not embrace Islam to become a second class citizen as anyone who tries to treat me as a lesser being will discover.
Islamic Feminism derives its understanding and mandate from the Holy Qur'an, which offers a blueprint for the rights and justice of women, as well as the men.
The Qur’an states quite clearly women are equal in spirituality and worth and education.
Our beloved Prophet (pbuh) clearly revered and adored women for their strengths and their weakness.
But he insisted that Paradise was under the feet of the mothers and told us that the most important person in the home is the mother – the mother – the mother.
The first revert to Islam was a woman, the first martyr to Islam was a woman and the guardianship of the first ever copy of the Qur’an in book form was entrusted to a sister. Sisters fought alongside the Prophet (pbuh) and their Companions on the battle field as well as tending the wounded, promoting dawah work and even sacrificing and offering their children as scholars and martyrs of the future.
Muslim women continued to take part in jihad over the centuries ... in Iraq, for instance, they fought alongside their men during the 1920s against the British Army.
History, I can reveal, is repeating itself once more in Iraq as women actively take up arms against the illegal occupiers.
As a feminist I was aghast at the rights bestowed on Muslim women 1400 years ago – these are rights which have only come into the gift of Western women in the last century. Inheritance, home ownership, business and trading was inconceivable 100 years ago for our sisters in the West.
It took until 1928 for all adult women in the UK were finally able to vote.
As a point of interest in the Muslim world Kenyan, Palestinian, Iraqi and Pakistani women became eligible to vote in the mid to late 40s followed a decade later by their sisters in Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritius, Malaysia and Algeria.
Swiss and Portuguese women - remember this are part of Europe - had to wait until the 70s for the privilege.
Margot Badran from Georgetown University, who specialises in women and gender in Muslim societies, says Islamic feminism is, in many ways, far more radical than secular feminism.
I'm not sure if we are more radical, but as I stated before, we have the perfect mandate for equality in the pages of our Holy Qur’an … the word of Allah (swt) and there isn’t a Muslim man alive who would be wreckless enough to challenge the word of God.
Consider the ayaat affirming mutuality of responsibilities and equality as stated in sura nine, verse 71 of the Qur'an which says that "The believers, male and female, are protectors of one another."
The Holy Qur’an maps out a perfect blue print for feminism and this has not gone unnoticed by Western women like myself who started reading the Qur’an and were amazed by the contents.
That is why, I believe, more women in the West today are choosing Islam above any other faith. Everything that the feminist of the 70s strived for is embraced in Islam.
I believe that Islamic feminism will soon become a global phenomenon and is neither a produce of the East or the West … it was created by women for women – sisters across the planet.
Some believe there is a "clash" between "secular feminism" and "religious feminism" but again this is largely the concept produced by mischief makers, after all the thought of solidarity among women terrifies some men.
This solidarity was never more evident when student Vida Samadzai was crowned Miss Afghanistan and later paraded around at a beauty pageant in a bikini.
Organisers hailed her emergence as a victory for women's liberation ... a silly statement which received universal condemnation from feminists of all faiths and no faiths.
Islamic feminism advocates women's rights, gender equality, and social justice but now we need to get the message through to the media that Muslim women are not silent, oppressed creatures.
Journalists need to be able to separate the difference between male-dominated cultures and Islamic practice. Forced marriages, honour killings and little or no education for women is simply not Islamic.
Sadly, Islamic feminism is subverted by patriarchal influences and practices in the Muslim world.
But I would remind these men of the farewell address made by the Prophet Mohamed (pbuh) which has deep relevance to the sisterhood. He said: "All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white (person) has no superiority over a black (person) nor a black has any superiority over a white except by piety and good action."
For instance, there is not a single woman who will go into the Hellfire simply because she is a woman. Women, like men, will be judged on their piety and not their wealth, power, good looks or position in society.
There is also nothing in the Holy Qur’an to say women must be servile to men, cook the dinner, wash his clothes or wait on him. Marriage is a partnership and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) made that extremely clear in his last sermon.
Critics of Islam are quick to mention subjugation of Women’s rights and Freedom of Speech as Islamic Law’s main failures. They would do well to remember that 1400 years ago the Holy Qur’an established that women could gain separation from their spouses - English Law realised this in 1857 and other western societies followed later.
ABDUL WAHID OSMAN BELAL
Stumble It!
