Women in Pre-Islamic Near East
• Life was Rough… according to ‘law’
– Hammurabi’s law code (1752 BCE: disobedient women get teeth
knocked out (but disobedient son get hands cut off)
– Middle Assyrian Laws: wife who gives away husbands possessions
gets ear cut off; if she hits him in the groin (and equipment
damaged, she loses a finger)
– Later Assyrian law codes include women being pawned for debt
– But consistently in NE law, rape/unauthorized deflowering of freewoman requires the man be killed, woman goes free
• Veil tied to class:
– Assyrian law forbids slave women and harlots from wearing veil;
noble women must cover head
– Byzantine upper class houses had harem set up, even the Empress
Irene veiled herself (including hands)
• Institutionalized Sexual Jealousy/Honor
– Middle Assyrian law codes prescribe flogging and hard labor for
baseless sexual slander (yo mama jokes out of the question)
– Egyptian king and medicinal lack of virgins
Women, Sex and Islamicate Civ.
• Sex = penetration and ownership  Sex is about
power. Homo- or Heterosexual, penetrator is
powerful, penetratee is dominated
• Women as Honor:
– Pre-Islamic Arabia: ‘aqila = ‘prized possession’
– Islamic Civ.: ghira/rashk = ‘sexual jealousy’
• Women as Danger
– Women as unreasonable, governed by desire (“their
brains are in their $^#*&#” = false hadith)
– Female sexuality is what makes men lose control
– Female sexuality is unquenchable (woman & donkey)
 threat to husbands/males’ honor  female
circumcision to reduce woman’s ‘hotness’
– Female Circumcision?
Women as Actors in Islamic Civ.
• Early/Pre-Islamic dynamos: Khadija, Aisha,
Umm Fadl… is this a dying breed?
• Mother of the Believers:
“The Prophet is closer to the Believers than their own selves, and his wives
are their mothers. Blood-relations among each other have closer personal
ties, in the Decree of Allah, than (the Brotherhood of) Believers and
Emigrants: nevertheless do ye what is just to your closest friends: such is
the writing in the Decree (of Allah).” Quran 33:6
• Hadith Transmitters in early period and again
after the 1000’s CE - today
• Legal Scholars: behind closed doors…
• Rulers? Shajarat al-Durr “Queen of the
Muslims” in 1250’s in Egypt
• Power behind the throne: ex. the “Sultanate of
the Women” in 16oo’s Ottoman Empire
Women and the Quran
• “Tell the believers to lower their gaze and guard their sexuality, this is
• more
Lo! pure
menforwho
unto
God,
women
them,surrender
and God is most
knowing
of and
what you
do. Tell the
female
to lower
their
gaze, who
guard believe
their sexuality
not make
who believers
surrender,
and
men
andand
women
evident
their beauty
except
what
shows
[normally].
And instruct
them
who
believe,
and
men
who
obey
and
women
who
to cast their veils over their upper chests and not to make evident their
obey,except
andtomen
speak
theortruth
andofwomen
beauty
their who
lords, their
fathers
the fathers
their lords,
their
their the
nephews,
theirand
women
or slaves
male servants
not of
whosons,
speak
truth,
men
whoorpersevere
(in
sexual ability or children not yet of age. And instruct them not to move
righteousness)
and
women
who
persevere,
andAnd
their
legs such that what
beauty
of theirs
that is
hidden is known.
seek
God’s
forgiveness
all O you
believers
so that
you may
men
who
are humble
and
women
who
areprosper.”
(24:31)
humble, and men who give alms and women
• “Men are responsible for women (qawwamun ‘ala) due to that by which
who
alms,
men
fast
women
God
hasgive
granted
favorand
to some
overwho
others,
and and
by what
they (men?)
whospent
fast,
and
men
who
guard their
and
have
from
their
wealth.
So righteous
womenmodesty
are obedient,
guarding
in who
secret guard
what God(their
has guarded.
And those
women
whose
women
modesty),
and
men
disobedience you fear, admonish them, then leave their beds, then
who remember
Godyou,
much
and
women
scourge
them. If they obey
seek not
a way
against who
them, indeed
God
is most lofty,
great (4:34)
remember
- God
hath prepared for them
• Surat
al-Ahzab… and a vast reward.”
forgiveness
• “And from His signs is that He created for you mates from among you to
dwell in them in peace, and He created love and mercy between you.
Indeed in that there are signs for those who reflect.” (30:21)
• Divorce and Marriage by ‘al-ma’ruf’ = what is ‘known’ / right
Women and Islamic Law – Traditional
Narrative
• Women are equal to men before God – but separate
notions of nudity (but free/slave distinction remains)
• Women are under the care/supervision of men (mahram
= male guardian)  separate inheritance laws
• Marriage is Contractual arrangement between woman
and man
– ‘Rights’ and ‘obligations’ not to be seen as ‘best’ possible
situation. Rather, ‘fiqh’ is for worst possible cases… sexual rights
– Violation of contract is grounds for divorce; men can divorce at
any time; women can ask for divorce or forfeit dowry
• Women’s Sphere is separate from Men’s
– Twice as many women needed for court testimony in financial
matters
• Female Circumcision: al-sareeh ghayr saheeh wa alsaheeh ghayr sareeh… limited is recommended in most
Sunni schools, although today muftis say it’s prohibited
unless done by a skilled doctor
Modernity and European Feminism
1850’s onwards sees Ottoman/Egyptian contact with
Europe:
• Elites vacation in Europe, French becomes language of
the harem
1860’s British travelers in upper Egypt notice that Xian
women more fastidious about veil than Muslims
1899 lawyer Qasim Amin writes book the ‘Liberation of
Women’ saying that veiling not required in Islam
Huda al-Sharawi (d. 1947)& Saiza Nabrawi create Egyptian
Feminist Union, attend 1923 Women’s conference in
Rome. Upon return they remove their face-veils.
Gender/Women Issues tied to power and thus to concerns
about Colonialism, Cultural Authenticity (Amin’s book as
Anti Egyptian)
Modernist / Islamist Reading
• Generally embraces traditional Islamic law, but
with more emphasis on women’s rights to
education
• Most clearly seen in the writings of Sayyid Qutb
(d. 1966), Miryam al-Jameela, Muhammad Asad
• Complementarity of men and women: Muslim
family designed for men and women to have
different functions; men earn $, women raise
family (what about dual-income?)
(Enlightenment European argument)
• Islamic Law is Liberation:
– Hijab allows women to be judged by personality and
not beauty
Progressive Reading
• Thematic vs. Traditional Exegesis (same as
Jihad)
• Not Male authored
• ‘Spirit’ of the Quran as opposed to details of
Islamic law
– Ex. Quran ‘universalizes’ the privilege of modesty for
women in Jahiliyya society
• There is no set cultural context/interpretive lens
for the Quran because it is universal
• Gender distinctions exist, but they have different
meanings in different times
– Ex. 4:34: men’s ‘responsibility’ is based on conditions
of verse, ex. $; women’s court testimony too
Further Reading
• Women in Muslim Unconscious by Fatima
Sabbah (1984)
• Sexuality and Eroticism amongst Males
in Moslem Societies
• Women Gender and Social Change (ed.
Haddad & Esposito)