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The Western stereotype image of them is often of voiceless women, only their eyes visible from underneath their veils, going about their business in subdued obedience to their men and God.
These are the Muslim women of the world, of whom about one million live in South Africa. And while the position of Muslim women is nowhere debated more vigorously than among the followers of the Prophet Muhammad themselves, Muslim women from all sides of that debate readily will reject what they see as such a flawed Western view of them.In South Africa, a country that takes a strongly modern, secular and equality-based view of its citizens – all of them – that debate is not only particularly relevant, but very
much alive.
The South African Islamic community is by no means homogenous in its views on theological developments, social issues, politics, world affairs or gender issues.
This is clear from the different approaches followed by different mosques around the country in their interpretation and application of Islam; the different schools of thought advocated by so-called fundamentalists, modernists and orthodox believers; the differences between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims; or even the differences between the different Sunni schools.
Arguably, South African Muslim women – like their counterparts in the rest of the Muslim world – still do not feature in leadership positions in religious, cultural or community organisations, unless it is an organisation solely for Muslim women. Furthermore, there are no women acting as imams, leading congregations in prayer unless it is an all-woman congregation.
But Muslim women have certainly made their mark in all other walks of life in South Africa. Some of those, to name only a few, who rose to prominence in their fields are academic, author and poet Gabeba Baderoon; ANC politician and Western Cape MEC for Environment, Planning and Economic Development, renowned political activist, author and academic Prof. Fatima Meer; Nurjahan Kahn, advocate of the High Court and author; and Prof. Rashida Manjoo, an advocate, law academic and visiting fellow at Harvard University in the United States and a former commissioner of the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE). There are many more.
What soon becomes clear, however, is that in South Africa there are as many Muslim women who believe their rights are being suppressed because Islam is interpreted and enforced by chauvinist men, as there are Muslim women who believe they have the same rights as men, albeit differently applied.
Raazia Macdonald, a young professional Muslim woman of Cape Town, married to Robert, a recent convert to Islam and the media spokesman of Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, perhaps symbolises one school of thought when she says: “I will not have anybody tell me I should cover my head with a scarf.”
Her view contrasts starkly with that of three women, covered in black garments form head to toe, only their eyes showing, whom I meet at a Madrassah or Muslim school, in the Cape Town suburb of Hanover Park. Believing it to be religiously inappropriate to reveal their first names to any strange man, they give their names only as S. Jackson (33), F. Fredericks (33) and S. Mohammed (31). The three women say they practise purdah “out of respect for Allah and because this is how it should be done in Islam”. They are also doing it for their husbands, and because they feel more respected and self-assured as women when other men are unable to stare at them “with lustful thoughts”.
The practice of purdah, however, which calls for the total covering of the female face and body, is not prescribed in Islam and is actually practised only by a small minority of women. This practice is cultural rather than religious. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, forced it upon women together with other oppressive measures, giving rise to the popular Western misconception.
In South Africa purdah is not common at all. But it should not be confused with the wearing of the burqah or hijab or headscarf where the face remains visible and which Muslim women, especially at religious ceremonies, commonly do.
Magboeba Davids, chairperson of the Women’s Forum of the Islamic Unity Convention, says she accepts the text-based prescription that the roles and rights of men and women differ because there are physiological and also psychological differences between them. However, she also laments the fact that it has been men who, over the ages, have interpreted the Qur’an.
“Over the centuries, men have used religion to oppress women. Making women feel inferior to men, insults the Creator as if He discriminates against His own creation. In order to remedy this, women need to realise their own God-given value. All women are highly respected in the sight of God, and that is why they have so many rights in Islam,” she says.
At the same time, however, she defends religious dictates that often seem incomprehensible to non-Muslims. For example, she says: “There are reasons why women cannot lead in prayer. If a woman should lead the prayer, she will distract the man because of his nature. So it is better we should be at the back. It does not mean we are less than the man”.
Nabeweya Malick, who works on the media desk of the Muslim Judicial Council, says the most important thing for Muslim women is to study the Qur’an and learn what their rights are. She says many women do not do this and live in ignorance, with their husbands forcing their own views on them and manipulating the situation to their advantage.
She cites as an example the question of whether married Muslim women should go out and work when forced by their husbands to do so. “If these women studied the Qur’an, they would know that it says they can work if they want to, but they do not have to. More importantly, it is expected of women to play their role as mothers and spouses in their families,” she says. In her view, that creates social stability.
To explain her views, Nabeweya refers to an article written by the internationally respected Turkish thinker and author on Islamic affairs, Harun Yahya. Quoting Qur’anic verses, he writes that “Islam suggests equality of rights, responsibilities and duties between the two genders. Islam is based on sympathy, tolerance and respect for human beings, and does not discriminate against women in this matter.” He also writes that Islam “ended harmful practices resulting from customs and traditions of pre-Islamic societies”.
But Yahya himself, quoting another eminent scholar of Islam Prof. Bernard Lewis, shows that the position of Muslim women remained poor, or even worsened because the original message of Islam lost its impetus and was later modified under the influence of pre-existing attitudes and customs.
However, correct interpretation of the Qur’an and the context of texts can be problematic, it seems. While scholars like Yahya freely quote from the Qur’an to support their views on issues such as the equality of and respect for women, the detractors of Islam do the same to “prove” the opposite. For example, the Christian website Contender Ministries uses verses from the Qur’an to support their view that, among other things, Islam women have fewer divorce rights than men, should inherit less than male heirs, may be beaten by their husbands and are thought to lack intelligence.
Meanwhile the Muslim Youth Movement, an organisation leaning towards a more modernist approach on especially gender issues, has called for changes in the way Islam is interpreted in South Africa in order to address gender inequality in local Islamic structures and teachings. It argues that a new approach was needed to make Islam more relevant and accountable to all its constituencies.
At the other end of the scale is the case of a Muslim beauty therapist from Durban, Nadira Dasoo, who was publicly humiliated and shamed by a Gauteng Muslim organisation for being a contestant on the SABC3 TV show, Ultimate Grand Prix Drive. In an e-mail campaign the organisation, Know Islam, accused her of shaming herself and insulting Islam by taking part despite maintaining her religious dress code and by allowing non-Muslim men to touch her body.
To a large degree, any position on the status and role of Muslim women in South Africa today will be influenced by the debate between so-called modernists and orthodox Muslims. Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool was a founder member in 1984 of the Call of Islam that participated in the liberation struggle against apartheid. Today those coming from this background like Rasool are often regarded as modernists.
“I am an open-minded Muslim. For me it is not about being a cultural Muslim, it is rather a religious choice I have made. I am against fundamentalism and I am also an intellectual Muslim, which means I am not exclusively Muslim and do not think we have all the answers,” says Rasool. “Protecting our value systems cannot be done with the methodology of the past, as that will lead to irrelevance.”
On Fridays, whenever possible, you will find Rasool in a mosque somewhere, leading a congregation in prayer. Quite often you will find him in the Claremont mosque in Cape Town, which is considered to be one of the more liberal mosques in South Africa. Here women worshippers are no longer required to sit out of sight of the men upstairs on a gallery at the back of the mosque, but instead share the main floor space of the mosque with men with only a roped-off pathway separating them.
Moulana Ihsaan Hendricks, president of the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), which views itself as the senior Islamic organisation in South Africa, says as far as he is concerned, the differences between modernist and orthodox Muslims only has relevance in a political context dating back to the liberation struggle when some originations were viewed to be more progressive than others.
“If we view it in religious terms, I do not subscribe to something such as modern or orthodox Islam, certainly not as far as the classical texts of Islam are concerned. Those texts have always been contemporary. The judicial development of Islam has always been open to contemporary challenges and religious leaders cannot ignore social transformation. It is essential that we should find a balance,” he says.
His colleague, Moulana Yusuf Karaan, who heads the Fatwah committee at the MJC that issues Islamic religious and legal pronouncements, says the more liberal movement wants Islam to be modernised to make it more acceptable to the modern, learned, intellectual mind. But Karaan is adamant the accusation that Muslims discriminate against their women
is unfair.
“We believe the rights Islam gives to women are more progressive than those of Western women and that they provide for all the needs of women and protect them,” says Maulana Karaan. ?
Stef Terblanche
