Between Culture and Religion
Muslim women's rights
This past summer, I made a research trip to Indonesia to hold interviews for a book I am preparing about Muslim Women Leaders in Indonesia. Funding for this trip came from grants from Valparaiso University and from the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden, the Netherlands. I also was invited to an international meeting about strategies in advocating Muslim women's rights. Here are some impressions of this unique event that was entitled 'Between Culture and Religion': Discussing Muslim women's rights.
By NELLY VAN DOORN-HARDER
At the end of July, around sixty religious leaders, social activists, and scholars (both women and men) from different countries in Asia and the Middle East gathered in Yogyakarta for a meeting sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Their goal was to discuss whether or not organizations that advocate women's rights actually succeed in safeguarding those rights. The meeting was held in Indonesia because its Muslim women's organizations have been instrumental in promoting the position of women since 1917. Furthermore, during this past decade, in Indonesia, programmes have been developed concerning the re-interpretation of Islamic religious sources. These programmes are unique because the conclusions and new ideas they generate are not confined to academic circles, but are disseminated to a wider audience via Qur'an schools, workshops, and publications.The participants at the meeting studied issues such as women's education, women's roles in the public/political sector, domestic violence, reproductive health rights, and how women participate in the re-interpretation of the Islamic religious sources. Also, there were highly technical and in-depth discussions about the re-interpretation of the Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) concerning woman's position. The participants represented organizations that ranged from Aisyiyah, the women's branch of the Indonesian Reformist Muhammadiyah organization that has existed since 1917, to Middle Eastern scholars of gender studies.
The Ratu Hemas, the wife of the Sultan of Yogyakarta, used her opening speech to state that the Qu'ran does not demean women, but societies do by considering women as weak and less important and by ignoring the special gifts that women contribute to the fabric of life. In spite of women receiving higher levels of education than ever before, women still find themselves 'trapped between culture and religion,' she stated.
Nuriyah Rahman, the wife of the former chairman of the Nahdatul Ulama, Abdurahman Wahid, currently the president of Indonesia, called for local re-interpretations of the Qur'an in order to eradicate gender discrimination originating from biased regional religious stances. Participants agreed that discrimination against girls often starts at home to be confirmed by the surrounding society and culture, and that the deeply engrained idea that 'woman is created for and from man' seems to be translatable into almost every culture.
Male bias
During the debate about women's participation in public and political life, it was stressed that women not only have less access to political power because men control sectors such as the judiciary and the media, they also face significant male bias. Mona Fayad from Lebanon mentioned that when teaching classes in political science, her male students question her ability to analyse political views correctly. Farida Bennani from Morocco, one of the few female specialists on fiqh, added that women's religious position in Islam is complicated, because during the course of history, women themselves relinquished their role in the religious discourse and allowed male interpreters to impose male-biased views. As she explained, religious interpretations about the position of women gradually changed in tone from 'this is my opinion, may God forgive me,' to the indisputable 'Islam says.' As a result of this, female activists in most of the Muslim countries feel unprepared to react to male religious leaders quoting traditions about women as if they came directly from God. To them, the source of authority these words come from is simply too high and overwhelming. Also activists fear to be branded as 'anti-Islamic' when questioning quotes from the holy sources. This situation is prevalent because most women activists have little training in the religious fields of study. An urgent recommendation of the meeting was that specialists such as Farida Bennani create short, intensive courses for women activists on religious matters.
A wide variety of religious views were represented which at times led to intense debating. This was especially the case during the presentation of Masdar Mas'udi, an Indonesian legal scholar of Islam, who for many years has been active in the debate concerning the re-interpretation of holy texts. Mas'udi's ideas also are widely disseminated in Indonesia and discussed in places such as the traditional boarding schools for Qur'anic studies. He teaches that the original Qur'anic teachings should be placed in the context of history and culture, while interpreters should distinguish between the absolute or fundamental principles of Islam (such as individual freedom and equality before God) and the local, cultural aspects of the texts. This method, for example, was tested during the heated debate concerning marital rape. The issue was brought up in the context of violence against women. While in essence marital rape is a new topic of discussion in Islamic discourses, Indonesian scholars such as Siti Ruhaini and Masdar Mas'udi have long studied it. They hold that most interpreters of Islam have misunderstood Quranic references to husbands' domination over wives in sexual relationships. Especially issues like this have been interpreted in legal/formal ways while in fact they belong to the realm of Islamic ethical/moral principles. These principles, according to Masdar, must be obeyed, as they are unchangeable. Hence, marital rape is a violation of women's basic human rights.
Circumcision
In the end, all agreed that the current strategies of Muslim women's organizations are not effective in advocating women's rights. Reasons for this vary from country to country. Women's organizations in the Middle East have to battle accusations that they are Western inventions bent on promoting anti-Islamic values. Often they lack grass root support and do not have great affiliation with the mostly poor, illiterate women they are working with. The participants from Pakistan explained that in their country women's issues are still so sensitive that organizations empowering women have to choose names that hide the true nature of their work. For Indonesia, which boasts extensive schooling for girls and large organizations for Muslim women, it was concluded that the programmes of these organizations are limited to traditional efforts in improving women's welfare such as traditional Qur'an study groups and mother and child care. Gender interests such as gender inequality, discrimination against women, and developing strategies to raise women's awareness about their condition and empower them economically have not become part of the agenda of the majority of the organizations yet.
At the close of the meeting, Hoda Elsadda (Egypt) remarked that it had been empowering to realize how often constraints against women are intermingled with culture, politics, and identity. Awareness of differences between the many cultures of Muslim areas and comparative studies help women to rebut local opinions that 'there is only one way we can do things.' For example, female circumcision in Egypt is presented as 'Islamic' while it is not practiced in many other Muslim countries. It was decided that this meeting should have a follow-up and that at the same time the network of women should be broadened to include non-Muslims as well, since stigmas put on women are often more influenced by culture than just by religion. In spite of the obstacles many women activists face in their work, the spirit of the meeting was upbeat as many of those present felt that women will be major agents of change in this new millennium.
Three weeks after the conference, the day before I returned to the US, I had a chance to interview Ratu Hemas for my book. She had been reflecting on our meeting and had come to the conclusion that the issues discussed were very relevant to her in her capacity as the Sultan's wife who has to lead the wives of government officials in the so-called Dharma Wanita organization. In order to be equipped to start the transformation of Dharma Wanita that is considered to be a champion of bureaucracy, ineffectiveness, and fossilization, she will attend the second meeting to be held in Cairo, December 2000. Though most Indonesian feminists have given up on Dharma Wanita, this organization has the potential to reach millions of women and to create strong networks that work from within and that comprise all layers of society, from the poorest of the poor all the way to the top, to the sultana. *
Nelly van Doorn-Harder
is assistent professor religious studies,
Valparaiso, IN, USA.
E-mail: Pieternella.HarderVandoorn@valpo.edu.