Category: Women in Islam

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Religious Manipulation in One Word: Fitna

by Corbin ♥ 7 Comments

Written by Theresa Corbin and originally posted on Aljumuah.com

You are fitna!  If you’re a Muslim woman, it’s likely that you have heard this a thousand times. You might have even been convinced that your own existence is somehow bad or the cause of evil or misguidance (which is essentially what fitna means).

“Women are Fitna” has unfortunately turned into a blanket statement and a kind of religious manipulation to keep women from participating in, well, pretty much everything including their own lives.

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Much of what Muslim women face in terms of oppression is because many misunderstand the meaning of one particular ḥadîth (a saying of the Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]):

I have not left behind me any fitna more harmful to men than women. (Bukhâri)

And this misinterpretation plays out in very real and destructive ways in Muslim women’s lives.

Fitna in Driving?

Maha Salman recalls a trip to her husband’s country, where she was unaware of cultural standards. She ended up feeling traumatized after being told she had caused fitna. Salman says, “While I was visiting with my family, I needed to get something out of the car.

I put on my outer garments, grabbed the keys, and went to the parking garage. As I approached the car with car keys in hand, one of the [morality police] started running toward me yelling fitna and something else in Arabic that I didn’t understand.”

While disallowing women to drive is seen in few countries, it is still based on the “religious” assumption that women driving, in their particular local context, will lead to fitna, or a door to sin, in many ways.  Yet we know that in the Prophet’s time his wives rode camels, the modern equivalent to driving. The Prophet œ said:

The best women among the camel riders are the righteous women of the Quraysh. (Bukhâri)

Fitna in the Mosque?

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Ignorant, Arrogant Hypocrites

by Corbin

written by Theresa Corbin and Maryam Lautenschlager

We, as Muslim woman, have handled the ignorant, arrogant hypocrites with kid gloves for far too long. We have been pushed well beyond any person’s limit. The gloves are coming off!  

We will freely admit that being a Muslim woman comes along with so much patronizing and splaining it is maddening and exhausting.

But here’s the thing- we hardly ever experience such splaining from Muslim men. Nah, it comes from non-Muslims of all kinds: doctors, engineers, beauty school drop outs, republicans, lawyers, paralegals, democrats, men, women, children, hand puppets (seriously)… *catches breathe*.

For sure, there are Muslim men who support the patriarchy and even toxic masculinity – nothing to do with Islam. We have never denied this. In fact, a lot of what Theresa does and researches and writes is because she is calling bullshit on this phenomenon within the Muslim community. But even the patriarchy supporting Muslims do not belittle us, disrespect us, or shut us down like the ignorant, arrogant, hypocritical non-Muslims do. 

Ignorance

So the kind of non-Muslim (please note this is not every non-Muslim, but it seems to us to be the majority) we are shining a light on come at Muslim women, trying to tell us about how “bad” our faith is for women and how oppressed we are, blah, blah, blah, ignorance ad nauseam.

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It’s Not About The Headscarf

by Corbin ♥ 2 Comments

Written By: Elyse Keelani*

Why is a Muslim woman’s worth symbolized by a headscarf** or the lack thereof?

In Western societies, the lack of a headscarf makes a Muslim woman blend into secular society; whether or not she’s a practicing Muslim is less important. Usually, as long as she looks the part, she is accepted. A lack of a headscarf in the eyes of the West means that she is not oppressed, and that she has found freedom.

its not about the headscarf

However, the West fails to see that their own society confines women also, and that women are treated simply as objects. If a woman wears a bikini on the beach, she’s fine. If a woman wears a bikini on the street, she’s deemed “loose”. If a woman of the right body-type wears a low-cut top, she is seen as sexy; If a heavy woman does the same, she is trashy. There are so many rules to follow, it’s hard to keep up.

“Do I look confident or self-absorbed?” “Do I look strong or do I look overbearing?” “Do I look sexy or do I look slutty?” The lines are drawn according to a woman’s race, body type, socio-economic status, etc. Then a woman might find that the lines are drawn differently in some Western countries, or in some areas of Western countries.

The worth of a woman is often narrowed down to fabric, but that worth was taken away long before anyone saw how she was dressed. Being “Jane” means less opportunity in life, less pay, more risk of being a victim of violence, etc.

Clothing is simply a symbol of how well a woman is fitting into the society that already oppresses her.

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Does Islam Tell Us Some Are Inferior to Others?

by Corbin

written by Theresa Corbin

Originally written for and published on Al Jumuah.

“Those people are easily swayed by their emotions.” “They are illogical creatures.” “Those people can never reach the status of my people.” Imagine that you are told these things your whole life. Imagine you are told that your capacity is inferior. Now imagine that those who tell you all this also claim that they say so only because God says so.

How would you see yourself? How would you react to those passing this judgment on you? How would you view a faith that tells you that you are inferior? The quotes above are from a prominent Islamic question and answer website. I have only changed the words “women” and “men” to more ambiguous words or phrases, which could refer to various groups of people, more generally.

Women are the target of this kind of humiliation. Because of these and similar belittling remarks from scholars and lay people alike, Muslim women are experiencing a crisis of identity and faith.

Those who understand Islam and know it to be an egalitarian religion will brush these claims off as a cultural misunderstanding and distortions of Islam. And that is certainly part of the problem. But the other part of the problem is that even if these claims are brushed off, they still impact the lives, psyches, and faith of Muslim men and women.

How Did We Get to this Point?

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Please continue reading on Al Jumuah. 

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Dog (kalb)

by Corbin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

written by Theresa Corbin

Mona Haydar dropped her new rap “Dog”. It’s about (some) Muslim men and their double standards. And people are freaking out. Anndddd I am so much loving and drinking in the sweet, sweet irony. It is glorious!

It’s a rap about how so many “Muslim” men are straight up dogs and have serious double standards. And people are freaking out because a sister, who is wearing hijab, is telling men to remember God. … because music? makeup? idk. SMH! Details w/ dif of opinions in mainstream schools of thought.

She doesn’t curse once (I guarantee you if this was my rap, it would need a parental advisory label). She never twerked. Never threatened harm. She just told the truth in a library, and at a carnival (how many Muslim male rappers have videos set “up in da club” or while getting a lap dance?).

She rapped, which is basically angry talking. And she rapped about actual, real life men doing disgusting, damaging, without difference of opinion, real haram (forbidden).

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Domestic Violence: Excavating Shariah Series- Part 2

by Corbin ♥ 6 Comments

written by Theresa Corbin

Part 1

As a faith community, we are facing a serious crisis in human (and God given) rights violations. Many of those “in charge” are and have been misusing religious texts to cripple more than half of our population- women.

We are a global community and these issues have infected our lives on a global scale. Because of these issues, Saadia Haq and I are “Excavating Shariah” in an attempt to chip away at the fiqh interpretations (human understanding of the Shariah (Islamic) law) that have either intentionally or unintentionally ignored the female experience, oppressed women, or co-opted women’s religious dedication.

We take it as a serious matter that Islam has been wrongfully used as a weapon against women. We feel we have the right and an obligation, as Muslims, to speak on these issues. Currently we are “excavating” the affront that is Domestic Violence.

Domestic violence is a global issue. According to WHO “Most of this violence is intimate partner violence. Worldwide, almost one third (30%) of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner in their lifetime. Globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner.”

It is a men’s issue. But there are some (or rather many) who claim that Islam gives men the right to physically harm their wives.

In Islam, marriage is based on on love and mercy, as we read in the Quran:

{And among His signs is this: That He created mates for you from yourselves that you may find rest, peace of mind in them, and He ordained between you love and mercy. Lo, herein indeed are signs for people who reflect.} (Quran 30:21)

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Domestic Violence: Excavating Shariah Series- Part 1

by Corbin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

written by Saadia Haq from the Human Lens

Part 2

There is no denying the prevailing existence of domestic violence among Muslim communities that continue to lag behind in out-dated centuries on matters of women’s status and rights in Islamic societies. But just like so many anti human practises are brushed under the carpet and deemed not that important, violence against Muslim women continues inside their homes and outside.

Among Muslims, regardless of their sect there is an invisible consensus on the disputed relationship of their understandings on Islam and domestic violence. It is very common to note, that majority Islamic societies continue to operate under the cultural stigma of hiding the evidences of abuse meted to women. The harsh reality of most Muslim nations is the inability of recognising the abuse by law order authorities, police and judicial system. Here the many victims of domestic violence are treated to scorn, alienations and charged under distorted versions of Sharia dreamed by bigoted clergy.

Most Muslims lap up distorted teachings promoting an array of bizarre methods by which men should make wives more obedient and in failing to do so, wife beating becomes permissible. The notions of men having authority over women that women are to be obedient establish an authoritarian structure with the husband as head of the wife. These tactics are justified by the reason that Allah created men superior to women and thus men are the maintainers of women.

Last year, Pakistan made cringe worthy news when the chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, a powerful religious body announced a ridiculous proposal to legalize the ‘light beating’ of wives at the hands of their husbands. This sent a wave of joy to local men who in any case are prone to wife beating and abuse. The golden moment was interrupted by the national outrage and revulsion with street protests, civil societies, media, and had a few politicians react with disdain on legalizing domestic violence within Muslim marriages.

Continue reading here on the Human Lens. Part 2 here.

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Like the post, share it, pin it, comment on it, and/or do whatever social media magic it is that you prefer. Find out more about us in the understandably named “About” page and browse other posts in “Table of Contents”.