The Hindu Business Line : A mosque for women

In judging women’s status in any religious community, it is assumed that this is determined only by religious scriptures. What is ignored is that religious scriptures are written or narrated in the language of origin, but translated and interpreted in varied ways once the faith has crossed geographical and linguistic borders. And, in the process, much of the scriptures’ original intent gets lost. To this day, this issue has remained unaddressed and ignored.

Islam spread to India from Arabia. The Quran and the Hadis (teachings of the Prophet) were translated into Indian languages and interpreted exclusively by Indian male scholars. Also, local conditions often influence this interpretation.

Islam in India

The result is that though there is only one Islam, there are different interpretations by local Muslim communities. In India, it is considered holier to read the Quran and recite the Namaz in Arabic, a language which, barring a few scholars, is not understood by the masses.

Also, a highly patriarchal interpretation of the Quran and Hadis found legitimacy in the fact that Islam originated and flourished in Arabia at a time when tribal patriarchy existed in full force.

Unfortunately, the historical context has been ignored; and this affects the the position of women in Islam, as a great deal depends on how scriptures are positioned historically and who translates and interprets them.

Egalitarian interpretation

A few feminist scholars, who have been studying and interpreting the Quran and the Hadis, claim that the Quran can be read in different modes, including an egalitarian one.

In some ways Indian Muslim women suffer more gender discrimination than their counterparts in other Islamic countries because some orthodox Hindu practices, discriminatory to women, were adopted by their communities. After the enactment of the Hindu Code Bill in 1954, Hindu women began to enjoy more rights and are today moving towards more substantive gender equality. However, the status of Muslim women in India has remained static due to rigid attitudes of the Muslim clergy and the absence of feminist scholarship.

Some Muslim countries of Asia and Africa, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco and South Africa, are now witnessing the rise of Islamic feminism. In these countries, women, and even a few men feel troubled by the unequal gender practices perpetrated in the name of Islam. Scholars are interpreting Islamic scriptures in the feminist mode and now claim that equality of all human beings, irrespective of gender, class and colour, is the essential teaching of Islam.

Around the world

For instance, based on this egalitarian interpretation, Morocco has modified its Civil Code removing gender inequalities from its laws. In Indonesia, too, the Ministry of Justice has appointed a Commission of religious leaders, comprising 50 per cent women, to revise the Family Code. It is reported that in Nigeria, Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) is interpreted in a gender-just manner to settle cases of adultery. In these countries, women have acquired the right to pray in mosques, though in separate enclosures. In Pakistan, too, the Muslim Personal Law has been modified to some extent; women are allowed to pray in mosques but in separate enclosures.

Women’s mosque

All this calls for an improvement in India where women’s entry into mosques for prayer is still vigorously resisted. It is heartening to learn that in Tamil Nadu a women’s group under the leadership of Sharifa Khanam, 42, has decided to build a separate women’s mosque in the Pudukkottai district, after failing to get entry into the exclusively male mosques.

Sharifa decided on a mosque that would be for women and run by women. She argues that the Quran and Hadis do not forbid women from offering prayers in the mosque. Also, the mosque, apart from being a place of worship, also provides a platform for resolving social and community problems. Keeping women out means that their problems are not addressed and, if addressed, decisions are made without consulting them. So, Sharifa and other women decided to have a mosque of their own where their problems could be addressed. But opposition from the local maulvis was intense. The maulvis even invited their counterparts from Deoband, a town where India’s most famous Islamic Seminary is situated, to give a fatwah . It was ruled that the Quran does not allow women to go to mosques to offer prayers. But Sharifa’s group did not relent and countered by quoting Quranic verses to justify women’s right to pray in the mosques.

Feminist scholarship

The main reason for such rigid and orthodox attitude on the part of the Muslim clergy in India is the absence of feminist scholarship in the community, although across the globe a new breed of feminist scholarship is emerging. Asma Barlas and Rifat Hassan from Pakistan (Rifat now resides in the US), Amina Waddud, an African American, Zakia Mir Hosain from Iran and Fatima Mernici from Morocco, are a few Muslim feminist scholars.

They argue that there is no gender discrimination in the Quran. So we in India need to develop feminist scholarship, organise Muslim women and inform them of their rightful place in Islam. It is in this context that the establishment of a women’s mosque in Tamil Nadu is definitely a step in the right direction, an initiative that needs to be replicated all over the country.

The writer is a Delhi-based academic and an expert on Muslim personal law.

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