Transcript Human Rights

Human Rights
&Women in Islamic
Law
offered by:
Prof.Dr.Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq
Dean Faculty of Shariah & Law
International Islamic University, Islamabad
Religions & Women Rights
The issue of women’s human rights has become a
separate category of analysis in relatively recent
human rights scholarship and is at the centre stage in
the discourse on human rights. Religion plays a
pivotal role in the way women are treated around the
world, socially and legally. ‘The two major
challenges to all human rights and especially those of
women in the twenty-first century will be the forces
of religious extremism and economic globalisation’.
Some
Scholars
argues
that:
‘religious
fundamentalism poses the most acute problems for
women’s equality’.
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Islamic Law & Women (Western
Perception)

It is believe in West that Islamic statutory laws
practiced in many Muslim jurisdictions
wherein men and women are treated
unequally. The general areas of tension
between human rights standards and Islamic
law (as interpreted and practiced by Muslim
states) are the unequal treatment of women and
religious minorities, freedom of religion.
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Opinions of Muslim Scholars Regarding
Women Rights
In Islamic human rights scholarship, a distinction
should be made between the positions of Islamic
states and that of the scholars of Islam. The
scholars of Islam may be broadly divided into
following categories:
1-Modernists,
2-Conservatives
3-Fundamentalists or Integrates
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Compatibility of Islam with
human Rights

Is Islam compatible with human rights? This
fundamental question has generated a large body of
literature addressing the question from different,
often opposing, positions. The literalist reading of
Islam emphasizes the gaps between the limits of
tolerance and acceptability in the Quràn and Hadith
on the one hand, and internationally-sanctioned
standards for human rights. The status of women and
religious freedom are often the two key area of
contention.
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literalist reading of Islam

It is perhaps ironic that the literalist reading of
Islam has been adopted by two very distinct
groups. On the one hand some traditionalist
Muslim leaders, have taken up a tough
attitude toward the idea of a human rights
regime because that is seen as nothing more
than a cover for a neo-colonial attempt at
regaining domination over the Muslim world
by Western powers.
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literalist reading of Islam

The fact that the normative framework of the human
rights regime emerged in the halls of the United
Nations where Western powers tend to set the agenda
is seen as proof by the human rights skeptics of a
Western conspiracy. And by some the principles
enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights were seen as contravening the Shari’a.
Accordingly, this Declaration (adopted in 1948 by the
United Nations) was rejected by Saudi Arabia as unIslamic
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literalist reading of Islam
This perspective is shared by groups like the Taliban
in Afghanistan, or the trans- national Islamist group
Hizb ut-Tahrir which argue that Islamic injunctions in
the text are perfect and eternal. Adopting anything
that contradicts or deviates from them, therefore, is
forbidden. The above position rests on the belief that
the Quràn and Hadith are immutable. Emphasizing
the timeless and eternal nature of Islamic junctions
presents a challenge for its application in the
contemporary era, some fourteen centuries after their
articulation.
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
literalist reading of Islam

Indeed some Scholars use the very point
regarding the temporal modification of Islam
to criticize ruling regimes. For example, the
famous father of Islamism Sayed Qutb,
rejected the Egyptian regime for allowing
society to astray from the path of Islam and
permitting Islam to be contaminated by
contemporary influences
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literalist approach to Islam and
human rights and West

In a mirror image of this literalist approach to Islam
and human rights, critics have presented the two as
poles apart and insisted on the incapacity of Islam to
reform itself. Authors such as Bernard Lewis and
Daniel Pipes have argued that Islam contradicts
modern human rights norms and conventions as it
reflects the norms and conventions of the seventh
century civilization of Arabia. In an ironic twist, they
add their voice to the literalist Islamic approach by
insisting on the static nature of Islam.
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Approach of Bernard Lewis

Lewis has argued that there is an inherent
resistance to democratic governance as the
notion of a ‘corporate or majority decision’
through electoral means is an ‘alien’ concept
in many Islamic societies, with violent
contestations, in this view, seen as the norm .
Echoing the literalist approach to Islam, Lewis
insists on the incompatibility of Islam and
modernity.
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Approach of Daniel Pipes

Daniel Pipes, former appointee by the Bush Administration to
the United States Institute of Peace, leads the charge in seeking
to highlight what he claims is the ‘historically-abiding Muslim
imperative to subjugate non-Muslim peoples’ (2006). The
conclusion Pipes draws is that ‘ultimately, there is no
compromise’ with Muslim communities and what he sees as
the inherent absolutist drive of the religion, one that, in his
own words, asks the question of whether ‘the West [will] stand
up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or
will Muslims impose their way of life on the West?’
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Opinion of Abdullah Saeed-1

Abdullah Saeed, among others, has argued that there
is nothing certain and undeniable about the literalist
approach. In recognizing that, Saeed advocates
recognition of human agency and an acknowledgment
of the context to help give meaning to the text. Such
contextualization offers new opportunities for
exploring the relevance of Islam to contemporary
conditions and the challenges faced by Muslims
today.
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Opinion of Abdullah Saeed-2

The above recommendation holds significant promise
on the question of compatibility between Islam and
human rights. An increasing number of Muslim
thinkers in modern times have tried to move away
from ideological rigidity, emphasizing instead the
essence and core values embedded in the holy text. In
this perspective, restrictions on women and religious
freedom which are applied in most Muslims societies,
are challenged as contradictory to the essence of
Islam.
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Opinion of Abdullah Saeed-3

Accordingly, Islam is seen to be founded on the
principle of unity between God and the humankind;
piety and personal devotions are key to the ideal
Islamic state. This approach places the individual, the
Muslim believer, as the conscious actor on the centre
stage, and may therefore be called the humanist
approach. In this vein Ali Abootalebi, a former
associate of the Iranian President Muhammad
Khatami, has argued in favor of ‘freedom of thought
and expression, including freedom from government
control and suppression’
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Opinion ofAbdullah Ahmed AnNa’im
He has argued for the religious neutrality of the state in
Muslim communities. For An-Na’im, Islamic thought can be
injected with renewed vitality and flexibility through the
process of ijtihad as a means to maximise the ability of
Muslims to exercise their human agency. In other words, this
perspective focuses on the need for Muslim communities to
reconcile with the human rights regime, not to manipulate
the concept of human rights to further particular social
interests. This allows for Muslim communities to engage with
the human rights regime on their own terms. This also helps
undermine the view of human rights as a ‘Western’ concept
imposed on Muslim communities. This approach contains
significant implications for the idealized Islamic state.
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Khaled Abou El Fadl, s Humanist Approach-1

In the words of Khaled Abou El Fadl, the
Quràn ‘does not specify a particular form of
government’ (2004: 5). In a direct challenge to
the literalist reading of Islam especially that
adopted by Islamist groups, El Fadl insists on
the importance of values: justice, consultative
government, mercy and compassion are
essential values for Muslim policy.
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Khaled Abou El Fadl, s
Humanist Approach-2

The humanist approach in Islam offers significant
promise, not only in Muslim majority societies enthused by
the prospects of establishing an Islamic state but also for
the Muslim Diaspora. One of the challenging features of
globalization in the latter part of the twentieth century has
been the movement of a significant number of people from
the Muslim world to territories that have traditionally
been regarded as foreign. Muslim settlements in Europe,
the United States, and in subsequent years Canada and
Australia, have presented difficult questions to migrant
communities and their hosts regarding the precedence of
one rule over another.
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Humanist Approach

In other words, to what extent should
Muslim minorities in the West follow and
obey secular law? In the literalist
perspective, the dichotomy of Shari’a
versus secular law is absolute. But the
humanist approach to Islam moves
beyond the apparent dichotomy and
questions the assumed contradiction
between the two.
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The Opinion of Tariq Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan, perhaps the best known author on
this matter, has argued that the Western-style secular
law is very much inspired by the same core values
that rest at the heart of Islam. Writing on the question
of being a good citizen and a Muslim in Europe,
Ramadan has emphasised the principles of fairness,
equity and justice as common to Islamic
jurisprudence and secular law (which is ironically
inspired by Judea-Christian traditions). Consequently,
he sees no contradictions between the two
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The Opinion of Tariq Ramadan

In this approach, Muslims in the West can abide by
secular rules that govern their country of adoption
without fear of violating Islamic principles. The
liberal and tolerant nature of European states
facilitates this interpretation because it allows
significant freedoms to individuals to pursue their
interests, beliefs and traditions. In other words,
individual liberties enshrined in liberal democracies
offer sanctuary to the Muslim diaspora.
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Challenges to the Humanistic
Approach

It is important to note here that Western liberal democracies
meet the qualifications set out by El Fadl for legitimate
political authority. In some cases, however, the humanist
position on the compatibility of secular law and Islamic
principles faces serious challenges, as became evident in
France under the new law banning hijab at schools. This ban,
which came into force in 2004 appeared to reverse the tolerant
traditions of France and put Muslim girls wearing hijab and
their families in a difficult dilemma: either remove the hijab to
attend school or keep the hijab and be excluded from public
education.
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Challenges to the Humanistic
Approach

Some French Muslims have responded by
weighing the costs and benefits of the
alternatives and opted to stay in the education
system, even if that means removing the
hijab.3 For most French Muslims, however,
that is not an acceptable compromise. Islamic
reformism which is at the heart of the humanist
approach is still in its infancy and stumbling
from one challenge to the next.
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Challenges to the Humanistic
Approach

An ongoing issue that is still to be addressed by
reformist thinkers in Islam is the position of nonMuslims in Muslim societies. To what extent does the
humanist interpretation of Islam, which emphasises
the intrinsic values of individual piety and freedom to
pursue a personal path to divinity may be applied to
non-Muslim individuals and minority groups? More
specifically, what role is set aside for non-Muslims in
Muslim majority states?

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Present Muslim Societies and
Human Rights

The question of compatibility between Islam and human rights
in Muslim majority states is an urgent and topical issue, partly
because most such states in the Middle East suffer under the
yoke of authoritarian rule while the United States has made
democracy promotion and protection of human rights its top
mission in this oil-rich region. The most immediate
beneficiaries of any move towards greater freedoms tend to be
Islamist groups in opposition, which might explain why the
latter has adopted a conciliatory (sometimes enthusiastic)
position towards human rights, freedom and democracy.
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Present Muslim Societies and
Human Rights

Appeals to values of liberalism and human rights by Islamist
groups have precipitated a debate in policy and academic
circles about the relationship between political expediency and
principles. Are Islamists using human rights as a pretext to
push their own agenda that is inherently intolerant and
totalitarian? Or in the words of Neil Hicks, Director of the
Human Rights Defenders’ Protection Initiative at the Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights in New York ‘is it conceivable
that we might have human rights activists who are
Islamists, that is to say Islamist human rights activists?’
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Present Muslim Societies and
Human Rights -3
There are no easy answers to these questions, which helps
explain why the debate appears to go round and round with no
end in sight. One response that is often favored in Western
policy circles is that Islamist groups such as Hamas and
Hizbullah or the Muslim Brotherhood are only interested in
human rights because they draw immediate benefits from
them. There is no doubt that an effective protection of human
rights, which entails the promotion of individual liberties,
offers direct benefit to Islamist groups that have been pushed
to the margin by authoritarian regimes. The Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt is ready to burst out on the political
scene the minute Hosni Mubarak’s regime loosens its grip on
power.
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Women Rights and Islam
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The Role of Muslim Women in
Early Islamic Period

According to the traditions of Shi’s Muslims, the revolt of
Imam Husayn against the tyrannical Caliph Yazid in 680 C.E.
ended in the greatest tragedy in the history of Islam. Not only
was the Prophet’s grandson killed along with his male
followers, but the women of his family were stripped of their
veils and paraded publicly in disgrace. Brought to the presence
of the caliph in Damascus, Husayn’s sister Zaynab remained
defiant, openly challenging Tazid’s authority and lamenting
the death of her brother, who was the rightful inheritor of the
authority of the Prophet. So striking was her indignation that
the caliph was shamed and let her and the other depart in
peace.
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Present Picture of Women in
Muslim Societies

The standard picture of the Muslim woman shows
someone who is oppressed by men, restricted to
home, and veiled in public, although this image is
admittedly anonymous and not related to any
particular location. The extraordinary recent behavior
of the Taliban in Afghanistan, who denied women
education and even the most basic rights, has
encouraged the impression that Islam is dedicated to
the oppression of women. How can we reconcile
these conflicting depictions of Muslim women?
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The Role of Muslim Women in
Early Islamic Period-2
This dramatic picture, which has been evoked
by many poems of lamentation, presents a
powerful reminder of the important roles
played by women in the early Muslim
community. Women have never been ciphers
or nonentities in Islamic history. The wives of
the Prophet Muhammad were his partners and
supporters in the creation of the new society,
and the continued to have eminence after his
death. ‘
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The Role of Muslim Women in
Early Islamic Period -3

A’isha is noteworthy for transmitting
more than 2,000 hadith reports from the
Prophet and she was the principal leader
of an unsuccessful revolt against ‘Ali.
The prominence of women in early
Muslim society stands in contrast with
the image of Muslim women today, at
least as they are perceived in Europe and
America.
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Present Picture of Women in
Muslim Societies

As mentioned earlier, Islamic law in theory provides
resources for women, such as property rights, which
were not available to European women until very
recent times. Yet in practice the complex application
of Islamic law was filtered through multiple levels of
custom and tradition, so that ethical principles of
equality between the sexes all too frequently were
sacrificed for the benefit of male privilege. The
imposition of patriarchal authority over women is
hardly unique to Islamic civilization.
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Women and Ancient Civilizations

Aristotle, it must be remembered, regarded women as
natural slaves. Despite statements about gender
equality in the New Testament there are also strong
traditions that for centuries have excluded women
from positions of authority in Christian churches.
Misogyny and the assertion of men’s authority over
women is, in fact, characteristic of the history of
much of the world, including china and India.
Disentangling the roles of the ethics of gender and
patriarchal history is a task that now is the name of
feminism.
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Effects of European Colonialism
and Women Rights-1
What makes the discussion of gender relations in
Islamic cultures especially tricky is, once again, the
effects of European colonialism. By the late
nineteenth century, Europeans had developed a
number of arguments to demonstrate the cultural
inferiority of the nations of the Orient, principally
Muslim countries., the scientific language of racial
categories and the alleged evolutionary superiority
of Europeans were key elements in the ideology of
colonial ascendancy. A new and surprising weapon
in the colonialists’ arsenal was the language of
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European feminism.

Effects of European Colonialism
and Women Rights-2

However uncomfortable Victorian officials
may have been with feminist agitation for
equal rights at home, they eagerly and
hypocritically criticized Asian and especially
Muslim men for their bad treatment of women
(although some colonial administrators, such
as Lord Cromer and Lord Curzon, were active
opponents of the British suffragette
movement).
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Effects of European Colonialism
and Women Rights-3

By maintaining that Islam was essentially oppressive
to women and by linking Muslim backwardness to
the practice of veiling women, colonial administrators
could justify their rule over Asia and Africa, since
they were the bearers of enlightened modernity. At
the same time, they maintained that Muslims could
only become civilized if they abandoned veiling –
that is, if they abandoned what were believed to be
essential practices of Islam.
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Actual Reality-1

The same rhetoric of condescending shock about
the veiling of Muslim women continues to be
applied today, despite less than perfect gender
equity in Europe and America. When we look,
however, at the authoritative Islamic scriptures,
we can see prominent resources for an ethic of
gender equality. In Christian and Jewish circles, it
is only in relatively recent years that the gendered
language of the Bible has become an issue, leading
to new translations that do not automatically
assumes the male gender as normal.
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Actual Reality -2

It is striking fact of the history that among all the great
religions of the World ,Islam made a very
comprehensive survey of the position of the women in
Society, and laid down a very detailed legal
framework of her rights and privileges. Prior to the
advent of the Islam, the Arab women enjoyed no
rights. They had absolutely no share in the property
left behind by their parents. Their position in the
society was that of mere chattel or marketable
commodity.
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Actual Reality -3
Islam came to set that: [and women shall have
rights similar to the rights against them,
according to what is equitable]
Al-Quran
2:228.
 Although modern European and Americans
assume that Muslim women are invariably
oppressed, it is by no means clear that Muslim
women
have
always
suffered
from
disadvantages in comparison with Christians
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or other.

Actual Reality -4

This is an instance in which very recent
advances in Europe and America are somehow assumed to be an essential part of the
West. English women did not have full
property rights until the Married Women’s
Property Acts of 1870 and 1882, yet under
Islamic law, Muslim women have been
guaranteed inheritance and property rights
since the seventh century.
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Advancement of Islam in Women
Rights

English women were still chattels of their husband or
father when Lady Mary Wortley Montague traveled
to Constantinople in 1716 with her husband, the
British ambassador. She was amazed to meet their
Ottoman women of the nobility who owned large
estates and managed their own property without male
interference. Lady Mary even found the veil to be a
liberating device that freed women from the prying
eyes of men.
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Western Hypocracy

Certainly misogyny and unequal rights for women are
features that can be found in abundance in the
societies of North Africa, the Near East, and much of
Asia, but can we honestly say that America and
Europe are free of these problems? It is easy and
hypocritical to accuse other societies of abuses and
inequities when injustices still exist in our own
culture. The image of the oppressed Muslim woman
can all too often serve as another self-righteous reason
for Europeans to congratulate themselves on their
superiority.
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Image of Islam and the West-1

In all the images of Islam that are commonly
circulated in European and American culture, little
can be found that is positive. Is it possible for an
entire civilization to have such negative features,
enduring more than 1,000 years across half the
world? Although as Carl W.Ernst feel in his book
Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World.
but feel that there is a mechanism of projection
operating here, along the lines spoken of by Jungians,
in which one’s own negative characteristics are
projected onto others.
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Image of Islam and the West -2

There is certainly plenty of evidence of fantasy
throughout the history of anti-Islamic stereotypes.
Muslims are considered to be violent, yet we do not
hear any similar accusations about intrinsic violence
in Christianity or European culture; what was it about
Christianity that motivated the world conquests of the
nineteenth century or more recent atrocities such as
the 1996 massacre of more than 6,000 Muslim men
and boys carried out in a single day by Eastern
Orthodox Serbs in Srebrenica?
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Image of Islam and the West -3

Muslims are considered to have dysfunctional
roles for women, yet that emblem of Western
technological superiority, the Internet, is
saturated with pornographic mages, and the
sexualization of women is omnipresent in
television, newspapers, and advertising. Is the
West so confident of its relations between the
sexes?
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Image of Islam and the West -4
Everyone needs to become educated as a
media critic nowadays, because the recycling
of sensational images is what the
communications media love most, especially
when conflict is present. Islam is a subject that
most Americans and Europeans have
experienced only through these negative
images and stereotypes. Clearly the time has
come to go beyond those images and
encounter real human beings.
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