Should We Follow Muslim Feminist Thinkers?

In the past few decades, some female Muslim academics and activists have drawn on the Qur'an to argue for what they perceive should be a part of women's rights and the equality of women. The work of various individuals and organisations is broadly referred to as Islamic feminism.

For a Muslim woman facing domestic violence, spiritual abuse, and financial exploitation within the Muslim community, it is easy to see why she would turn to Islamic feminist thinkers for support. The prejudice of white secular feminists doesn't appeal to her identity. In addition, she wants to gain knowledge and connect with Allah (ﷻ), but she doesn't feel welcome in some traditional Muslim spaces. Islamic feminist thinkers purport to root their opinions in the Islamic tradition, leading some to believe their views are automatically legitimate. Additionally, the egalitarian atmosphere fostered by Islamic feminist scholarship is seen as a safe space for a Muslim woman. 

“Islamic” feminist thinkers are filling a void. Is it not the case that only a handful of people champion Muslim women's issues? So when secular, articulate Muslim academics address the misogyny amongst Muslims, some are grateful and gravitate towards them. Islamic feminist thinkers often gain traction because modern Muslim societies in the East and West are not comprehensively delivering women the Islamic rights Allah (ﷻ) decreed them to have.

But how can a layperson evaluate what Islamic feminist academics are saying is theologically sound? A Muslim who has not studied Qur’anic hermeneutics or Islamic history will not have the skills or knowledge to assess their views, so women often trust them by virtue of their assertion as being pro-women.

Rather than blindly accepting their assertions, we should evaluate them objectively. We should not unquestioningly embrace their arguments simply because they are women, just as we should with men. We should pause and question our motives. Do we agree with them because they articulate what we want to hear? Or is it a classic case of shopping around for an opinion that agrees with our sensibilities? Moreover, it is essential to assess whether these views align with the majority of scholarly mainstream Islamic opinions. InshaAllah, I aim to do precisely that in this piece.

I will focus on the following contemporary academics: Dr Amina Wadud, Dr Asma Barlas, Dr Kecia Ali, and Dr Aysha Hidayatullah. They do not always agree, and some are more intellectually rigorous than others, but they share the objective of reimagining an egalitarian Islam (what exactly that entails, I discuss below), attempting to pursue equality and justice for women by “reforming” Islamic law.

Dr Amina Wadud

Dr Wadud is an American Muslim academic known for her activism and belief that the Qur’an should be interpreted using progressive values. She’s the author of the book Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective, a “gender-inclusive” contribution to tafsir (Qur’anic exegesis). The book’s description notes her belief that “the way to reform is the reexamination and reinterpretation of religious texts…”. She attempts to do so by proposing that fourteen centuries of Islamic thought have produced a legacy of interpretive readings of the Qu'ran written almost entirely by men, which, for her means, is inherently biased. This reflects a common argument among Muslim progressives - that it is not the religion, but its interpretation, the majority of which is patriarchal and therefore should be tossed out, and implementation of the Qu'ran that has kept women oppressed. 

Additionally, she is the co-founder of the non-governmental organisation Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian organisation committed to “address[ing] the injustice women face under the Shariah (Islamic law) system.” She also made international headlines in 2005 when she led Friday prayers at a mixed congregation in New York.

Dr Asma Barlas

Barlas was born in Pakistan and has a bachelor of arts in English literature and philosophy and a master's degree in journalism. She also holds a master's and PhD in international studies from the University of Denver. She has no formal qualification in Arabic or any branch of Islamic studies from an Islamic university or institution. Barlas has focused on how Muslims produce religious knowledge, asserting that the Qur’an has been interpreted in a patriarchal manner, a topic she has explored in her book, Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an.

Dr. Kecia Ali

Ali is an American professor who focuses on studying Islamic jurisprudence and women in early and modern Islam. She is currently a professor of religion at Boston University and converted to Islam while in college. Her major works include Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence, and Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam. Similarly, the premise underlying many of her arguments regarding Islamic marriage practices is that interpretation must change. She draws parallels between marriage and slavery in early Islamic legal practice, arguing that the relationship between husband and wife was seen as akin to that of a master and slave.

Dr. Aysha Hidayatullah

Hidayatullah is an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. She is most known for her feminist interpretation of the Qur'an in her book, Feminist Edges of the Qur'an.

Hidayatullah's book is the first comprehensive examination of Islam and the Qur'an that follows the hermeneutics of feminism in its interpretation. She gives an overview of the 20th-century interpretive tradition of Islamic feminists, and her feminist interpretation of the Qur'an asserts gender equality and justice as the foundation of Islamic morality. Hidayatullah challenges traditional interpretive traditions of the Qur'an, stating the assumptions of the text to be in favour of feminist and LGBTQ+ movements. The primary conclusion in her book is that feminists must no longer view the Qur’an as a source of divine authority but rather as one’s own ideas of justice and equality.

Hermeneutics is a theory and methodology of interpretation. The approach of academic Islamic feminists is not the same as that used by traditional Islamic scholars, primarily in their open mistrust towards the authority of transmitted knowledge, using their own methodologies to explain personal interpretations.

Having summarised the approaches of the leading proponents of the Islamic feminism movement, I will now outline some of their views.

The Tafsir of the Qur’an, hadith, and subsequent fiqh result from patriarchal sources; thus, we need a female interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah.

"...since the Quran was revealed in/to an existing patriarchy and has been interpreted by adherents of patriarchies ever since, Muslim women have a stake in challenging its patriarchal exegesis." - Barlas [1]

“However, what concerns me most about ‘traditional' tafasir is that they were exclusively written by males. This means that men and men's experiences were included and women and women's experiences were either excluded or interpreted through the male vision, perspective, desire, or needs of woman." - Wadud [2]

Dr. Abdullah bin Hamid Ali writes that reaction to exegetical literature is “not without provocation” because it is true that there have been men writing blatantly misogynistic statements that questioned the worth of women or viewed femininity as an imperfection. Muslims must acknowledge this. However, he adds, “It must, however, be acknowledged that when feminist epistemology is granted authority over all that is ‘Islamic’, Islam is reduced to a place of secondary importance, thereby undermining any claims to the ‘Islamic-ness’ of our pursuits.” Objection to troubling statements should not lead one to conclude that there was a conspiratorial desire to be inhumane to women or that women’s experiences were excluded.

In his book al–Muhaddithat, Dr Akram Nadwi asserts that women played an active and prominent role in Islam's formative years. Providing numerous examples, he contends that women had access to religious authority as men did. Nadwi's work provides biographical accounts of female scholars throughout the Islamic tradition's history. Through this, he dispels the myth propagated by Wadud and Barlas that the only note-worthy female Muslim figures are found in the very early inception of Islam. 

Additionally, the lack of writing by women at the frequency of men itself is not evidence that women did not have active voices and roles in engaging the traditional sciences. In fact, women were part of hadith narration chains and many fiqhi positions, such as those on menstruation, which were based on narrations and experiences of women themselves. Few women writing was not unique to Muslims but a feature of the vast majority of societies until recent history. By using writing and tangible texts as the measure of influence, involvement, and place in the Islamic tradition, Muslim feminists engage in a sort of ortho-graphic centrism that actually erases Muslim women’s lives further.

Islamic history is patriarchal

One assertion is that a patriarchal version of Islam emerged after the early generations of Muslims, affecting the production and interpretation of hadith and fiqh. This is an example of how Islamic feminists take their understanding of history from liberal orientalists who paint Muslim history as masculine hegemony of the world, claiming Islamic civilisations treated women as subordinates. When presenting a paper on women’s suffrage, Louisa Bigg told her audience that, 

“An Eastern traveller, struck with the unbearable tedium and monotony of life in the Harem, asked a native gentleman whether he should like to be treated as he treated his wives who were shut up in their dreary prison from one year’s end to another. ‘Oh, no,’ he answered, ‘I am a man.’ It is this sprit which dictated the Suttee (widow immolation), which prompted the Mahomedan spirit to deny that woman has a soul, and which bids the Englishwoman stay at home and darn the stockings.” [3]

This false claim about Muslim women being denied souls in Islam is found repeated in numerous European texts. [4]

In Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 Vindication of the Rights of Woman, the foundational text of Western liberal feminism. She describes the reprehensible treatment of women in Western societies by Western men as "Eastern" or "Mahometan" (Islamic); indeed, on the very first page of her treatise, this treatment of women is described as in "the true style of Mahometanism…subordinate beings, and not as part of the human species…" [5]

We need to consider: how are they defining patriarchy? It would be disingenuous to deny there are realms in which men have hierarchy within the Islamic tradition, others in which women do, and some in which both have equal standing, such as in scholarship and piety. We also acknowledge that Muslim societies may not have upheld the ideals of Islam within our history, and many colonial unIslamic practices exist within Muslim-majority countries today. 

If they define patriarchy as the encroachment of men into all areas to the detriment of women, this must be disputed as this is not historically accurate. This premise ignores the diverse roles Muslim women have had historically. For example, Fatima al-Fihri, born in 800 A.D., founded a mosque that developed into the famous al-Qarawiyyin University in the Moroccan city of Fez. Other famous examples include Fatima bint Alauddin al-Samarkhandi (d.587 AH), a jurist who issued fatwas, helping her husband Al-Kassani, who wrote a well-known Hanafi fiqh. Women such as the mothers of Imam Malik (ra), Imam Ahmed (ra), and Imam Bukhari (ra) played pivotal roles in teaching and encouraging their children to righteousness and the height of scholarship.

Many of the successes enumerated above are bizarrely not considered as such because success today is ultimately in adjacency to male achievements in the secular public sphere. We must expand the definition of female empowerment beyond a liberal definition.

Individuals can interpret the Quran without qualifications

"I claim that it is the right for every Muslim to read and interpret the Quran for themselves. They immediately think it means a very elaborate process of exegesis (interpretation) that only philologists, linguists and scholars can undertake. One of my recurrent messages is that the Quran also came for the unlettered Bedouin in the desert; therefore, it cannot be preserved only for scholars and jurists." - Barlas [6]

This is a common misconception among Muslims that the Qur’an is clear; therefore, everyone can make prescriptive judgements. The Qur’an is absolutely clear in its guidance, and the fundamentals of religion are easy for everyone to understand on a basic level. In matters of law, however, it is well-established that only a mujtahid can interpret the meaning of the ayah of the Qur’an. A mujtahid is someone qualified to exercise ijtihad, juridical effort and competence to infer legal rulings from Islamic law sources and procedures, i.e. Quran, Sunnah, Ijma, Qiyas, etc. Among the requirements for ijtihad, the mujtahid must be a Muslim and a person of sound mind and intellectual competence; they must know and understand classical Arabic; have knowledge of the Qur’an in legal, chronological, geographical aspects of revelation; knowledge of sunnah; hadith; Furu (practical rulings); Qiyas (analogical deduction); Maqasid (objectives) of Shari’ah and general maxims of Fiqh, and more.

A Muslim who does not possess these requisites- including Barlas - cannot interpret the Quran and derive rules.

The authority of hadith should be doubted

Barlas stated in an interview: “For a believer, the Quran is a divine discourse, and the hadith are not. Hadith are the result of human compilation.” [3] In her book, she again says, “Inequality and discrimination derive not from the teachings of the Quran but from the secondary religious texts the tafsir (Quranic exegesis) and the hadith.” [6]

One approach to interpreting the Qur’an far outside the parameters of the Shari’a is to lessen the role of the Sunnah or to negate hadith altogether. The Sunnah - which includes hadith, the sayings and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) - is what gives context to the Qur’an. The Qur’an was revealed over a period of 23 years to the Prophet (ﷺ), and many ayat address the communal, social, and political happenings of his time. By using a (invalid) methodology that does away with an entire source of law, one can engage in unrestricted interpretations. Additionally, many of the finer points regarding women and law are found in the hadiths, so by dismissing them, it’s easier for personal opinions to find grounding in the Qur’an.

After the demise of the Prophet (ﷺ), the sahabah decided to collect the teachings of the Prophet (ﷺ) for compilation. It took years and decades to accomplish this noble task. An entire science developed in order to collect, authenticate, and record the hadith, with detailed grading systems and evaluation of the character and trustworthiness of narrators. 

Perhaps the biggest logical flaw in arguments like that of Barlas is that by casting doubt on all hadith, they are going against their own principles of following the teachings in the Qur’an as Allah (ﷻ) instructs Muslims to follow the sunnah of His Messenger (ﷺ) in the Qur’an: 

“Whatever gains God has turned over to His Messenger from the inhabitants of the villages belong to God, the Messenger, kinsfolk, orphans, the needy, the traveller in need- this is so that they do not just circulate among those of you who are rich––so accept whatever the Messenger gives you, and abstain from whatever he forbids you…” Quran 59: 7 (Trans. Abdul Haleem)

“Whoever obeys the Messenger obeys God…” Quran 4: 80 (Trans. Abdul Haleem)

In attempting to historicise the Qur’an, they dismiss the hadith that would provide that very context and understanding. Calls to minimise the role of the hadith are not new nor unique to the Islamic feminist movement, and other movements have taken up this approach.

The fact that the Quran was transmitted by the Sahaba just like the Hadith were so it’s illogical to accept the Quran but not ahadith. 

Liberalism

The failure to acknowledge how liberalism has affected the study of Islam is evident in certain definitions of equality. Their boundaries are built upon choice and sameness, which render Islamic rulings that differ between men and women inherently oppressive. For example, Dr. Kecia Ali writes,

"Patriarchy allows interreligious marriage between a Muslim man and a Christian woman, but not the reverse…Rethinking Islamic law without questioning its basic presumptions about male dominance will not take us nearly far enough. Whose sharia is this? It is certainly not mine. I cannot believe that it is God's.”

Elsewhere, equality is agency or choice. This is why we see an emphasis on choice when it comes to hijab, rather than what is mandated and rewarded by Allah ﷻ : 

“I have recognised and lived the idea that hijab is a public declaration of identity with Islamic ideology. I do not consider it a religious obligation, nor do I ascribe to it any religious significance or moral value per se. It is certainly not the penultimate denotation of modesty, as mandated by the Qur'an,” - Wadud [7]

Modern biases in these approaches demand that gender differences should not be recognised, a very liberal modern projection. All societies have treated men and women differently based on the differences that exist within their creation. But some modern thinkers insist that Islam should not have different rules for men and women, and fathers and husbands should not have authority within the family - leading to even disparaging prophets for following God’s command. For example, Wadud shamefully has no problem insulting Prophet Abraham (as) because his actions do not align with her views on how a husband should treat his wife:

"In Muslim cultures, the patriarchal family rules supreme, and yet Hajar was (literally) thrown out in the desert to fend for herself and her child without even a second's thought to the impossibility of her location as confirmation of patriarch....How then do we reconcile with Abraham, the deadbeat dad, Sarah the selfish bitch, and even God, the benevolent?!”  

Gender Equality

Islamic feminist scholarship has asserted not only that the affirmation of gender equality can be found in the Qur'an but, furthermore, that gender equality is unequivocally supported by the Qur'an. So, arguments that the Qur'an affirms full of social equality are based on the claim that social gender roles are complementary—equal but different. While some ayat do affirm gender equality, others pose significant problems for feminist interpretations. For example, ayat discussing marriage and divorce assign different roles, rights, and responsibilities for men and women. Thus, Wadud concludes that while the Qur'an cannot be rewritten, modern Muslims must rewrite Islamic law; “we are the makers of textual meaning.” [8]

Ali and Hidayatullah argue that while the feminist interpretive work on the Qur'an has been meaningful, the urge to find evidence of unconditional gender equality in the Qur'an has led to declarations that misrepresent the Qur'an. Hidayatullah's book is enlightening because she expresses her experience of questioning these claims. She had hoped that Islamic feminist reinterpretations would demonstrate that the Qur'an supports complete gender equality, but writes that “the Qur’an itself must be held responsible for its sexist and harmful readings.” [7] She states she will not be “...engaging in interpretive manipulations to force egalitarian meanings from the text. Furthermore, I have also come to believe firmly that we must begin to radically reimagine the nature of the Qur'an's revelation and divinity.” [8] 

So, because the Quran does not uphold the idea of absolute unconditional equality, one Islamic feminist thinker illogically questions the authority of the Qur'an. It is important to note that equality or inequality is not the starting point for Islamic rules because Allah (ﷻ) created men and women to be different. The Qur’an is from Allah (ﷻ), the Creator of our sameness and differences.

To conclude, it is evident that Islamic feminist thinkers’ views do not align with the majority of scholarly normative Islamic opinions. This development of Islamic feminist theory, riddled with the aforementioned problems and contradictions, is not simply an innocuous, praiseworthy movement to help women. Additionally, embracing feminism is not the only way to advocate for women’s rights; rather, embracing this movement wholesale is embracing all of the ideological and creedal problems embedded within it. One may argue that an Islamic feminism is possible, as long as it’s within the bounds of the Shari’a, but until the aforementioned issues are resolved, it is clear that, as Muslims, we should not take these figures as a source of knowledge when trying to understand the topic of women’s rights in Islam.

Works Cited

1. Barlas, Asma. Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'ān. University of Texas Press, 2019, pp. ix

2. Wadud, Amina. Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective. Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 

3. Louisa Bigg, “Should the Parliamentary Franchise Be Granted to Women Housholders?,” paper read at conference in the Council Chamber at Luton, December 11, 1879, in Women’s Suffrage Pamphlets (1871-80), p.4, quoted in Antoinette M. Burton, Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865-1915, University of North Carolina Press, 1994, p.151.

4. Leila Ahmed,“Western Ethnocentrism and Perceptions of the Harem.” Feminist Studies, vol. 8, no. 3, Feminist Studies, Inc., 1982, pp. 521–34, https://doi.org/10.2307/3177710.

5. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, David Campbell Publishers Ltd, 1992, p. 1. 

6. “Interview with Asma Barlas: ''It Is the Right for Every Muslim to Interpret the Quran for Themselves''.” Qantara.de, https://en.qantara.de/content/interview-with-asma-barlas-it-is-the-right-for-every-muslim-to-interpret-the-quran-for.

7. Asma Barlas. Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'ān. University of Texas Press, 2019, pp. 3.

8. Infoeditor. “Textuality of Hijab: Leila Ahmed and Amina Wadud.” Interactive, 17 Jan. 2015, https://interactive.net.in/textuality-of-hijab-leila-ahmed-and-amina-wadud.

9. Wadud, Amina. Inside the Gender Jihad:Women's Reform in Islam. Oneworld Publications, 2006, pp. 204

10. Hidayatullah, Aysha A. Feminist Edges of the Qur'an. Oxford Univ. Press, 2014, pp. 137

11. Id., pp. viii