1/21/13—Blog Post 2: Religion, Politics, and Patriarchal Control

“ Those who entrust their affairs to a woman will never know prosperity.”

 – Sahih Bukhari

           

Figure 1: SUPER MUSLIM WOMAN
                 From Open Majlis Blog

The selected chapters in Fatima Mernissi’s book, The Veil and the Male Elite, highlight the ways women and their bodies are controlled by the patriarchal structure found not necessarily within the true Islamic tradition, but within the false or patriarchal interpretations of the tradition.  These interpretations were made in order to fulfill elite males’ political agendas.

Mernissi first talks about the famous Hadith, or the recorded sayings or doings of the Prophet Muhammad which formulate the source of law along with the Quran, mentioned above.  This Hadith has been used often as justification to exclude women from politics.  Mernissi discusses that this justification defies logic when one reverts back to Islamic tradition and history and observes one of the most prominent women of Islam, Aisha, the most beloved wife of Prophet Muhammad, who led the Battle of the Camel.

Mernissi argues that A’hadith (plural of Hadith) like these are not about following the true Islamic and Prophetic traditions.  These were “fabricated” in order to maintain the status quo and power amongst the male elite.  Fatima eloquently states, “Since all power, from the seventh century on, was only legitimized by religion, political forces, and economic interests pushed for the fabrication of false traditions.  A false Hadith is testimony that the Prophet is alleged to have done or said such and such, which would then legitimate such an act or such an attitude” (Mernissi, 9). 

Not only can this possibly be a false Hadith, as Mernissi argues by questioning the reliability and intentions of Abu Bakr, the best friend of the Prophet and who related this saying to Aisha after her defeat at the Battle of the Camel, but this can also be a misinterpretation and misuse of the Hadith.  An explanation for this is found on the following site: http://theopenmajlis.blogspot.com/2011/08/women-politics-and-power-in-islam.html.  I quote from the site below, where the author explains how the Hadith mentioned cannot be used to exclude women from politics because not only does it not align with the logic of the Prophet’s other doings and sayings in his life, but also because this one Hadith cannot be generalized towards other women in other vastly different situations.

“Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet) - as is the case with Quranic verses - are said for a reason and at a specific time. One must look at the context in which the Hadith was said before reaching a conclusion about its meaning. And this is an important rule when trying to understand both the Quran and the Hadith.

The Prophet was reported to have said this phrase when he was told that the Persian King had died and his daughter had taken over the country as Queen. He meant to inform the Muslims that they will defeat the Persians in their battle. So, those who entrusted their affairs to a woman (as in the Persians) will not prosper.

Therefore, one can understand that the saying was intended for a specific situation regarding a specific country at a specific time, and cannot be used as a generalization for all women and for all countries at all times.

If one wants to use this saying as a way to justify their belief that women should not participate in political or economic affairs, then one should look at the Prophet’s (PBUH) life to see whether or not it corresponds with such a belief.”

Mernissi’s last reading covers the Hijab, or the veil.  She talks about how the Hijab originated from the Prophet Muhammad’s desire to separate another man from himself as well as his public life from his private life.  This eventually came to signify and emphasize the separation of the sexes.  She mentions how the Hijab reemerged at the end of the twentieth century when “Muslims in search of identity put the accent on the confinement of women as a solution for a pressing crisis.  Protecting women from change by veiling them and shutting them out of the world has echoes of closing the community to protect it from the West.  Only by keeping in mind this double perspective—women’s body as symbolic representation of community—can we understand what the Hijab signified in year 5 of the Hejira…” (Mernissi, 99).  At a certain point, there was a media campaign that had served to control women and their “sexual appetites” (99) by restricting them to household duties and by their segregation from the males—opinions which, of course, were justified through A’Hadith.

Mernissi’s commentary upon the use of Hadith and the focus on women’s bodies and Hijab as power structures in order to maintain patriarchal control relates to the similar power dynamics faced by the colonized peoples by European men as well as the power dynamics theorized by Foucault. 

Relatedly, as the colonizers used the native women’s bodies as a way to control them and the community, as well as to maintain white superiority, so did the Islamic male elitists, who focused on women’s bodies in order to maintain patriarchal superiority.  They found “Islamic” or “Prophetic” justification to segregate (“hijab”) the women and oppress their ambitions and basic intellectual freedoms (as can be seen from the examples of books Mernissi mentions that were published on how women should act and behave).  These “justifications” or false Hadith or false interpretations of them highlight the institutional power that Foucault theorizes is used in order to exert power over the people—a way to create a false sense of reality in which to control the masses and to maintain the political agendas of those already in power—in this case, the males.