For any woman, but more so for a believing woman, it is so exasperating when religious teachings and traditions are used to justify abhorrent practices damaging to women and girls.
Too often religious dictates, as interpreted by some traditionalists, seem to trump women’s human rights. When God or religious laws are cited, it is almost impossible to contradict these pronouncements.
Our organization, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, believes in gender equality and all this entails. Our work is always to assist women to gain their rights within the context of Islam and Canada.
We have just completed research on some difficult issues such as domestic violence, femicide, forced marriages and female genital mutilation/cutting.
Obviously these issues affect many women, but we want to address these as they influence the lives of Canadian Muslim women.
The research led to the development of training materials which have been used to train our Chapters’ women as well as some service providers across the country.
During the training, questions arose about each of these issues – domestic violence, femicide, forced marriages and FGM/C. The questions were about what are the Islamic teachings on these topics.
Are these practices cultural or based on religious teachings? Are they condemned, condoned or tolerated? Why are the Quran and the practices of the Prophet Mohammad quoted to justify these issues?
For example, does the one verse in the Quran regarding the husband’s role in disciplining his wife permit violence against women? Is there a saying of the Prophet which tolerates FGM/C? Does the example of the Prophet’s marriage to a young woman translate into permission for older Muslim men to marry young girls?
Does patriarchy of a traditional society, which emphasizes the value of the family over the individual, allow for the control of women and girls by the family and community?
One example is the widespread practice of female genital mutilation or cutting. It is an ancient one from the times of the Pharaohs but was assimilated by later cultures. It may be prevalent in Africa but is also found in other countries such as Yemen and Indonesia.
The justification is bizarre, but repeated often enough it has persuaded women themselves that it is a “good” practice. Reasons given are that a cut/mutilated vaginal area is cleaner, that it is better for both the husbands and the women themselves.
The practice is so embedded that some young girls see it as a rite of passage into womanhood. The health and sexual harm is somehow suppressed as many mothers will participate in the actual act.
The religious justification for Muslims is the use of one saying ascribed to the Prophet Mohammad.
Supposedly, he tells a woman who does the cutting that she should not cut deeply because it affects the sexual satisfaction for the woman. This saying is suspect, but tragically it has been around for centuries and even today is debated amongst Islamic male scholars. Those who understand the harm of the practice have clearly stated that this saying is weak, and does not make sense in the larger picture of the relationship between men and women. The relationship between a man and woman is described in beautiful and gentle terms and therefore cannot contain such a painful disfigurement of a woman’s most private parts.
It is also extremely important for us to be cognizant of the human rights of women and girls. Most of us Muslim women believe that Islam is egalitarian and values both genders and could not teach about behaviours and practices which cause grief or harm.
In the same way, the story that the Prophet Mohammad married a girl of nine is accepted by most of “gospel truth.” However some recent scholarship has cast doubts about his wife Aisha’s age. Historically it is more likely that she was nearer 15-16 when she was married. It is less upsetting that she may have been 15, but it does not make the practice any more understandable in our times.
Many Muslims are clear that because this happened over 1,400 years ago, in another context and in another time, we cannot transpose this as a general practice for our times. We have moved beyond this to embrace childhood for our children and continue to fight against poverty and child labour and should surely include child marriages as another abhorrent practice best left in the past.
