Muslim women can reshape Islam

[Niya]

Muslim women can reshape Islam (Christian Science Monitor)

The US honors 'women of courage' from five Muslim nations, a sign of challenges to male Islamists.
The Monitor's View
Something special went unnoticed last week when the US State Department gave out its first awards for "women of courage" to 10 foreign recipients: Seven of the women had demonstrated their honored bravery within Muslim countries.

Were these awards another US effort to help reform Islam? Possibly. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice simply praised the honorees for "combating attempts to dehumanize women." And the awards were pegged to International Women's Day, March 8.

Still, the winners, selected from 82 women nominated by US embassies, came from only eight nations, five of which are largely Muslim (Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iraq, Maldives, Saudi Arabia). That carries a message about the churn for change among Muslims.

It's possible that at least one woman activist from Iran should have made the cut. But then she would have been tagged a US agent. Last week, the clerics who rule in Tehran detained 33 women activists as they protested for five other women on trial for a 2006 demonstration against discriminatory laws. Such arrests show that female dissenters in Iran are a big threat to the Islamic regime.

Mullahs in many Islamic nations are nervous these days about educated women smartly arguing against post-Muhammad interpretations of the Koran that treat women differently than men. If anyone on the State Department's list comes closest to fulfilling that role, it is Dr. Siti Musdah Mulia of Indonesia.

Islamic followers in that Southeast Asian nation have long expressed the religion's gentler qualities, such as tolerance and mercy. Indonesian women, for example, don't suffer honor killings or genital mutilation. And they may interpret holy texts and be teachers and preachers, challenging misogynist or patriarchal theology. With more than 200 million Muslims, Indonesia may someday spread a kinder form of Islam, unlike that from Iran and Al Qaeda.

Dr. Mulia was Indonesia's first woman with a doctorate in Islamic political thought and the first female professor at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. In 2004, she led an effort to revise the legal code, seeking a ban on polygamy and forced marriages. The attempt, however, was thwarted in parliament by Islamists.

Still, the stage was set to further improve women's rights. Many new women's groups in Indonesia are making "unyielding religious arguments," states US scholar Pieternella van Doorn-Harder in her 2006 book "Women Shaping Islam." These women, she writes, "did not set out to be activists or feminists but wanted women to fulfill the status originally given to them by Islam: equal human beings in front of God."

Muslim women can claim that status, lost to them during Islam's early centuries, by gaining more specific knowledge of the Koran. In the 1970s, for instance, women Islamic scholars in Indonesia said the Koran allows birth control. Soon afterward, male scholars endorsed that view.

This kind of grass-roots shift within Islam needs quiet support. It may be more effective than simply championing Western-style human rights. Religion speaks to the heart, and it is hearts that need to be changed if Muslim women are to win equality with men.
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Too bad, the US by getting involved with Muslim women groups will only result in their efforts being discredited!

[Nagin]

Nice topic sis...mashallah

Thats really true we has muslim women can reshape our religion by starting with ourselves....when i mean ourselves putting Allah(swt) first.......such as salaad and protecting our modesty. Second showing our children(s) the right way to live this duniya. inshallah they wwill turn out good in this life if they our closer to allah(swt).

[Adanna]

Hey Niya,

Offcourse. I've thought about this issue a lot, about the misogony within Islam. But isn't the risk that another type of bias will evolve with this type of thing..a group of "embedded" ulamas?

[paulmathew38]

Another nice topic about women empowerment. Hoping to read more topics similar to this.

[paulmathew38]

Another nice forum about women empowerment. Hoping to read more topics similar to this.

[Amirsade]

Islam is a complete religion. From the days of prophet mohamed scw to this day islam hasant change one bit.people can change but islam will never change and there will always be a group of people that would follow islam the way it was reveal. The westerners and their brain washed puppets aka house niggeros may revered to those specific people terroris and extremist simply couse they refuse to be modernise.nothing wrong with islam but he who say he follow islam and wants to change a few things needs to check himself.

[Kukri]

'Muslim women can reshape Islam'

Only an insecure individual will by into this. islam doesnt need reshaping and even to concider such insult is blasphemy.

[BlackVelvet]

Something definitely worth looking into.

[grandpakhalif]

Islam definetely does not need 'reshaping' it is perfect.

[Niya]

Islam in theory is perfect and complete, the problem is the practice and how the laws are implemented.
A lot of cherry-picking takes place to the determinant of women.

[zingii]

Reshape it into what?