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Muslim masculinities: an open process

By Abdennur Prado
International Congress on Islamic Feminism
Critical Muslim 08: Men in Islam, pp.31-46
Bismil-lhi ar-Rahmani ar-Rahim
This paper is divided in three parts. The first and shorter one traces the traditional
symbolical framework to which are subject masculine-feminine relations in Islam. The
second and more extended part deals with the establishment of a patriarchal model of
masculinity as an historical process, acting in different levels: biography of the Prophet
Muhammad (saws), ethics and values, sexuality, Sufism, Philosophy, Quranic exegesis,
jurisprudence Leading finally to patriarchal domination and segregation of women. In
the third and last part, I will refer to the impact of colonialism and the current situation,
asking about the possibilities of a feminist Muslim masculinity. Overall, this paper can
be seen as a presentation about the instauration of patriarchy in the frame of Islam,
considered as an ideological and historical process.
Importance and necessity of addressing the issue of masculinity
The gender issue is incomplete without consideration of masculinity. Despite this,
there are very few studies that render Muslim men visible as gendered subjects and
that show that masculinities have a history and are part of gender relations in Muslim
cultures (Lahoucine Ouzgane 2006, p.1). Here, there are two key factors that seem in
some sense contradictory:
a) Masculinity in Islam has a history. We cannot define a unique and univocal Islamic
concept of masculinity. As in any other religion or culture, the concept of masculinity
dominant in a precise historical moment is conditioned by economic, society, class, age,
ethnicity, membership, history, political situation... Denying this would contradict the
very nature of the gender studies that have led to the emergence of the category of
masculinity.
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Highlighting the historicity of the concept of masculinity keeps us from falling into any
kind of essentialism. It avoids falling into Eurocentric reading, projection in Islam's of
the myths of Western culture. We must avoid the unconscious equiparation of images of
aggressive virility characteristics of Western history, with different models of
masculinity present in the Islamic tradition.
We hear to talk about of stereotypes about Muslim women. But the image of Muslim
men in the West is also monolithic. The millionaire Sheikh, the obscurantist Mullah,
the vociferous Muslim. Interestingly, the current image contrasts with the ancient image
of Muslims men as effeminate. The accounts of Western travellers in the Islamic world
conveyed an image of sensuality and delicacy of a refined and mannered civilization.
Far from offering a monolithic model of masculinity, the history of Islam offers a
variety of them. Some of them present us with a warrior conception of manhood, but
others may be considered as opposites, offering a model that incorporates aspects
considered feminine: the use of perfumes, grooming, affection, the culture of the
bathrooms, crying as an expression of masculinity... In the Persian and Ottoman
miniatures, men are often portrayed as sensitive and sensual, not at all hardened males.
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b) The concept of masculinity is part of a broader understanding of gender. It has often
been said that, in the patriarchal mentality, man is constituted as the One and the woman
as the Other, the man is considered as the paradigm of the human, and the woman is
subordinated. And it is precisely to preserve a certain concept of "ideal masculinity" that
is necessary to seclude women, segregate them in a differentiated mental and social
space. That is: although (as stated above) there is no single model of masculinity,
dominant models do exist, which have led to the discrimination and the subordination of
women.
From this point of view, it is obvious that the concept of masculinity that has prevailed
throughout the history of Islam can be described as patriarchal. The ideal masculinity is
conceived as a series of guidelines for action it should take the man to be fully
considered as a man. In this sense, the ideal masculinity subjects men, just as the
concept of femininity subject women. Both models are instruments of pressure that
society exerts over its members, in order to maintain a cohesive social structure. This
pressure becomes a repressive morality of which it is virtually impossible to escape as
the discourse of patriarchal religious elites is taking hold on the minds of the Muslims
as if orthodoxy.
The pair male-female in traditional Islamic thought
To understand how the concept of patriarchal masculinity is conformed in Islam, we
must first situate ourselves within the traditional paradigm. For traditional Islam I
mean here those manifestations that are based on an unbroken chain of knowledge that
can be traced to the Quranic revelation. Traditional thinking is constituted as a set of
symbols deeply rooted in the collective psyche. A religion cannot be understood only by
appealing to a sociological perspective or analysis of their practices or their doctrines, as
these are inseparable from a worldview. To his followers, there is a symbolic dimension
that gives meaning to such practices and doctrines. A traditional society is an organic
society in which each individual naturally takes his place, as a part of a whole that is
designed to fully develop their spiritual capacities. The primary objective of Traditional
Islam is precisely that all individuals can live in dignity and realize themselves in the
spiritual realm.
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In relation to gender, Masculine and Feminine are attributes that are, in first place,
beyond men and women, they are archetypal features of creation as a whole. The
Quran teaches that Allah created everything in pairs, and that Creation is supported on
a Balance, in a perfect equilibrium. In the world of forms, everything is dual: male-
female, wet-dry, high-low, dark-light, etc. Every quality has another that opposes to it,
and with which it seeks to be in harmony. The male-female duality is related to other
dualities, between active and passive, action and contemplation, heaven and earth, spirit
and body, the transcendent and the immanent. In traditional thinking, the male is
described as active, rational, regulatory, courageous and austere. The female would be
receptive, emotive, intuitive, sensitive and sensual.
This duality has a cosmological application. In the traditional symbolic universe,
everything that exists in the world of creatures is a manifestation of a higher plane. The
sun and moon correspond, in a certain sense, to man and woman, although I must say
that in Arabic sun and moon are feminine words. Beyond the easy identification, the
most important relationship is that the pair sun-moon has an equivalent in the male-
female pair. Not because the sun can be compared with the man and the moon with the
woman, but because just like happens with sun and moon, man and woman form an
inseparable pair. Is the harmony between these two principles that makes possible the
development of life, understood as an endless cosmic cycle. At the same time, the male-
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female and sun-moon polarities are manifestations of the creative power of Allah, who
is beyond all dualities. This balance between masculine and feminine can be seen as a
synthesis between the solar and lunar cults, in which the moon represent the Mother
Goddess, the feminine creative power.
Masculine and Feminine in Allah
The Masculine-Femenine duality has also an application in the conception of Divinity.
As we have said, all the levels are related. In this case, we talk about the microcosmic
level, that corresponds to the creatures; the macrocosmic level, that corresponds to the
heavens and the disposition of planets; and the meta-cosmic level, that transcends them,
and corresponds to Allah.
At the heart of Islamic Worldview is the idea of Tawhid, the Oneness of all that is the
created, the idea that all is united by its origin in Allah. Although Allah is One, there are
inside Allah some dualities which are also manifested in His creation: Allah is the Giver
of Life and the Giver of Death, the Manifest and the Hidden, the First and the Last.
Allah is one, and the Creation is the manifestation of the Attributes or Names of Allah.
Muslim theologians have classified Names of Majesty (Asma al-Jalal) and Names of
Beauty (Asma al-Jamal). Those of Majesty are the majority: al-Malik (the King), al-
Azz (the Powerfull), al-abbr (the Dominator), al-Mutakabbir (the Haughty), al-
Qahhr (the Subjugator), al-Al (the Almighty), al-Kabir (the Greatest), al-alil (the
Majestic), etc. This are Names that generate fear, because they speak of His greatness
and the insignificance of man, a creature constantly exposed to pain and joy, a
dependent creature, in need of food and affection. This is a deity who judges, who is
severe in punishment, and to which humans are subjected.
As Names of Beauty, we note al-Rahman (the Merciful), al-Rahim (the Compassive),
al-Halim (The Meek), as-Salam (the Peace) and al-Wadud (The Loving), among others.
Names that are inviting us to trust and love Allah, because through them Allah is shown
as Compassionate, Close, Loving. It is a protective divinity, radiating compassion and
that is relationated with creatures with tenderness and a cosmic love.
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All the chapters of the Quran (except one) begin with the basmala: bismil-lhi ar-
Rahmani ar-Rahim, that is generally translated as In the Name of God the Most
Compassionate the Most Merciful, or similar. In the Quran Allah says My mercy
overspreads everything (7:156) and that Allah has willed upon Himself the law of
grace and mercy (6:12 in the translation of Muhammad Asad). Also, there is a Hadith
qudsi that says that My mercy prevails over My Wrath. The word usually translated
as Mercy is Rahma. The Names Rahman and Rahim are originated in the Arab triliteral
r-h-m. The Arab word rahm, from the same root, means uterus or womb. From the
etymology of the word rahma, in the French version of the Quran by Andr Chouraqui
we find the translation of ar-Rahman ar-Rahim as Le Matriciant, le Matriciel
(Chouraqui 1990). This maybe sounds strange, but is linguistically correct. We
understand, then, that has been said that, in the Islamic concept of the divine, the
feminine element takes precedence over the masculine (Sachiko Murata 1992).
In the theological and symbolic levels, it is comprehensible that patriarchy signifies the
predominance of the masculine attributes of Allah upon the feminine attributes. That is:
to put the emphasis on the attributes of majesty, dominion and power, over the matricial
attributes, of compassion and tenderness. In the crude words of Lahoucine Ouzgane, the
result is a terryfing and monolithic idea of God, sans all attributes except those that
service goals of brute power and are disconnected from the feminine (Lahoucine
Ouzgane 2006, p.22). This imbalance is partially explained by the fact that the Quran
has been revealed in a predominantly patriarchal society, and in the fact that Islam has
grown as a world civilization in a time where patriarchy was normative.
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PART TWO
The formation of Patriarchy as an historical process
We are going to see how this imbalance has manifested in different levels, introducing
specific nuances to the concept of masculinity. So we talk about patriarchal Islam as an
historical process that situates us progressively far away from the Quranic worldview.
This can be traced in the Sira or biography of the Prophet, in the Qur'anic interpretation
or Tafsir, in philosophy, in the theory of government, in Sufism, in sexuality and,
finally, in Fiqh or jurisprudence. These areas are not watertight compartments, but they
influence each other in the unstoppable process of masculinization of Islam. At the end,
I will talk about the current situation, stating that we are fully inside this process. Also, I
sate that modernity and the encounter with the West are contributing to deepen in this
process.
1. Sira or biography of the Prophet. The Sunna or prophetic praxis has been
masculinized through his biography. The Prophet is presented as a politichal leader and
less as an spiritual master. The religious is subject to the political. The life of Prophet
Muhammad has been explained as a story of salvation, as the foundational political
myth of the caliphate. At the same time, public space is presented as characteristic of
the prophetic mission, and women are excluded from this space. Thus, the religious and
the political end up being dominated by men. The woman are considered as a creature
deficient in their religion, the exclusion of women from the mosque and the denial of
women's leadership.
It has placed the emphasis on the military elements, of domain, and have been removed
the feminine components, the fact that Prophet Muhammad had an intimate
relationship with nature, to the extent that there are Hadith in which he speaks to things
and caresses the mountains. In the Prophet, we found some attributes that have been
considered feminine, such as crying or tenderness. The Prophet praised the use of
perfumes, grooming for the wives, affection... Most Muslims ignore that the Prophet
washed his clothes, cooked, cleaned his house, and so on. I do not want to say that
grooming, washing and cooking are womens issues. What I mean is that the clear
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separation of roles established by tradition does not necessarily originate in the behavior
of the Prophet, but in the selection of certain aspects of his nature and life, that converge
with the patriarchal gaze of the interpreters.
2. Ethics. The values proposed in the Quran cannot be considered either masculine or
feminine, or maybe they constitute a perfect balance of active and passive qualities that
must occur within each human being. H u m i l i t y , c o u ra g e , c o m p a s s i o n , g e n e r o s i t y ,
p a t i e n c e , fl e x i b i l i t y , fa i rn e ss, k i n d n e ss, t o l e ra n c e , k n o wl e d ge , st re n g t h . . . However,
Islamic ethics has been masculinized, highlighting as socially recognized those virtues
that fall under the category of Muruwwa or virility. Bravery, courage, generosity, to
honour agreements, the excellence in the fight, honesty, practical wisdom A range of
values that came from the pre-Islamic era, and are linked to mans role as guarantor of
tribal and family honour. They are considered virtues proper of men: the word
muruwwa comes from mara, male (Asghar Ali Engineer 2001). Can therefore be said
that Quranic ethics has been paganized, or is inserted into a pre-Islamic concept. The
Quranic values, that are specific of men and women, without any distinction, are
relegated to the background.
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3. Sexuality. The emphasis is on the Prophet's prodigious sexual capacity, as related in
the hadith collected by Ibn Sa'd (Ruth Roded, Islamic Masculinities, p.57). One of these
says that the Prophet copulated in one night with his nine women. This superhuman
virility is related to his prophetic don. Is the expression of a powerful manhood that is
able to dominate and control the sexuality of several women. The relations between the
sexes are raised as an issue of power. The power of the male to placate the female
libido. Several hadith are attributed to the Prophet, saying that women should be always
ready to satisfy their husbands: If a man calls his wife to cohabit with her, she should
go immediately, even if she is busy in making bread oven." And also: When a man
calls his wife to bed and she is opposed so that the man spends all night angry, the
angels curse her until she wakes up in the morning.
Against the Christian ideal of celibacy and control of sexual appetites, the Islamic ideal
of manhood is sensual. There is no the consideration of women as a creature attached to
the material and the demonic, typical of Christian patristic literature. But there is the
idea that female sexuality is uncontrollable, a potential source of fitna, and must be
appeased in some way. As Fatima Mernissi states, in the west sexism is based in the
belive that women are biologically inferior. On the contrary, subjugation of women in
the Muslim world derives from the idea that women are incredibly powerful and
dangerous, and that all sexual institutions (polygamy, seclusion, segregation of the
sexes) are used as strategies to contain this power (Fatima Mernissi 1987). There is a
hadith, atributed to Iman Ali: Allah the Almighty, created sexual desire in ten parts,
then gave nine parts to women and one to men. But Allah also gave them an equal share
of modesty. A classic of Muslim erotology, The Perfumed Garden of Muhammad
Nefzawi, describes women as: "Never satiated or tired to copulate... Her thirst for sex is
never exhausted. Ahmed Bin Selman also affirms this idea when he writes: The
woman's sexual appetite is much greater than man. Since not all Muslims have the
prodigious sexual capacity of the Prophet, they try other ways to keep at bay the libido
of women. The closure will ultimately be the most effective (Abdelwahab Bouhdiba
1975).
But this conception of super-masculinity that does not consider women more than
libidinous animals to be tamed, contrasts with several hadith in which an image is
presented to us almost the opposite. This exceptional (almost mythological) manhood
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can be seen as a sign of the Prophet's love for women, as confirmed by a well-known
hadith: I was made to love three things in this world: women, perfume and the
brightness of the eyes in prayer.
Along with virility understood as male
potency and ability to calm the
dangerous libido of women, there is a
dimension of love, respect and
tenderness (Islamic Masculinities, p.58).
An ideal of masculinity kind, loving and
attentive to the wife, treated not as a
possession or as someone with a sexual
appetite that must be appeased-
controlled. In this case, the paradigm is
the marriage between the Prophet and
Jadia. Here the Prophet is presented as
a faithful husband and loving father.
All this has to do with the Qur'anic image of marriage: He is who did create you from
one living entity (a single soul), and out of it brought into being its partner, that he
might take rest in her (7:189). [Allah] created for you mates from yourselves that ye
might find rest in them, and He ordained between you love and mercy (30:21). And
Allah hath given you mates of your own kind, and hath given you, from your mates, sons
and grandsons, and hath made provision of good things for you (16:72).
This dimension of manhood is shown in some beautifull ahadith about sex. On one
occasion, the Prophet cited as an example of one of the three types of cruelty a man
who makes love to his wife before stimulation. Another hadith compares the sex
without previous stimulation with animal behaviour: When any of you make love with
his wife, do not go to her as a bird. Instead, he should be slow and deliberate. The
Prophet said: There should be none among you who makes love to his wife like
animals, but rather should be a messenger between (you and your wife). When asked
about the meaning of the messenger, he said: It means kissing and talking. The
Prophet said: ...every game of a believer are void except in three cases: in
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horsemanship, in archery and mutual excitement with his wife. These are haqq (true,
authentic). On the importance of sexual pleasure, there is a hadith in which
Muhammad granted a woman the divorce on the grounds that her husband does not
satisfy her. He said: The best of you is the best treats his wife. And again: He who
go to the mosque (for prayer) and been next to his wife have the same reward. (More
traditions about sex in Abdelwahab Bouhdiba 1975, and Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi
2001).
4. Sufism
As heart of Islamic spirituality, is in Sufism where appear alternative models of
masculinity, and even a high regard to feminity. This is logical, to the extent that Sufism
is intended to reflect the Quranic spirituality, and therefore the ontological equality
between male and female, under the precedence of the rahma. In Sufism tend to blur the
boundaries between the sexes, and great spiritual teachers of Islam did not hesitate to
describe the essence of Allah as feminine (Annemarie Schimmel 2003). But in this field
also patriarchy finally imposes its standards, through the institutionalization of Sufism
in orders which (usually) exclude women.
While in the early centuries of Islam are biographies that contain hundreds of names of
Sufi women, there comes a time when the Sufi is assimilated to the man. Sufism is
institutionalized and reach a compromise with juridical Islam. Al-Ghazali is often held
up as an example. In his work The Alchemy of Happiness we found a chapter titled
Marriage as a help or hindrance to the religious life. Among other pearls we find the
following:
A further advantage of marriage is that there should be someone to take care of
the house; cook the food, wash the dishes, and sweep the floor, etc. If a man is
busy in such work he cannot acquire learning, or carry on his business, or
engage in his devotions properly.
A third disadvantage of marriage is that the cares of a family often prevent a
man from concentrating his thoughts on God and on a future life
Woman is created weak, and requiring concealment; she should therefore be
borne with patiently.
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Wise men have said, "Consult women, and act contrary to what they advise." In
truth there is something perverse in women, and if they are allowed even a little
licence, they get out of control altogether, and it is difficult to reduce them to
order again.
At all times he speaks of marriage as a help or hindrance to the religious life... of the
man. It seems that al-Ghazali did not consider the possibility that the wife could have a
religious life. Moreover, the qualities that the wife should have are very different from
the qualities that the author attributes to the religious man. The wifes qualities are
subordinated to mans desires, in this case to the pretension of a life surrendered to
Allah. She must be discreet and helpful, and not too much annoying. Al-Gazalis ideal
man lives entirely turned to religion, he can enter into mystical ecstasy remembering
Allah, going to the mosque, practicing musical auditions and lofty intellectual debates
while she waits locked up at home. In fact, women should be confined to man can
devote himself to Allah. When you get to the next chapter, on the love of Allah, and
read the prophetic saying which states that Allah created man in His image, is fully
aware that al-Ghazali does not include women. And when he speaks about love, it
means to love the prophet, love himself and love Allah, but the word love does not seem
meaningful to talk of marriage. This shows that the most sublime spiritual claims are
not at odds with the contempt and the acceptance of discrimination against women.
Clearly, the contempt of al-Ghazali toward women can not be extended to Sufism or
Islam as a whole. Michel Chodkiewicz has shown several examples of spiritual life
fully shared between two spouses. There is a Sufism that can be evoked as a pro-Islamic
women's rights (Chodkiewicz 2004). This is the case of the Andalusian mystic Ibn
'Arabi of Murcia, in which we find positions that are not only favorable to women, but a
genuine gender awareness. According to Ibn 'Arabi, masculinity and femininity are
mere accidents and do not belong to the essence of human nature (al-insaniyya), which
is one. He states that women can reach the highest spiritual levels, including the gift of
prophecy, and become the Qutb of his time. And Ibn 'Arabi explains in his works that
some of his first spiritual teachers were women. When a few years ago Amina Wadud
led the prayer and delivered the khutba on Friday before men and women, came to light
that ibn 'Arabi considered perfectly licit female imamate:
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Some maintain that the Imamate of a woman is fully legitimate, both before
men and to women, and I share this view. Others consider that it is licit only in
front of women, with no men present. The Prophet declared the perfection of
certain women as did that of some men, even if the number of men that reach
this perfection was greater. You can consider this perfection as nubuwwa or
imamate. Consequently, the Imamate of a woman is valid and should not be
paying attention to those who oppose it without proof.
Ibn 'Arabi says that women can be a creator of legal precedent, as demonstrated by the
example of Hajar, whose comings and goings between Safa and Marwa are the basis of
the rites of the pilgrimage. With the same intention, he says that in certain
circumstances (in terms of kinship and in the case of the idda waiting period after
being widowed or divorced, the testimony of a woman is worth that of two men
(S a 'di yy a S h a i k h 2012). From this overcoming male-female duality and the concience
that the essence of human beings is one and the same regardless of gender, we can
understand a text like this, also from Ibn 'Arabi:
The disciple should not have women friends until he has become a woman in
her own soul. When he becomes female, join the lower world and see how the
upper world is in love with him, his soul will be constantly in all states, times
and influence as a woman in the act of marriage (mankh). You should not see
his soul in its formal unveiling, or his status as a man, nor consider it to be a
man in any sense. It should be seen, however, entirely as a woman. From that
marriage act he must become pregnant and raise children.
(Sachiko Murata 1992, p. 266).
Masculinity that evokes this fragment is that of a man who has internalized the feminine
as part of its own essence. To convert oneself in a women means to reach the perfect
stage of receptivity, which enables the disciple to receive Allah. That is: the prophetic
and Islamic are very similar to a receptivity that is seen as the principal characteristic of
the feminine. For beeing a Muslim, then, is indispensable to acknowledge our
femininity. To receive the revelation, the soul of the Prophet has to become at first stage
into a woman. As perfect receptivity is the specific feature of feminine attributes, Ibn
'Arabi says that the activity of Allah is more evident in women (Sachiko Murata 2001).
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5. Philosophy and logocentrism of scholars. Since Aristotle, there is the tendency to
associate the feminine with inert materiality, and masculine with the form that
dominates rationally and gives intelligibility. Traditional thought identified women with
nature, as a devalued form in face the culture, that tames nature and is linked to the
masculine. Here we have another ideal of masculinity, that of the wise man, the man
of knowledge, delivered to an elitist knowledge, by which he rules over the forces of
nature. A male trained, because of his excellence, to extract from the Quran the norms
that the rest of the faithful should follow. The Truth is seen as an abstract principle that
has an objective and measurable value only accessible to scholars. This structure is
characterized by extolling power, order, austerity, self-control, and has as a method the
authoritarism as a means to legitimate forms of control. It culminates in the realm of
reason over instinct. Finally, this leads to a mental and logocentric culture, that has
repressed tenderness, feelings, femininity. In this case, the masculinization of Islam is
parallel to its clericalization. Sufism has contributed to this drift, in praising obedience
to the Sheikh.
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6. Tafsir or Quranic commentaries. Qur'an has been read mostly in a patriarcal way.
In some cases the Qur'anic commentators show openly his misogyny. We can see some
Qur'anic verses that at first glance any modern reader would consider derogatory toward
women, yet we see how some commentators have twisted them, projecting their
misogyny and prejudices on the text (Asma Barlas 2002).
Although the Qur'an addresses men and women alike, and appeals to personal
understanding by aql (intellect), men have taken over the exclusive of the centers of
knowledge and exegesis. Amomg the hundreds of classic commentaries, it has not
survived no one Qur'anic commentary written by a woman. Hence the need to recover
the female gaze on many verses that have been used to justify discrimination against
women. Although I know that what I say will not be understood for many, I think that
these considerations may be extended to much of the progressive Islamic movement,
including tose who pretend to realice and objective (but contextualized) reading of the
Qur'an.
There is a whole range of possibilities. Despite attempts to control the Qur'an through a
kind of totalitarian and logocentric knowledge, there is the awareness that the Qur'an is
by its very essence irreducible to human reason. The Qur'anic discourse is symbolic,
mythical, unfinished, liquid and not there is no human possibility to control it. Remains
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fluid, open to endless multiplication of suggestions, generator of unimagined
possibilities of meaning and destabilizing of the dominant logos. There is a corpus of
commentaries which lies beyond sexism in an inner dimension. Women, excluded by
the traditionalism of the official centers of learning and development of thought, have
taken the Qur'an through ritual, the internalization and recitation. Currently, we see the
feminist revision of the Qur'an, the work of Muslim intellectuals (men and women)
aware of how the tradition has canonized certain interpretations that are (at least)
questionable.
7. Fiqh or jurisprudence. The mission of religious experts (the men of knowledge)
is to extract from the Qur'an and the Sunna of the Prophet an entire legal system to be
imposed as a divine law to the whole society. This establishes the primacy of the
normative above the ethical, the juridic above the spiritual. Being a Muslim is then to
obey a distant God who dictates His laws, laws that are in the hands of the ulama, who
are authorized as the sole interpreters of Gods Will. And this body of ulama excludes
women, under the excuse that these are not trained to interpret the Qur'an objectively,
because of her emotivity and deficiencies in religion. The resulting jurisprudence is
strongly patriarchal, sealing the fate of Muslim communities, corseting and cutting the
liberating elements of the Qur'an. The result is a inflation of the law over other parts of
Islamic heritage, the preeminence of a legal system centered on repression and the
imposition of a moral.
All this consolidate a kind of masculinity: man as head of household, responsible for
preserving the honor and to protect and keep women, considered as weak and source of
conflict. The whole truss of traditional patriarchal fiqh is a gross manipulation of the
Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet. Basically:
1) Although the Quran says, literally, that men and women are awliya (protectors) of
one another (9:71), the male guardianship over women has been introduced. Every
woman should have a wali or protector, which is responsible for validating
transactions, to mediate in the matrimonial negotiations... The women go from being
supervised by parents and siblings to be controled by husbands and relatives of
these.
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2) The marriage, which in the Quran is presented as a free union of equals and a
source of peace and tranquility (30:21, 7:189), it becomes a contract of sale, by
which a woman sells her sexual services exclusively to the husband, in exchange for
a dowry and maintenance. But the husband has all the prerogatives: the woman has
the duty of obedience (ta'a), and the husband the right to beat his wife in case of
rebellion.
3) Polygamy and concubinage. Although polygamy in the Quran is an exception in a
society without social security to ensure the protection of orphans and widows (4:3),
traditional fiqh consideres polygamy as a prerogative of men, that apart of four
women may also have many concubines.
All the casuistry of traditional fiqh is designed to favor men and submit women. This
does not mean that do not recognize certain basic rights including the right to work, to
impose conditions in the marriage contract, divorce and abortion, to inheritance, to keep
their property in marriage, to testify in court, to practice as lawyers or teachers...
Undoubtedly, Muslim women have benefited from these rights throughout the centuries.
But these rights are subject to a drastic cut, since it has been stablished the superiority of
men over women, male guardianship, the segregation of the sexes, seclusion of women,
and the obedience of the wife. In short, the rights that the Quran gave women are
placed under a patriarchal-authoritarian context.
This section would be incomplete without a reference to the fact that there have been
thousands of Muslim women who have devoted themselves to jurisprudence, and that
since the seventh century of the Christian era. In recent years are giving more and more
specific studies designed to highlight the contributions of women to the history of
Islamic theology and the sciences of Islam. Here highlights the research of Muhammad
Zubayr Siddiqi, Women scholars in the sciences of hadith, and especially the
monumental Dictionary of women ulema and fuqaha, work of Indian Mohammad
Akram Nadwi, in progress of publication, which will occupy some 40 volumes.
18
8. Segregation
In short, we have seen how through an historical and ideological development the
patriarchal perspective has been imposed as the Islamic orthodoxy and orthopraxy, to
which all Muslims must obey. And we've also seen that this development is linked to
some particular models of masculinity. Ultimately, the decline of the Islamic world is
parallel to this process of masculinisation of society and religion, and denial or
relegation to second place of the feminine attributes of Allah. In the twelfth century,
Averroes predicted that the exclusion of women would led to the ruin of Muslim cities.
This exclusion has come to an unthinkable extreme, converting women themselves in
harim, something forbidden and inviolable, which protection and surveillance define
man's honor. As Gema Martn Muoz states:
The notion of harim is interpreted as characteristic of women, which makes them
forbidden for all those men outside the traditional family. This concept defines the
wife as al-rayul hurmat (the holy thing of man), and is directly related to the issue
of safeguarding the family honor. The honor provides legitimacy to the man,
making the virginity of the daughter, sister or bride is his best guarantee: hence
emerge his sacredness and his placement in the private space in front of the
public. In a conception of family in which the group or community are dominant
over the individual, virtue is inevitably at the service of the honor of the group.
Therefore, in traditional society women acquire identity only through the male
intermediary (belonging to a clan or lineage in which she is the daughter of,
the wife of or the mother of).
(Gema Martn Muoz 2007).
Patriarcal Islam against spiritual Islam
To summarize everything, we offer two hegemonic models in outline:
1) The first model is the dominant one, and can be described as normative, in the
sense that foregrounds the legal dimension and has a concrete manifestation in
discriminatory laws and customs. Allah is conceived as a Sovereign who dictates
19
laws to men through revelation, and these are his servants, who must simply obey.
This is based on a patriarchal and legal reading of the Qur'an, and is endorsed by the
presentation of the Prophet Muhammad as a warrior and political leader. Are
highlighted as socially recognized virtues all that comes under the heading of
muruwwah, or virility. It is postulated mans right to exercise his dominion over the
rest of creation, the superiority of reason over nature and instincts. It gives
prominence to the social order and the collective over the individual, the public over
the private, reason over instinct, the objective over the subjective. Man is considered
the head of household, superior to women in their intellectual and leadership
abilities. It emphasizes manhood as the ability to keep women under control. The
woman is a emotional and defective being, whose uncontrolled sexuality threatens
the honor of men. This patriarchal masculinity has been settled and consolidated
over time as the only possible Islamic model of masculinity.
2) In opposition, but coexisting with the previous model, there is a second one that
incorporates feminine aspects and that we can describe as spiritual, to the extent
that foregrounds the Quranic cosmology and ethics, and is nourished by the
Qur'anic symbolism of the divine. It is based on a dynamic conception of divinity,
and pursue the integration of masculine and feminine attributes to trascend them. It
considers the Qur'an as a guide in the spiritual development of believers. The
Prophet Muhammad is seen as a liberator, transmitter of an inner and a non-
discursive knowledge. The revelation is an intimate event, which is aimed at
everyone, to be understood and applied by each one according to his or her abilities
and in his or her own context. It gives priority to intuition and inner search against
policy or outside considerations. The relationships between men and women are
raised in terms of affection, mutual support and spiritual equality. The biological
characteristics are considered secondary: what matters is what contains the hearts of
everyone.
This tension between the two models of masculinity is part of a wider tension internal to
Islam and therefore present in other areas, including understanding Islam as a message
of personal or collective liberation. In Islamic tradition these two models are not
presented in such an schematic and stereotyped way. This duality is an abstraction.
20
PART THREE
Contemporary Islam: another twist of patriarchy
This is roughly the state of affairs until the arrival of modernity and colonialism. Here I
want to introduce a question: What effect might have the military occupation and
cultural invasion of this strongly patriarchal societies with a concept of masculinity
imbued with a strong sense of honor? Obviously, the result is nothing positive. The
invasion of the motherland is perceived as a violation of the mother and a breach of
honor. The North is equated to the civilization of reason, strength, discipline, order,
against a South that is discovered sensual, chaotic and decadent. The North is the male
that dominates a feminized South. The Muslim male is outraged. He discovers that in
the eyes of Westerners is lazy, useless, passive, effeminate. Under these conditions,
everything favors the development of a model of aggressive masculinity. (Durre S.
Ahmed 2002).
! Palestine: masculinities in conflict
Daniel Monterescu review three competing models of masculinity, which in turn are
linked to three policy options, also linked to three forms of life, that in a sense are three
possible reactions to occupation. He speaks of Islamic masculinity, a liberal-secular
masculinity and a situational masculinity. The latter would be the majority and
maintain an ambiguous relationship and criticism with the first two, and is an example
of negotiation (the author speaks of a ludic movement between essences) constant
between multiple identities and tensions present in society: Islam/nationalism;
21
tradition/modernity; religion/secularism; public/private (Islamic Masculinities, pp.128-
137).
Case Taliban: an Islam without women
One of the most repeated images to represent "contemporary Muslim man are the
Taliban. Here the impact of war can be seen in all its rawness. Not only the direct
impact of the bombs, the dead, orphans, widows, destroyed houses, annihilated culture,
hundreds of thousands displaced, and so on. But the impact of a lifestyle in which every
trace of compassion has disappeared. All is determined by the reality of war and its
necessities. There is not need of attentive and kind people, but ruthless warriors able to
kill the enemy without flinching. For greater effectiveness, the enemy and all that is
required to take the face of the demonic. Masculinity embodied by the Taliban is one in
which the feminine has completely disappeared.
Durre S. Ahmed (Islamic Masculinities, pp.25-28) has explained how the Taliban were
originally children of war, torn from their families at a young age and raised in
madrasas, orphanages, being educated by warriors, in a context of war and for war. In
many cases these are people who have reached adulthood without ever having seen a
woman or had any intimacy with a woman, and therefore devoid of any notion of the
meaning of femininity and its values. We have to feel pity for the Taliban, who are only
the product of the struggle for control of energy resources of the land where they live.
They are people to whom their lifes has been stolen and that respond to the most basic
instincts of survival. They have not had every opportunity to develop his humanity
naturally. What can we expect of their behaviour towards women?
The paradox here is to see how Western invasions (many times presented as defenders
of women) leads to the strengthening of an aggressive Islamic concept of masculinity,
and precludes the emergence of an alternative model of masculinity. Then, feminism, to
the extent that opposes strong masculine qualities that are perceived as necessary to deal
with imperialism, is seen as an ally of the latter (Katherine Viner 2002). This is the
vicious circle in which we stand.
22
Islamic ideology
Here we see to what extent the politichal determines the behavior. Muslim masculinity
can not escape the seductions of resistence. Islam is reivindicated as an ideology of
resistence, and therefore in opposition to Western values. The main objective is to
resist colonialism, in all its forms (military, economic, cultural) but also to resist the
decline of the collective self. Everithing has to resolve around Islam, leading to the
islamization of all aspects of live. But this can be an extremely alienating islamization
(Abdennur Prado 2011). By reducing Islam to an ideology of trench, it desmantles its
spiritual message. And we have seen that is precisely in this dimension where lies the
possibility of an non-sexist islamic masculinity.
Muslim Reformism
Despite everything we have said, it is evident that Islamic thought is not presented as
sexist. It is intended that the distribution of roles is something natural, and that Islam
does not subordinate women to men, but regards them as complementary, but equal in
dignity. This, of course, does not respond to traditional approaches of many lawyers, for
whom it was evident the superiority of man. This is very important, in order to
understand the apologetic discourse on the dignity of Muslim woman, and so on. To
mantain this lattice, it is imperative that the traditional model of masculinity appears not
as destructive or impossitive, or to validate or injustice and violence against women. Its
23
important that women themselves accept their subordination as somthing natural and
ordered by Allah. From the point of view of the traditionalist, its not acceptable the
charge that the traditional Islamic model of family is oppressive to women. Quite the
contrary: it is repeated again and again that Islam has given all his rights to women.
The apologetic discourse leads directly to reformism. Trying to justify in front of the
colonizer the kindness of the Islamic conception of gender, they develop a self-
justificatory discourse, which seeks to show the best face possible on such a conception,
and presenting its more unjust manifestations as deviations from the original message.
Muslim reformism has made significant improvements in the status of women. This
concession rights is done in exchange for the acceptance of women in the traditional
religious order, which involves not only the primacy of men over women in the family,
but also the control of religious discourse by entirely male hierarchies. The patriarchal
structure is unquestioned. It is precisly this persistence of the patriarchal structure which
leaves barely ineffective the legal changes that may occur. Those changes are important,
but as long as remains the prevalent concept of masculinity and the conception of man
as guardian of family honor, women should remain subject to violence (physical and
moral) right where they should be loved, within the home.
In trying to dismantle the excesses of the patriarchy only through legal reforms creates a
mismatch between the legal world and the world of interpersonal relationships. Here we
have the proliferation of discourses about the high status of Muslim women.
The idea that Islam gave women their rights fourteen centuries ago is the way in which
patriarchy is negotiating the gender issue. It can provide new areas of power and
autonomy to women, without yielding the patriarchal structure that underpins these
relationships. The most notable of these apologetic speeches is not what they say, but
what they do not say. In fact, just talking about the high status of women implies a
particular thought, in which women have a different status.
An d spe a k i ng o f t he ri g ht s g ra n t e d b y Isl a m , i m p l i e s t h e a c c e p t a n c e o f a l e g a l m o d e l
a n d p o l i c y , i n wh i c h re l i g i o n i s the so u rc e o f j uri sp ru d e n c e . T h i s wo u l d b e fi n e , if a t t h e
24
sa m e t i m e we made a ra d i c a l c ri t i q u e o f p a t ri a rc h a l b a se s o f t ra d i t i o n a l Isl a m i c
j uri spru d e nc e . But this is something that Muslim reformist do not make.
Epilogue: towards a feminist Muslim masculinity
We have seen how patriarchy has been gradually imposed in different areas, until we
reach a point where it is difficult to recognize the Quranic worldview and the genuine
teachings and praxis of the Prophet. The violent encounter with Western modernity has
made things worse, by encouraging the transformation of Islam into a political ideology.
Faced with this drift, Islamic feminism has emerged in Muslim societies as an internal
response, in order to address the challenges of today. A new understanding of the
Islamic phenomenon is needed in order to assess this movements significance. It
involves an attempt to recover the spiritual dimension and the feeling of belonging in
the world in the face of those who seek to reduce Islam to an ideology. An
understanding based on the concepts of reciprocity, justice and balance, an rooted in the
Message of Quran. More than any ideology, we think this is the best way of resistance
to Western arrogance. Not in a reactive sense, but by exploring the inexhaustible
potentialilies of quranic revelation.
Islam, as a world view that provides for the integration of all forces that govern life,
does not mean the subordination of women to men. In the indivisible cosmos, all the
forces of nature are found integrated, in constant movement. Within this view, the
equilibrium between the two poles (the masculine and feminine forces) is a determining
factor. Masculine and feminine do not correspond to man and woman, but rather are
internal to every creature. The feminine is in equilibrium with the masculine as much in
a man as in a woman. To try to limit the feminine to women and subordinate it to the
masculine as being the exclusive essence of men is to upset the internal equilibrium of
men and women, a polarity which is present in all creatures.
The patriarchy upsets this equilibrium established by Allah, fostering a society based on
oppression and authority. In theological terms, this means to oversize masculine
attributes of Allah, presented as an absolute Sovereign that delegates to the men of
knowledge the government of society. Male chauvinism is the destruction of Islam as a
well-balanced way of life. It breaks with the very order of creation and imposes an
25
artificial order which we call patriarchy. A renewed reading of the Quran texts is
needed in order to expose the inconsistencies in the male chauvinist readings. So we
consider that islamic feminist is not only a political or social movement, but an spiritual
restoration of the Message of the Quran.
It is then necessary to explore the profound implications of a concept of masculinity that
has renounced to consider men as the paradigm of the human, of a man who does not
think of himself as a guardian or protector of women, but as equal in dignity and ability
in front of Allah. A masculinity that recognizes the full humanity of women, their moral
agency and individual responsibility, as believing women. This alternative masculinity
represents a return to non-institutionalized forms of spirituality. It involves the
overcoming of merely legalistic visions of Islam. It is not only to recognize Muslim
womens rights as a category subject to a concept of normativity that remains largely
male. But to go much further, to overcome the male-female categories as the properties
of men and women, and the recognition of our status as insan, the whole human being
as a creature capable of Allah.
T h e de v e l o p m e n t o f t h i s fe m i n i st m a sc u l i n i t y i s b u t (a p a rt o f) a re t u rn t o t h e he a rt o f
t h e Qu r'a n i c re v e l a t i o n . T h i s no t o n l y wo ul d b e n e fi t Mu sl i m wo m e n , fre e d fro m t h e
t u t e l a g e of t he M u s l i m m a l e , b u t a l s o m e n t h e m s e l v e s , r e l e a s e d of the b u rd e n of h a v i n g
t o c on t ro l wo m e n , o b se ssi o n wi t h fa m i l y h o n o r, fi x a t i o n o n t ra d i t i o n a l fi q h a n d i t s
s t e ri l e a n d a l i e n a t i ng p uri t a n i sm . Mu sl i m c om m u n i t i e s would become m o re capa b l e t o
re fl e c t t h e va l u e s o f Isl a m , surre n d e r t o Al l a h a n d t o fl o w wi t h e xi st e n c e , l o o k i n g for
g o od a nd b e a ut y a nd d e v e l op i n g t h o se i n n a t e a b i l i t i e s t ha t Al l a h h a s g i v e n t o e a c h o f t h e
m e m b e rs of t h e u mma h , re g a rdl e ss of g e n d e r. B o t h m e n a n d wo m e n sh o u l d re c o g n i z e
t ha t t he m a sc u l i n e a n d fe m i n i n e a re internal aspects who se d e v e l o p m e n t wi l l m a k e t h e m
grow a n d de v e l op h a rm o n i ou s re l a t i on shi p s wi t h t h e o p p o si t e se x, n o t b a se d o n a n
a l l e ge d sup e ri o ri t y o f o n e se x ov e r t h e o t h e r, b u t i n l o v e , m ut u a l su p p o rt , so l i d a ri t y a n d
i nd i v i du a l re spo n si bi l i t y, a s c a l i p h s of C re a t i o n .
In re l a t i o n t o the t e n si o n wi t h t h e c o l o n i z e r W e st , wh o se a gg re ssi v e n e ss i s i n c re a si n g ,
this f e m i n i st m a sc ul i n i t y c o nst i t u t e s a v a l i d a l t e rna t i v e t o those sp e e c h e s c a l l e d
f u nd a m e nt a l i st s , u n a bl e t o answer t h e c h a l l e n g e s o f t h e p re se n t . Fa c e d wi t h t h e
c ul t u re of wa r, the d e c o n st ruc t i o n o f p a t ri a rc h y e n a b l e s u s t o a d e e p e r re si st a n c e .
26
T h e re fo re , Isl a m i c fe m i ni sm h a s a d e c o l o n i a l i n e sc a p a b l e d i m e n si o n o f re p o rt i n g o f n e w
fo rm s o f o p p re ssi o n i n h e re n t to orientalism a n d c o rp o ra t e g l o b a l i z a t i on . In front of
W e s t e r n aggresivity , it o p p o s e s the m o s t g e n u i n e v a l u e s o f I s l a m, as a valid alternative
not only for Muslims but for humanity as a whole.
This feminist model of masculinity, entirely based on the sources of Islam and in
Islamic tradition, goes through a total rethinking of this tradition, taken from the
awareness that this tradition has been set up under the influence of cultural parameters
of their time, parameters that are neither Islamic nor have nothing to offer in our times.
This is for an ijtihad on first principles: on the very concept of revelation, the prophetic
mision, the ethical dilemmas, the connection between religion and politics, the issue of
Sharia. A work of reinterpretation that responds to the consciousness of human agency
and epochal influences in the development of religious knowledge, and that places in
the first place the creative mercy or rahma of Allah, as a feminine attribute that should
guide the lives of Muslim men and women.
27
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