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INTRODUCTION

What kind of liberation are we speaking of?

For a long time, the question of the status of Muslim women has been taken hostage between two extreme interpretations: a very rigid conservative Islamic approach and a Western, Islamophobic and ethnocentric approach.

These two conceptions are of course at odds, but they share the same stumbling block: a dead-end. It is virtually impossible to conceive of even the hint of a debate to clarify certain points, given how blinded partisans from each perspective are by their respective certainties.

The Muslim woman, the victim of choice during centuries of stagnation and decadence, continues today to survive in a social system which perpetuates, of course to different degrees, oppression in the name of religion. This statement is rarely acknowledged in Muslim lands where often the other is incriminated for seeking to undermine, or even corrupt an entire social fabric of moral values, of which women are the main guarantor.

‘Islam gave women all their rights … It honours women … It has protected them …’. This is the favourite discourse of many Muslims, often very sincere, but whose arguments remain nevertheless very weak. A recurring discourse, constantly on the defensive, which is losing traction with time and which, for lack of convincing, is more revealing of a profound and manifest state of disarray.

We note in fact a patent anachronism between these two discourses and the lived reality which aims towards and claims to be respectful of Islamic values and in which the worst discriminations against women are justified … From honour crimes to forced marriages, via retrograde laws which maintain women in the position of a minor for life, the list of injustices is long and remains unfortunately justified by a certain reading of Islam.

What is more, it is no secret that the status of women, such as it is conceived currently in traditionalist and dominant readings of Islam, remains the obligatory breach through which a certain Western hegemony continuously seeks to interfere in order to discredit an entire system of thought. The current meta-discourse on the veiled, oppressed and reclusive Muslim woman is merely a continuous reproduction of the orientalist and colonialist vision still in vogue in contemporary postcolonial representations.

This eternally accusatory discourse serves in particular as an alibi for all political attitudes of cultural domination and supports the binary analysis which pits, utterly unquestionably, the universal model of the free Western woman against that of the oppressed Muslim woman in need of liberation … The opposition of these two models allows Muslim women to remain categorised as second-class citizens and in particular allows the image to be used as a foil in relation to modernity, civilization and freedom. It is ironic to note within a certain western discourse, which claims to be liberating and has universalist pretentions, the obvious signs of a language of paternalistic domination, which struggles to break with its colonial vocation of a civilizing mission. The desire is not to free Muslim women in order to simply free them, but rather to showcase western freedom and, thus, maintain the power relations which best enable domination of the other. It is not a question of demonizing the West and of accusing it of all ills. The contribution of western ideas to the long process of modernization is undeniable. But the critique is directed towards a certain strand of thinking which, in the name of its conception of the universal, claims to behold a monopoly on modernity and truth. It is not about denying the existence of a culture of oppression of women in Muslim lands but, rather, about denouncing what a given hegemonic western vision wishes to do to this culture by hyper-essentialising it. A Western perspective which maintains Muslim women in a one-dimensional grid in which they have been carefully enclosed and through which western values and norms are promoted as the only means of liberating those poor Muslim women.

Between these two diametrically opposed visions, the Muslim woman ultimately remains a prisoner, despite herself, of a discourse which in both cases, ignores her person, her aspirations and her will … Between a frozen Islamic thought which assiduously ring-fences women’s issues and a western ideology which takes pleasure from denigrating Islam through those same issues, one struggles to think of a third way, through which Muslim women can emerge from this ideological impasse.

The problem is that women and their status in Islam is a contentious subject and it would be difficult for anyone to deny this. But what is the truth of the matter? Is it truly religion, as a system of values, which oppresses us or a collective social reality which appropriates the religious in order to reformulate it according to a hierarchical representation which suits it and which allows it to better affirm its powers?

It is undeniable that when religion comes into being in an already sexually ascribed social order, it can only be absorbed into it, despite itself. It is also obvious that one is within one’s right to question, and to remain perplexed in the face of the real contradiction which exists between the spiritual message of the Qur’an and the lived reality of Muslims. On one hand, Islam carries, like other monotheistic religions, a message of peace, love and justice, coming from a God who, in creating human beings, men and women, has made them unequivocally free, equal and dignified … on the other hand, the traditionalist understanding of that same religion seems to contribute to a certain preponderance of men at the level of social reality and seems, therefore, to be one of the main vectors of discrimination against women. In a large number of interpretative readings of the Qur’an are found classic patterns of male domination where women are marginalized, even excluded in the name of the sacred …^A One can understand that the different religious interpretations can carry the imprint of the geopolitical contexts from which they emerge and of the socio-cultural environment which produced them. But it is harder to understand how, in the long term, these same interpretations have become themselves, immutable and entirely closed to all critical reflection. Interpretations which have removed the profound meaning of the message and which with time have become insurmountable barriers for those who wish to return to the initial impulse of the text and find within it answers to the needs of our time.

The confusion is such that it has become very difficult to distinguish between what is from the sacred text and what is from the domain of subjective human interpretation.

And yet, between the humanist spirit of the Qur’an which favours the human being Insan, without distinction according to gender, and certain classical interpretations demeaning towards women, there is a substantial misunderstanding which means that the lived reality of Muslims has become to this extent removed from their spiritual references.

The spiritual message is, as described by the Qur’an in several passages, a ‘reminder’ (dhikr) which consists in awakening in human beings the most noble side of their conscience in order that they remain in a continuous state of proximity with the Creator. And through this remembrance, there is an intimate conviction in Divine justice … Nothing in the Qur’anic text can justify or support any sort of discrimination against women. It is this conviction which stems from profound faith but which truly struggles to materialize in our Muslim reality, which needs to be reformulated and put into practise on the ground, in daily life.

It is here that Islamic thought needs to evolve, in order to redefine itself, to be re-thought and to make the necessary distinction between the spiritual message and some interpretations which have fixed the text and at times, killed discussion.

This is what is happening, God willing, today in the Muslim world where the premises of a serene and well-thought through change are beginning to appear.

Despite an overall chaotic general assessment in the Muslim world, one discerns the clear though timid emergence of an innovating discourse, which seeks to reform religious thought that is currently dwindling and virtually entirely focused on its moralising tendency.

In fact, it is comforting to note the current emergence of an Islamic trend, albeit still marginal, which whilst still trying to find itself contributes to redrawing new spaces where the religious debate can evolve without losing its soul ….

Within these new spheres of reflection, that concerning the status of women in Islam is taking shape and affirming itself day by day. The question of women in Islam has always been at the heart of the debate, possibly even of all debates in the Islamic world. However, what is currently new is that at the heart of this intellectual effervescence, Muslim women are trying to reclaim their voice, in order to re-appropriate what has persistently remained in the hands of men, namely their own destiny!

Indeed today many intellectual Muslim women, living in Muslim societies but also in the West, through their academic research, social and theological, and particularly in the name of their faith, are questioning a significant amount of prejudice on this topic. They contest in particular a classical analysis which stipulates that the inequality between men and women and its corollary of discriminatory measures are an inherent part of the sacred text by demonstrating that, in fact, it is certain biased readings, bolstered by patriarchal customs, which have rather legitimated these same inequalities.

It is important to underline that these new positive forms of resistance are the prerogative of Muslim women who, whilst having a critical approach to certain religious readings, are practising believers and it is in the name of their faith that they assert their right to assess the text.

It is an effort to demarcate oneself from a women’s movement coming from Muslims which seeks changes outside of the religious framework. Whilst one must respect this desire to define oneself outside of the religious framework, it is sad to note that these Muslim women who are rebelling against the alleged diktats of the religion are those most heard and given the greatest amount of airtime … This is not surprising in and of itself, since the only acceptable or even expected critique in Western circles today is that which challenges the Islamic tradition.¹

What is original about this new form of female contestation in Islam which, it should be noted, is met with notable indifference in the West, is that it takes shape within and in the name of the Islamic tradition … Muslim women who undertake, in the name of their convictions, a process of questioning of certain misogynistic readings in Islam and contest readings which legitimize the subordinate status of women in Islamic societies … It is what some have referred to as the questioners from within. In fact, it is a project which is intrinsic to Qur’anic teachings and which advocates, in the very name of those teachings, the promotion of an egalitarian ethic both in theory and in practise.

It is thus at the heart of these debates and evolutions that the stake of a new reading of the sacred text lies … A reading adapted to our context and to a human reality which never ceases to evolve. A reading which seeks to remain faithful to basic principles in Islam and which contends that the Qur’an is valid in all times and in all places.

How can we remain content with exegeses compiled centuries ago and which, concerning women, more often than not reflect a distressing literalism? Why do we continue to restrict ourselves to traditional readings when the text itself presents in its guiding principles extremely important latitudes so that each social reality can adapt to it and recognize itself within it. How can we remain with our arms crossed, regurgitating outmoded interpretations and hence ignoring the objectives of the text which, in every context, provides meaning to our life on earth? It is sad to note that instead of remaining faithful to the objectives of the Divine message, we have rather remained faithful to human interpretations and readings which, voluntarily or not, have contributed to the rise of this culture of demeaning women which continues to plague our Muslim societies.

It is in this sense that a re-reading of the Qur’an from a feminine perspective draws all its importance. It will enable us to create a true dynamic of liberation from within the Islamic sphere, in the sense of raising the status of Muslim women.

This liberation reading will also allow the development of a true autonomy and an authentic Islamic feminine identity with the totality of its rights and responsibilities. Finally, it will allow women to define themselves as active partners in the process of reform and religious reinterpretation which is underway in the Muslim world. Because one can, as a believer, question the assertion according to which only men have the authority to interpret what God has outlined in His Book.

This is not an attempt to promote a women-only hermeneutics which would exclude fourteen centuries of classical exegetical tradition. Classical exegesis constitutes a very rich patrimony for Islamic memory, its contribution is indeed critical for a profound study of the text and it is not about excluding the considerable contribution of this science for the understanding of the sacred text. Rather, it is about addressing historical prejudice and inequalities, driven by a human and hence imperfect understanding of the Qur’anic message. It is about deconstructing an entire patriarchal model of reading which relegates women to a corner of Islamic history, in order to return to women a part of their amputated memory.

It is certainly not about forging a movement which, coming from a female perspective, would seek to oppose women to men through a conflictual understanding … this new feminine perspective questions the alleged male superiority but not on the basis of rivalry between the sexes. It is a new perspective which can only be enriching and which takes into account the spiritual experience of women, so often absent from the Islamic references. Spirituality has no gender, but there is a given lived relationship to God which is perceived differently by women and men … It is here that the inclusion of the female perspective can be an essential addition to the human spiritual experience … In addition, the Prophet of Islam (May Allah bless him and grant him peace) guided us from the beginning to conceiving of this female/male difference as a type of equality at the heart of the fraternity in God … It is for this reason that at the heart of the Islamic reformist project, a number of Muslim men have for a long time been engaged in a process of re-reading and of liberation of women, according to the principles of Islam. This emanates precisely from a profound conviction in Divine justice and the absolute requirement of impartiality towards all human beings. Such conviction leads to a critical awakening in the believer, be it male or female, towards all the various forms of enslavement.

And refusing to endorse the subservience of which Muslim women are victims is itself an act of devotion, of piety and of faithfulness in front of the Creator.

It is of this liberation of which we speak ….

A women’s liberation which advocates a spiritual rejuvenation through the Qur’an, Divine words, eternal, and an endless source of strength, of freedom and of hope ….

A liberation which favours above all else authenticity, the inner self and integrity.

A liberation which conceives of the relationship to transcendence as profoundly liberating since it frees us from all other forms of servitude ….

A women’s liberation which does not have to conform to any other model in vogue, which is neither necessarily western, nor typically eastern, but autonomous and independent ….

A women’s liberation which should be free to make its own choices, to re-write its history and to redefine its own spaces of freedom ….

A liberation well-grounded in its spiritual identity but which is open on all forms of human richness and is prepared to share with others, all others, the true universal values of ethics and justice ….

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1. One need look no further than the success of French editors publishing testimonies by Muslim women and the proposed titles which speak volumes on this obsession with representing the Muslim woman as an inevitable victim of Islam: Burnt Alive by Souad; Forced to Marry by Leila; Mutilated by Khady; The Woman’s Stoning by Freidoune Sahebjam; Disfigured by Rania el Baz; I Was Born in a Harem by Choga Regina … almost all of which were published in the year 2005 alone!