Prominent International Islamic Organization Argues for Women's Equality
Wednesday March 8, 2006
Category: Gender and Sexuality | International Human Rights
When I agreed to participate in the Blog Against Sexism project, I had several thoughts in mind. Truth is that I plan on blogging against sexism a lot--because let's face it: institutional sexism is a huge civil liberties problem--and so I had figured that to make this day stand out, I would write something along the lines of a very general op-ed addressing this fact and reminding people of power and income disparities, not even to speak of legislation specifically written to punish certain classes of women. But then I saw a promising headline on Amnesty International's web site: "Islamic organization calls for women's rights."
My first assumption was that it was probably some small, marginalized group based in the United States or Canada, made up of secularized, English-speaking Muslims. Because let's face it: Taken as a whole, the laws and cultural traditions that seem to dominate most countries in the Muslim world do not respect the equality of women. To be a successful woman in Saudi Arabia is to be a good daughter, a good wife, a good mother, and a good friend (to other women only), but all other aspirations are generally forbidden to her. A "respectable" Saudi Arabian woman does not become a good doctor, a good professor, a good activist, or a good advertising executive. Her role in life is determined at birth by her two X chromosomes. And the few who do courageouly attempt to live their lives with the same liberties that men enjoy must endure more than the cold stares of family and friends. They must endure the threat of armed police, arrest and imprisonment, beatings, and torture. Despite the fact that some 88 percent of Muslims worldwide are non-Arab, and despite the fact that even other Islamic countries in the Arab world tend to have less objectionable policies on women's rights than Saudi Arabia does, we Americans tend to see Saudi Arabia as representative of mainstream Islam. So I didn't feel particularly hopeful about the link, but I clicked it anyway.
And to my delight, the organization in question turned out to be one of the largest and most credible Islamic groups in the world: the Morocco-based Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), founded by the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers. And in honor of March 8th, International Women's Day, it issued what must be seen, in many parts of the world, as a radical declaration:
In a message addressed to the women of the Islamic world on the occasion of the International Woman's Day, ISESCO stressed the need to eliminate the material and moral barriers that hinder women in several Islamic countries from carrying out their role in serving society and furthering its progress. It stated that these obstacles are manmade and are the result of historical accumulations that date back to the ages of backwardness and the forsaking of the Islamic teachings that have guaranteed women the same rights as men in the frame of an integrated system of rules, principles and values.
In its message, ISESCO urged on to empower women and to rend up the manacles unwarrantedly restraining them from enjoying their full right to contribute their creative, constructive skills to further the process of resurgence and build up society. In the same spirit, ISESCO explained that the edicts of the Holy Quran and the authenticated sayings of the Prophet can by no means hold women up and prevent them from discharging their societal duties.
Further still, ISESCO explained that the universal canon fixed by Islam has it that women and men are equal. Islam says that nothing should justify encroaching upon women's rights, as it is tantamount to tramping down on their dignity and begrudging, in consequence, the whole society the half of its potentials. By the same token, ISESCO warned against confusing the perennial ordinances of Islam with the conventional customs observed by people, and it equally urged vigilance against the misleading ideas and concepts to which some international arenas try to give a wide hearing, across their far-reaching tentacles, in a bid to send women on a path which is but to lead them astray.
Declarations and mission statements may not do much to create progress, but they can certainly reflect progress. The fact that an organization with as much regional clout as ISESCO can issue a statement of this kind indicates that, whatever impression we may come away with from watching the evening news or from listening to talk show pundits, there is a very real, very significant, and very mainstream women's rights movement gaining power and credibility in the Muslim world.
When I agreed to participate in the Blog Against Sexism project, I had several thoughts in mind. Truth is that I plan on blogging against sexism a lot--because let's face it: institutional sexism is a huge civil liberties problem--and so I had figured that to make this day stand out, I would write something along the lines of a very general op-ed addressing this fact and reminding people of power and income disparities, not even to speak of legislation specifically written to punish certain classes of women. But then I saw a promising headline on Amnesty International's web site: "Islamic organization calls for women's rights."
My first assumption was that it was probably some small, marginalized group based in the United States or Canada, made up of secularized, English-speaking Muslims. Because let's face it: Taken as a whole, the laws and cultural traditions that seem to dominate most countries in the Muslim world do not respect the equality of women. To be a successful woman in Saudi Arabia is to be a good daughter, a good wife, a good mother, and a good friend (to other women only), but all other aspirations are generally forbidden to her. A "respectable" Saudi Arabian woman does not become a good doctor, a good professor, a good activist, or a good advertising executive. Her role in life is determined at birth by her two X chromosomes. And the few who do courageouly attempt to live their lives with the same liberties that men enjoy must endure more than the cold stares of family and friends. They must endure the threat of armed police, arrest and imprisonment, beatings, and torture. Despite the fact that some 88 percent of Muslims worldwide are non-Arab, and despite the fact that even other Islamic countries in the Arab world tend to have less objectionable policies on women's rights than Saudi Arabia does, we Americans tend to see Saudi Arabia as representative of mainstream Islam. So I didn't feel particularly hopeful about the link, but I clicked it anyway.And to my delight, the organization in question turned out to be one of the largest and most credible Islamic groups in the world: the Morocco-based Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), founded by the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers. And in honor of March 8th, International Women's Day, it issued what must be seen, in many parts of the world, as a radical declaration:
In a message addressed to the women of the Islamic world on the occasion of the International Woman's Day, ISESCO stressed the need to eliminate the material and moral barriers that hinder women in several Islamic countries from carrying out their role in serving society and furthering its progress. It stated that these obstacles are manmade and are the result of historical accumulations that date back to the ages of backwardness and the forsaking of the Islamic teachings that have guaranteed women the same rights as men in the frame of an integrated system of rules, principles and values.
In its message, ISESCO urged on to empower women and to rend up the manacles unwarrantedly restraining them from enjoying their full right to contribute their creative, constructive skills to further the process of resurgence and build up society. In the same spirit, ISESCO explained that the edicts of the Holy Quran and the authenticated sayings of the Prophet can by no means hold women up and prevent them from discharging their societal duties.
Further still, ISESCO explained that the universal canon fixed by Islam has it that women and men are equal. Islam says that nothing should justify encroaching upon women's rights, as it is tantamount to tramping down on their dignity and begrudging, in consequence, the whole society the half of its potentials. By the same token, ISESCO warned against confusing the perennial ordinances of Islam with the conventional customs observed by people, and it equally urged vigilance against the misleading ideas and concepts to which some international arenas try to give a wide hearing, across their far-reaching tentacles, in a bid to send women on a path which is but to lead them astray.
Declarations and mission statements may not do much to create progress, but they can certainly reflect progress. The fact that an organization with as much regional clout as ISESCO can issue a statement of this kind indicates that, whatever impression we may come away with from watching the evening news or from listening to talk show pundits, there is a very real, very significant, and very mainstream women's rights movement gaining power and credibility in the Muslim world.
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