A few days ago I read about the burning of six girls’ schools in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. The province is described by many in Pakistan as a very conservative area. I also read of demonstrations elsewhere which opposed giving women their civil rights.
In the Feb. 23 issue of Time Magazine, the cover story is entitled “Arab Women Rising.” The article concerns the optimistic and ambitious new generation of Arab women who are speaking openly and slowly reshaping Arab society.
The 2003 Arab Human Development Report identified “the deficit in women’s empowerment” as one of the three key impediments to progress in the Arab world. (The other two deficits are freedom and knowledge. Who can disagree, since this report was made by Arabs for Arabs.)
Change, however, is coming very slowly indeed; it could be faster. It is true that women are at last beginning to stand up and speak out and to find solutions to their problems from within their own culture and system of values.
The Arab woman’s mind is an invaluable asset and it must be tapped. The women I have talked to agree; they are “offended” that it is men who decide what they can and cannot do. What I heard from them over and over was, “We want the freedom given to us by Islam.” What they don’t want — and should not have — is some half-educated, nameless, faceless bureaucrat or a self-appointed scholar making rules and regulations that dictate how they must live their lives.
And they are right. Most of the women take pride in their Islamic heritage. Yes, they are modern in outlook but they describe Islam as a progressive religion which gave Muslim women the right to own property almost 1,400 years before some of their European sisters had that right.
Unfortunately, there are many men in certain Muslim societies who fear female progress. Maybe they are acting based on their own inferiority complex. In my own meetings with responsible Muslim women all over the world, I have personally found them generally to be more professional, more committed and more knowledgeable than many Muslim men.
For those in the West who accuse Islam of suppressing women, denying them their rights, choking their voices and removing them from all participation in civil society, I have an answer: Please do not accept the utterances of certain misguided people as an example of the ideas of the overwhelming Muslim majority, especially those in Southeast Asia. Those very utterances are also alienating many young Muslim women. Do not overlook the fact that at one time there were three women prime ministers in the Muslim world. Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh and Tansu Ciller in Turkey. All three were elected and all three were from conservative societies. Today in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim state, Megawati Sukarnoputri is president. In India, a Hindu country, Indira Gandhi won many elections because of the bloc Muslim vote. In Pakistan, in 1960, President Ayub Khan discovered that the leading Islamic parties had decided to vote for his opponent, Fatima Jinnah.
What does all this say? A great deal. Islam does not oppose women playing their rightful roles in society. There are cultural differences and some people naturally speak louder than others. However, women are not afraid to leap hurdles — many of which are traditional rather than Islamic — and to move forward. A large number of these hurdles have nothing to do with Islam and have no basis in Islamic theology but rather originate with the desire of men to keep women subservient.
Women must speak up and learn that they have a choice. They should know that a properly educated woman, aware of the rights guaranteed to her by both the Holy Qur’an and Sunnah, is a benefit to society. She can play a role as a mother, teacher, doctor, social scientist or whatever she chooses.
No society can survive for long by preventing half its population from playing a decisive role. Educated and well-balanced women can become agents for positive change and contribute to a healthy, progressive and normal society. We must realize this, accept it and then act at once to implement it. Then only will we become travelers on the road of progress rather than mere bystanders, gazing at a world passing us by at lightning speed.