New book argues misogynistic behavior is a violation of Islam

(REVIEW) Is oppression a central part of a Muslim woman’s life? What role does Islamophobia and white supremacy play in this misogyny? And where do the greatest threats to Muslim women’s freedom and safety really come from?

These are some of the many relevant questions Samia Rahman answers in her book, Muslim Women and Misogyny: Myths and Misunderstandings. Published by Hurst Publishers, the UK-based Muslim scholar explores the connections between misogyny and the experiences of Muslim women, unravelling complex issues such as Muslim feminism, representation, toxic masculinity, marriage and sexuality.

Drawing on her own personal experiences as a Muslim woman of colour in the UK, as well as extensive interviews with women and men from Muslim communities, Rahman’s book debunks ‘rotten stereotypes’ and is a brave exploration of Islamophobia, patriarchy and identity from the perspective of a ‘local whistleblower’.

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After years of hesitation and self-doubt, Rahman, a child of second-generation immigrants, says, “The responsibility and pressure to do justice to the diverse and comprehensive experiences of a group that faces the worst misogyny, Islamophobia, discrimination and exclusion from all sections of society weighed heavily on me.”

She says she was asked to “expose the lives of women who are among the most fetishized, studied and talked about populations in the world.” Eventually, she caved to the pressure and took on the role of a “local whistleblower” speaking out against what she believes are the most widespread cases of abuse of women that are falsely attributed to Islam.

These abuses, she concludes in her book, have their origins not in Islam but in the deliberate misinterpretation of the Quran, carried out primarily by misogynistic scholars. As a result, there are numerous examples of how misogynistic interpretations have become part of Islamic theology. She argues that Islam in its original form is not only free of any misogyny, but is even feminist in many aspects.

“A cursory examination and consideration of the historical context supports the view that the original sources themselves are free of misogyny, certainly of misogynistic intent,” she writes in the book. “The Quran should never be viewed as a superficial legal code. Yet those who interpret the Quran in this way do so to maintain their own agendas of patriarchal control and the oppression of women, or to stoke the Islamophobic fire that brands all Muslim men as misogynists and all Muslim women as oppressed.”

Among the many things Rahman finds repulsive is the “infantilization of women” – something she says she encountered in her earlier study of Islamic literature, which was largely written by male scholars. She cites an example from “Advice for Kings,” a book by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, a famous 11th-century religious thinker who is revered as one of Islam’s great scholars. In the book, Al-Ghazali is said to begin a chapter on women by saying, “The Apostle, may God bless him, explained that the best and most blessed women are those who are most fertile in bearing children, have the most beautiful face, and are the least costly in terms of dowry.”

She says another “hadith” that has been used to justify the control and abuse of women is a narration by Usama ibn Zayd, which states that the Prophet Muhammad stated: “I leave no tribulation more harmful to men than to women.”

“I simply could not come to terms with these misogynistic ideas, so I sought out scholarly works by women Islamic thinkers such as Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, Leila Ahmed, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Kecia Ali, Fatima Mernissi and Sunera Thobani. … I devoured their writings with voracious appetite and filled with gratitude, and was deeply relieved to find that the patriarchal religious teachings to which I was exposed were merely constructed products of dubious male minds,” writes Rahman.

She also noted, “With the knowledge of these female scholars, I was able to confidently refuse to accept the Islamic dogma that I was taught in my formative years and that the likes of Al-Ghazali, (Abul Ala) Maududi, (Ashraf Ali) Thanawi and (Zakir) Naik held. Much of the conventional interpretation of the Quran, which has remained unchanged for centuries, consists of several layers of accepted truth based on the interpretation of a long line of male scholars.

“Narratives shaped by patriarchy inevitably codify patriarchal definitions and understandings of Islamic piety and ritual. This Islam of male supremacy was not an Islam that I could recognize as an independent-minded critical thinker who values ​​autonomy. Beyond the rigid and narrow-minded conservative ideas of groups such as Wahhabis, Salafists and various traditionalists, there are other Islams – which are more open to new understandings.”

In the book, she also questions the permissibility of polygamy, given a correct interpretation of Islamic scriptures, some aspects of Sharia law and the wearing of the hijab. These practices, she believes, are the result of misunderstandings of Islamic wisdom that have been spread over the 1,400 years of Islam since the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

“Muslim women are excluded from Islamic scholarship, leadership positions and public life,” explains Rahman, former director of the Muslim Institute in the UK.

For Rahman and most of those interviewed for the book, misogynistic behavior and opinions are not Islamic. Therefore, she writes, it is her duty to correct men who espouse their un-Islamic views while claiming to be expressing an absolute Islamic truth.

“At the same time, stereotypical tropes are prevalent when it comes to discussing Muslim women in popular culture, while the West often frames itself as the savior of Muslim women,” Rahman adds in the book, which she says is “about how Muslim women go beyond the tropes and stereotypes and the oppression and the injustice.”