When people of the West think of Islam, the immediate tendency is to view it as

backward, outdated, and misogynistic. A historical and sociological analysis of the

evolution of Islam out of the Arabian Peninsula through the legal texts and Caliphates is
enough to dispel ignorance. This is precisely what Moroccan-born Fatima Mernissi seeks
to accomplish in her work Beyond the Veil. Furthermore, in the spirit of Michel Foucault,
Saba Mahmood strives to emancipate Muslim women through the power that comes
from the knowledge of the sociological analysis of Islam in the Middle East, and through
a reconstruction of the female identity.
In Beyond the Veil, Mernissi criticizes those that claim that one cannot have both
Islam and democracy. She asserts that there is an interest group that profits from
portraying that Islamic women have no rights. In fact the states, First, we see religion
call be used by all kinds of organizations in the modern world to promote money-
making projects; and second, since Islam is no more repressive than Judaism or
Christianity, there must be those who have a vested interest in blocking women's rights
in Muslim societies (Mernissi, pg vii). Moreover, she states that a Muslim who views a
Muslim women that fights for her rights, has been brainwashed by Western propaganda
and ignorant of his religious heritage and cultural identity. In fact, she quotes scholars
such as, Ibn Hisham, Ibn Hajar, Ibn Saad, and Tabari, as defenders of Islamic womens
rights. In addition, she explains that women were entitled to receive the title of
sahabiyat (companion of the Prophet), upon arriving to Medina. As a sahabiyat, a
woman participated in the military, political, and community affairs of the umma
(community). Also, she concludes her introduction by stating, For those first Muslims
democracy was nothing unusual; it was their meat and drink and their wonderful
dream, waking or sleeping. Ultimately, Mernissi arrived to the conclusion that if Islamic
men are offended by womens rights, it is not because of the Quran, the Prophet, nor
Islamic tradition, but a conflict with the interest of a male elite (Mernissi, pg ix).
Mernissi explains that in order to reconstruct the female identity in the early
Islamic years, it is absolutely necessary to investigate the numerous Hadiths. This
procedure requires a verification of tradition with the companions of the Prophet.
Various scholars have done exactly that including: Al-Afghani, Al-Bukhari, and Al-
Asqalani. Mernissi states, The Hanbali imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya undertook a
review of some of them in order to demonstrate a technique for detection of false
traditions based on analysis of the content (pg 9). To Mernissis dismay, Al-Afghani
blames Aisha, the wife of the Prophet, for fomenting sedition and bloodshed (pg 7).
As a result, Al-Afghani agrees that women should stay out of politics.
Mernissi analyzes the Sura 53:33, where it talks about the term hijab. After
performing textual criticism on the words hajaba (curtain) and satara (hidden), within
their literary and cultural contexts, she concludes that the hijab was originally a curtain
that separated two men from a private spaceMuhammads nuptial chamber during a
wedding. Unfortunately, men have reduced and assimilated this concept to a scrap of
cloth, imposing it on women to veil them when they go to the streets (pg 95). This type
of investigation very useful in unearthing original meanings in religious traditions. De
Saussure and Levi-Strauss would agree that contemporary Islamic societies have been
constructed on the language that comes from the Quran and Hadith, albeit
misconstrued. Interestingly, Mersinni states this necessity for us to investigate the
hijab from its beginnings through its interpretation in the centuries that followed, will
help us to understand its resurgence at the end of the twentieth century, when Muslims
in search of identity put the accent on the confinement of women as a solution for a
pressing crisis. Protecting women from change by veiling them and shutting them out of
the world has 'echoes of closing the community to protect it from the West (pg 99). In
the language of Foucault, by performing archaeology on Islamic history in Arabia, one
would be able to pinpoint specific events and observe the evolution of the language in
relationship to practices.
In Politics and Piety, Saba Mahmood explains how feminist Islamic scholarship
restored the absent voice of women to analyses of Middle Eastern societies, portraying
women as active agents (Mahmood, pg 6). In this work, Mahmood seeks to explore
the agency of women in politics and moral autonomy. By agency, she means, as the
capacity to realize one's own interests against the weight of custom, tradition, transcen-
dental will, or other obstacles (whether individual or collective) (Mahmood, pg 8).
According to Mahmood, women have a right to their history. She agrees that this is
positive freedom. Moreover, she explains that the feminine voice cannot be heard
with patriarchal ears of the East nor through the hegemony of Western values. This
implies that both sex and gender must be reconstructed, and not by men.
Post-structuralism is fundamental to the reconstruction of sex and gender for
feminists. In fact, this idea was introduced by Judith Butler in her work Gender Trouble.
As feminists, both Butler and Mahmood were influenced by Foucaults theories. Foucault
believed that the body is not sexed prior to the discourse which determines the sex of
the bodythe culture makes the sex of the body. Sexuality necessarily produces sex as
a construct which obscures the fact that sexes are not given. Furthermore, Foucault
says that Julia Kristevas idea of pre-cultural maternal body, her culture has disguised
its own power move. Therefore, cultures created maternity and the female gender.
This idea is crucial in establishing parameters for modesty and resistance within the
Islamic society. According to Pierre Bordieu, this would demonstrate the relationship
between rule, habitus and custom. Through genealogical analysis of the Islamic
tradition through the Quran and Hadith, Mernisi is able to distinguish between sharia
(Islamic law) and urf and adah (custom). Only through this method can the
contemporary Muslim women reify what it means to be a woman, thereby emancipating
themselves from chauvinist, oppressive politics, and ethics.
Yehonatan Elazar-DeMota
November 3, 2014