Women and IslamWeek#2By Dr. Monia Mazigh

Fall, 2017 ©

Belief System in Islam Believe in God Believe in all His Prophets, from Noah to

Abraham, Moses…Jesus, and that Mohamed is the last of the Prophets

Believe in Angels Believe in the Day of Judgement Believe in Destiny (Good and Bad)

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Rituals of Islam Puberty is the beginning of the age of responsibility A Muslim human being (woman and man) needs

to: Testify that God is One and Mohamed is His

Prophet Pray five times a day (meditation and being

grateful) Fast Ramadan (9th month of the Lunar calendar) Give the Zakat, alms-giving or religious tax Go to Hajj (if physically and financially capable) a

ritual based on the experience of a woman and her child (Hajar and Ishmael)

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The Hijab or the Headscarf Hijab has many meanings. The most known

one: religious modesty Hijab can be a symbol empowerment for

some women It can be a political statement, an identity

statement Hijab can have a traditional meaning

(patriarchy) Is Hijab a symbol of oppression? Not always

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In the Quran “Tell the believing men to reduce [some] of

their vision and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. Indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what they do.” Chapter 24, verse 30

“And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment….”

Chapter 24, verse 31

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The rationale A Muslim woman can’t show her beauty

(hair, parts of her body)to men that she eventually can marry

Men that a woman can’t marry: fathers, sons, brothers, father-in-law, uncles, nephews, grandfathers

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HijabHijab the most common type of headscarf worn by Muslim women. It is a headscarf that covers the head and neck, but leaves the face clear. The scarves come in many different shades and shapes

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Niqab The niqab is a combination of a head

covering and scarf that covers all of a woman’s face except for her eyes. It usually flows down to the mid-back to cover a woman’s hair, and may flow down to the mid-chest in the front. Although the majority of scholars agree that hijab is obligatory, only a minority of them say that the niqab is.

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Burqa The terms niqab and burqa are often

incorrectly used interchangeably; a niqabcovers the face while a burqa covers the whole body from the top of the head to the ground. It is the most concealing of all Islamic veils. It covers the entire face, including the eyes (it has a mesh cloth to see through) and the body. Burqa is mainly worn in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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Chador The chador is a body-length outer

garment, usually black in colour, worn mainly by women in Iran. It is not secured at the front by buttons or clasps, so the woman holds it closed with her hands.

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Different types

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Marriage in Islam Contract between a man and a woman Sexual relationship Affection and compassion Raising families Protection for the children Financial responsibility given to men Nothing said about the division of

domestic tasks.

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Marriage in Islam There is no forced marriage in Islam Women must be consulted and must give

their consent There is no child marriage in Islam A husband should provide his future bride with

a “Mahr” which is always translated as a dowry but is very different.(Mahr belongs to the wife and it is to be given to her only. It is not the property of her parents or her guardian. No one can forgive the husband to pay the Mahr except the wife herself)

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Marriage in Quran “And among His signs are that He created for

you from your selves mates that you may attain calm unto them and He placed between you affection and compassion. Surely in that are signs for a people who reflect." Chapter 30, verse 21

"And interact with your wives in a good manner for if you feel dislike for them, it may well be that you dislike something in which Allah places much good." Chapter 4, verse19

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Polygyny in Islam “If you fear that you shall not be able to

deal justly with the orphans, Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice.” Quran 4:3

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Polygyny When the husband of Fatima, ‘Ali ibn Abi

Talib, wanted to marry again, the Prophet was angry. He summoned ‘Ali ibn AbiTalib. He said: For your information, Fatima is my child. If Fatima is troubled, I’m also troubled. If Fatima suffers, I also suffer. Don’t you ever marry anyone but Fatima. And ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib did not do so.

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Restrictions on polygyny Some countries like India, Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh,

Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan, and Kuwait, allow women to include a clause prohibiting polygyny in marriage contracts.

Other countries, such as Iran and Pakistan, require that a man gets permission to take a second wife from his first wife, and then show the court proof of his first wife's consent.

Countries such as Malaysia state that a man must get permission from both his wife and from the governmental religious authority in order to take a second wife.

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Polygyny TodayMuslim countries that ban Polygyny Turkey (1926): a secular ban Tunisia (1956) and restated in (1964): a

religious ban Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Restricted Polygyny Egypt(1920) Sudan(1929) India(1939) Algeria Jordan(1951) Syria(1953) Morocco(1958) Bangladesh Iraq (1959) Iran (1967, 1975) Kuwait Lebanon Southern Yemen (1974)

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Countries with no restrictions Libya Saudi Arabia

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Honour Killings According to some studies in Canada,

there are dozen killings that appear to have been committed in the name of "honour” in the decade between 1999 and 2012.

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Very Old Concept Honour killings have been known since

ancient Roman times, when the pater familias, or senior male within a household, retained the right to kill an unmarried but sexually active daughter or an adulterous wife.

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Is “Honour” a concept specific to Islam or Eastern cultures In Britain, for example, the fifth wife of Henry VIII

was beheaded based on allegations of adultery. In British literature, Shakespeare's Desdemona was

killed over allegations of infidelity, and Romeo and Juliet tracked an ancient family feud over honour.

Widney Brown, a former advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch said “crimes of passion have a similar dynamic in that the women are killed by male family members and the crimes are perceived as excusable or understandable".

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Do all Muslim countries have honour crimes? In Indonesia, generally believed to be the

country with the largest Muslim population, honour killings are unknown, as is the case in parts of West Africa with majority-Muslim populations and in many other Islamic countries such as Bangladesh.

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Violence against women in Ontario

Spousal violence has been consistently identified as one of the most common forms of violence against women in Canada

The majority of spousal violence victims are women, representing 83% of all victims (2007)

Women are almost four times more likely than men to be victims of spousal violence (2011)

More than 6% of married, common-law, same-sex, separated and divorced female spouses in Ontario report experiencing physical/sexual assault by a spousal partner (2009)

Source: Ontario Ministry of the Status of Women

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Familial Violence in Canada One woman is killed by her partner every

six days 362,000 children witness or experience

family violence every year On any given night in Canada, 3,491

women and their 2,724 children sleep in shelters because it isn't safe at home

Crime of passion vs. Honour killing Familiale Femicide

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Cultural Bias University of Ottawa law professor Pascale

Fournier analyzed 54 cases where men were convicted of killing their wives or close female family members.

At trial, the men all argued the killings had been committed in the heat of passion after they were provoked and lost control.

Under the Criminal Code, this "defence of provocation" can reduce a murder charge to one of manslaughter.

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Us versus Them "It was more likely that it would be

accepted by judges, by the courts, when the individual was a Western white male," Fournier said

Fournier found that one-quarter of the accused white men convinced the courts that they had been provoked, versus 11 per cent of men of other ethnicities

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Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C) Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting is a pre-

Islamic culture common in some regions of Africa

Today, it is primarily a cultural problem in central Africa, with Muslim-majority countries such as Egypt and Somalia on the list alongside Christian-majority ones such as Ethiopia and Eritrea

It is also practised by some Ethiopian Jews and certain traditional African religions

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FGM/C It is uncommon in some of the largest Muslim

countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (Bohra communities being the exception) and in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Oman). Further, there is no religious sanction for the procedure found in the Quran

In 2006, the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar University and other Islamic scholars ruled that female genital mutilation is antithetical to Islam’s teachings

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Muslims in Canada The first recorded Muslim family arrived in

Upper Canada from Scotland in the early 1850s

By 2011, the Muslim population passed the one million mark, comprising more than three percent of the total population and representing one of the fastest growing religious groups.

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Survey about Muslims in Canada 2016

Environics Institute for Survey Research conducted in 2006 the first-ever national survey of Muslims in Canada.

In 2016, Environics Institute conducted a second survey

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Muslims in Canada

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Muslim Female and Ethnicity

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37%

9%24%

14%

12%

4%

Ethnicity of Muslim WomenSouth Asian (36.7%) Black(8.8%) Arab (24.2%)

West Asian(13.7%) Not visible minority(12.4%) Other visible minority(3.6%)

Is a Muslim Woman a Foreigner? Canadian-born Muslim females surpassed

the number of immigrants from the principal source country by a big margin in 2001.

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Do you wear a hijab, a chador or niqab in public?

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0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Total Hijab Chador Niqab

Muslim Family Structure

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Married spouses85%

Common-law partners

13%

Lone parents2%

Muslim Family Structure

Marriage and Fertility rate Some 14.1% of young Muslim women

were married by 24 years of age The Muslim fertility rate in 2001 was 2.4,

moderately higher than the 2.1 replacement level. In 2010, there were only two children per Muslim.

The overall fertility rate in Canada is 1.6 (2012)

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Muslim Women in Canada

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8%

22%

13%40%

3% 12%

2%

Muslim women with highest earned degreeApprenticeship College, CEGEP Uni.below Bachelor's

Bachelor's Medecine, dentistry, etc Master's

Ph.D

Conclusion University of California, Berkeley law professor

Leti Volpp observes, “Part of the reason many believe the cultures of the Third World or immigrant communities are so much more sexist than Western ones is that incidents of sexual violence in the West are frequently thought to reflect the behaviour of a few deviants — rather than as part of our culture. In contrast, incidents of violence in the Third World or immigrant communities are thought to characterize the cultures of entire nations.”

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Your thoughts…

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