Women In Islam versus Judaeo-Christian Tradition The Myth & The Reality

1. Introduction

Five years ago, I read in the Toronto Star issue of July 3, 1990 an
article titled "Islam is not alone in patriarchal doctrines", by Gwynne
Dyer. The article described the furious reactions of the participants
of a conference on women and power held in Montreal to the comments of
the famous Egyptian feminist Dr. Nawal Saadawi. Her "politically
incorrect" statements included: "the most restrictive elements towards
women can be found first in Judaism in the Old Testament then in
Christianity and then in the Quran"; "all religions are patriarchal
because they stem from patriarchal societies"; and "veiling of women is
not a specifically Islamic practice but an ancient cultural heritage
with analogies in sister religions". The participants could not bear
sitting around while their faiths were being equated with Islam. Thus,
Dr. Saadawi received a barrage of criticism. "Dr. Saadawi's comments
are unacceptable. Her answers reveal a lack of understanding about
other people's faiths," declared Bernice Dubois of the World Movement
of Mothers. "I must protest" said panellist Alice Shalvi of Israel
women's network, "there is no conception of the veil in Judaism." The
article attributed these furious protests to the strong tendency in the
West to scapegoat Islam for practices that are just as much a part of
the West's own cultural heritage. "Christian and Jewish feminists were
not going to sit around being discussed in the same category as those
wicked Muslims," wrote Gwynne Dyer.

I was not surprised that the conference participants had held such a
negative view of Islam, especially when women's issues were involved.
In the West, Islam is believed to be the symbol of the subordination of
women par excellence. In order to understand how firm this belief is,
it is enough to mention that the Minister of Education in France, the
land of Voltaire, has recently ordered the expulsion of all young
Muslim women wearing the veil from French schools! A young Muslim
student wearing a headscarf is denied her right of education in France,
while a Catholic student wearing a cross or a Jewish student wearing a
skullcap is not. The scene of French policemen preventing young Muslim
women wearing headscarves from entering their high school is
unforgettable. It inspires the memories of another equally disgraceful
scene of Governor George Wallace of Alabama in 1962 standing in front
of a school gate trying to block the entrance of black students in
order to prevent the desegregation of Alabama's schools. The difference
between the two scenes is that the black students had the sympathy of
so many people in the U.S. and in the whole world. President Kennedy
sent the U.S. National Guard to force the entry of the black students.
The Muslim girls, on the other hand, received no help from any one.
Their cause seems to have very little sympathy either inside or outside
France. The reason is the widespread misunderstanding and fear of
anything Islamic in the world today. What intrigued me the most about
the Montreal conference was one question : Were the statements made by
Saadawi, or any of her critics, factual ? In other words, do Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam have the same conception of women? Are they
different in their conceptions ? Do Judaism and Christianity, truly,
offer women a better treatment than Islam does? What is the Truth?
It is not easy to search for and find answers to these difficult
questions. The first difficulty is that one has to be fair and
objective or, at least, do one's utmost to be so. This is what Islam
teaches. The Quran has instructed Muslims to say the truth even if
those who are very close to them do not like it: "Whenever you speak,
speak justly, even if a near relative is concerned" (6:152) "O you who
believe stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as
against yourselves, or your parents or your kin, and whether it be
(against) rich or poor" (4:135).

The other great difficulty is the overwhelming breadth of the subject.
Therefore, during the last few years, I have spent many hours reading
the Bible, The Encyclopaedia of Religion, and the Encyclopaedia Judaica
searching for answers. I have also read several books discussing the
position of women in different religions written by scholars,
apologists, and critics. The material presented in the following
chapters represents the important findings of this humble research. I
don't claim to be absolutely objective. This is beyond my limited
capacity. All I can say is that I have been trying, throughout this
research, to approach the Quranic ideal of "speaking justly". I would
like to emphasize in this introduction that my purpose for this study
is not to denigrate Judaism or Christianity. As Muslims, we believe in
the divine origins of both. No one can be a Muslim without believing in
Moses and Jesus as great prophets of God. My goal is only to vindicate
Islam and pay a tribute, long overdue in the West, to the final
truthful Message from God to the human race. I would also like to
emphasize that I concerned myself only with Doctrine. That is, my
concern is, mainly, the position of women in the three religions as it
appears in their original sources not as practised by their millions of
followers in the world today. Therefore, most of the evidence cited
comes from the Quran, the sayings of Prophet Mohammed, the Bible, the
Talmud, and the sayings of some of the most influential Church Fathers
whose views have contributed immeasurably to defining and shaping
Christianity. This interest in the sources relates to the fact that
understanding a certain religion from the attitudes and the behaviour
of some of its nominal followers is misleading. Many people confuse
culture with religion, many others do not know what their religious
books are saying, and many others do not even care.