In this Washington Post op-ed piece, Asra Nomani contributes to the "Islam is violent" chorus by contending that the key to understanding "Muslim violence" is the verse in the Qur'an in which men are allowed to beat their disobedient wives. She claims that
"As long as the beating of women is acceptable in Islam, the problem of suicide bombers, jihadists and others who espouse violence will not go away; to me, they form part of a continuum."
I beg to differ. But before I expalin why, let me point out to one point of agreement I have with her:
she is absolutely right to blame the most literal and obscurantist interpretations of this verse and others on Saudi wahhabis and their oil money. The books she quotes and many of the Imams who bug her are trained in this benighted school of Islamic interpretation, whose aim is to come up with the most regressive interpretation of Islamic texts and tradition, print it in glossy pamphlets, then distribute it all over the world through a well-financed network of mosques and madrasas.
But I'm bothered by the timing of this essay and the audience she addresses. Who is she really writing for? Her fellow Muslims? I didn't get that impression from her tone. She sounds like another Muslim informer telling certain readership something they already know: Muslims beat up their wives and that has a sanction in the Qur'an. Not only that, the violence of the Ben Ladens of the world is to be understood as really integral to Islam. The impression her already terrified reader gets is that Ben Laden and Joe Muslim who (must) beat(s) his wife are really one and the same; it's a continum, you see. This is hardly original; we have been hearing this for years now, but it always sounds better when the brown woman herself is speaking. In sum, by presenting her essay as an attempt to shed light on "Muslim" violence, she undermines the credibility of any argument she's making.
I can end my post here. But I will go on just for the heck of it.
Afterall, if the key to understanding Muslim wife beating is this particular verse, how is one to understand the wife beating done by non-Muslims? Maybe those Christian, Jewish, atheist wife beaters have been secretly listening to some of these Muslim tapes? Maybe they are all secret converts to Islam? Or maybe there are a variety of reasons why these non-Muslim men beat up their wives. I'm sure there are studies about that. Only Muslim men beat up their wives because of one reason alone: a Qur'anic verse.
According to this article about the problem of wife beating among Jewish males in Israel, "'One out of six' or 'one out of seven' Israeli women is regularly beaten at home. The estimated minimum figure is 100,000 battered women in Israel (of whom 40,000 end up hospitalized)." The author goes on to blame certain patriarchal aspects of the Jewish tradition. What interests me about this article is how uninteresting it is to the readers of the Washington Post or to a large chunck of western feminists who are kept sleepless by their rescue fantasies of the "oppressed Muslim woman."
In two places in her essay Nomani explicitly contrasts "Muslim" women to "American" women. This is problematic first because the Muslim women she's speaking about ARE Americans. Second, because it implies that "American" women (who are these exactly: Texas women? African-American women, West Virginian women, upper east side women, women working at hooters? who exactly? Inquiring minds want to know) do not suffer from domestic abuse, which is false.
I also don't like how she belittles and dismisses the work other Muslims (groups and individuals) are doing to counter wife beating among their community. It's that "I'm a lone voice in the wilderness" syndrom. She calls them ineffective. Perhaps. But she does not offer a better alternative. Unless she's saying: Let's all be Texans!
And, yes, I am against wife beating!
(thanks Deb)
17 comments:
I'd say the percentage of muslim men who beat their wives is smaller than that of the NASCAR-watching crowed.
It's a shame, but I don't blame the war against Iraq on it...
u say in two sentences what I've been trying to say in many.
Yes, but wife beating is sanctioned by the Koran and by at least some Muslims. It may occur in other countries, but it's against the law. We also don't execute our rape victims. Don't you recall the teenage girl executed in Iran in 2004? Raped, then executed for "crimes against chastity".
Abuse between husband and wife happens in the west, what ever religion these acts are carried out.
But it's not codified in law or the religion. Until you see that difference things will never change in Muslim societies. I will also point out the woman does not have to ask her husband for permission to leave the country, let alone leave the house. No honor killings either.
Well, its definately a lie that other religions are not used by wife-beaters to sanction their actions. Some Christian husbands believe they have to correct/castigate their wifes, and they quote the Bible to validate this. This is at least the case in Norway, where I live. Of course, their interpretetation of this quote is a physically brutal one, which is not representative for most Christians. Most Norwegian consider wife-beating a barbarian custom, which should be prosecuted. Physical violence is actually such a taboo, that even slapping your children will be prosecuted.
Then; some person said honour killings are inexistent in other cultures than Islam? That depends on definition, I would say. We usually call it a family tragedy when a man kills his own family, including wife and sometimes children. But; Western men who kill their spouse, and sometimes children, because their wifes are leaving them, or because of unemployment or adultery, are they not also honour killings? I would like someone to interpret the beating and killings of the wifes by American soldiers who returned from Iraq, in the honour-killing context.Could become very interesting. However, wether honour-killings is a cross-cultural trait is a current debate in Norway.
Back to the beating; The general Christian public is able to make the differentiation between one minority interpretation in the case of the Bible, why not so in case of the Qur'an? I think the main problem is that Islam is publiciced as mono-culture in the West, the existing broad picture of different voices in the East on what Islam is, doesn't come through in Western media. At least not to the broader public. As a result, the general public tends to compare their normality to the publiciced (worst) examples from the Muslim world. Because this is what they perceive as Muslim normality. A lot of people are trying to broaden the picture, though.
Two Michigan State University law students have written a scholarly article on wife beating and wife discipline in Islamic Law, posted on Cienfuegos blog at http://gimmetruth.wordpress.com/2006/06/04/discipline-as-a-means-to-marital-reconciliation/ and I have posted brief comments on my Therapeutic Family Law blog at http://therapeuticfamilylaw.blogspot.com/
It is with great interest that I read your article on Asra Nomani and wife beating and your blog itself is refreshing.
I am of the view that even if only one female is beaten, that is one too many. And I also find as a muslim that we can not ignore the problem of verse 34 in Sura Al Nisa.
At the end of your post, you state you are against wife beating. I would then like to ask you how you feel verse 34 should be approached? How as muslims and representatives of Islam should we face this challenge - in your opinion? I would really like to hear your view on this matter, verse 34, wife beating as an alleged santion from God himself which no scholar, imam or other refutes or denies. Because it appear to easy to say I am against wifebeating as a muslim when verse 34 is there suggesting the opposite.
I look forward to your answer.
Do Muslim women hold faculty appointments or other positions of authority within Islamic schools of theology? If not, male theologians will continue to stack the doctrine against females. In the meantime, denunciation of the Surah that condones physical discipline of wives by husbands is unlikely to convince Muslims to turn away from what they believe to be divinely spoken Scripture. It is for Muslim females and their male allies to confine Surah 34 to the minimum, essential meaning, and to prohibit self-serving men from extending and expanding it to a blank check for violence against women.
Hello
I'm Susan from Jordan;
During the research through the Internet and found your site and read about your services and help the area and protection of women. Ashidalenca and I'm interested in freedom and equality.
I want to work with you to protect women from the Arab community and to ensure their rights and freedom in society. As women here have no right to dispose of, or choice and because of the argument in most cases to adhere to the Islamic religion and he has no right in which women have their freedom. Therefore, I hope you to cooperate with me to be your representative in Jordan or other Arab countries to ensure the reduction of violence against women and give them their freedom, where I work with several charitable organizations here in Jordan, but I can not find the full support of the freedom of women and the reduction of violence. Please cooperate with me, where I hope the service of Arab women and to ensure that national freedom. I hope you help me to raise awareness among the women here in the Arab world and inform them of their rights usurped and the defense of the Arab women's freedom and equality and the sadistic who sees the woman is not her body.
Contact me please on Email
suzanjop@yahoo.com
We can quibble about the description (that Muslim domestic violence is a serious social problem in the West as well as in Islamic societies), but I'm more interested in the prescription: what can be done about it? Are there Quranic elements that the ummah is willing to deploy against violent husbands and other male relatives? Or is male supremacy so central to Arabic, Asian and African cultures that not even Islam can challenge it?
As a Domestic Violence Advocate, and a Muslim, I felt the ened to respond to this.
Short versons are always best, so here it is.
Domestic Violence is a LEARNED pattern of behaviors in which the abuser uses power and control make the victim do what they want.
Children who grow up in DV are 10 times more likely to either abuse or become victims themselves, why? Becase they think it is normal, acceptable and happens to every one.
Domestic violence can happen to ANYONE, male or female... from any religion, socioeconomical status, in every part of the world.
Infact if you google "HER STORY" you will get a history of domestic violence and see that back in the 1400s Christian scholars were for wife beating and then in the early 1900s psychologists proclaimed that women must get sexual gratification from being beaten or they would leave.
Yes, there is a verse int he Quran that supports wife beating, but has every one read that verse? There are steps to take first, and only if all the steps are taken does it say to beat her, but not to make bruises or for her to fear her life. But those people that are for wife beating don't seem to realize that the Quran also says women and men are the equal half of each other.
So what really needs to happen is education and awareness! Simple education and awareness globally on the issue surrounding family violence.
Thank you for that nuanced, historically grounded comment. If possible, I would like to direct the discussion in the direction of therapeutic implications. How can Western therapists better serve Muslim women who are victims of domestic violence, and Muslim men who are prone to batter their wives? Does the solution necessarily have a religious component, or should it be treated as a simple law enforcement matter, like arson or reckless driving? Are misogynists even susceptible to religious correction, or will they cherry-pick doctrines that dignify what they wanted to do in the first place?
Right... domestic violence is indeed learned. Kids who grow up in an environment w/domestic violence will more likely repeat the process when they're older.
Regarding the Qur'an-- yes indeed there are steps before the beating can take place-- and the beating can not be harsh enough to leave marks or bruises on her body (according to the scripture and hadith [tradition from Prophet Muhammad's time]-- and it should only be used as a last resort.
If one were to say that muslim men beat their wives because the Qur'an has made it permissible-- then Hadith is also another source muslims follow-- and according to a hadith, if the beating has to take place it should be like "tapping with a toothbrush"-- no pain, no hurt.
In my oppinion, the general muslim population who do beat their wives has nothing to do with religion-- i bet most of them don't even have knowledge of the verses in the Qur'an. And definately don't have knowledge of Hadiths as well-- as the prophet of Islam, himself, did not beat any of his wives and instructed the men to treat their women kindly. And muslims should follow his example (pbu).
Education and awareness is indeed... a possible solution. Knowledge is the solution. iA.
Would you say that Muslim immigrants to the U.S. and American-born Muslims are more likely or less likely than 3rd World Muslims to be conversant in the Koran and Hadith?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWFluxnAcwA&feature=related
Islam is a religion of Peace and not violent. This is the youtube link which will tell you the true story of beating wives in Islam.
Post a Comment