Gender equality not foreign to Islam

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 06/02/2006 1:54 PM  |  Opinion

Lily Zakiyah Munir, Atlanta, USA

While preaching during the holy month of Ramadhan last year, an ustadz (religious teacher) talked about the influence Western ideas had had on the lives of Muslims in Indonesia. He used gender as an example.

""Gender,"" he said with confidence and enthusiasm, ""is a Western concept that has successfully weakened the Muslims' beliefs. Gender has brought Indonesian women out of the house and astray in public places. This has been the cause of prostitution.""

I remembered the above when read a news story on the sealing of the office of Fahmina (an organization engaged in promoting gender justice and women's rights) in Cirebon, West Java, some time ago. One of the ""executors"" of the incident claimed Fahmina had spread secular doctrines and promoted gender equality, which they thought was in opposition to the pornography bill (Koran Tempo, May 23, 2006).

The above statements were obviously not grounded in a correct understanding of the concept of gender. There is no logic in assuming gender to be the cause of prostitution or pornography. Many factors have contributed to the spread prostitution and pornography, among others the exploitation and commercialization of women.

Struggles to pursue gender equality have, as a matter of fact, uplifted women's dignity as full humans. As a result, women have naturally developed more self confidence to negotiate against the exploitation and commercialization of their bodies.

Likewise, it is similarly illogical and unjust to label women the culprits of prostitution and pornography. Prostitution will never take place without the participation of men. The Koran explicitly corrects the misconception that women are seducers and, therefore, have to be punished with inherited sin. The ""cosmic drama"" resulting in the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden is, in the Koranic version, the responsibility of both the man and the woman. Numerous verses of the Koran ensure that no person will bear the sin committed by others. Numerous verses, as well, guarantee that women and men will be equally rewarded for whatever deeds they have performed.

Distorted information on gender equality and justice is often disseminated through rigid, textual religious justifications, as if it originated in the West and is against Islam. This is not only misleading but also nullifies the Koran's spirit of liberating the oppressed, including women. Muslims are not undergoing an enlightening process toward a brighter future, rather they are being brought back through a time tunnel to the dark past when women were domesticated and objectified.

The United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco in 1945 was the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental part of human rights. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Since then, the UN has helped create an historic legacy of internationally agreed strategies, standards, programs, and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.

Global conferences have been held to deliberate on the advancement of women, the biggest being the Fourth World Conference in Beijing in 1995. Twelve critical areas of concern were identified in pursuing equality between women and men, including poverty, education, health, violence against women, economy, media, armed conflict, politics, environment and women's human rights. This commitment was reaffirmed at the Millennium Summit in 2000.

Back to the topic, 15 centuries earlier, the Koran had brought a revolution by granting equal status between the genders. The most relevant signifier of this radical change is on the origin and nature of human creation. The Koran says woman and man, although biologically different, are ""ontologically and ethically-morally the same/similar inasmuch as both women and men originated in single Self, have been endowed with the same natures, and make up two halves of a single pair.""

Woman and man are two categories of the human species. They have the same potential. There are no indications that women have more or fewer limitations than men. Neither are they excluded in the principal purpose of the Koran, which is to guide human beings towards recognition of and belief in God's truth.

Last but not least, let us ponder upon the beauty of the following verse, just one of numerous verses on gender equality, ""For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward."" (QS Al-Ahzab/33:35).

The writer is a research fellow with the Islam and Human Rights Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, the U.S.

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