why at this time, the british news agency wants to give so much significance to a simple fact that muslim women are taking an activepart in the religious andf civic aspects of the lives of their fellow citizens.
they are not leading prayers.
they are not being heretics.
religion Islam never said that women cannot take part in the public spheres of the Islamic society, so then why this is being linked to terror-prevention?
why is the spin on the coverage feels so bigoted?
don’t we have nuns in christianity doing services of religious rites at churches?
aren’t female rabis conducting religous ceremonies?
why is it that the role of religious servicing agencies as women from these other religious background is not relegated to the prevention mission against real terrorism in their ethnic groups to them being female priests, to be exact?
how can such propaganda against Islam and Musalimahs be effectively corrected?
dushwari
exactly and then there is no reason why women ought not to be active and all PRESENT in the religious aspect of life in a social way.
fine, that prayer is not led by females. many females do not and wont want to lead men any way...
but what right do media sensationalists have to focus in on Muslim societies in ways that undermine the true conjectures of equality in our religion.
those who say the are Muslims and their sole purpose of existence is to somehow keep women in the society behind, leading the prayer issues aside, are not real men and women. since those people are not educated and open minded and religious themselves, they don’t want any one else to practice religion with pride and honor.
yes, if anyone - man or woman- is abusing religion to advance their ulterior propaganda and political motives, then they cannot be condoned for what they pretend to be doing and modifying religion as in distracting the attention of the fellow citizens from deeper and more serious issues.
each to his own, for sure. at least when intentions are pure, owning up to one's mistakes is essential.
I am not sure I understand your frustration with BBC. If you look at the news, apparently this is the first time 40 ladies are deemed ‘qualified’ to lead discussions in masjid. What kind of education system does Moroccans have that 1500 years after Islam made it compulsory on all men and women to get education, they have finally graduated 40 ladies to be deemed scholarly enough about Islam to be called “Mourchidat”.
I know that the topic of a woman leading prayers is a controversial one (whatever happened to that hack who was piloting this whole thing in some Manhattan mosque?) but as far as lecturing and other wise contributing to religious discussions, Muslim women have been involved in this from day one. Its not something that Morocco has just pioneered. They may have come up with another of their official stamps to type-cast something that is already there, but its certainly not something new. My focus is, therefore, on Moroccan government and not BBC.
it is not just bbc as one example of non muslim media news analysis service, that is guilty of portraying the activism of muslim women in their societies countries' religious works, as down right 'taboo' according to our religion, an idea that in it self is UNTRUE.
that is what i have problem with.
when we are alright in seeing other religious groups having a system wherein both genders practice their religion, in public, why on earth muslim women cannot, with dignity and prestige, learn and teach about religion.
that is why, little and no documented works of religious explicative by muslim women are available and men are interpreting quran as they see fit.
that also allows non muslims to find faults within our religion, and INVITE and welcome ' intellectual' discourse by the likes of irshad manjis or build their whole entire perspective on the islamic women’s' lives, based on the few strayed or disgraced examples wherein they find either women abused or women themselves not being able to tell their true place and position within our religion.
I think your question should be addressed to the Moroccon government, as to how come this is the first time that muslim ladies are "allowed" to lead discussions. Why are muslim ladies not "allowed" to do that without getting a stamp from the government of Morocco or being given the title of "Mourchidat".
These are questions for Moroccon government. Not for the media. Lets talk about ourselves first, before we start talking about others.
no. i contend religious innovation.
what i am saying, as a musalimah, and an educated one, is that in order for muslim societies to have an even split role modeling for both genders, females must embrace religion in the society, as practitioners and preachers of the values that the deen has proffered on both genders.
forget moroccan govt, when most men in arabia and in other 'muslim' countries,
are out to get women, as their only target to take out their personal cheating and infidelity with religion.
^ Which is fine topic of discussion. I am glad you want to talk about that rather then harp about how BBC reported a news story.
My knowledge about role of women teachers in Islamic history is fairly limited, but I am fairly certain in early days of Islam, educated and knowledgable women were giving advice and offering their thoughts on important issues. How and why their role was shrunk in later years is something I'd love to hear others views about.
for the same reasons due to which men in muslim states have abondoned trust in the intellectual ability of women, namely, they have pushed all emphasis on them being expectedly dedicated as commodity for fulfilling their self-interest based commands for comfort.
women themselves need to become very active and search their place according to religion and not its interpretation by men.
for this, women wont even need to be in the presence of men, congregating along side men folks, at mosques, but women can and must have women only space and practice religious knowledge and debate over it, learn about it and teach it eventually.
women must see themselves from the religious lens of moral responsibility of living the religion and not merely being associated with it. same goes for men, if they understand it, that is.
finally, society, on the whole, must make religion available to women, upon whom training the next generation of believers is dependent. women must reclaim their roles as seekers of religious knowledge and document their discourse vis a vis males who call themselves religiously literate, of their times.
& most importantly, more trained female and male religious scholars--> better and accurate religious education.
I totally agree with Dushwari. Furthermore, women playing an active role in the religious affairs is not unprecedented. The wife of the Holy Prophet (s), bibi Ayesha, is one of the authorities cited in many sunni books.
But leading the prayers for example, amongst other things, is the prerogative of men and should be left alone. Women can and should play an active part remaining within the limits set by Shariah.
As the leader from Morocco's Islamist movement states, althugh in theory empowering women islamic leaders is a very good idea, in practice Morocco's government in only doing it to subjugate Islam to the Monarchy.
In fact, women Islamic "priests" who are suspected of Islamist sympathy are stated to not be allowed to actually work.
Therefore, this attempt by Morocco to re-introduce female religious leaders is an attempt to twist and corrupt Islam to suit the needs of the secular leadership of Morocco.
The female "priests" are nothing more than puppets of the government men who control their strings.
while there are many educated and knowledgeable women, this program requires minimal qualifications and education to be able to have this designation, thereby ensuring quality control.
its like our own ulema in Pakistan have their own qualification systems, which btw the vast majority of your avg masjid mullah dont have, and this results in ppl teaching garbage to kids and others.
What the Moroccan govt has done is, made an official stance that there will be qualified women scholars accessible to people for their questions and to teach etc, and that they will have attained a minimal level fo qualification so they are not feeding ppl the type of BS we see half baked mullahs teach in other countries.
So its not something that Morocco has pioneered at all, Islamic history has many influential female scholars. But if we step out of history for a moment and look at the ground reality today, then tell me when was the last time you went to a masjid in Pakistan or saudi Arabia and a female scholar was on the staff delivering lectures and available for cosultation and advise?
Well, I think we are talking about two distinct, though related topics.
First is the quality of religious education. This is not something specific for women. Its a more global issue that a lot of people who are not as knowledgeable as they will like others to think, are out there providing guidance to people in the matter of faith. We'll talk about that in a bit.
Second is having women trained to be religious scholars. I know there are many institutions in Pakistan, and I am sure in other countries as well, where women, as well as men, are trained in religious studies and get degrees and diplomas. Some ladies in my family have also completed 4 or 5-year courses after which they are given the title of something. So I am fairly certain this is not something new.
Coming back to the topic of quality of education. In most of rest of the world, this is a private enterprise. Results shown by the graduates show the quality of education. I am sure there is a case for standardization and I am quite sure the government can play an important role, but its important that the government steps in with the right intentions and with the correct approach. When we talk about governments in monarchical or dictator-ship lands like they have in Middle East and Africa, you can safely bet your last cent that the reason government got involved is to push forward the sect favored by the government which is likely that of the Badshah Salamat as well. This is demonstrated clearly when you read the news story and they are not going to appoint some women who have graduated, just because they belong to a rival political party. Its all so predictable and cheesy and disappointing. Welcome to modern Islamic world! :)
^ her book "veil and muslim elite" is full of errors ....
firstly let me make something clear i dont oppose her for her views on hijab as far as i am concerned women taking or not taking hijab is their personal preference
but what i found really disturbing is her portrayal of many personalities
RasoolAllah[saw] is depicted as weak and indecisive totally bullied by his eminent companions ...and hopelessly attached to his wives
Umar[ra] according to her is the biggest misogynist ever
Ali[as] and his followers are bloodthirsty warmongers
while a woman like hind wife of abusufyan gets page after page of praise for her strong personality and opposition to the muslims .....
she even indirectly defends the revolt of ummel momineen ayesha .....are these the examples mernissi wants the muslim women to follow ? if she does then surely she is an enemy of the messenger of Allah and needs to be treated like the rushdies and manjis
The topic of this thread is Moroccan female 'priests'. To segway into a slinging match over Hazrat Ayesha (RA) is both regrettable as well as octagonal. Please stick to the topic. All irrelevant replies are removed.
