Afghanistan and Sri Lanka: Whither liberative Islam?

Women pose in traditional Afghan attire, in Rotterdam, Netherlands [Instagram/@lemaafzal/via Reuters]

A world without women may be a good title for a socio-fiction movie or book. But under Taliban rulers, Afghanistan has become a country without women. You may ask where all the women have gone. They are there, but they are virtually dead. 

With no representation in the interim government which the Taliban, in their preludes to the government formation, had advertised as an inclusive government, the Afghan woman has come virtually under the writ of men who decide on her behalf as to what job she could do, what dress she should wear and what courses she could follow in universities.  In this male-chauvinistic milieu, the women are stripped of empowerment and their views count nothing. It comes as no surprise, given the pre-modern patriarchic nature of Afghan society, within which even Islam has been transformed into a patriarchal force. 

In recent weeks in the capital, Kabul, there have been protests by women against Taliban decrees with regard to matters concerning women. Shots were fired in the air and participants were baton charged by the Taliban. The women took to the social media to express their anger, for the waiting mainstream western media to turn their tweets and posts into trending stories. This week, in a mark of protest against the Taliban’s imposition of a full-body-covering dress code on women, Afghan women living in Western capitals posted on social media pictures of themselves in colourful traditional attires.

But again, theirs is minority viewpoint. Stripped of their identity, most Afghan women, it appears, have in a submissive manner resigned to their fate that they have no option but to follow the dictates of men. There is little space in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan for women to claim their rights as guaranteed by Islam. 
Enlightened Islamic scholars would say what is happening in Afghanistan is far from the liberative Islam which the Prophet Muhammad preached with the aim of breaking the shackles of socio-economic injustices. Education is seen in Islam as a path to empowerment for both men and women.

Islamic feminism recognizes that Islam imposes a dress code for men and women, for God dignifies both men and women in their distinctiveness – not their sameness.  Most Muslim women wear modest forms of attire in keeping with their understanding of Islamic teaching.

"During the first Taliban regime, women were punished with lashes for not wearing the shuttlecock burqa that covered them from head to toe or for leaving their houses without being accompanied by a male relative"

Although rarely has there been a dispute over the men’s dress, as to how women should cover themselves has remained disputative for centuries, as Islam -- after the death of the Prophet Muhammad -- got contaminated by feudalistic local cultures while it spread across Arabia and beyond. 

Niqab or full face cover which was not part of the ordinary Muslim women’s dress during the prophet’s time, came to be adopted as the norm due to various reasons. Islamic extremist groups insist that niqab is part of a Muslim woman’s dress, although there is little historical or scriptural evidence to support their view.
They say niqab protects women. From whom? From Muslim men? But are not the Muslim men advised to lower their gazes and respect the ‘womb’? In any society which is vulnerable to external threats, men tend to protect women, for women are raped and molested by an invading army.

Studies show that as Muslim territories became insecure as a result of wars, invasions, colonization and political unrests, Muslim men began to cover their women from head to toe and hide them in inner chambers of their homes. This hyper-reactive social transformation from the world of honour to a world without honour is explained in the book ‘Islam Under Siege’ by Prof. Akbar Ahmed, who held the Ibn Khaldoun chair of Islamic Studies at the American University in Washington DC.

Just as a thorough understanding of Das Capital, the Communist Manifesto, the works of Lenin, Trotsky and Mao Zedong is necessary to critique socialism, to understand Islamic systems of governance, a thorough knowledge of Islam and its many strains and mutants is a sine qua non.

Spirituality has grades. It increases when we become more introspective and enlightened. What is harmless at the elementary level of spirituality may be regarded as distraction at a higher level of spirituality. While Islam encourages sports and Muslims are not prohibited from indulging in some permissible forms of entertainment, those at a higher level of spirituality may see them as distractions that keep them away from the remembrance of God or the right path to the highest realm of reality. In many chapters, the Quran reiterates that the life of this world is but play and amusement, pomp and mutual boasting and competition in wealth and children. By pointing out that the life of this world is nothing but the delusion of enjoyment, it encourages the believers to seek the pleasure of God.

However, the Quran also recognizes the free will of the individual and says there is no compulsion in religion when truth stands out clear from error. If people on their own free will decide to shun the worldly enjoyment and Muslim women decide on their own to cover themselves in niqabs, jilbabs and burqas for spiritual reasons, it is in accord with the free will which Islam recognizes. But if someone in authority tries to impose an ascetic or rigid lifestyle on people, it is tantamount to an imposition of a university syllabus on kindergarten children. 

But the Taliban are far from ascetic in their outlook. Their actions indicate that they are a bunch of ritualistic Muslims with an addiction to violence or misguided jihadism, quite in contrast to the light-upon-light spiritual Islam, according to which those who undertake the spiritual journey are cleansed of evil and their inner selves are filled with tranquility, compassion, tolerance, generosity, forgiveness and the selfless love for all. 

During the first Taliban regime, women were punished with lashes for not wearing the shuttlecock burqa that covered them from head to toe or for leaving their houses without being accompanied by a male relative. Such demeaning punishment violates human dignity, which the prophet, in his last sermon, described as inviolable. Two weeks ago, two male journalists were mercilessly whipped by the Taliban for criticizing Afghanistan’s new rulers. 
In Sri Lanka, too, a male-chauvinistic interpretation of Islam is being imposed on Muslim women. The so-called Muslim personal laws remain archaic, for want of reforms. As a result, women suffer in silence and the efforts to introduce reforms are moving at snail pace. 

The present Government is seen to be taking some interest in amending the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA), but the opposition is growing from male-dominated religious establishment. That a recent webinar on proposed MMDA reforms had no female speakers is evident how marginalized the Sri Lankan Muslim women are in matters that directly affect them.

The amendments, among other measures, seek to end child marriages, reform the Quazi court systems, bring in women Quazis (judges), restrict polygamy, and enable women to express their consent for marriage by signing their marriage certificates. 
These reforms are not un-Islamic if one were to take into consideration Islam’s the importance Islam gives to justice.
It needs to be emphasized that religion and its rules are for the benefit of people – not vice versa.