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Thread: Status of women in Islamist discourses - excerpts from Lamia Rustum Shehadeh's "Role of Women In Fundamentalist Islam"
#1. Sayyid Qutb
In his novel 'Tifl min al-qaryah' (1946), Qutb comes across as compassionate to women, sensitive to their plight and confinement to their homes, while their husbands have the freedom to go out, enjoy the beauty of nature, and work productively.
In his novel 'Tifl min al-qaryah' (1946), Qutb comes across as compassionate to women, sensitive to their plight and confinement to their homes, while their husbands have the freedom to go out, enjoy the beauty of nature, and work productively.
However, in the later phase of life, he confined women to the home, and forbade outside employment because it would expose them to licentiousness and lead to disruption of the family unit, and ultimately, the destruction of society.
Qutb argued that Islam gave Women more rights than the West ever could, and the 'liberation of women' in the West only resulted in the breakdown of family values.
Qutb claimed that reproductive role was a crucial function of women, for women who bear children attain full growth and potential after one or two pregnancies, while those who bear no children are not as fully balanced or neurologically stable.
To support his stance, Qutb quotes biologist Alexis carrel, who states.
Writing on the obedience of wives to their husbands and the channeling of sex for the upliftment of society, Qutb says:
Qutb writes, "As for the relationship between both sexes, woman has been guaranteed complete equality with man. There is no superiority, except in some 'incidental matters', which are associated with natural aptitude, wherein the privileges of both sexes are not affected.
But whenever the natural aptitude, training, and the responsibilities are equal, the two sexes are equal; whenever they differ in any of these respects, the treatment will differ accordingly."
However, he does not specify who is to determine
these “differences” or “incidental matters,” which seem to be responsible for the perpetuation of gender inequality, keeping in mind that they are 'nowhere to be found in the Quran itself.'
these “differences” or “incidental matters,” which seem to be responsible for the perpetuation of gender inequality, keeping in mind that they are 'nowhere to be found in the Quran itself.'
Women, according to the Quran, are allowed, like men, to own and administer property, which implies equality
in intelligence, memory, and, above all, rationality and deliberation, traits denied to them by Qutb.
in intelligence, memory, and, above all, rationality and deliberation, traits denied to them by Qutb.
Qutb declares that the equality ofthe human race has existed from “its beginning and fate, in life and death,
in duties and rights, before the law and before God, and in this and the other life", he nonetheless subjugates women to the will of their husbands.
in duties and rights, before the law and before God, and in this and the other life", he nonetheless subjugates women to the will of their husbands.
Although he affirms that men and women were created of one soul, he appears content to leave women stagnant at that stage, while he takes men by the hand to new roads of freedom and hegemony.
"As is the case with most polemicists, Qutb selectively cited passages from the Scriptures whose interpretation justified his stance with regard to the role of women in society.
This was done to the exclusion of other Quranic
passages that clearly assert the equality of all believers, and such historical facts that reflect the proliferation of women saints, mystics and warriors in early Islam."
passages that clearly assert the equality of all believers, and such historical facts that reflect the proliferation of women saints, mystics and warriors in early Islam."
