Post by Islamic Revival on Feb 12, 2005 1:32:38 GMT -5
The Role of Women in Politics
The role of women in politics has generally been downplayed throughout history. In 350 BCE, Aristotle, in his treatise “Politics”, excluded women along with children and slaves from his definition of a citizen. This prevented her from having a say in government and ruling. Later generations came to defend the decision to exclude women on the grounds that they were not suited to the task because of the differences between the male and female intellect, women’s physical strength and inability to maintain their attention.
After centuries of oppression and struggle to gain the same respect, dignity and basic rights which had come all too easily for men, the tide for the woman seems to have turned. In the twentieth century Western world, the historical values of male chauvinism have been challenged. Sometimes, women have been considered political equals of men, and in some exceptional cases, a few women have even surpassed the level of achievement of their male counterparts. But despite such changes in recent thinking, the idea of women engaging in politics continues to be a matter that raises much debate in the West and particularly in the Muslim world, which often bears the brunt of criticism in its inequitable regard towards women.
Indeed the political status of women in Islam is in many quarters still perceived to be on a par with the ‘Dark Ages’ of European history. Muslim women are assumed to be strictly in the background of the political milieu, having little to say and even less to offer. Whilst the West purports to have completed the process of integration of women into political life by championing democracy and the advancement of women’s causes, it attacks the Islamic world for its “oppression of women.” In reaction to this, many Muslim women, inspired by the apparent progress made by her Western counterparts, are becoming increasingly vociferous in their call to participate in the political process. But what needs to be scrutinised is the legitimacy of the West’s achievement. Have the women in the West truly been liberated? Does Islam really oppress women by not giving them a political voice?
THE LEGACY OF THE SUFFRAGETTE MOVEMENT
The political landscape of Britain today, with respect to the role of women, was shaped through vigorous campaigns that began with the demand for women’s voting rights. In 1867 John Stuart Mill initiated the first of many debates in Parliament to install rights that had been denied to women from centuries before. The 1900s saw the formation of the Women’s Social & Political Union and the Suffragette movement, the latter of which became famous for its extreme measures, such as engaging in hunger strikes and similar activities that often led to imprisonment. In 1918, women over the age of thirty were given the right to vote and by 1928 the voting age for women was reduced to 21 years, the same as for the men.
The West claims that through democracy and decades of struggle, it has achieved freedom, sexual liberation, equality of the sexes and women’s rights. However, in reality, the struggles of women like the Suffragettes continue even today. Eighty-five years after women were granted the right to vote there is still a long way to go until true ‘equality’ is reached.
Whilst the aforementioned successes for women may exist on paper, the West is still very much a masculine domain. A report produced by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem), showed that women accounted for only about 14% of members of parliament worldwide in 2002. Further breakdown reveals the following:
COUNTRIES SHARE OF SEATS IN PARLIAMENT 2002
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway,
Germany, Argentina, Costa Rica,
South Africa, Mozambique 30%- (Target achieved)
Rwanda 25.7%
Uganda 24.7%
UK 17.9%
US 12%
France 11.8%
Japan 10%
In the last general election in Britain, the country actually saw the number of women MPs fall for the first time to 118 (out of a total of over 650). In the House of Lords there are currently 112 women out of a total of 652 temporal members of Lords. When put in historical context, these figures are even more revealing. In the entire history of British politics there has only ever been one female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher; and, in the last 80 years there have been approximately 4,500 MPs at Westminster of which only around 240 have been women (approximately 5%). These facts provide a glaring indication that the democratic world of politics is in fact far from being an institution that observes the equality of the sexes.
POLITICS IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
When we look to the Muslim world, the situation for women in the arena of politics is no better. In the same report by Unifem, it was found that a number of Gulf Arab states neither gave the women the right to sit in parliament, nor even permitted them the right to cast a vote. The West argues that the lack of advancement for women in the Muslim states is a result of the implementation of Islam and the lack of democracy in these countries. Muslims living both in the West and the Muslim world have begun to accept such rhetoric as fact. Their evaluation that democracy has all the solutions to the problems of the world is arrived at by the simplistic observation of how rich and materially progressive Western societies have become, without consideration to the numerous contradictions and social inequalities that are rife within them.
In an attempt by the West to integrate the Muslims into Western society and accept its values, it actively encourages Muslim men and women to participate in its political affairs. Facility is made for the establishment of representative Muslim bodies and individuals who purport to act on behalf of the Muslim community by lobbying the government using the democratic process. Muslim women too are encouraged to have a political voice, the likes of which is otherwise denied to those who reside in Muslim states abroad, where they are subject to the sexual discrimination that has come to characterise such countries. A token gesture of this sentiment is the appointment of the US/UK led CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) in Iraq, which has just appointed 3 women out of 25 members in its Iraq Governing Council.
Contrary to what is asserted in the West, Islam and the Ahkam Shari’ah are not being implemented anywhere across the Muslim world today. Instead, what we see is a semblance of democracy (or man made law), or democracy fused with a distorted Islam, both of which are kufr. For example, Benazir Bhutto came into power in Pakistan in 1987 and proceeded to bring democracy into this Muslim land saying, “I would like to be remembered for overturning a military dictatorship and heralding a world of democracy in Pakistan, for bringing in changes which could not be reversed which included an independent press and the move towards free markets…”
Similarly, if one were to examine every Muslim country today, one would find that kufr man-made laws have been implemented, which serve nothing other than to enslave, humiliate and oppress men, women and children.
In light of the characteristics of the politics described above, it comes as no surprise that many Muslims find it unpalatable that something as pure as Islam could have any association with politics; hence the maxim, ‘don’t mix politics and religion’. This perception is understandable after one refers to accounts of political history across the different ages and considers the consequences of man made laws and their rich legacy of corruption. Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’aala) says:
æóãóä áøóãú íóÍúßõã ÈöãóÇ ÃäÒóáó Çááøåõ ÝóÃõæúáóÜÆößó åõãõ ÇáÙøóÇáöãõæäó<br>“And whosoever does not rule by what Allah has revealed such are the oppressors”<br>[TMQ Al-Maidah: 45].
Although the orientalists may have painted a grim picture of Islamic political history, objective study shows that after Islam was revealed the face of politics was transformed forever. When before, primitive warring factions dominated the political arena in Arabia, Islam brought a system unlike any other, which was revealed by Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’aala) and was free of the corruption and selfish motives of man-made law. It was a system that produced Muslim politicians whose role was one of looking after the affairs of people in accordance with the laws of Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’aala), each aware that they were accountable before Him (Subhanahu wa ta’aala) for their actions.
The role of women in politics has generally been downplayed throughout history. In 350 BCE, Aristotle, in his treatise “Politics”, excluded women along with children and slaves from his definition of a citizen. This prevented her from having a say in government and ruling. Later generations came to defend the decision to exclude women on the grounds that they were not suited to the task because of the differences between the male and female intellect, women’s physical strength and inability to maintain their attention.
After centuries of oppression and struggle to gain the same respect, dignity and basic rights which had come all too easily for men, the tide for the woman seems to have turned. In the twentieth century Western world, the historical values of male chauvinism have been challenged. Sometimes, women have been considered political equals of men, and in some exceptional cases, a few women have even surpassed the level of achievement of their male counterparts. But despite such changes in recent thinking, the idea of women engaging in politics continues to be a matter that raises much debate in the West and particularly in the Muslim world, which often bears the brunt of criticism in its inequitable regard towards women.
Indeed the political status of women in Islam is in many quarters still perceived to be on a par with the ‘Dark Ages’ of European history. Muslim women are assumed to be strictly in the background of the political milieu, having little to say and even less to offer. Whilst the West purports to have completed the process of integration of women into political life by championing democracy and the advancement of women’s causes, it attacks the Islamic world for its “oppression of women.” In reaction to this, many Muslim women, inspired by the apparent progress made by her Western counterparts, are becoming increasingly vociferous in their call to participate in the political process. But what needs to be scrutinised is the legitimacy of the West’s achievement. Have the women in the West truly been liberated? Does Islam really oppress women by not giving them a political voice?
THE LEGACY OF THE SUFFRAGETTE MOVEMENT
The political landscape of Britain today, with respect to the role of women, was shaped through vigorous campaigns that began with the demand for women’s voting rights. In 1867 John Stuart Mill initiated the first of many debates in Parliament to install rights that had been denied to women from centuries before. The 1900s saw the formation of the Women’s Social & Political Union and the Suffragette movement, the latter of which became famous for its extreme measures, such as engaging in hunger strikes and similar activities that often led to imprisonment. In 1918, women over the age of thirty were given the right to vote and by 1928 the voting age for women was reduced to 21 years, the same as for the men.
The West claims that through democracy and decades of struggle, it has achieved freedom, sexual liberation, equality of the sexes and women’s rights. However, in reality, the struggles of women like the Suffragettes continue even today. Eighty-five years after women were granted the right to vote there is still a long way to go until true ‘equality’ is reached.
Whilst the aforementioned successes for women may exist on paper, the West is still very much a masculine domain. A report produced by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem), showed that women accounted for only about 14% of members of parliament worldwide in 2002. Further breakdown reveals the following:
COUNTRIES SHARE OF SEATS IN PARLIAMENT 2002
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway,
Germany, Argentina, Costa Rica,
South Africa, Mozambique 30%- (Target achieved)
Rwanda 25.7%
Uganda 24.7%
UK 17.9%
US 12%
France 11.8%
Japan 10%
In the last general election in Britain, the country actually saw the number of women MPs fall for the first time to 118 (out of a total of over 650). In the House of Lords there are currently 112 women out of a total of 652 temporal members of Lords. When put in historical context, these figures are even more revealing. In the entire history of British politics there has only ever been one female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher; and, in the last 80 years there have been approximately 4,500 MPs at Westminster of which only around 240 have been women (approximately 5%). These facts provide a glaring indication that the democratic world of politics is in fact far from being an institution that observes the equality of the sexes.
POLITICS IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
When we look to the Muslim world, the situation for women in the arena of politics is no better. In the same report by Unifem, it was found that a number of Gulf Arab states neither gave the women the right to sit in parliament, nor even permitted them the right to cast a vote. The West argues that the lack of advancement for women in the Muslim states is a result of the implementation of Islam and the lack of democracy in these countries. Muslims living both in the West and the Muslim world have begun to accept such rhetoric as fact. Their evaluation that democracy has all the solutions to the problems of the world is arrived at by the simplistic observation of how rich and materially progressive Western societies have become, without consideration to the numerous contradictions and social inequalities that are rife within them.
In an attempt by the West to integrate the Muslims into Western society and accept its values, it actively encourages Muslim men and women to participate in its political affairs. Facility is made for the establishment of representative Muslim bodies and individuals who purport to act on behalf of the Muslim community by lobbying the government using the democratic process. Muslim women too are encouraged to have a political voice, the likes of which is otherwise denied to those who reside in Muslim states abroad, where they are subject to the sexual discrimination that has come to characterise such countries. A token gesture of this sentiment is the appointment of the US/UK led CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) in Iraq, which has just appointed 3 women out of 25 members in its Iraq Governing Council.
Contrary to what is asserted in the West, Islam and the Ahkam Shari’ah are not being implemented anywhere across the Muslim world today. Instead, what we see is a semblance of democracy (or man made law), or democracy fused with a distorted Islam, both of which are kufr. For example, Benazir Bhutto came into power in Pakistan in 1987 and proceeded to bring democracy into this Muslim land saying, “I would like to be remembered for overturning a military dictatorship and heralding a world of democracy in Pakistan, for bringing in changes which could not be reversed which included an independent press and the move towards free markets…”
Similarly, if one were to examine every Muslim country today, one would find that kufr man-made laws have been implemented, which serve nothing other than to enslave, humiliate and oppress men, women and children.
In light of the characteristics of the politics described above, it comes as no surprise that many Muslims find it unpalatable that something as pure as Islam could have any association with politics; hence the maxim, ‘don’t mix politics and religion’. This perception is understandable after one refers to accounts of political history across the different ages and considers the consequences of man made laws and their rich legacy of corruption. Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’aala) says:
æóãóä áøóãú íóÍúßõã ÈöãóÇ ÃäÒóáó Çááøåõ ÝóÃõæúáóÜÆößó åõãõ ÇáÙøóÇáöãõæäó<br>“And whosoever does not rule by what Allah has revealed such are the oppressors”<br>[TMQ Al-Maidah: 45].
Although the orientalists may have painted a grim picture of Islamic political history, objective study shows that after Islam was revealed the face of politics was transformed forever. When before, primitive warring factions dominated the political arena in Arabia, Islam brought a system unlike any other, which was revealed by Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’aala) and was free of the corruption and selfish motives of man-made law. It was a system that produced Muslim politicians whose role was one of looking after the affairs of people in accordance with the laws of Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’aala), each aware that they were accountable before Him (Subhanahu wa ta’aala) for their actions.