Sexual assault and Islam

photo: Shirin Neshat

 

 

(Disclaimer: as the title indicates, the following entry discusses the topic of sexual assault. For those who may be adversely affected by discussion of this topic, please proceed with caution, or stop here in your reading. For support, please see this website.)

I recently viewed an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, someone with whom I do not have many shared opinions. Regardless, I don’t believe that she deserves to be threatened for her views, nor do I think she’s a threat to Islam. As a dissident – and often a harsh critic – she regularly has some rather biting things to say about the faith. While I readily acknowledge that we Muslims must work to end the human rights abuses happening under the banner of Islam, I also know that Islam demands humanity, justice, kindness and equity. These aren’t things that can be taken away from a faith – or a person – by a critic. These are things we must work to exemplify, and these are the things that preserve my own faith.

In this interview, Hirsi Ali was discussing the impact of her short film, “Submission”. She was asked about the offense her work had caused in the Muslim world. She proceeded to state that what she views to be truly offensive is this:  the Qur’an permits women to be raped.

I took pause at this statement. She was specifically referring to marital rape. However, the topic of rape itself has spurred much debate about Islam. At the center of this debate, limited voices arise: neoconservatives hell-bent on bashing Islam; and those whose interpretations are so malignant, so destructive –  that they will justify violence “in our name”.

It’s high time reasonable people – especially reasonable Muslims – get heard in debates like these. Why let either party run away with this conversation when, after all, it is the rest of us, particularly young women, who are most impacted by this most crucial issue?

The Qur’an states that “women are your fields: go, then, into your fields whence you please” (2:223, Penguin Classics edition). This is a verse whose meaning has come to be seen as validation for assault.

I acknowledge how the above verse may read to those with ill-intentions toward the women in their lives. However, the Qur’an also contains myriad injunctions against the ill-treatment of women and other human beings in general. It is my view that Islam not only forbids assault, but demands gentility toward our fellow human beings.

From slander, defamation, and abusive language -

“…Do not slander one another, nor give another nick-names. After believing, it is bad to give another a bad name… O you who believe, avoid most suspicions: some suspicions are indeed sins. So do not pry into another’s secrets and do not backbite…” (49:11-12, Ahmed Ali trans.)

- to forbidding harm against one another in general :

“…abandon all harm: whether openly or in secret.” (6:120 – [see also 7:33]),

The Qur’an clearly compels us to decency. On the specific issue of assault, the Qur’an doesn’t relent:

“Oh you who believe: you are forbidden to inherit women against their will.” (4:19).

Nor does the Prophet (pbuh). It is said that he, unlike many claiming to be following his example today -  dealt quite harshly with rapists, and treated their victims with great mercy.

Even Sheikh Muhammad al-Hanooti of the North American Fiqh Council released a fatwa stating that “Intimacy should be a matter of etiquette and courtesy”, and that women are afforded “as many rights as they are duties” under Islam. Finally, even IslamOnline.net – whose “living Shariah fatwa bank” is sometimes considered conservative even by conservative standards – contains advice from scholars who advocate that men do not, in fact, have the right to sex when a woman does not consent.

Obviously, the burden of behavior lies in the hands of Muslims to uphold these principles – and commands. We need more Muslim leaders – like the Emir of Gobir, an agent of change I discussed some months ago – to take a stance on the issue of women’s rights. We, also, however, have the responsibility to take unrelenting stands against injustice in our every day lives – no matter who speaks or acts against us for doing so.

Now it’s your turn to weigh in. How do you think Muslims can ensure that these basic rights are protected? How do you think non-Muslims can help in this cause?

~ by raquelevita on July 16, 2008.