Has anyone else in our little community here read this book? What are your thoughts on it?
Personally, I believe the reason behind men's (and specifically Muslim men's) attempts to keep women down is due to an inherant fear that if women were to actually take part more openly in politics and society in the Muslim world, they would actually do a better job at it than the men themselves!
No I haven't had a chance to read it, but I'd like to. Must put it on my Santa list.
The problem is that these teachings span all the way back to 7th century Arabia. And once formalised in the Qur'an and Hadiths there can be no going back for those who see this is the eternal word of God that cannot be changed.
Al-Ghazali is recognised as the most influential Muslim thinker of all time and is described in the Encyclopaedia of Islam as 'The greatest theologian produced by Islam.'
In his book 'The Revival of the Religious Sciences' Ghazali defines the role of a woman as follows:
- She should stay at home and get on with her spinning
- She can go out only in emergencies.
- She must not be well-informed nor must she be communicative with her neighbours and only visit them when absolutely necessary.
- She should take care of her husband and respect him in his presence and his absence and seek to satisfy him in everything.
- She must not leave her house without his permission and if given his permission she must leave secretly.
- She should put on old clothes and take deserted streets and alleys, avoid markets, and make sure that a stranger does not hear her voice, footsteps, smell her or recognize her.
- She must not speak to her husband's friend even in need.
- Her sole worry should be her "al bud" (reproductive organs), her home as well as her prayers and her fast.
- If a friend of her husband calls when her husband is absent she must not open the door nor reply to him in order to safeguard her "al bud".
- She should accept what her husband gives her as sufficient sexual needs at any moment.
- She should be clean and ready to satisfy her husband's sexual needs at any moment.
Al-Ghazali also states 'It is a fact that all the trials, misfortunes and woes which befall men come from women'. In his Book of Counsel for Kings, Ghazali sums up eighteen punishments that a woman has to endure resulting from the curse Eve received for eating from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden:
- Menstruation; Childbirth; Pregnancy
- Separation from mother and father and marriage to a stranger;
- Not having control over her own person;
- Half the share in inheritance compared to male
- Her liability to be divorced and inability to divorce;
- It being lawful for men to have four wives, but for a woman to have only one husband;
- She must stay secluded in the house;
- She must keep her head covered inside the house;
- Two women's testimony equals the testimony of one man;
- She must not go out unless accompanied by a near relative;
- Men take part in Friday and feast day prayers and funerals while women do not;
- Disqualification from positions such as ruler and judge;
- Merit has one thousand components, only one of which is attributable to women, while 999 are attributable to men;
- If women are profligate they will be given twice as much torment as the rest of the community on Resurrection Day;
- If their husbands die they must observe a waiting period of four months and ten days before remarrying;
- If their husbands divorce them they must observe a waiting period of three months or three menstruations before remarrying.
So basically the plight of women based on Abrahamic scriptures stems back to poor old Eve being deceived by a talking snake.
To think so many women have suffered so much throughout history because of this nonsensical myth is baffling and saddening.
Topic: The Idea of Women in Fundamentalist Islam