Africa: Asmau Joda on Islam and Muslim women's rights
Source:
Islam Interfaith Asmau Joda is a Muslim woman activist from Nigeria. Until recently she was the Africa Coordinator of the WLUML network.
In this interview with Yoginder Sikand she talks about her work in promoting women's rights from within an Islamic perspective among diverse Muslim communities, particularly in Africa.
Q: Could you tell us something about your background and how you started working among Muslim women?
A: My parents are from northern Nigeria. I was born in England but grew up in Nigeria, where I received most of my education. I graduated in Business Administration, and then went to France for two years for higher studies. After that I returned to Nigeria and helped set up a women's collective and a women's trading company. I later shifted to my hometown in north Nigeria and managed my family farm and cattle business. For a woman to manage a business is not a novel thing in my Fulani Muslim community, but it still isn't easy. But I discovered that working in what is supposedly a male-dominated area was not much of a problem because at a certain level male-female differences dissolve if a woman has a good education.
During the course of my work, women used to come to me to discuss their problems, and we would seek to address them by invoking the Qur'an to challenge patriarchy, including patriarchal interpretations of Islam. We would do this in an unconscious sort of way, because Islam and being Muslim is part of being Fulani. I was also occasionally called upon by the media to discuss what were regarded as controversial issues, such as violence against women, child marriage, forced marriage and the misuse of religion by men to oppress women.
I began working on Muslim women's issues in a more organized way when the civilian government of the state of Kaduna set up a team, of which I was a part, to investigate women's rights violations. Later, we established an NGO called Women in Nigeria to advocate for respect for the rights of Nigerian women, irrespective of religion and ethnicity.
Q: How did you then begin to work particularly on Muslim women's issues and on women's-friendly interpretations of Islam?
A: I was always painfully aware of, and have always protested against, the deeply-rooted assumptions that many people have about Muslim women being allegedly uniformly oppressed and silenced. Now, this is simply not true. Women's oppression is a universal phenomenon that cuts across religion, ethnicity, race and class, although the forms it assumes may be different. In Nigeria many people think that Muslim women in north Nigeria are uneducated and do not participate in public life, but this is not true. In northern Nigeria, which has a large Muslim population, Muslim women have had a long tradition of being literate in Arabic, but this is not generally known. There is an assumption that child marriage is rampant among north Nigerian Muslims, but the point that child marriage is also practiced among many non-Muslim communities in Nigeria is often ignored. So also are different forms of sexual exploitation of women that are found among Muslim as well as non-Muslim communities alike. Some people talk about women's oppression in Muslim societies in a way that appears as if such exploitation is a solely Muslim phenomenon and as if it is somehow 'Islamic'. This is simply ridiculous. It isn't as if women's oppression is unique to Muslim communities. Thus, for instance, female genital mutilation is sometimes seen as a 'Muslim problem', but in northern Nigeria it is unknown among the Muslim communities, while it is practiced among several non-Muslim communities in southern Nigeria. Likewise, if Africans are accused of sexual exploitation of women, what about the massive exploitation of women in Europe and America? In the course of my work among women in Nigeria I felt it was urgent to address these issues as well and that is why I began looking at the diverse interpretations of Islam that are used both to justify women's subordination as well as to resist it. My point is not to defend Islam or to propagate it, but simply to help women access and explore alternate ways of understanding Islam that can help them in their struggle for full equality, including in resisting those who seek to use Islam to deny them equality.
Q: Why did you feel the need for working within a broadly defined Islamic paradigm to advance gender equality?
A: One reason is that secular feminism still remains a largely elitist project. It speaks a language that has little resonance with the masses, so one needs to work with Islamic arguments if Muslim women are to listen to you. For most Muslim women, Islam is a fact of life, and one cannot hope to realize this dream by ignoring it altogether. Then, there can be no single way of advancing women's rights. We have to adopt different methods and strategies to realize the dream of full equality of women and men, and secular feminism is just one strategy among many. Furthermore, I believe that, if understood properly, Islam can help advance the quest for women's equality. We have to re-read our histories, including the history of the early Muslims, to recover this largely forgotten aspect of our heritage. For instance, in my Fulani community, women have for centuries had a long tradition of being Islamic scholars. Asmau, the daughter of Osman don Fodio, who established the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria, was appointed as in-charge of religious affairs by her brother Muhammad Bello. This was because men had less time for religious affairs and also because the communities living in the area of the Caliphate had an earlier tradition of female priestess. Asmau, whom incidentally I am named after, was an accomplished Islamic scholar in her own right. She translated many of her father's books in Arabic into Hausa and Fulfulde, the Fulani language. She also set up a number of madrasas or schools, which attracted women from different parts of what is today northern Nigeria. That tradition still continues among the Fulanis, and most of the teachers in the Qur'anic schools in the Fulani areas are women.
The point I am making is that we have this tradition, and many other such examples, that need to be highlighted to argue the case for women's rights from within a broadly defined Islamic paradigm, as well as to counter misogynist interpretations of Islam. I think this is really crucial, because some Muslim men seek to provide sanction for unrestrained polygamy, child marriages, arbitrary divorce and the denial of women the right to education by claiming that all this is somehow sanctioned in Islam. What we try to do is to offer alternate interpretations of Islam that can challenge these sorts of arguments and claims.
Q: How did you get involved in the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) network?
A: In the course of my work among Muslim women in Nigeria I used several of the excellent publications of the network, some of which are also available on its very informative website (www.wluml.org). Later, I was invited to join a WLUML team of researchers who were studying legal issues related to women in eighteen different countries, the report of which was later published as a book called 'Knowing Our Rights: Women, Family, Laws and Customs in the Muslim World". This research makes very clear the point that there is no homogenous Islamic world, no singular or monolithic interpretation or understanding of Islam. This research project was followed by another one, in which Muslim women from different countries were sent for a few months to live in another Muslim community in another country. For many of us it was a real eye-opener. We discovered the immense diversity among Muslims and, of course, the multiple interpretations of Islam, although the Qur'an functions as a sort of common thread for all Muslims. The ways in which Islam and the shari'ah are understood vary across countries, classes and ethnic groups, so there is this inherent possibility of reinterpretation to promote more women's-friendly or gender-just interpretations. So, for instance, in some Muslim communities female genital mutilation is sought to be justified as 'Islamic', while in others it is completely unknown. Or, while many countries allow for polygamy, Tunisia bans it, using Qur'anic arguments.
The point I am making is that there is simply no single authoritative Islamic position on a range of matters, including those that relate to women. It is all a question of interpretation, and the task is to promote those interpretations that are in accordance with the Qur'anic mandate of justice. Some years ago the WLUML network organized a get-together in Pakistan to discuss this crucial issue, where women activists and Muslim scholars spent two-weeks examining what the Qur'an says about women and seeking to interpret it in diverse ways. On the basis of this workshop the WLUML network published a book titled 'For Oursevlves: Women Reading the Qur'an", which seeks to develop what could be called a women's-friendly Qur'anic exegesis or tafsir.
I was invited to join the network's office in London to look after its Africa desk some years ago. In the course of my work there we organized two women's Qur'anic interpretation meetings, in Nigeria and in Mali. We also networked with several women's groups in Africa who are working among Muslim women and are struggling to combat patriarchal notions of Islam and Islamic law.
Q: How do you look at the project of a shari'ah-ruled state that is demanded by a range of traditionalist as well as Islamist groups? How do you think this impacts on Muslim women?
A: For most of these groups women come to be defined as bearers of tradition and of supposed religious authenticity, and so one of the first things they demand is that women be wrapped up and confined to their homes. The Qur'an places the highest value on social justice, but these groups are only obsessed with a mechanical application or imposition of penal laws and they brook no possibility of reinterpreting them. Nor are they really concerned about social and economic equality as such. So, in Iran after the Revolution of 1979, child marriage, which had been outlawed, made a come back and the legal age of a girl bride was reduced to 9! In Nigeria, Zamphara state, one of the poorest and least literate regions in the country, was the first to introduce what it called Islamic laws. They did nothing to address the issue of widespread poverty and social and economic injustice, but, instead, talked about banning women from public employment, imposing the veil, and cutting off the hands of thieves. You can see how this understanding of shari'ah actually helps entrenched elites, because it targets the most marginalized groups in society. So, you have a poor man, driven by hunger to rob, having his hands cut off, while a rich, corrupt businessman goes scot free. Likewise, on the issue of the veil. We in Nigeria have had our own culturally determined notions of the hijab or modest dressing, which were always accepted as properly Islamic, but now you have people who insist that women should be covered up from head to toe in black!
I think it is important to critically interrogate several of these laws that are sought to be imposed as allegedly part of the shari'ah. More often that not this is simply an attempt by political elites to garner votes by claiming to be more 'Islamic'. In countries like Nigeria, there is this clear nexus between some traditional 'ulama, Islamist groups and ruling elites as well as imperialist forces that all combine to work against the interests of marginalized groups. So, those groups whose interests are most to be protected and promoted in Islam ironically come to be the one's most severely undermined by these attempts at what is sought to be passed of as Islamisation by self-styled Islamic groups. As I see it, while claiming to protect Islam many of these groups are simply degrading it. By trying to force people to comply with these laws they are only promoting hypocrisy, a great sin in Islam, because many people do not willingly accept them but only comply out of fear.
Q: How would you argue against those who claim that many of these laws are necessarily mandated by Islam?
A: For me, as a Muslim woman and a social activist, Islam is basically about the Qur'an. The bulk of the edifice of what is called the shari'ah is a process of human and historical development that began after the death of the Prophet. Many of the laws that are sought to be imposed on women in the name of the shari'ah actually derive from aspects of the corpus of jurisprudence which do not have a clear Qur'anic mandate. Likewise, in the case of the Hadith, saying attributed to the Prophet. Many so-called hadith, including those that appear to sanction women's subordination, are actually fabrications that were falsely attributed to the Prophet. The only thing that is unquestionable for me as a Muslim woman is the Qur'an. But even here there is no way out of interpretation, because the Qur'an, being a text, has to be interpreted by human beings in order to be understood, Being subject to human interpretation there can be no single interpretation of the Qur'an. Thus, for instance, some people adduce a Qur'anic verse to argue that men can beat their wives, but that precise verse is interpreted by some others to mean simply allow for tapping one's wife playfully with the tail of one's robe!
Q: Women like you are often accused of working for the 'West' or of what are sometimes labeled as 'enemies of Islam'? How do you respond to these accusations?
A: I, for myself, am clear that what I am seeking to do is to expand the range of options for Muslim women so that they do not feel that working as autonomous women struggling for equality necessarily means going against Islam. At the same time I do not see patriarchy as a uniquely Muslim phenomenon, and we have to critique patriarchy universally, including in the West. But, as for those who allege that women like us are agents of the West, it really does not matter what we say in our defence, we still will be charged with all sorts of allegations. When it suited them, as during the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the West was an ally for many of those who are against our demands, and they did not hesitate to ally with it. Or, for that matter, even today many leaders of Islamist groups do not hesitate to send their own children to the West to study. My only answer to our accusers is to come and see our work for themselves instead of attributing all sorts of motives to us.
Asma'u Joda can be contacted on asmau_joda@yahoo.co.uk
A: My parents are from northern Nigeria. I was born in England but grew up in Nigeria, where I received most of my education. I graduated in Business Administration, and then went to France for two years for higher studies. After that I returned to Nigeria and helped set up a women's collective and a women's trading company. I later shifted to my hometown in north Nigeria and managed my family farm and cattle business. For a woman to manage a business is not a novel thing in my Fulani Muslim community, but it still isn't easy. But I discovered that working in what is supposedly a male-dominated area was not much of a problem because at a certain level male-female differences dissolve if a woman has a good education.
During the course of my work, women used to come to me to discuss their problems, and we would seek to address them by invoking the Qur'an to challenge patriarchy, including patriarchal interpretations of Islam. We would do this in an unconscious sort of way, because Islam and being Muslim is part of being Fulani. I was also occasionally called upon by the media to discuss what were regarded as controversial issues, such as violence against women, child marriage, forced marriage and the misuse of religion by men to oppress women.
I began working on Muslim women's issues in a more organized way when the civilian government of the state of Kaduna set up a team, of which I was a part, to investigate women's rights violations. Later, we established an NGO called Women in Nigeria to advocate for respect for the rights of Nigerian women, irrespective of religion and ethnicity.
Q: How did you then begin to work particularly on Muslim women's issues and on women's-friendly interpretations of Islam?
A: I was always painfully aware of, and have always protested against, the deeply-rooted assumptions that many people have about Muslim women being allegedly uniformly oppressed and silenced. Now, this is simply not true. Women's oppression is a universal phenomenon that cuts across religion, ethnicity, race and class, although the forms it assumes may be different. In Nigeria many people think that Muslim women in north Nigeria are uneducated and do not participate in public life, but this is not true. In northern Nigeria, which has a large Muslim population, Muslim women have had a long tradition of being literate in Arabic, but this is not generally known. There is an assumption that child marriage is rampant among north Nigerian Muslims, but the point that child marriage is also practiced among many non-Muslim communities in Nigeria is often ignored. So also are different forms of sexual exploitation of women that are found among Muslim as well as non-Muslim communities alike. Some people talk about women's oppression in Muslim societies in a way that appears as if such exploitation is a solely Muslim phenomenon and as if it is somehow 'Islamic'. This is simply ridiculous. It isn't as if women's oppression is unique to Muslim communities. Thus, for instance, female genital mutilation is sometimes seen as a 'Muslim problem', but in northern Nigeria it is unknown among the Muslim communities, while it is practiced among several non-Muslim communities in southern Nigeria. Likewise, if Africans are accused of sexual exploitation of women, what about the massive exploitation of women in Europe and America? In the course of my work among women in Nigeria I felt it was urgent to address these issues as well and that is why I began looking at the diverse interpretations of Islam that are used both to justify women's subordination as well as to resist it. My point is not to defend Islam or to propagate it, but simply to help women access and explore alternate ways of understanding Islam that can help them in their struggle for full equality, including in resisting those who seek to use Islam to deny them equality.
Q: Why did you feel the need for working within a broadly defined Islamic paradigm to advance gender equality?
A: One reason is that secular feminism still remains a largely elitist project. It speaks a language that has little resonance with the masses, so one needs to work with Islamic arguments if Muslim women are to listen to you. For most Muslim women, Islam is a fact of life, and one cannot hope to realize this dream by ignoring it altogether. Then, there can be no single way of advancing women's rights. We have to adopt different methods and strategies to realize the dream of full equality of women and men, and secular feminism is just one strategy among many. Furthermore, I believe that, if understood properly, Islam can help advance the quest for women's equality. We have to re-read our histories, including the history of the early Muslims, to recover this largely forgotten aspect of our heritage. For instance, in my Fulani community, women have for centuries had a long tradition of being Islamic scholars. Asmau, the daughter of Osman don Fodio, who established the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria, was appointed as in-charge of religious affairs by her brother Muhammad Bello. This was because men had less time for religious affairs and also because the communities living in the area of the Caliphate had an earlier tradition of female priestess. Asmau, whom incidentally I am named after, was an accomplished Islamic scholar in her own right. She translated many of her father's books in Arabic into Hausa and Fulfulde, the Fulani language. She also set up a number of madrasas or schools, which attracted women from different parts of what is today northern Nigeria. That tradition still continues among the Fulanis, and most of the teachers in the Qur'anic schools in the Fulani areas are women.
The point I am making is that we have this tradition, and many other such examples, that need to be highlighted to argue the case for women's rights from within a broadly defined Islamic paradigm, as well as to counter misogynist interpretations of Islam. I think this is really crucial, because some Muslim men seek to provide sanction for unrestrained polygamy, child marriages, arbitrary divorce and the denial of women the right to education by claiming that all this is somehow sanctioned in Islam. What we try to do is to offer alternate interpretations of Islam that can challenge these sorts of arguments and claims.
Q: How did you get involved in the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) network?
A: In the course of my work among Muslim women in Nigeria I used several of the excellent publications of the network, some of which are also available on its very informative website (www.wluml.org). Later, I was invited to join a WLUML team of researchers who were studying legal issues related to women in eighteen different countries, the report of which was later published as a book called 'Knowing Our Rights: Women, Family, Laws and Customs in the Muslim World". This research makes very clear the point that there is no homogenous Islamic world, no singular or monolithic interpretation or understanding of Islam. This research project was followed by another one, in which Muslim women from different countries were sent for a few months to live in another Muslim community in another country. For many of us it was a real eye-opener. We discovered the immense diversity among Muslims and, of course, the multiple interpretations of Islam, although the Qur'an functions as a sort of common thread for all Muslims. The ways in which Islam and the shari'ah are understood vary across countries, classes and ethnic groups, so there is this inherent possibility of reinterpretation to promote more women's-friendly or gender-just interpretations. So, for instance, in some Muslim communities female genital mutilation is sought to be justified as 'Islamic', while in others it is completely unknown. Or, while many countries allow for polygamy, Tunisia bans it, using Qur'anic arguments.
The point I am making is that there is simply no single authoritative Islamic position on a range of matters, including those that relate to women. It is all a question of interpretation, and the task is to promote those interpretations that are in accordance with the Qur'anic mandate of justice. Some years ago the WLUML network organized a get-together in Pakistan to discuss this crucial issue, where women activists and Muslim scholars spent two-weeks examining what the Qur'an says about women and seeking to interpret it in diverse ways. On the basis of this workshop the WLUML network published a book titled 'For Oursevlves: Women Reading the Qur'an", which seeks to develop what could be called a women's-friendly Qur'anic exegesis or tafsir.
I was invited to join the network's office in London to look after its Africa desk some years ago. In the course of my work there we organized two women's Qur'anic interpretation meetings, in Nigeria and in Mali. We also networked with several women's groups in Africa who are working among Muslim women and are struggling to combat patriarchal notions of Islam and Islamic law.
Q: How do you look at the project of a shari'ah-ruled state that is demanded by a range of traditionalist as well as Islamist groups? How do you think this impacts on Muslim women?
A: For most of these groups women come to be defined as bearers of tradition and of supposed religious authenticity, and so one of the first things they demand is that women be wrapped up and confined to their homes. The Qur'an places the highest value on social justice, but these groups are only obsessed with a mechanical application or imposition of penal laws and they brook no possibility of reinterpreting them. Nor are they really concerned about social and economic equality as such. So, in Iran after the Revolution of 1979, child marriage, which had been outlawed, made a come back and the legal age of a girl bride was reduced to 9! In Nigeria, Zamphara state, one of the poorest and least literate regions in the country, was the first to introduce what it called Islamic laws. They did nothing to address the issue of widespread poverty and social and economic injustice, but, instead, talked about banning women from public employment, imposing the veil, and cutting off the hands of thieves. You can see how this understanding of shari'ah actually helps entrenched elites, because it targets the most marginalized groups in society. So, you have a poor man, driven by hunger to rob, having his hands cut off, while a rich, corrupt businessman goes scot free. Likewise, on the issue of the veil. We in Nigeria have had our own culturally determined notions of the hijab or modest dressing, which were always accepted as properly Islamic, but now you have people who insist that women should be covered up from head to toe in black!
I think it is important to critically interrogate several of these laws that are sought to be imposed as allegedly part of the shari'ah. More often that not this is simply an attempt by political elites to garner votes by claiming to be more 'Islamic'. In countries like Nigeria, there is this clear nexus between some traditional 'ulama, Islamist groups and ruling elites as well as imperialist forces that all combine to work against the interests of marginalized groups. So, those groups whose interests are most to be protected and promoted in Islam ironically come to be the one's most severely undermined by these attempts at what is sought to be passed of as Islamisation by self-styled Islamic groups. As I see it, while claiming to protect Islam many of these groups are simply degrading it. By trying to force people to comply with these laws they are only promoting hypocrisy, a great sin in Islam, because many people do not willingly accept them but only comply out of fear.
Q: How would you argue against those who claim that many of these laws are necessarily mandated by Islam?
A: For me, as a Muslim woman and a social activist, Islam is basically about the Qur'an. The bulk of the edifice of what is called the shari'ah is a process of human and historical development that began after the death of the Prophet. Many of the laws that are sought to be imposed on women in the name of the shari'ah actually derive from aspects of the corpus of jurisprudence which do not have a clear Qur'anic mandate. Likewise, in the case of the Hadith, saying attributed to the Prophet. Many so-called hadith, including those that appear to sanction women's subordination, are actually fabrications that were falsely attributed to the Prophet. The only thing that is unquestionable for me as a Muslim woman is the Qur'an. But even here there is no way out of interpretation, because the Qur'an, being a text, has to be interpreted by human beings in order to be understood, Being subject to human interpretation there can be no single interpretation of the Qur'an. Thus, for instance, some people adduce a Qur'anic verse to argue that men can beat their wives, but that precise verse is interpreted by some others to mean simply allow for tapping one's wife playfully with the tail of one's robe!
Q: Women like you are often accused of working for the 'West' or of what are sometimes labeled as 'enemies of Islam'? How do you respond to these accusations?
A: I, for myself, am clear that what I am seeking to do is to expand the range of options for Muslim women so that they do not feel that working as autonomous women struggling for equality necessarily means going against Islam. At the same time I do not see patriarchy as a uniquely Muslim phenomenon, and we have to critique patriarchy universally, including in the West. But, as for those who allege that women like us are agents of the West, it really does not matter what we say in our defence, we still will be charged with all sorts of allegations. When it suited them, as during the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the West was an ally for many of those who are against our demands, and they did not hesitate to ally with it. Or, for that matter, even today many leaders of Islamist groups do not hesitate to send their own children to the West to study. My only answer to our accusers is to come and see our work for themselves instead of attributing all sorts of motives to us.
Asma'u Joda can be contacted on asmau_joda@yahoo.co.uk
