The Veil and the Male Elite & Under Western Eyes

 

Those two excerpts remind me of our discussion in class of how “Knowledge is Political”. As Fatima mentioned in The Veil and the Male Elite that although women are legally allowed to be elected to be in political positions they still aren’t elected. In society the knowledge of men and their male dominated interpretation of the Quran and Hadith are acknowledged, listened to, and outweighs women’s knowledge. Therefore, they are given political power and women are not. It is complicated because the Quran joins all aspects of life together and does not separate politics from religion and even if it is interpreted by different people, there is a difference between what we think the Quran or the Hadith says (Oral Knowledge) and what it actually says in the books (Written Knowledge). For example, I have ran into multiple people who would tell me well, “the Quran said that women cannot be in any leadership positions” and when I would ask for the source of their information, they would tell me that they either heard it in the media or read it on Tumblr and I would like to challenge the sources they acquired because they have not looked in the Quran, Shariaa or Hadith for evidence. Even when Abu Bakra says “It is true that you have rights over us. But I heard the Prophet say: “Those who entrust power to a woman will never know prosperity” does not qualify it to be anti-women leadership. It is unfair to take the words of one person and not challenge it with other perspectives, especially women’s perspectives. However, many verses from the Quran bluntly state how men are in charge of women’s affairs as stated in Surat-al-Nisa’  “Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth”

https://quran.com/4

Verses such as that one also limit women who are Muslim from political powers because how can women have powers over men politically if they are not allowed to? To what extent can we interpret (Tafsir) the Quran which is considered the word of Allah?

I strongly believe that there is a space for interpretation of the Hadith and the Quran but it has to be an open space for different perspectives that would benefit all identities. I think we are moving towards a long overdue more open dialogue of interpretation.