The Context of Misogyny

Mernissi presents a poignant explanation of textual manipulation as power. Throughout these chapters, she demonstrates to the reader that the production of religious discourse, often under false pretenses, was not only used to reinforce the misogynist, structural power dynamics within Islamic society but also created them. By analyzing original Islamic text and then comparing such text to its interpretation, Mernissi shows us the manipulation of the past to reinforce the present.

For me, the primary take-away from these chapters is the importance of analyzing the historical and political context in which traditions arise, and the perspective of those producing such traditions. In Tradition of Misogyny (I), Mernissi points to Abu Bakra's use of 'A'isha's gender to justify her "villainy" for driving civil war and consequently going against the Islamic order. It was Abu Bakra's relationship with the Prophet and the influence of Islam itself in defining his identity that informed his decisions.

The historical context in which he lived - which established fitna as something to be opposed and made the Hadith an unquestionable truth - that allowed such misogynistic interpretations to take hold. Such knowledge (and the actions built upon it) was produced at a time when a Muslim identity had not yet been created - "the time when people did not have criteria for distinguishing the permitted from the forbidden" (52), when Muslims lacked "a feeling of belonging to a superior civilization, the feeling of being chosen people with whom God carried on a dialogue" (68) - allowing the solidification and complicit agreement with such gender hierarchies. She points to the use of gendered hierarchy to reinstate Islam as a world religion, to prevent it from being subsumed under Judeo-Christian systems.

The various textual manipulations and misinterpretation - the comparison of women to animals and transformation of the use and understanding of hijab being prime examples - relegated women to a position "trapped in earthly reality, unable to experiment with elevated states of consciousness" (95), essentially disbarred from the "realm of the divine." What are the practical social implications of the exclusion of women from religious experience? On the performance of gender in Islamic society? I also found fascinating the analysis of the hijab in its varied dimensions - visual, spatial, and ethical - which, once again, highlighted not only the complexities of such interpretations, but also the importance of context in guiding the interpretive process.