Week 3

I really, really enjoyed this week's readings. I love that Mernissi, a Muslim woman, reconciles her faith and heritage with a search for truth and equality. Mernissi approaches this theme (which I first started to delve into last quarter in a history class on Islamic civilization) with a boldness that has long been discouraged in Islam. In the classical period of Islam, diverging from the text at all was forbidden. All secular sciences were discouraged. Even today, it is very taboo to question the origins of Islamic traditions. Mernissi is not only courageous, but she's totally right! "Not only have the sacred texts always been manipulated," she writes, "but manipulation of them is a structural characteristic of the practice of power in Muslim societies" (9). The discussion of 'A'isha and the misogynistic hadith put forth by Abu Bakra brings light to an interesting paradox of Islam: it is a religion and tradition that focuses on exact recitation and interpretation of the text, and yet its origins are very much founded in molding the text to fit a certain event.

The discussion of the origins of "the verse of the hijab" is very important. The hijab, at least to westerners, is perhaps the most iconic symbol of the Muslim women. But what many people don't realize is that the hijab is very much based on regional cultural tradition, and not necessarily on scripture. This is evidenced by the fact that the use of the hijab varies in every Islamic country. Mernissi's research asserts the uses for the hijab (separation of public from private, profane from sacred) were never intended to separate women from men, but somehow history and tradition have molded it as such. I wonder if, in light of new feminists' perspective, the traditions of veiling women will ever really change, or if the traditions will hold on forever.