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Taliban provoke a debate - The Indian Express

Amulya Ganguli ()
31 October 1996

Title : Taliban provoke a debate
Author : Amulya Ganguli
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : October 31, 1996

The manner in which the Taliban's medievalism has in-
spired a debate on the rights of Muslim women would
suggest that sometimes good does come out of evil.
Before Taliban's extraordinary decrees drew the world's
attention, Iran was regarded as among the most repressive
societies outside the communist world. Perhaps such a
perception is unfair because Saudi Arabia and some of the
other desert kingdoms are no less fond of the veil for
women. But while these had always imposed such restric-
tions, the current plight of Iranian women was in strik-
ing contrast to the much freer days under the Shah.

It came as a surprise, therefore, when even the Iranian
clerics lambasted the Taliban for giving Islam a bad
name. One of them, Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, described
the bans on girls going to school as examples of "fossi-
lised" policies. An Iranian journalist, Amir Taheri,
writing in The International Herald Tribune, even won-
dered whether Taliban would "turn out to be the religious
version of the atheistic Khmer Rouge?"

It was not only the restrictions on women that he de-
cried, Taheri also questioned the Taliban's order to men
above 16 to grow beards by asking whether the Taliban
knew that some Afghan tribes were biologically incapable
of growing beards. Clearly, the draconian orders of the
Afghan bigots have disturbed even the orthodox elements
in the Muslim world. On their part, most non-Muslims
will probably echo Bernard Levin's questions in The
Times, London: "Why are there no wedding parties? Why
may people not listen to music? Why may we not play
chess? Why must I grow a beard? Why should children not
be taught? Why must people be stoned to death if they
drink a glass of wine?"

It was heartening to note in this context that some
Muslim scholars like Dr Yusuf Abdullah Al Qarzawi of
Qatar emphasised the need for women's education by saying
that "just as a bird cannot fly on only one wing, society
cannot function without men and women equally sharing
responsibility". According to him, the neglect of women
was harmful as it implied being unjust to half of socie-
ty.

The neglect of women has been a persistent theme of
Muslim society. In her book, Women and Islam, Fatima
Mernissi, writes: "All the monotheistic religions are
shot through by the conflict between the divine and the
feminine, but none more so than Islam, which has opted
for the occultation of the feminine, at least symbolical-
ly, by trying to veil it, to hide it, to mask it. ... Is
it possible that Islam's message had only a limited and
superficial effect on deeply superstitious seventh cen-
tury Arabs who failed to integrate its novel approaches
to the world and to women? Is it possible that the
hijab, the attempt to veil women, that is claimed today
to be basic to Muslim identity, is nothing but the ex-
pression of the persistence of the pre-Islamic mentality,
the jahiliyya mentality, that Islam was supposed to anni-
hilate?"

A similar view was articulated by Benazir Bhutto when
addressing women MPs from Muslim countries last year. She
said that "unfortunately, if women are backward in Muslim
countries it is not because of our religion. It is
because of male traditions of a cultural or tribal na-
ture, which have denied women the rights guaranteed in
Islam".

The reason why restrictions on women are regarded as a
negation of the original tenets of the religion is that
Islam represented a huge advance so far as the rights of
women were concerned in the desert societies of the time.
It put an end to female infanticide, restricted the
number of wives a man could marry, apart from specifying
certain conditions which the husband must follow, and
accorded partial rights of inheritance to women. It also
made it obligatory for a girl to give consent to her
marriage before witnesses, a custom hailed by Atal Behari
Vajpayee in a recent speech.

Given these measures, it stands to reason that Muslim
women were expected to lead a much less restricted life
than they are allowed at present. The Taliban may be an
exception, but there is little doubt that the general
perception of a Muslim woman is that of a person envel-
oped in a burqa and totally dependent on men for sur-
vival. There may be minor variations, of course. For
instance, Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of the Iranian Presi-
dent Ali Akbar Ratsanjani, believes that Taliban have
been "influenced by the Saudi attitude to women", but the
overall picture of the "occultation of the feminine" in
the Muslim world remains unchanged. Hence, the suspicion
voiced by Mernissi and Bhutto that it is ultimately the
traditions of male dominance which have prevailed over
Islam's liberalism.

What is more, these retrograde traditions have been
extending their sway, with the result that societies
which were previously more open, like Egypt and Turkey,
are becoming more restrictive. Turkey, for instance, is
drifting away from Kemal Ataturk's injunction that "the
schools of the priests must give way to secular,govern-
ment schools. ...We must dress like civilised people.
Let them (the women) show their faces to the world".

At a time when the fundamentalists are seemingly gaining
ground, Taliban's extremism can act as a check by under-
lining the dangers of pursuing such a course. It will be
all to the good if this awareness encourages the liberals
in Muslim societies to make their presence felt. In all
conservative societies, it is the men who usually take
the initiative in championing women's causes. The two
notable examples so far as the Hindus are concerned are
Ram Mohun Roy, who sought the abolition of sati, and
Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, who advocated widow marriage.

The three Muslim countries where there have been women
prime ministers - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey have
all been influenced by more broad-minded traditions, viz.
Hindu and Christian. India, with its large Muslim popu-
lation, is of considerable importance in this respect
because the progress made by Muslim women can act as a
spur to their sisters who may not get similar opportuni-
ties in their own countries. So, like Raziyya Sultana in
the 13th century, every Indian Muslim woman who becomes a
national leader, or a judge, a scientist, a sportsperson

or even a glamorous film star or beauty queen, can help
to break the shackles forged by the mad mullahs else-
where.



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