Whipping a Woman for Wearing Trousers..

For many days I was reluctant to comment on Lubna’s case.. However, Sarah had successfully put both Sudan and Lubna in the global perspective, and the Islamic one as well.. Certainly, the case has other facts; which the media treated as insignificant, yet are critical to explore the true story. However, the chain of events in Sudan are marking confusion rather than confidence, disarray rather than solidarity, and disturbance rather than clarity on its path towards the so-called “National Prosperity”. It is a petty that a resourceful nation can’t spot a destiny.. Unfortunately, lots of actions are addressed in the name of Islam, which irritate any intellectual, Muslim or other.. Ironically, the Sudanese regime had unintentionally created an accidental "Public Figure"; while chronic problems are spreading the decay all over the country.. A "Dancing" President; who was almost gone by Militia traveled untraced for 1200km to attack the capital, stills challenging the world using very-local attributes..!! Collapsing urban, scientific and economic centers, are paving the way for corrupted agencies and bribed staff.. Trio-conspiracy to “dilute” the Darfur case in favor of regional priorities.. Military buildup in the South, awaiting 2012 referendum on Independence.. Generation of orphans, pastured and mutilated children will add to the darkness of the Tunnel.. Yet, they call it Islamic Rule..!!

Whipping a woman for wearing trousers is an affront to Islam

Sarah Joseph, The National, UAE, August 08. 2009

First, it was the teddy bear called Mohammed and now it is the woman in trousers called Lubna. Why the Sudanese authorities desire to make the religion of Islam a laughing stock around the world is quite beyond me; but that’s what they are doing. I recall my travels to Sudan fondly. I have been three times and I remember a people of smiles. I remember the women, too: strong, powerful women. They were leaders who would shake a man’s hand firmly and engage him in conversation. Yet now we are in a place and time where a woman, Lubna Ahmed Hussein, faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers. And she is not the first. Ten women have already been whipped for the same “offence”.
As I write this piece I am wearing a pair of trousers. They are black, from a London suiting company. Along with my blue Ede and Ravenscroft shirt and white scarf, I really think I am as far away from “indecent” as it is possible to be. Yet, the present Sudanese regime would think I should be lashed too. As a woman, passionately committed to my faith, and passionately committed to a sense of a duty to contribute to the world, I wonder how the faith of Islam was hijacked in this way.

I am slightly wary of the word “feminist”, as it is a loaded term with negative connotations in many people’s minds. It has been said that feminism emasculated men and masculinised women; that it destroyed the relationship between men and women; that it broke up the family; that for women to advance they had to put men down. All of this is far too harsh, I feel, but there is no doubt that there have been problems and that feminism is being reconstructed for the modern era; that the model of the 1960s has not worked entirely and that a post-modern, dare I say more feminine feminism is emerging.

There are also cultural-specific feminist models, for the needs and issues of women vary across the world. If you are trying to find food or water for your family or protect them from bombs and missiles, then your issues will be different to those of women who are trying to become top executives in their companies. Among these culture-specific feminisms, there is also the emergence of what some call Islamic feminism, a move for Muslim women to take their rightful place in the world.

The example of Madinan society at the time of the Prophet Mohammed was one where men and women strove together to create a more just social framework. It stood against slavery, female infanticide and the ownership of women by men. It followed the Quranic dictum that men and women are “protecting friends of one another”. If there was competition within the relationship, it was in the endeavours towards good and right. Indeed, the Quranic and Prophetic paradigm of male/female relationship is not ruthless competition but mutual co-operation. And while differences of sex are recognised in places, the common humanity and ultimate purpose of each soul to worship God regardless of sex is paramount. Inspired by this, modern Muslim women are actually drawing on their faith and heritage to find a reality that calls on women to engage in their society on a par with men. Despite this richly inspiring example, we are subject to the cultural pull of the negative combative behaviour between men and women. It begins in the playground, “girls are better than boys/boys are better than girls.” Sadly, this childhood model continues into adulthood – as stand-up comedians will attest: jokes against the opposite sex get the laughs. Indeed, sometimes we are presented as if we were two different species: “Men are from Mar and women are from Venus,” some say. There is definitely a culturally acquired mode of behaviour where “the battle of the sexes” is the de-facto norm, even among Muslims.

All this is a far cry from the Quranic description of the relationship between men and women. “They are a garment for you and you are a garment to them.” (2: 187) A garment shields you from adverse elements. A garment beautifies you, covering up faults and flaws. A garment protects. If we are garments for one another then surely one does not whip the other for wearing trousers!Years ago in Sudan, women turned to communism to obtain social justice. Then Hassan Turabi published a book called Women in Islam and Muslim Society. In it he wrote: “The greatest injustice visited upon women is their segregation and isolation from the general society. Sometimes the slightest aspect of her public appearance would be considered a form of obscene exhibitionism.”

The book inspired and revolutionised women in Sudan and they turned in droves to Islam as a means to liberate themselves. It has been a while since I last went to Sudan, but from the outside it would seem that any liberty gained was short-lived.Turabi also wrote in the same book, in a chapter entitled The Resurgence of Women: “A revolution against the condition of women in the traditional Muslim societies is inevitable.” I do not know if what he says will come to pass, but I do feel the winds of change, a change true to faith, but where that faith inspires contribution. Such liberty should not be viewed as an imported thing, a western intrusion; it is there, authentically, within the Islamic traditions.
I was speaking to a Saudi lawyer. He had been researching and documenting the history of his family village. Among the historic papers he found literally hundreds of documents where women were jurists, property owners, business people, scholars. “We do not need to look elsewhere for women to be liberated, we have it within our history,” he remarked. Likewise, Dr Amira Sonbol, of Georgetown University in Washington, has identified dozens of ancient Islamic court documents that present Muslim women in a wholly different light from their counterparts today.

In the same vein, Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, went in search of women scholars of the early era. He hoped to find “30 or 40”; he found more than 8,000 biographical accounts.While there are women who have rejected faith in order to find freedom, many more Muslim women are drawing on their religious heritage. They know that the current status quo is not right, not Islamic. Some are angry; some are calling for scholarship to be completely rewritten, for “feminist reinterpretations” of the textual sources. I am not sure all of that is necessary; you don’t need to reinterpret to find women’s emancipation: I think it is there in black and white.
Lubna Ahmed Hussein cannot be lashed for wearing trousers. It would be an affront to Islam. Mohammed came as a “mercy to mankind” and as such Muslims across the world should be affronted by her prosecution. Muslim women and men across the world should be calling on Sudan to stop this fiasco. And wherever there is injustice we must stand against it, regardless of whether the injustice is towards a woman or a man, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a woman or a man, for as the Quran says: “Justice is the closest thing to God consciousness.” And if you want to call this Islamic feminism, so be it.
I just call it Islam.

Sarah Joseph is editor of emel, a lifestyle magazine for British Muslims.