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Turkish Muslim women praying at the Eyup Sultan mosque in Istanbul
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CAIRO,
April 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - The growing role of women in
Turkey’s mosques and the new class of
educated women demanding more rights
have brought significant change to Turkey’s Muslim order in recent
years, according to a leading US paper Wednesday, April 27.
The
government body that oversees the country’s mosques and trains
religious leaders, or Diyanet, is selecting a group of women who will
serve as deputies to muftis, or expounders of religious law, The
Christian Science Monitor reported.
From
this post, the paper added, they’ll monitor the work being done by
imams in local mosques, particularly as it relates to women.
“These
changes come in response to what Diyanet officials describe as a
growing demand from women for more and better religious education,”
the paper said.
However,
academics and Islamic intellectuals say these developments are also
being forced by the rise of a new class of educated religious women
who are demanding more rights within the country’s Islamic milieu.
“Now,
women are more educated, they participate more in social life, and
they are mixing more with men, so they are demanding more,” Nevin
Meric, a women’s education expert at the Istanbul mufti's office,
told the paper.
“Today
they are aware of their rights and they are learning by reading and
asking.”
Two
years ago, women were appointed for the first time to lead groups of
Turks making the pilgrimage to Makkah.
Last
year, Diyanet added 150 women preachers across Turkey.
In
Islam, the status of woman is unique. Islam honors woman and regards
her as equal and vital to life as man.
“Generally
speaking, we can say that leadership in Islam is based on the ability
and qualifications for the job. If a woman is qualified for a job and
can do it well, she can be chosen for the position,” according to an
IOL Fatwa.
In
early Islam, there were a number of female religious scholars.
Way
for Independence
Zuleyha
Seker is one of 400 women preachers, known as vaizes, currently
working in several of Turkey’s state-run mosques.
Covered
in a pink and grey head scarf that tightly frames her round face, and
adorned in a long, dark-blue overcoat, Seker “is making waves”,
the Monitor said.
“The
vaizes like me are seen as revolutionaries in religious circles
- we are always pushing for change,” she told the paper.
Buket
Turkmen, a sociologist at Istanbul’s Galatasaray University who has
studied the role of women in Turkish religious field, said that for
many women who come from traditional homes, religious education
becomes a path to a certain kind of independence.
“It's
very paradoxical, but by choosing Islam, they can gain their
individuality and their emancipation. In this context, Islam means
modernization,” Turkmen told the US daily.
It’s
a path that more women seem to be exploring, the paper added.
“In
Istanbul, the mufti’s office has 583 women teaching courses on the
noble Qur’an to women across the city.”
The
paper added that women now also make up the majority of students in
the theology departments of several Turkish universities.
Mehmet
Gormez, Diyanet’s deputy head, told the paper that the growing
demand from women has forced Turkey’s religious institutions to act.
“In
Islamic doctrine, men and women are equal. This should also be applied
in practice,” he added.
Leading
Position
The
changes begun by Diyanet, according to the Monitor, appear to
put Turkey in a leading position within the Islamic world on women’s
issues.
“Turkey
has been more open to [theological] change,” Yurdegul Mehmetoglu, a
vice dean in the theology faculty at Istanbul's Marmara University,
said.
Diyanet
is hoping the vaizes and deputy muftis will act as advocates
for women’s issues in mosques, making them friendlier environments
for other women, Gormez told the paper.
While
there are signs of loosening in Turkey, the paper said, Muslim
orthodoxy remains clear that women cannot lead prayers, particularly
in the Arab Muslim heartland.
Amina
Wadud, an American woman has led on
Friday, March 18, a mixed congregation of men and women in New York in
the Friday prayer against a backdrop of protests and calls of
blasphemy from American Muslims.
Prominent
Scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa,
or religious ruling, saying “that leadership in prayer in Islam is
reserved for men only”.
“Islam
is a religion that takes into account the different aspects, material
or spiritual, of man’s character. It does not treat people as super
angels; it admits that they are humans with instincts and desires. So
it is wise of Islam to lay down for them the rulings that avert them
succumbing to their desires, especially during acts of worship where
spiritual uplifting is required.”
As
one of 18 vaizes in Istanbul, Seker, a university graduate in
theology, doesn’t actually lead prayers or give sermons in mosques,
but she helps organize seminars and teaches religious classes for
women.
“In
the past, [women] believed anything told to them by their older
brother, father, or teacher. But as they are becoming more educated,
they are coming up with more questions,” she said.
“We
need new answers for new questions.”
Approximately
99 percent of Turkey’s population is Muslim, the majority of whom is
Sunni.
In
addition to the country’s Sunni Muslim majority, there are an
estimated 5 to 12 million Alawiyyin, according to the US State
Department.
There
are several other religious groups, mostly concentrated in Istanbul
and other large cities, including an estimated 65,000 Armenian
Orthodox Christians, 25,000 Jews, and 3,000 to 5,000 Greek Orthodox
Christians.
Read
also:
The
Status of Woman in Islam
How
Leadership Is Decided in Islam
Women
in Leading Posts
Women
Holding Public Positions
Are
Women Equal to Men in Reward and Punishment?
Are
Women Intellectually and Spiritually Inferior?
Honor
Killing from an Islamic Perspective
Voice
of Women in Islam
Woman
Acting as Imam in Prayer: Al-Qaradawi's Fatwa
