Women in Chains *

Over 50% of our 1.2 billion-strong faith-community are women. Yet, the sad reality is that Muslim women are in chains.

Let us be honest. Let us not kid ourselves. Something is rotten in the state of Islam. Over 50% of our 1.2 billion-strong faith-community are women. Yet, the sad reality is that Muslim women are in chains. Go to any Muslim-majority country. Go to any Muslim community anywhere across the world. You will see the Muslim woman in chains. Some chains are made of metal, some of culture, some of prejudice and misogyny disguised as religion.

You do not believe me? You think I am making this up? Then answer these questions.

When a family is shamed, why is she and not her male partner the one killed as part of some strategy to retain the family's honor? Why do the village elders keep sentencing her and not him to be gang-raped? Why do they throw acid in her face when she dares work as a sex worker, but not in the faces of her clients? Why is she regarded as loose if she proposes to marry him and not vice versa? Why do they always forbid her from the mosque but never him?

Double-Standards Everywhere

When a Sydney Sheik stood up and said women who dress a certain way were "eligible for rape", many rushed to defend him. When the writer stuck his neck out and urged Muslims to condemn the sheik's words in an op-ed piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, many condemned the writer as a traitor to his community.

Now, a lawyer was defending three Muslim boys convicted of rape had asked the judge to take account "cultural factors" in considering the length of their jail sentence. The sub-continental Muslim culture of the defendants, the lawyer argues, condones sexual violence against women.

We are a faith-community suffering from multiple personality disorder. We apply one standard to the male side of our personality, and another to our female side. And we impose our double standards under the garb of tradition or Sharia. We speak of reviving the age of Muslim glory, when Muslims were the most civilized nation on earth. But what characterized that civilization?

Firstly, women played an equal role in developing, teaching and transmitting religious sciences as men. Imam Shafei had some 40 teachers who were women. The Qarawiyin University in Morocco was founded by two women. Today, how many women scholars do you see writing about religious and cultural issues? How many Shaykhas and Maulanis are there?

Secondly, Muslims regarded the honor of a woman as sacred. There is the story of one Muslim woman who was kidnapped by the Byzantine Emperor. The Caliph in Baghdad wrote a letter threatening to send an army whose length stretched from Baghdad to Constantinople.

Today, Muslim Presidents and Kings and Generals do nothing to help women being mistreated and held in captivity in their own countries. Perhaps the most obvious example of our double standards is in our domestic relations. Many Muslim men regularly beat their wives. Unlike their non-Muslim brothers, Muslim men do not require excessive alcohol or narcotics in their system to beat their wives.

There are few laws in Muslim countries protecting women from domestic violence. Worse still, those responsible for enforcing the law, police and the judiciary are open to bribery by the usually wealthier male perpetrators.

Today, in 21st century Australia, Muslim women are subjected to domestic violence regularly. So often have I seen the names of the Prophet, his family members and companions listed as defendants in domestic violence cases in Local Courts across Sydney. What makes the problem worse is that imams rarely mention the problem to their (mostly male) congregation. Muslim and ethnic language newspapers commonly read by Muslims rarely mention the issue. It is as if we are pretending the problem just does not exist or worse still, it is as if it is not even a problem.

Organizations like the Muslim Women's Association are tackling the problem at the grassroots. Instead of being supported in their efforts, Muslim women's groups struggle for community funding and survive on what little they can obtain from governments.

If we stay silent, we might as well be lending a hand to the perpetrators of violence.

The Prophet Muhammad asked us to honor the wombs that carried us. On November 25, I will be celebrating my mother's birthday. It will also be White Ribbon Day, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Violence against women is a men's issue. Men need to take responsibility for the violence that men perpetrate on their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. It is only when men take on the issue as a men's issue that change can be effected.

If we stay silent, we might as well be lending a hand to the perpetrators of violence. Today it may be a stranger. Tomorrow, it could be our mother, our sister, our daughter. Paradise can be found under the feat of mothers. Yet millions of Muslim mothers and sisters and daughters are living in hell on this earth.

I urge all Muslim men across the world, to agitate, activate and educate on the issue of violence against women. But unless we take the first step, we will not reach the stage of perfection. And what is that stage?

It has been partially defined for us the following words of our Prophet. "The best of you is he who is best to his wife."

* This article first appeared in altmuslim.com. It is republished here with kind permission.

Irfan Yusuf is a Sydney industrial lawyer and occasional lecturer at the School of Politics & International Relations at Macquarie University. He is also a columnist for the Adelaide-based Australian Islamic Review.  Irfan was also an ambassador for the 2005 White Ribbon Day.