aRtikel wAnita Muslimah

The Jakarta Post   01-07-2001   Fiqh analysis explores religion and gender issues   Fiqh Perempuan, Refleksi Kiai atas Wacana Agama dan Gender (Islamic law and woman, a scholar's reflection on religious and gender issues); K.H. Husein Muhammad; LKiS, Yogyakarta, 2001,; 190 pp.+ xxxv)   JAKARTA (JP): It has been long argued that Islam "discourages" women. To some extent, this judgment is true. Looking at the Koran, one finds it difficult not to assume that a number of verses in the Koran has strongly gender-biased overtones. It is stated that leadership is exclusively in the hands of men; it is men who lead over women. It is also stated that women inherit only half a portion, while men inherit the full portion. Also women's testimony should be based on at least two persons, while one man's testimony will be fully accepted.   The most controversial issue regarding man-woman relationship is the justification for man to have more than one wife. According to Islam, a man can be polygamous if he can meet all the requirements.   For the "special" men, polygamy is sometimes highly recommended. This is still practiced in Muslim communities today. Rather than solving problems, polygamy causes other problems such as violence against women.   In the narratives of the Prophet, women are depicted more poorly than men in the Koran. It is stated that women were created from men's bent rib. Thus it is interpreted from this allegory that women are as difficult to straighten. So that makes women fragile and thus should be treated gently. According to the exegesis of the Koran, it was Eve who seduced Adam to taste the forbidden fruit, resulting in both of them being banished from Heaven. A similar story was one of Joseph and Zulaikha, where Joseph was seduced by Zulaikha into an incestuous relationship.   Based on these, women are perceived as emotional and men, rational. Woman are also supposed to be beautiful, soft, impulsive, patient but lack intelligence. On the other hand, men are supposed to be powerful, alert, clever but lack patience. It is assumed that these qualities of men and women were created to complement each other.   "They are your clothes, you are their clothes," says the Koran. According to the Koran, God created both men and women with these so- called fitrah (predispositions). However, some people reject this assumption, asserting that these qualities are not inherent in men and women, but socially constructed and therefore interchangeable.   Fiqh (Islamic law) is very much influenced by this biased perspective where women are subordinate to men. It is often suspected as the most biased gender aspect of Islam. Men's hegemony over women has been systematically created. First, it begins with several sacred texts. Second, from these sacred texts, fiqh expounds on the concepts of devotion, marriage, leadership, inheritance, wifehood and motherhood, thus maintaining the patriarchal system.   In the context of religious life, it is necessary to mention a classical Islamic text called Uqud al-Lujain (Transactions of couples), written by a 19th century Bantenese ulama, Muhammad Nawawi.   This work is believed to have played an important role in preserving patriarchy. According to Nawawi's narrative, when a wife turns down her husband's desire to make love, all the Angels in Heaven will condemn her until dawn breaks."   From hegemony to copartnership   Nawawi is strongly criticized for being too dependent on weak sources. Critics say most of his arguments are taken from apocryphal narratives.   Surprisingly, this work is regarded as the most representative reference in traditional Islamic scholarship regarding man-woman relationship. It is still widely used in pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in Indonesia as well as in Southeast Asian countries.   As modernization comes to the Muslim world, this unbalanced structure is increasingly being opposed. It is argued that this structure should be reformed to make men and women copartners.   The reformation of this old-fashioned structure, however, is no easy task. The reason for this is that it is related to the overall structure of Islamic thought, which, since the beginning, has championed the patriarchal system. But this is not to suggest that Islam tolerates a form of discrimination against women.   "Religion," writes Husein Muhammad, "has never tolerated any form of discrimination. The best solution to this is to reconstruct and reinterpret the sacred texts and adapt them to the current situation."   According to progressive ideas, Islam was not revealed from a vacuum state. If this proposition is understood correctly, some parts of Islamic teachings, including those on man-woman relationship, have been laid down on the basis of local and temporal needs. It means that what is important is not what was literally revealed to the Prophet, but rather the spirit underlying the revelation.   This spirit is perceived by most Muslim scholars as the spirit of change. Some gender activists even dare to say that it is time to "demasculinize" religious paradigms. But this is not to say that this "demasculinization" is a shift from patriarchy to matriarchy. Gender movement is not intended to create a new form of discrimination, one that is against men. It is expected to create a better world for all.   This book is written by Husein Muhammad, a kyai from Cirebon and head of a pesantren. One lesson taken from this book is that fiqh actually gives us an abundance of perspectives regarding man-woman relationship, ranging from the most conservative to the liberal.   In the introduction of this book, Andr‚e Feillard, a French scholar, is quite right in saying that Husein has given valuable contribution to the compilation of Islamic laws on women. The book sheds new light on the gender movement in Indonesia