Farzana Hassan

At the doors of this holiest place, sits a woman, who like the Kaaba is also wrapped in a piece of black cloth. But unlike the Kaaba she is not an object of veneration, she is instead condemned to a life of subservience.  A source of evil and temptation for men, she must hide her shame in a cloak of anonymity, if not disappear entirely from public gaze.  

These were my impressions of Saudi women who guarded the doors of the Grand mosque in Mecca when I visited the country to perform the Hajj in 2002, just a few months after the infamous 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and WTC.

The month was March but the Saudi desert climate felt more like the swelter of June.  Yet this woman could not expose any part of her skin. Even her hands were covered in thick black gloves. I wondered if this was of her own doing, or was this attire mandated by the conservative Wahabi  rulers?

On conducting some research, I discovered that Saudi women were indeed required to cover up fully in the city of Mecca under Saudi law. I was just a visitor but I too could not roam around Saudi streets bare-headed.  The rule to wear my hijab all the time seemed like enough of an imposition.  What would it be like, I thought, for these women who had to hide themselves completely and what were the implications of such limiting attire for their  status and role in society?

Upon return to Canada, I expressed my chagrin to a friend who explained to me in a well-intentioned manner, that Saudi women were in fact a privileged bunch.  They were pampered queens and princesses in their homes and that I was far too influenced by Western mores to judge a society and  culture that was in fact quite protective of its women, treating them with the utmost kindness and respect. I asked her if they were free to carve their own destinies, if they were free to make choices about which careers to adopt, who to marry, how many children to have, whether or not to continue in a relationship and she said, that yes, the men who were in charge of these women, often awarded that freedom to women.

I disagreed. I told her that freedom was not theirs to give. It was a right inhering in every man and woman. A woman was free to make certain decisions only by his leave? Was that genuine freedom? Sure he was kind to her, but when he decided to divorce her over a petty domestic squabble, did she have a say in the matter? Was his kindness also only subject to his own whims?

We debated this for some time till I decided that freedom was a state of mind, that it entailed the knowledge that one was in control of one’s own destiny and that the state, societal structures and patriarchal control was usurping that right.  

Saudi women have been denied this right for too long already. The time has now come to free them from the shackles of patriarchy, subjugation and servitude to men, so that their full potential, their innate intellectual prowess, their native intelligence can blossom to the fullest.

But  in order to achieve these objectives, one must try to overcome religious resistance to such reform through alternatives to the current puritanical Wahabi  viewpoint.  Wahabi ideology also demands compliance of its citizens  to their rulers.  Any challenges to their dominance have therefore been stifled right from the very start.

The ruling monarchs have been able to control an entire population of eighteen million people by putting forward a contrived religious doctrine that is quite un-Islamic , given  Islam’s history of allowing citizens the right to question their rulers and hold them accountable for their actions.  

It is certainly laudable that King Abdullah has recently ordered a revamping of the country’s religious council to accommodate religious opinions that are different from  Wahabi beliefs. This window of opportunity must therefore be exploited to the fullest to allow other viewpoints to establish some of their more moderate and female friendly readings of the Quranic text. 

From a theological standpoint alone, for example, it would be well advised to consider the following rationale that takes into account the overarching and normative principles of Islamic jurisprudence:

Justice and benevolence are accepted as the two overarching principles of Islamic jurisprudence. Every law derived from the Quranic text must consider these two principles above all others.  From a modernist perspective, these can be arrived at according to the following rationale. Reformists often seek to explain certainly legislative injunctions of the Quran as time-specific regulations with exclusive applicability in the context of seventh century Arabian society. This would automatically reduce their scope and applicability in another society or era which may be vastly different from seventh century social structures. Injunctions pertaining to polygamy, minority rights, apostasy women’s testimony and gender relations would fall under this category of time specific societal regulations. Modernists believe that although such legislative measures were perhaps important to regulate early Islamic society, it is largely the principles behind the specific injunctions that are universal and eternal, not the special applications of these principles. The universal principles, they assert can now be expressed in ways that are more suited to the changing demands of evolving Islamic communities.

Such issues have undoubtedly created tussles between votaries of conservative and modernist   exegetical persuasions. At the crux of this ideological stalemate is the blatant contradiction that has emerged between the contextual injunctions of the Quran and its normative principles of justice and benevolence. The vastly transformed social conditions from that time have obviously created this contradiction. The Quran’s contextual verses sought to regulate conditions already in existence in seventh century Arabia. While these were effective in establishing social justice at that particular time, the same injunctions expressed and applied literally in our contemporary world have created imbalances and inequities in society.  In having that effect, these literal applications have come to violate the normative Quranic principles of justice and kindness. Where for example is the Quran’s normative principle of justice being applied when rape victims are barred from testifying in such cases?  This begs the question: If indeed a conflict exists between the normative and contextual verses of the Quran due to changed social conditions, which of the two should be upheld?

The answer is clear cut.  All of the Quran’s ancillary societal regulations have to be measured against the Quran’s own standards of justice and kindness. If these regulations, due to changed circumstances do not measure up to the Quran’s overarching principles, then they have to be suspended.  This was the course of action adopted by Omar Bin Khatab when he suspended some Quranic regulations during times of extreme economic hardship for Muslims.

Once Saudi Arabia has adopted a more forward- looking theological and legal framework, it can serve as a beacon of hope for the rest of the world in countering growing radicalism in the Muslim world.  Much of the resurgent fundamentalism  is the result of an aggressive Wahabi policy to export its ideas across the Muslim world. The effects of such aggressive evangelizing  are being felt in much of the cultural change that has taken place in the religiosity of Muslims especially in parts of the subcontinent. Wahabism is finding allies among other revivalist movements in the Muslim world such as the Islamic brotherhood and the Jamat  Islami in Pakistan. There seems to be a melding of interpretations between these more or less similar fundamentalist doctrines providing impetus to Wahabism’s ever-expanding influence both in Muslim countries and among the diaspora.  There is now a trend towards purging the faith of so called unIslamic elements. Many of the customs and traditions of the subcontinent are being repudiate by these latter- day purists as contamination from Hindu culture. Whether the onslaught is against a more mystical and syncretic Sufi Islam, or against the simple salutation of saying “Khuda Hafiz”, a Persian version of the much touted “Allah Hafiz”,  a more rabid conservatism seems to be sweeping across the length and breadth of the subcontinent.  Increasingly, Wahabi  Islam is being seen as the truest interpretation of Islam, teh standard, and all other brands are gradually being forced to take the back seat.

The fact however is that the Quran lends itself to several different interpretations.  They are all valid expressions of the Islamic  faith.  Being the cradle of Islam, it is not expected of  Saudi Arabia to transform into a secular democracy,  but if it must use religion as the basis for its laws,  then religion must be interpreted in a way that is much more conducive to progress, allowing for equalization in the rights of underprivileged groups like women and minorities.

The world is looking to Saudi Arabia for leadership in matters of faith. In stead of being an exporter of radicalism, it must be a beacon of moderation and enlightenment. The Wahabi doctrine once regarded as a misinterpretation of Islam and a heterodoxy in the land of its origin has persisted there unchallenged until now. It stands for the most retrogressive of ideologies but now is the time to once again dislodge it from its position of dominance and stem its spread across the world.  Furthermore, any  challenges to the Wahabi doctrine must be deemed valid as they seek to question a particular understanding of Islam, rather than Islam itself.

Saudi Arabia as the cradle of Islam has a double responsibility to lead the world in bringing about equality in the legal and social rights of women and minorities. It must model a peaceful, egalitarian, non-militaristic, and pluralistic religious tradition that recognizes the rights of all human beings universally, rather than one that discriminates on the basis of  gender or  creed. Laws must treat all citizens equally regardless of their gender , creed or ethnicity. Saudi Arabia as a powerful nation, wielding tremendous influence on Muslims across the world must deliver this responsibility to the admiration, rather than the contempt of the world.

In order to alleviate the suffering of its female population Saudi Arabia must proceed with the following reforms:

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