Salbiah Ahmad is a trained civil and shariah Malay woman lawyer. She practised for several years in Singapore and taught briefly at the International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur. Involved with human rights issues for over two decades, she writes for a range of Malaysian and international newspapers and websites.
Critical Thoughts on Islam, Rights and Freedom in Malaysia is a collection of Ahmad's essays published over the years on the Malaysian activist website www. malaysiakini.com A major focus of the book is a critique of patriarchal interpretations of Islam and an articulation of what could be called a gender-sensitive Islamic theology (kalam) and jurisprudence (fiqh). In this way, Ahmad seeks to provide an Islamically-grounded argument for gender equality. This she does for broadly two reasons: as a strategy to develop consensus on women's rights, speaking in an 'Islamic' language in order present gender justice as Islamically acceptable, even mandated, to believing Muslims; and as a reflection of her own personal religious consciousness and conviction as a Muslim woman.
Ahmad believes that in a Muslim-majority country like Malaysia, working for gender justice from within an Islamic paradigm is indispensable, since public discourse is heavily conditioned by Islam, a phenomenon that gender activists can ignore at their own peril. To do so would render them irrelevant to most Muslims, and lay them open to the charge of being 'irreligious' and of allegedly 'undermining Islam'. There is thus an urgent need to enter the realm of Islamic discourse and seek to promote gender-justice using appropriate Islamic arguments.
Ahmad arrogates to herself the right to ijtihad, unencumbered by the opinions of the classical ulema. Like the others, she approaches the Quran directly, bypassing the tradition of fiqh as well as the Hadith, because these two latter sources of kalam and fiqh contain numerous prescriptions and views that militate against her understanding of gender relations, some of which have been manufactured precisely in order to justify women's subordination. She does not regard the Quran as a closed text, whose interpretation has been frozen, settled once and for all, at some distant moment in the past. Rather, she sees it and the Sunnah as what she calls 'works in movement', that, like all other texts, can be, and indeed, have been, interpreted in diverse ways.
Ahmad argues that the basis of gender equality is contained in the Quran itself. The Quran, she says, treats men and women 'in exactly the same way'. Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) expressed this principle by declaring, 'Humans are equal as the teeth of a comb'. This, and the upholding of 'the inherent dignity and integrity of every human person', must be, Ahmad says, the 'starting point' of Quranic exegesis or tafsir.
The ontological equality of men and women in the eyes of God is something that is explicitly mentioned in the Quran. Ahmad claims that interpretations of the Quran (and Sunnah) that unfairly privilege males over their wives are tantamount to a violation of tawhid, the oneness of God, the very basic principle of Islam, that requires submission to God alone.
Ahmad's way to reconcile these verses with what she regards as the mandate of gender justice is by calling for a critical distinction between verses that relate to the huquq Allah or 'rights of God' (that pertain to matters between the individual and God, principally worship or 'ibadat), and those verses that relate to the 'rights of persons' or huquq ul 'ibad, which include social affairs and relations (mu'amilat). She claims that while the former are unchangeable, the latter can change, particularly in order to uphold the Quranic mandate of justice.
On the basis of her claim that Quranic verses that deal with mu'amilat can be changed or negotiated, if the changed context so demands in order to remain true to the Quranic principle of justice—a claim for which she does not adduce any substantial evidence from within the Quran itself.
One contentious issue relates to women working out of their homes for a wage. The traditional fuqaha or Muslim jurisprudents allowed for this in only very extreme circumstances, but today in Malaysia Muslim women are to be found working in all sectors of the economy. Indeed, in many Malay families it is the wife that is the main bread-earner, and their families cannot manage with their income. Furthermore, Malay women are probably better educated, on the whole, than their men folk, as evidenced, for instance, by the fact that they outnumber Malay men in universities across the country. Given this, Ahmad argues, dominant notions of headship (qawwam) of the family need to be critiqued. Most male Muslim scholars rely on the following Quranic commandment to justify the claim that the family must remain under the authority of the husband:
Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means (Quran 4:34).
Ahmad engages in her own exegesis of this verse, departing considerably from the dominant male-centric interpretation. She argues that the verse does not stipulate that all males are guardians or are preferred to or superior to or are responsible for all women. It is true, she writes, that in some circumstances, some men are financially responsible for some women, as the verse indicates, but in other contexts, such as with the case of many Malaysian families today, some women may be financially responsible for some men and also for their children. This indicates, she says, that the rule that men are solely responsible for the maintenance of women is not valid universally. Engaging in a contextual reading of the verse, she argues that the notion of males as guardians over females, owing, in part to the latter being financially dependent on the former, was a product of the particular spatio-temporal context in which the Quran was revealed and which it directly addressed. Since the context has vastly changed today, she says, the notion need not be considered binding any longer. It is a cultural assumption, geared to a particular historical context, not a religious assumption that is valid for all contexts.
Ahmad engages in a similar contextual exegesis on the question of Muslim women's dress. Since the 1970s, as a result of the influence of various dawah or Islamic movements, growing numbers of Malay women have taken to what is widely seen as 'Islamic' dress, including the tudong or head-covering. Some even wear gloves and stockings and a few cover their entire face, too. Women not wearing what is regarded as 'Islamic' dress are often looked down upon 'Westernised' and as not truly 'Islamic'. Interestingly, no such prejudices apply to Muslim men's dress. As in many other Muslim contexts, 'Islamic dress' for women has become a symbol for Muslim community identity in Malaysia.
Ahmad critiques the notion of a single, prescribed 'Islamic' dress, one that must be imposed on women even against their will. What Islam says about women's dress, she says, 'is always mediated by humans and is mostly gendered.' Further, she writes, Muslim women should be allowed to choose what to wear on their own free will, for, she quotes the Quran as saying, 'Let there be no compulsion in religion' (Quran 2:256). She claims that the purpose of the Quran in advising women to wear a cloak (jilbab) was not to conceal them, but, rather, 'to render them visible, hence recognizable, as a way to protect women', and in order to distinguish them from slave-women, who were routinely subjected to sexual abuse in pre-Islamic times. Ahmad argues that the notion that Muslim women alone must bear the responsibility of maintaining and publicly expressing Islamic identity by wearing 'Islamic' dress is deeply problematic. This is something that must be shared by both males and females alike. She critiques those who insist that 'Islamic' dress for women is essential in order to preserve their 'modesty' for not applying the same standards with regard to the need for Muslim males, too, to preserve their 'modesty' through appropriate sartorial codes. Further, while she does not appear to argue against the notion of 'modest' dress, whether for women or men, Ahmad points out that the widely-held assumption that seventh century Arabian dress is alone what is 'Islamic' is deeply problematic.
Ahmad argues that numerous laws in effect in Malaysia (and other countries) today that negatively impact on Muslim women are a product of traditional fiqh, which was largely a male product. Critiquing the tendency to equate fiqh, or what can be called the historical shariah, with the Divine shariah, she suggests that fiqh, being a human construct, a product of human reflection or ijtihad on the Quran and the Sunnah, can err. If it violates the basic aim of the Quran, which is justice, it can, indeed must, be suitably modified.
