Download Oriental Sexuality: Imagined and Real

Oriental Sexuality: Imagined and
Real
Bandar Otayf
Prof. Yang
ENGL 873
Outline
Who’s Haideh Moghissi?
Muslim Women Imagined
Marriage in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
The Islamic Concept of Sexuality
Marriage and Divorce
Polygamy
Evilness of Women
Stoning and Lashing
Engaging in Sexual Activities
1. Who’s Haideh Moghissi?
General Information:
A founder of the Iranian National Union of Women and member of its first executive
and editorial boards, before leaving Iran in 1984.
A professor at the Department of Equity Studies, York University, Toronto.
Research Interests:
 Islam and Gender; Human Rights; Diversity, ethnicity and immigration; race relations
and policies.
Some of her publications:
Diaspora by Design: Muslims in Canada and Beyond (2009)
Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism: The Limits of Postmodern Analysis (2000)
Muslim Diaspora, Gender, Culture and Identity (2006)
Populism and Feminism in Iran :Women's Struggle in a Male- Defined Revolutionary
Movement (1994)
Women and Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology (2005)
2. Muslim Women Imagined
“Sneering and condemnatory accounts of the sexual and moral behavior of
Muslim men abound in European literary and scholarly accounts.” (14)
“The oriental man is criticized and scorned for his ‘lazy manner of living’
and ‘enslavement of women’.” (14)
2. Muslim Women Imagined
“Female domesticity, and sexual purity and chastity, deemed appropriate
in Europe and aggressively promoted at home, were presented for Muslim
women as ‘evidence’ of sexual slavery and signs of a peculiar moral and
religious deficiency of the Other.” (15)
Moghissi states that there might be some reasons beyond such a criticism
and concentration on sexuality of Muslim women.
 “the role and status of Muslim women would become a stick with which the
west could beat the East.” (qtd. in Moghissi 16)
3. Marriage in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Judaism
“Encouraged marriage and procreation,” and
“condemns any kind of sex that didn’t lead to reproduction.” (21)
Christianity
“celebrates celibacy and virginity,” and
 “condemns any kind of sex that didn’t lead to reproduction.” (21)
Islam
 “opposes celibacy”
According to some Islamic schools, marriage is “obligatory for men.” (21-22)
4. The Islamic Concept of Sexuality
In this section, I will try to make further explanations for some of the
points to make them clear and to help non-Muslim, or the West, to know
how Islam and its rules treat its people, males and females. The added
details are in italics and brown.
 Islamic rules vs. Traditions of Islamic countries. Examples are:
 Barring women from driving in Saudi Arabia.
 Preventing women from praying in mosques in some Islamic countries.
 Polygamy: prohibited (Turkey and Tunisia)
4. The Islamic Concept of Sexuality:
(Marriage and Divorce)
“Laws [including Islamic law] pertaining to marriage and divorce speak
clearly of women’s disabilities in enjoying full status.” (20-21)
****
Fathers or guardians, according to Islamic law, need to seek
permissions from women, either virgin, widow, or divorced, about the
marriage. Women have the right to reject idea of marriage.
The prophet (pbuh) says: “The widow and the divorced woman shall not be
married until their order is obtained, and the virgin shall not be married until her
consent is obtained.” [Bukhari]
The prophet (pbuh) also says “whoever, a father or a guardian, forces his
daughter to get married, the marriage is invalid, and the daughter can get
divorce.” [Bukhari]
 If a woman has been married for some time, she also has the right to divorce
(in the court) even if her husband doesn’t want the divorce.
4. The Islamic Concept of Sexuality:
(Marriage and Divorce)
“Marriage is the only permissible framework within which women can
seek sexual pleasure.” (Moghissi 23)
****
Men too. Engaging in any sexual activities out of the marriage are prohibited.
4. The Islamic Concept of Sexuality:
(Polygamy)
 “In polygamous union, women’s rights to sexual pleasure are confined to
quarter of a man.” (23)
****
 Polygamy is optional. Muslim men are allowed to marry up to four women;
however, there is one condition which is a man must deal justly with the
wives. Otherwise, he must not marry more than one.
 Allah (God), in the Quran, says “Marry women of your choice, two or three or
four, but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then
marry only one”. (Ch. 4, verse 3)
4. The Islamic Concept of Sexuality:
(Polygamy)
 Why are men, in Islam, encouraged to have more than a wife?
 A solution for a social problem: to help every single person, particularly
women, to have a chance to get married. How?
 Number of women is more than that of men, and it is increasing. To give a
chance for a woman to get married and have a husband, polygamy is needed.
Ex.:
USA (2000): Female: 143,368, 343 (50.9%); Male: 138,053,563 (49.1)
USA (2010): Female: 156,964,212 (50.8%); Male: 151,781,326 (49.2)
 If every American man is married to a single American woman, some women,
more than 5,000,000, will remain unmarried. Possible options left for unmarried
women:
• Getting married to a married man so they start to build a life and family (Islam law)
• Or starting to date different men, who are already married, to fulfill her sexual
desires.
• Source: Part I
• Source: Part II
• USA Census (2000-2010)
4. The Islamic Concept of Sexuality:
(Evilness of Women)
“Woman, in Imam Ali’s words, is wholly evil; and the worst thing about her
is that she is a necessary evil.” (qtd. in Moghissi 24)
****
I didn’t find this statement in Sunni books. It might be taken from one of the
Shi’i books (popular in Iran). However, the Holy Qur’an refutes this saying.
Allah (God) says:
“Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has Faith, verily, to him will
We give a new Life, a life that is good and pure and We will bestow on such their
reward according to the best of their actions.” (Ch. 16, verse 97)
4. The Islamic Concept of Sexuality:
(Stoning and Lashing)
“Revitalization of ancient (and often bizarre) legal practices, such as
stoning of women accused of zena (extra-martial relations), reduces
women’s legal status and promotes hostility towards them.” (28)
****
The Prophet teachings state that those, men or women, who are accused of
zena (adultery) should be lashed or stoned. However, there are some details
of who is stoned and who is lashed:
If the male and female have been married, both are stoned.
if one partner, either the man or the woman, has been married, he or she is
stoned. The unmarried one is lashed.
If they have not been married, they are not stoned but lashed.
• Allah (God) says “The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication,- flog
each of them with a hundred stripes.” (Ch. 24, verse 2)
4. The Islamic Concept of Sexuality:
(Stoning and Lashing)
 The question is: Are there any conditions before the accused people, the man
and woman, get punished?
 Those who are accused of having adultery need to confess.
 If anyone accuses a woman of adultery, the accuser should have four witnesses;
otherwise, he (the accuser) will be punished.
• Allah says “And those who launch a charge against chaste women, and produce not
four witnesses (to support their allegations),- flog them with eighty stripes; and
reject their evidence ever after: for such men are wicked transgressors.” (Ch. 24,
verse 4)
4. The Islamic Concept of Sexuality:
(Engaging in Sexual Activities)
“Islamic law,…, holds that any sexual relationship is a crime unless
it is between husband and wife.” (qtd. in Moghissi 25)
****
Raping is not considered a crime for women but for men. Men get
punished, but women don’t.
The prophet (pbuh) said “Allah (God) forgives any mistake or sin that a
person does either unintentionally or under a kind of force.” [Bukhari]
 “Female sexuality has to be confined, tamed and controlled for the good
of the community.” (28)
****
 The same practices are also applied to Muslim men.
 Allah (God) says “ Say [ordering His prophet] to the believing men that they
should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater
purity for them” (Ch. 24, verse 30).