Male Truths, Female Consequences

Former president Jimmy Carter and other world leaders issued this statement: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable." What's your reaction to these statements? Are 'male interpretations of religious texts' to blame for the 'deprivation of women's equal rights?'

Women's equality with men is long overdue. In particular, societies need to safeguard women's right to self-determination -- from personal moral choices about how to lead their lives, to familial decisions about marriage and children, to agency in educational, economic, political, social, medical, and religious spheres.

Some of this can be accomplished through legal channels, but much more of it will require fundamental shifts in attitudes away from patriarchal understandings of human nature that proclaim men have the right to determine the course of women's lives, and which delineate gender roles so rigidly as to remove all possibility of deviation from gender norms for both men and women.

We will also have to reject totalitarian political notions that lead to excessive interventions by states into the personal lives of their citizens, whether it be something as trivial as requiring or forbidding certain attire, or something as momentous as curtailing women's freedom of movement, their economic opportunities, and their political participation.

Patriarchal interpretations of religious texts -- whether by men or by women -- have been instrumental in supporting and creating cultural and traditional mores that circumscribe women's freedom and equality. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Muslim world, where religious patriarchy has intersected with social conservatism, political and theological totalitarianism, and reactionary resistance to political, economic and cultural colonialism to create devastating consequences for women's lives.

Lost in all the interpretation and history are the profoundly egalitarian ideals of the Qur'an such as we find in 49:13, ""O mankind! We have created you male and female, and made you into nations and tribes so that you might come to know one another. The most honorable among you in the sight of God is the most pious."

Or, even more aptly, 33:35 "For Muslim men and women,- for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in Charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah's praise,- for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward,"

Or 4:32-33: 32: Hence, do not covet the bounties which God has bestowed more abundantly on some of you than on others. Men shall have a benefit from what they earn, and women shall have a benefit from what they earn. Ask, therefore, God [to give you] out of His bounty: behold, God has indeed full knowledge of everything. 33: And unto everyone have We appointed heirs to what he may leave behind: parents, and near kinsfolk, and those to whom you have pledged your troth (Good faith; fidelity.)give them, therefore, their share. Behold, God is indeed a witness unto everything.

It would be disingenuous, though, to pretend that the Qur'an does not have verses which do not uphold such egalitarian principles. Verses that prescribe differential inheritances for males and females of the same familial relationship, or that posit men as the financial supporters of women, or impose differential dress codes upon men and women. To be sure, each verse that depicts a patriarchal family structure is countered by two or three that describe men and women as equal partners, that describe familial decision making as a process of mutual consultation and such. But the fact remains that the Qur'an provides ample material for patriarchal arguments to hold weight with the religious community.

In my personal life, I see those verses, which come from the more legalistic and latter revelations, as recognition of the economics that ruled at the time of the Prophet's community in Medina. In fact, most of them appear to be intended to mitigate the most egregious of the abuses of women at the time (for instance from having no inheritance rights at all, they were given mandated shares). They are rules that apply to that social and economic milieu, while the egalitarian verses map out the ideals for that society to aim for, a road map to a future in which men and women live in equality.

Others, see them as a blueprint for all human societies in perpetuity.

Either way, many of the excesses of modern Muslim society cannot be justified by any verse in the Qur'an, but rely upon extrapolation, analogy, and patriarchal notions of public welfare.

That is why it is so important for religious authorities, especially male religious authorities to help turn back the tide of the excessive curtailment of women's rights and demand their right to full participation in every sphere of life. It is essential for them to emphasize the importance of overarching and fundamental values, many of which the more conservative parts of the Muslim world seem to have lost touch with.

By Pamela K. Taylor | July 22, 2009; 8:29 AM ET