In the Postcolonial and arguably Neocolonial world, America and Western Europe continue to manipulate the international discourse to benefit their political and economic interests. These countries still consider themselves global superpowers, and while they comb the earth for resources, they also aim to be righteous surveyors of the world, identifying and rectifying human rights violations and oppression. One focus is on the Muslim world, due to the exoticized and politicized wearing of the niqāb, or veil. In Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society, Moroccan feminist Fatima Mernissi successfully argues that fear of powerful female sexuality is the root of the structural oppression of Muslim women.
In the West, Islam is feared as the oppositional “other,” and therefore a direct threat to the western values of modern democracy and freedom. The wearing of the veil is a politicized symbol of Islam, which to many, ignites fears of dangerous backwardness, oppression of women, and the enemy of western feminism. Mernissi uses the debate of the veil as a vehicle for discussing how Islam is, or could be, a progressive religion and to highlight which cultural norms and institutions contribute to the unequal treatment of the sexes. She explains that the teachings of Islam promote an egalitarian society, but were manipulated by men to create stratification due to their fear of women, who distract men from their devotion to Allah, or God. She explains that the foundation of Muslim societies rests on the use of separate sexual spaces and rigid gender roles. Therefore the anxiety over and struggle to maintain a traditional or static religious identity amongst modernization and feminist movements is valid.
In the introduction and preface to the revised edition of this book, Mernissi outlines the changes in the global setting since the book's publication in 1975. A significant movement has been the rise of fundamentalism, or more accurately revivalism, a movement that values traditional Muslim social hierarchies and behavior over an increasingly relaxed and westernized Islam. The Muslim world today is experiencing the social and psychological pain of a rapidly changing society, and a global backlash against certain sects. The ideals of traditional Islam cannot coexist with the economic, social and political demands of the world today, and this creates personal crises, social upheaval, and instability within these communities.
While Mernissi is clarifying the context of women in a complex global society, she is neither defending nor ignoring the existence of sex inequality and injustice. As a feminist writer, she recognizes that Muslim women do not have the same social rights or political protections as Muslim men. Property rights, marriage rights, access to birth control, divorce or protection from abuse are historically not given to women. Traditionally a woman needed permission to leave her house, to visit her parents, or to work and would need to ask her husband for money. Women cannot be sexually promiscuous, yet feel pressure to satisfy their husbands, because men are permitted to have multiple wives, and divorce them with no justifications and without warning.
The author believes that at the heart of this issue, and the root of Christianity vs. Islam or West vs. East discourse, is a difference in beliefs about biological sex and the perception of sexual instinct and desire. In both societies, women do not benefit from the same social freedoms, economic opportunity and political protections that men do. In the west, this is due to the historical belief that women were biologically inferior to men, and the Freudian idea that women are sexually passive and crave domination and pain. In Muslim societies, there is an underlying belief that women are naturally powerful, actively sexual, and even dangerous. Women can seduce men and distract them from their devotion to God. Men were considered weaker, and could not suppress their sexual desire if women were more present in public spaces. Therefore the veil and segregation of public areas serve to protect men from themselves, and from acting against God.
Messini draws from the writings of Imam Ghazali to explain the Koran’s view of sex and sexual desire as being healthy, natural phenomena. Sex within marriage, to ease sexual tension or procreate, are ways of using sexuality to serve God. There are even quotes from the prophet emphasizing the necessity of kissing and cuddling, supporting foreplay and stressing the need for woman’s satisfaction and comfort.
In the West, there is a dominating religious belief that sexual desire is wrong and an indication of our original sin, our deviation from the perfect God. These fundamentally different beliefs about sex make it challenging to compare Muslim societies with Western societies. Trying to "liberate" Muslim women from an outsiders standpoint, Western or otherwise, with the beliefs and practices of that society will never be effective.
This belief in the inherent sexual power of women shows that Islam is not anti-woman or anti-sex. The veil then is not a religious device used to strip women of their sexuality and sensual nature, as is what some outsiders claim. So if inequality of women does not originate in the religious scripture, then the existence of a society that oppresses women is proof of a misinterpretation of religious texts. Manipulation of that sacred text, since its creation by the prophet, have occurred throughout history by politically inclined men trying to secure status.
The desire to control women stems from a deeply embedded distrust and fear of women’s sexuality. If women’s sensuality can sway men from the holy path, they must be institutionally controlled and removed from the society of men, politics, and God. Many institutions, specifically polygamy and the veil, serve as a strategic answer to the conflict of identity between the sexes.
Polygamy has a positive effect on the self-identity of the husband, and a demeaning effect on the wives, whose social image then becomes one of a woman unable to satisfy her husband's sexual needs. Alternatively, a man is encouraged to have sex with all his wives so that they are less likely to look for satisfaction elsewhere, thus causing chaos and ruining their virtue and his reputation. The book mentions that several of the Prophets wives chose to leave him, and this fact was glossed over in later teachings to protect his embarrassment and legacy. Furthermore, a man can divorce his wife quickly, and but she has difficulty divorcing him even in the face of domestic abuse. This power imbalance and mutual fear and distrust of the other partner is a driving force of the family unit and Muslim society.
This fear manifests in the segregation of sexual spaces. The men spend time in public places, which are considered masculine spaces dedicated to knowledge and power, and women remain within the home. Without the distraction of love, shared activities and deep, satisfying friendship with a partner, the husband is free to spend his time in study, meditation, and prayer to God. The wife has time and space to raise children and perform wifely duties. This structure is why the older, more traditional generations often oppose their children or grandchildren marrying for love. They fear that their union will not uphold the status quo, and may result in lesser devotion to God.
The veil is an extension of the segregation of sexual spaces. If a woman must enter the public area of men, she must be invisible so as not to disrupt the order by tempting or seducing other men. Thus, removal of the veil represents an insult to the structure of Muslim society, and most importantly, God.
There is also the added issue of today’s economic struggle, which requires women to work outside the home despite that being incongruent with Muslim ideals. The ideal would be for the husband to be individually wealthy enough for their many wives to enjoy jewels and luxuries, but in reality, very few people experience that reality. Women must work outside the home, but this puts shame on the husbands because their wives are subservient to other men. The inconsistency between religious ideals and modern problems are causing Muslim men and women to feel stuck, anxious, and incapable of achieving their conflicting desires. While we experience the constraints of gender roles in the West, there is an entirely different thing at stake when progressives try to break those stereotypes.
This book is an excellent first foray into religious theory outside of Christianity or any other religion. There is rarely a presence of sex within religious scripts in the West, where sex is a manifestation of human sin. From a sheltered western upbringing, traditional or conservative clothing was automatically linked to Christian fundamentalists, who chastised themselves for experiencing desire, and it is important to see another perspective. Without education of other experiences, it is easy to ascribe the characteristics of things you know and understand to seemingly similar phenomena without recognizing the trap of ethnocentrism.
It is easy to see how Western perception of these dynamics is so lacking in religious and cultural context that western feminism cannot in any good faith say the veil, conservative dressing, or segregated behavior is automatically oppression. It is also wrong to say that it is a religious problem, purely a construction of Islam, since it a critical part of the cultural beliefs and institutions of Muslim society. Some women find safety, peace, and honor in the veil, while some others feel imprisoned and targeted. So how can we understand or try to rectify the male-female dynamics of contemporary Muslim society?
Mernissi does not propose a simple answer to the inequality within Muslim culture but explains the context of male-female dynamics to set the stage for the coming changes. Feminism in Muslim society will not look like western feminism, and outside intervention cannot achieve this liberation for them. Still, those Muslims who are experiencing anxieties about the changing landscape of their religion are right- there is a real reason to believe that certain traditions are evolving, and therefore rewriting the rules of their lives. It will not cause the loss of all Islamic values but will cause the family unit to change at a fundamental level. This degradation of male supremacy will initially create tensions, but eventually, teach men to deal with the same sexual and social frustrations of women. Women, especially within the wife role, will become more humanized, which will enable loving marriages, arguably creating a stronger and more stable family unit with which to build a more socially progressive Muslim society.