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Argumentative Research Paper

2000-2250 words Argumentative Research Paper

-Topic: Islamic World

-Question: What is the status of Women under Islam?

PLEASE FOLLOW THE MAP step by step in order to write the paper, and go over the instructions for Citing sources MLA style.

Please use quotations from the following 5 sources (2 books, 3 articles) I will post here as well.

I will post 3 documents for instructions : (Research Paper Fall 2020, Map for Research Paper, Citing sources MLA style)

. and the other documents are regarding my 5 sources.

https://www.auk.edu.kw/academics/library

then write for the question: What is the status of Women under Islam?

1st book and book number 6 are the books for my research.

the other 3 articles i have them uploaded here as well fully. the books i have them uploaded here as well but not fully.

Map for Research Paper

Introduction:

Introduction is the first paragraph of the paper. It often begins with a general statement about the topic and ends with a more specific statement of the main idea of your paper.

1-Background information (6 sentences) about your topic

2- Narrow your topic (talk about it specifically by link it to one of the following: Kuwait, Gulf States, Middle East. Islamic world.

3- Present the debate among the scholars about your topic/ For example, this writer believes this or that; the other writer believes that/the opposite view from the other writer.

4- Introduce your research question: Use this device to introduce your research question

One might ask the following question: Research question?

4-State your thesis/ your position: (inform the reader about your point of view). You have the options; Either to go with general statement, other specific by mentioning the reasons in your thesis. For example, there are many causes of crime in Kuwait. Or there are many causes in Kuwait such 1, 2, 3, and 4.

II- Body: The body of your paper follows the introduction. It consists of a few paragraphs(at least four) in which you develop your ideas in detail.

A-Structure of Each Paragraph

1-Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that includes one of the reasons behind your thesis.

2-Explain it

3-Support it with outside sources (direct quotation, summary, or paraphrase). Don’t forget to give citation to your source.

4-Give your insight/comments

B-Limit each paragraph to one main idea(one reason). (Don’t try to talk about more than one idea per paragraph.)

C- Prove your points continually by using specific examples and quotations/summary/paraphrase from your note cards/sources.

D-Use

transition words

to ensure a smooth flow of ideas from paragraph to paragraph.

Conclusion:

The conclusion is the last paragraph of the paper. Its purpose is to

· summarize your points/topic sentences, leaving out specific examples

· restate the main idea (thesis) of the paper

Research Paper *

What is it?

A research paper is the culmination and final product of an involved process of research, critical thinking, source evaluation, organization, and composition. It is, perhaps, helpful to think of the research paper as a living thing, which grows and changes as the student explores, interprets, and evaluates sources related to a specific topic. Primary and secondary sources are the heart of a research paper and provide its nourishment; without the support of and interaction with these sources, the research paper would morph into a different genre of writing (e.g., an encyclopedic article). The goal of a research paper is not to inform the reader what others have to say about a topic, but to draw on what others have to say about a topic and engage the sources in order to thoughtfully offer a unique perspective on the issue at hand.

The foundation of a good research paper is a good

research question
. Assuming you have your question well-defined, the comments below are intended to help you. If you don’t have a question, it is imperative that you define one before beginning your research. The paper is to be analytical, not descriptive. So, you MUST have a question around which the paper will be organized.

The argumentative research paper consists of an introduction in which the writer clearly introduces the topic and informs his audience exactly which stance he intends to take; this stance is often identified as the

thesis statement

. An important goal of the argumentative research paper is persuasion, which means the topic chosen should be debatable or controversial. For example, it would be difficult for a student to successfully argue in favor of the following stance.

Cigarette smoking poses medical dangers and may lead to cancer for both the smoker and those who experience secondhand smoke.

Perhaps 25 years ago this topic would have been debatable; however, today, it is assumed that smoking cigarettes is, indeed, harmful to one’s health. A better thesis would be the following.

Although it has been proven that cigarette smoking may lead to sundry health problems in the smoker, the social acceptance of smoking in public places demonstrates that many still do not consider secondhand smoke as dangerous to one’s health as firsthand smoke.

In this thesis, the writer is not challenging the current accepted stance that both firsthand and secondhand cigarette smoke is dangerous; rather, she is positive that the social acceptance of the latter over the former is indicative of a cultural double-standard of sorts. The student would support this thesis throughout her paper by means of both primary and secondary sources, with the intent to persuade her audience that her particular interpretation of the situation is viable.

Research papers are generally longer pieces of written work than other essays. Writing a research paper involves all of the steps for writing an essay plus some additional ones.

To write a research paper you must
first do some research
, that is,
investigate your topic
by reading about it in many different sources, including books, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. In some cases you may also conduct interviews. The information you gather from these sources is then used to support the points you make in your paper.

Writing a research paper also involves documenting your sources of information in footnotes or endnotes. This way the reader knows where you got your information and can judge whether it is reliable.

Here are the steps to follow when writing a research paper.

1-Establish Your Topic

1. Try to pick a topic that’s fun and interesting. If your topic genuinely interests you, chances are you’ll enjoy spending time working on it and it won’t seem like a chore.

2. Finding a topic can be difficult. Give yourself plenty of time to read and think about what you’d like to do. Trying to answer questions you have about a particular subject may lead you to a good paper idea.

· What subject(s) are you interested in?

· What interests you most about a particular subject?

· Is there anything you wonder about or are puzzled about with regard to that subject?

2- Look for Sources of Information

1. Take a trip to the library.

· Use the electronic catalogue or browse the shelves to look for books on your topic. If you find a book that is useful, check the bibliography (list of sources) in the back of that book for other books or articles on that topic.

· Also check indexes of periodicals and newspapers.

· Check with a librarian if you need help finding sources.

2. Try to use as many different types of sources as you can, including books, magazine articles, and internet articles. Don’t rely on just one source for all your information.

3. Keep a list of all the sources that you use. Include the title of the source, the author, publisher, and place and date of publication. This is your preliminary, or draft,

bibliography

3-Read Your Sources and Take Notes

After you’ve gathered your sources, begin reading and taking notes.

1. Use 3 x 5 index cards, one fact or idea per card. This way related ideas from different sources can be easily grouped together or rearranged.

2. On each index card, be sure to note the source, including the volume number (if there is one) and the page number. If you wind up using that idea in your paper, you will have the information about the source ready to put in your footnote or endnote.

· If you copy something directly from a book without putting it in your own words, put quotation marks around it so that you know it is an exact quotation. This will help you to avoid

plagiarism

· Before you sit down to write your rough draft, organize your note cards by subtopic (you can write headings on the cards) and make an outline.

4- Organize Your Ideas

Using the information collected on the note cards, develop an outline to organize your ideas. An outline shows your main ideas and the order in which you are going to write about them. It’s the bare bones of what will later become a fleshed-out written report.

1. Write down all the main ideas.

2. List the subordinate ideas below the main ideas.

3. Avoid any repetition of ideas.

5-Write a First Draft

Every essay or paper is made up of three parts:

1.
The introduction
is the first paragraph of the paper. It often begins with a general statement about the topic and ends with a more specific statement of the main idea of your paper. The purpose of the introduction is to:

· let the reader know what the topic is

· inform the reader about your point of view

· arouse the reader’s curiosity so that he or she will want to read about your topic

2.
The body
of the paper consists of a number of paragraphs in which you develop your ideas in detail.

· Limit each paragraph to one main idea. (Don’t try to talk about more than one idea per paragraph.)

· Prove your points continually by using specific examples and quotations from your note cards.

· Use

transition words

to ensure a smooth flow of ideas from paragraph to paragraph.

3.
The conclusion
is the last paragraph of the paper. Its purpose is to

· summarize your points, leaving out specific examples

· restate the main idea(thesis) of the paper

6- Use Endnotes to Document Sources

1. As you write your first draft, including the introduction, body, and conclusion, add the information or quotations on your note cards to support your ideas.

2. Use
endnotes
to identify the sources of this information.

· If you are using endnotes, the note will appear together with all other notes on a separate page at the end of your report (Works Cited page).

7- Write a Bibliography (Works Cited)

A bibliography is a list of the sources you used to get information for your paper. It is included at the end of your paper, on the last page.

You will find it easier to prepare your final bibliography if you keep track of each book, encyclopaedia, or article you use as you are reading and taking notes. Start a preliminary, or draft, bibliography by listing on a separate sheet of paper all your sources. Note down the full title, author, place of publication, publisher, and date of publication for each source.

Also, every time a fact gets recorded on a note card, its source should be noted in the top right corner. When you are finished writing your paper, you can use the information on your note cards to double-check your bibliography.

When assembling a final bibliography, list your sources (texts, articles, interviews, and so on) in alphabetical order by authors’ last names. Sources that don’t have authors (encyclopaedias, movies) should be alphabetized by title.

8-Revise the First Draft

1. Try to set aside your draft for a day or two before revising. This makes it easier to view your work objectively and see any gaps or problems.

2. Revising involves 1) rethinking your ideas, 2) refining your arguments, 3) reorganizing paragraphs, and 4) rewording sentences.

3. Read your paper out loud. This sometimes makes it easier to identify writing that is awkward or unclear.

4. Have somebody else read the paper and tell you if there’s anything that’s unclear or confusing.

9- Proofread the Final Draft

1. Look for careless errors such as misspelled words and incorrect

punctuation

and

capitalization

2. Errors are harder to spot on a computer screen than on paper. If you type your paper on a computer, print out a copy to proofread. Remember, spell checkers and grammar checkers don’t always catch errors, so it is best not to rely on them too much.

Academic Argument Essay

Length: 5-7 pages, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1-inch margins.

Minimum of five cited sources: 3 must be from academic journals or books.

NOTE: Be always prepared to show me the hard copies of your sources. Keep good notes. Be sure you have records on the title of the article, the title of the journal, the author/s names, date of publication, page numbers and other information required on your reference page and in your in-text citation, plus the key points from the source. Identify whether you are paraphrasing, summarizing, or quoting.

Map for Research Paper

Introduction:

Introduction is the first paragraph of the paper. It often begins with a general statement about the topic and ends with a more specific statement of the main idea of your paper.

1-Background information (6 sentences) about your topic

2- Introduce your topic

a-let the reader knows what the topic is

b-arouse the reader’s curiosity so that he or she will want to read about your topic

3- Introduce your research question

One might ask the following question: Research question?

4-State your thesis/ your position: (inform the reader about your point of view).

1. Body: The body of the paper follows the introduction. It consists of several paragraphs in which you develop your ideas in detail.

A- A-Start each paragraph with a topic sentence that includes one of the reasons behind your thesis.

1-Explain it

2-Support it with outside sources (direct quotation, summary, or paraphrase). Don’t forget to give citation to your source.

3-Give your insight

B-Limit each paragraph to one main idea. (Don’t try to talk about more than one idea per paragraph.)

C- Prove your points continually by using specific examples and quotations from your note cards.

D-Use

transition words

to ensure a smooth flow of ideas from paragraph to paragraph.

Conclusion:

The conclusion is the last paragraph of the paper. Its purpose is to

· summarize your points, leaving out specific examples

· restate the main idea(thesis) of the paper

·
Research Proposal
: 1/4/ 2021

· (See Handout)

Annotated Bibliography: 1/ 18/ 2021

· (See Handout)

·
Research Paper due: 3/2/2021

*Adapted from fact monster and The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University

CITING SOURCES
MLA STYLE

Why Cite Sources?
To avoid plagiarism
To credit the source with the original idea or information
To lend credibility and authority to a thesis
To back up ideas with credible illustrations, known facts, and accepted statistics

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a crime – it is the the theft of someone’s else’s words, ideas, or research.
If you commit plagiarism, you can fail a course, be expelled from college, lose your job.
The easiest route to plagiarism today is cutting and pasting from the internet.

Avoid Plagiarism
Introduce any material you have borrowed from another source with a signal phrase that mentions the author (or if there is no author, the title ) of the source.
Put in quotation marks, any phrase or sentence(s) you have borrowed from the source.
If the quotation is longer than 3 lines, indent the quoted words.
ANY PHRASES OR SENTENCES QUOTED EXACTLY AND NOT IN QUOTATION MARKS OR INDENTED ARE PLAGIARIZED.

THERE IS
-0-
TOLERANCE
FOR PLAGIARISM IN THIS COURSE
You will Fail

Help is Here
If you are confused about what plagiarism is or how to cite sources, please make an appointment with me to clarify any issues you might have.
If this is a last minute issue, email me, and I will try to respond promptly.

Internal Documentation
Citing Sources in the
Text of an Essay

What Needs To Be Cited?
Quotations
Paraphrased ideas
Summarized information
Facts
Statistics
Studies
When in doubt, acknowledge the source of the information

Ways To Cite Sources Include:
Quotation
Paraphrase
Summary

Parenthetical Citation
The parenthetical citation must match the first word of the Works Cited citation — usually the author’s last name — and must include the page number of the quote, if taken from a paginated text: (Bragg 123).

Bragg, Rick. “Country Club Meets the Enemy: Country
Music and Pigs.” in Somebody Told Me: The
Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg. Tuscaloosa: U of
Alabama P, 2000. 123-25.

Quotation
In a quotation, the exact words of the source are quoted in quotation marks. Use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes
Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase: Rick Bragg quotes pig farmer, Paul Thompson:
In his article about the new Florida meeting the old Florida, Rick Bragg quotes pig farmer, Paul Thompson, “‘Now who,’” Mr. Thompson said, ‘would choose to build a golf course next to a pig farm? Didn’t they read the sign? It says pig farm, not rose garden’” (123).

Quotation
Long quotes, quotes over 4 lines, should be indented and do not include quotation marks:
According to Rick Bragg:
Lawyers for the club have said that Mr.
Thompson and the neighbor who also raises
music-accented pork, Tom Rossano, want the
club to buy their properties at an inflated price,
to gain peace and quiet. (124)

Paraphrase
In a paraphrase the writer restates what the author has said in his/her own words. A paraphrase is also introduced with a signal phrase, and the source of the information must be cited:
Bragg tells us that the country club has sued Mr. Thompson, not because of the smell, but because of the distraction caused by the country music (123).

Summary
In a summary, the writer states in an abbreviated form the idea that the original author has expressed. A summary is also introduced with a signal phrase, and source information must be cited:
Rick Bragg describes a scene in Pt. St. Lucie where an old established pig farm wafts its manure-laden fragrance mixed with country music over to its next-door-neighbor, the manicured Florida Club golf course (123).

Remember…
All information borrowed from another source must be acknowledged with a parenthetical citation
Introduce borrowed information with a signal phrase:
According to Alice Ames, …
John Smith says….
Samuel Jones tells us…
In a study by Dr. Elizabeth Owens, …

Remember…
The parenthetical citation must match the first word of the Works Cited citation, usually the author’s last name, and include a page reference.
Quotes repeat the author’s exact words.
Paraphrases restate the author’s words in the writer’s own words.
Summaries abbreviate the author’s words.

Bibliographies
and
Works Cited Lists

What’s the Difference?
A Bibliography lists all the sources consulted in research for a specific essay.
A Preliminary Bibliography or Working Bibliography lists all the sources the writer thinks s/he will be using in the essay
A Works Cited lists all the works actually cited in the text of the essay.
Both a Bibliography and Works Cited list are formatted in the same way.

Overall Format
The title — Bibliography or Works Cited — is centered at the top of the page. It is not underlined, italicized or quoted. It should be the same font size as the rest of the citations.
The citation list is double-spaced throughout.
The citation list is alphabetized.
If there is no author, the citation begins with the title of the work – quoted if an article or poem, underlined or italicized if a book.
The first line of each citation is at the margin; subsequent lines should be indented about ten spaces.

Sample Citations:
MLA FORMAT

A Book
Bragg, Rick. Somebody Told Me: The

Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg. Tuscaloosa:

U of Alabama P, 2000.
author title of book
subtitle of book city of publication
publisher year of publication

Chapter in a Book
Bragg, Rick. “Country Club Meets the Enemy:
Country Music and Pigs.” 1999. Rpt. Somebody
Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg.
Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000. 123-25.
author title of chapter
original publication date reprint
city publisher year of publication

inclusive chapter pages

title of book subtitle of book

Work in an Anthology
Whitman, Walt. “Osceola.” 1892. Florida in Poetry:.
A History of the Imagination. Eds. Jane Anderson
author title of work title of book
original publication date
publisher year of publication

inclusive pages of work

subtitle of book editors

Jones and Maurice O’Sullivan. Sarasota:
Pineapple Press, 1995. 30-31.
city

Article in a Multi-Volume Reference Work
Larkin, Joan. “Frontiers of Language: Three Poets.”
1974. Exc. in “Audre Lord.” Contemporary
Literary Criticism. Vol. 18. Ed. Sharon R.
Gunton. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. 307-08.
author title of work
original date volume editor
city publisher year of publication

inclusive pages of work

excerpted title of article title of reference work

Article in a Journal
Maxwell, Bill. “Angry Young Man.” Forum:
The Magazine of the Florida Humanities Council.
XXII.2 (Summer 1999): 8-17.

author title of article name of journal
volume number date inclusive pages of article

Article in a Journal found in an Online Database

author title of article
name of journal

Eder, Richard, “The Greatest Woman Poet Since
Sappho.” Los Angeles Times Book Review
18 Mar. 1990. 3+. Galenet: Literature
Resource Center. 10 Jan. 2004.
date pages publisher database
date accessed

Article found on an
Internet Site

author title of webpage date posted
name of website

Lu Yanguang. “Madame Li.” 1997.
Asia Pac: 100 Celebrated Chinese Women.
Trans. Kate Foster. 10 Feb. 2000

< http://www.span.com.au/100women/18.html > .
translator date accessed
URL: web address

Works Cited
Bragg, Rick. “Country Club Meets the Enemy: Country Music and
Pigs.” 1999. Rpt. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories
of Rick Bragg. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000. 123-25.
______. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg.
Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000.
Eder, Richard, “The Greatest Woman Poet Since Sappho.” Los Angeles
Times Book Review 18 Mar. 1990. 3+. Galenet: Literature
Resource Center. 10 Jan. 2004.

Larkin, Joan. “Frontiers of Language: Three Poets.” 1974. Exc. in
“Audre Lord.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 18.
Ed. Sharon R. Gunton. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. 307-08.
Lu Yanguang. “Madame Li.” 1997. Asia Pac: 100 Celebrated
Chinese Women. Trans. Kate Foster. 10 Feb. 2000

< http://www.span.com.au/100women/18.html > .
Maxwell, Bill. “Angry Young Man.” Forum: The Magazine of the
Florida Humanities Council. XXII.2 (Summer 1999): 8-17.

Whitman, Walt. “Osceola.” 1892. Florida in Poetry: A History of the
Imagination. Eds. Jane Anderson Jones and Maurice O’Sullivan.
Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 1995. 30-31.

REMEMBER…
The title — Bibliography or Works Cited — is centered at the top of the page. It is not underlined, italicized or quoted. It should be the same font size as the rest of the citations.
The citation list is double-spaced throughout.
The citation list is alphabetized.
If there is no author, the citation begins with the title of the work – quoted if an article or poem, underlined or italicized if a book.
The first line of each citation is at the margin; subsequent lines should be indented about ten spaces.

“Th-th-th-that’s all folks!”

For Further Information
Jane Jones’ Tools for Writing and Research:
http://www.mccfl.edu/Faculty/Jonesj/Tools/tools.html
Manatee Community College’s Writing and Citing Help: http://www.mccfl.edu/pages/767.asp
MLA Online: http://www.mla.org/
Using MLA Style from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html
Color-coded MLA Citations from Long Island University:
http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm
Slate Citation Machine will help format sources automatically:
http://www.landmark-project.com/citation_machine/cm.php

The issue of women in Islam today is one characterized by struggle among competing

voices. Broadly speaking, the competition is between, on the one hand, the claims
of those for whom Islam generally represents a movement of social and religious
reform, and that the role of women and gender equity was always central to the
reform. On the other hand are those for whom Islam is in fundamental opposition to
notions of reform that would entail a role for women marked by equal status and
opportunity. The former claims would seem to be more fi rmly based in the scholar-
ship of the ages, both Islamic and Western, and promise greater levels of social and
religious discourse between Islam and non-Islam, while the latter could be said to
be a reaction to cataclysmic historical events that have fractured Islam and spawned
an exclusivist perspective that idealizes its separation from all things non-Islamic,
an Islamic guise referred to variously as Islamism or radical Islam.

In the midst of this contemporary wider struggle between the forces claiming
Islam as their inspiration, the role and place of women is a de fi ning issue with views
that cover the spectrum from claims around equality through to those around relega-
tion and suppression. The book will gather together a collection of updated research
with a primary focus on the issue of Muslim women, either historically or contem-
poraneously. The impetus for the book came from an Australian Research Council
(ARC) funded research program involving Professors Terry Lovat and Hilary Carey
from the University of Newcastle, Australia, with collaboration from Professor
Geoffrey Samuel and Dr. Santi Rozario of Cardiff University, UK, and supported by
Dr. Belinda Green. The research in the book encompasses far more than was the
subject of the ARC project, research that comes from many parts of the world,
representing Muslim and non-Muslim researchers, with national identities and focus
issues related to Muslim intense countries including Bangladesh, India, Iran, Iraq,
Israel, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Tanzania, Tunisia and Turkey, as well
as France, the UK, Canada, South Africa and Australia. The research also covers an
array of Muslim views, both Sunni and Shi’a but also minority perspectives such as
Ismaili. In each case, the research is underpinned by the latest socio-theological
insights and/or empirical fi ndings, as appropriate, and the persistent method is one
of re fl ection into understanding and, where suitable, recommended action.

Foreword

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AN: 523061 ; Terence Lovat.; Women in Islam : Reflections on Historical and Contemporary Research
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EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) – printed on 1/17/2021 4:06 AM via AMERICAN UNIV OF
KUWAIT
AN: 523061 ; Terence Lovat.; Women in Islam : Reflections on Historical and Contemporary Research
Account: s3931335

vii

1 The ‘Women’s Movement’ in Modern Islam:
Reflections on the Revival of Islam’s Oldest Issue …………………………. 1
Terence Lovat

2 Reconciling Traditional Islamic Methods with Liberal
Feminism: Reflections from Tunisia by Mohamed Talbi ………………… 11
Kelly al-Dakkak

3 Young Muslim Women and the Islamic Family: Refl ections
on Confl icting Ideals in British Bangladeshi Life ………………………….. 25
Santi Rozario and Geoffrey Samuel

4 Women and Human Development in the Muslim
World: Reflections on Islamic and UNDP’s Approaches ……………….. 43
Muhammad Ahsan

5 Being Muslim in the Neoliberal West: Reflections
on an Ethnographic Study of Muslim Women in Australia ……………. 61
Belinda Green

6 Youth Identity Formation in the Presence of the ‘Other’:
Reflections on Being Young and Muslim
in an Interfaith Setting ………………………………………………………………… 75
Mehmet Ozalp and Kulsoom Siddiqui

7 Social Inclusion in the Context of Foreign-Policy Debates:
Reflections on Jihad, Human Rights and Gender
Equality in Islam …………………………………………………………………………. 89
Halim Rane

8 The Contribution of Muslim Women in the Flourishing
of Modern Society: Reflections on Refugee Transition
from East to West ………………………………………………………………………… 107
Ibtihal Samarayi

Contents

viii Contents

9 Islamic Legal Maxims for Attainment of Maqasid-al-Shari‘ah
in Criminal Law: Reflections on the Implications
for Muslim Women in the Tension Between Shari’ah
and Western Law ………………………………………………………………………… 117
Luqman Zakariyah

10 The Way Forward for Muslim Women: Reflections
on Australia’s Social Inclusion Agenda …………………………………………. 135
Mohamad Abdalla

11 Muslim Women in Higher Education: Reflections
on Literacy and Modernization in Israel ………………………………………. 149
Zehavit Gross

12 Hagar/Hajar, Muslim Women and Islam: Reflections
on the Historical and Theological Ramifications
of the Story of Ishmael’s Mother ………………………………………………….. 165
Robert Crotty

13 Muslim Women Academics in Higher Education:
Reflections from South Africa ………………………………………………………. 185
Doria Daniels and Nazreen Dasoo

14 Muslim Women, Peer Relationships and Educational
Trajectories: Reflections on Muslim Stereotypes
in a British Setting ………………………………………………………………………. 197
Jody Mellor

15 Voices from Shia Imami Ismaili Nizari Muslim Women:
Reflections from Canada on Past and Present
Gendered Roles in Islam………………………………………………………………. 213
Adil Mamodaly and Alim Fakirani

Author Index………………………………………………………………………………………. 237

Subject Index……. ……………………………………………………………………………….. 243

Dr. Mohamad Abdalla is an Associate Professor at Grif fi th University, Australia,
and the Founding Director of the Grif fi th Islamic Research Unit (GIRU), and
Director of the Queensland node of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic
Studies Australia (NCEIS). He is a public intellectual and a respected leader in the
Australian Muslim community. Dr. Abdalla was the Chairperson of the Queensland
Muslim Community Reference Group (MCRG) and the Vice-president and spokes-
person for the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC). Dr. Abdalla has published
widely in the fi eld of Islamic studies.

Dr. Muhammad Ahsan is an independent academic research and training consul-
tant in UK. In the fi elds of Contemporary Muslim World, his research has gained
international recognition. In addition to authoring various books, Dr. Ahsan has
produced a large number of reports and research papers published in various refereed
international journals. His thoughts have signi fi cantly in fl uenced in fi xing priorities
and directions for the Muslim World and re-forming the Organisation of the Islamic
Conference.

Kelly al-Dakkak is a D.Phil. candidate in Oriental Studies at the University of
Oxford, UK. She is specialised in Islamic thought and movements in the Middle
East and North Africa and is currently completing a dissertation on Tunisian
intellectual Mohamed Talbi. She is a former Fulbright Fellow in the United Arab
Emirates, where she pursued research on Islamic identity for which she was awarded
a Fulbright Islamic Civilization Grant.

Dr. Robert Crotty is Emeritus Professor of Religion and Education at the University
of South Australia. He has written widely on Religion Studies and has had a long-
standing interest in Islam and its relationships with Judaism and Christianity. He is
presently involved in research on the possibility of restoring convivencia among the
Abrahamic religions.

Author Biograph ies

x Author Biographies

Dr. Doria Daniels is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of
Stellenbosch, South Africa. She has been the primary investigator of an Indigenous
knowledge research project that explored gender in community history and has
published on how South African Muslim women are remembered and portrayed in
their communities’ histories.

Dr. Nazreen Dasoo is Senior Lecturer at the University of Johannesburg, South
Africa. She has been teaching Islamic Studies Methodology to postgraduate students
since 1998. In 2001, she was asked to serve on a Standards Generating Body for
Islamic Studies in South Africa. Her main role comprised setting the unit standards
for how the subject should be taught at both schools and universities. As part of her
community engagement projects, she conducts in-service training for teachers at
Madrasahs in Johannesburg.

Alim Fakirani is an educator who completed his B.A. at McGill University,
Montreal, Canada. in the Faculty of Religious Studies. This led him to pursue a
double-Masters with Distinction at the Institute of Ismaili Studies and the Institute
of Education, London. While in London, Alim became deeply fascinated with the
intersection of religious identity with the plural and secular landscapes of our
societies. Speci fi cally, he is interested in the ways in which women of faith experience
their religious identity in their daily lives.

Dr. Belinda Green is a post-doctoral researcher attached to the University of
Wollongong, Australia. She has been an active researcher in the fi eld of Islamic
Studies, with special attention to Muslim women in diaspora situations.

Dr. Zehavit Gross is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Bar Ilan. She has worked
extensively with mixed religious groups, including especially Jewish and Muslim
groups, in her teaching and research.

Dr. Terence Lovat is Emeritus Professor at The University of Newcastle, Australia.
He has been chief investigator of a number of Australian Government funded
projects concerned with aspects of Islam and has written extensively in the area.
In 2004, he was presented with an award by the Sydney-based Muslim association,
Af fi nity Intercultural Dialogue, for academic work that promoted understanding
of Islam.

Adil Mamodaly is a secondary religious education teacher within the Ismaili
Muslim community in Montreal, Canada. He has studied at the Institute of Ismaili
Studies and the Institute of Education in London, England, where he completed a
Master in Teaching and a Master of Arts in Education (Muslim Societies and
Civilizations). He has written extensively on various subjects within the fi eld of
Islamic studies and has always had a passion for understanding the experience of
Ismaili Muslim women.

Dr. Jody Mellor is a research assistant at the University of Bristol, UK, working on
a project exploring class in higher education. Before this, she was based at the
Islam-UK Centre at Cardiff University, UK, researching the early history of Muslim
migration to South Wales, UK. Jody’s ESRC funded PhD research, completed in

xiAuthor Biographies

2007, focused upon British Muslim and non-Muslim women’s experiences of class
whilst at university.

Mehmet Ozalp is an Islamic theologian, academic and community activist. He is
the founder and Executive Director of Islamic Sciences and Research Academy
associated with Charles Sturt University, Australia. He serves as the Muslim
Chaplain at the University of Sydney and Macquarie University. He is a proli fi c
speaker on Islam and Muslims in Australia and the author of three books: ‘101
Questions You Asked About Islam’, ‘Islam in the Modern World’ and ‘Islam
between Tradition and Modernity: An Australian Perspective’.

Dr. Halim Rane is the Deputy Director of the Grif fi th Islamic Research Unit and
a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities at Grif fi th University, Australia.
Dr. Rane is the author of numerous articles and books concerning Islamic and Muslim
issues including Islam and Contemporary Civilisation: Evolving Ideas, Transforming
Relations (Melbourne University Press, 2010); Islam and the Australian News Media
(Melbourne University Press, 2010); and Reconstructing Jihad amid Competing
International Norms (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Dr. Santi Rozario is a former Reader at Cardiff University, UK, now at The University
of Tasmania. She has engaged in extensive funded and unfunded research in a variety
of projects associated with Islam and Muslim women in cross cultural contexts.

Dr. Ibtihal Samarayi is an Australian Muslim who was born in Iraq, Visual Arts
Lecturer and Coordinator, and Research Academic at The University of Newcastle.
She has experienced refugee status in the West and has studied Islam in both
its origins and contemporary problems through the lens of fi ne art, with especial
attention to the artwork of Muslim children caught up in detention. Ibtihal’s new
book, Refugee to Resident, is a memoir about her journey as a refugee in moving
from Iraq to Australia.

Dr. Geoffrey Samuel is a Professor at Cardiff University, Wales, UK, where he
directs the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR) Research Group. His academic
career has been in social anthropology and religious studies, and his books include
Mind, Body and Culture (1990), Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies
(1993), Tantric Revisionings (2005) and The Origins of Yoga and Tantra (2008).
He is currently working on material on Tibetan yogic health practices and Tibetan
medicine, and on a research project on young Bangladeshis, Islam, marriage and
the family.

Kulsoom Siddiqi is associated as a researcher with the Islamic Sciences and
Research Academy, Charles Sturt University, Australia.

Dr. Luqman Zakariyah is Teaching Fellow of the Study of Islam and Muslims
at Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education and honorary Teaching Fellow of
the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, Scotland,
UK. Dr. Zakariyah has published in many international journals including Arab
Law Quarterly, Brill. He has been appointed as visiting scholar at Ripon College,
Oxford, UK.

1T. Lovat (ed.), Women in Islam: Refl ections on Historical and Contemporary Research,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-4219-2_1, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

Abstract While early Islam’s development was far from unequivocal in the way
women were treated, evidence nonetheless of radical reform around the issue is
indisputable. The original Constitution guaranteed the right to inheritance, including
of property, as well as to initiate divorce and testify in court. Women and men were
equally bound by the law and punishable for misdemeanors against it, and were
equally liable for the ultimate reward of entering Paradise. There is considerable
evidence as well that women were active participants and leaders in the earliest
communities, with two of Muhammad’s own wives being prominent in advocacy
and juridical advisory roles, both within and shortly after the lifetime of the Prophet
himself. The chapter will attempt to set the scene for the volume by exploring these
themes. It will make use of prominent Muslim scholarship around the issue of
women in Islam, including work by Mohamed Talbi, Leila Ahmed, Amina Wadud
and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, work that in various ways illustrates that the current struggle
to recover the voice of women is crucial to no less than a recovery of Islam itself.

Introduction

While early Islam’s development was far from unequivocal in the way women were
treated, evidence nonetheless of radical reform around the issue is indisputable. The
original ‘Constitution’ has the appearance of guaranteeing the right to inheritance,
including of property, as well as to initiate divorce and testify in court. Women and
men were equally bound by the law and punishable for misdemeanours against it,
and were equally liable for the ultimate reward of entering Paradise. There is
considerable evidence as well of women being conceived of as active participants

T. Lovat (*)
Faculty of Education and Arts, The University of Newcastle ,
P.O. Box 442 , New Lambton , NSW 2305 , Australia
e-mail: Terry.lovat@newcastle.edu.au

Chapter 1
The ‘Women’s Movement’ in Modern
Islam: Re fl ections on the Revival
of Islam’s Oldest Issue

Terence Lovat

2 T. Lovat

and leaders in the earliest communities, with two of Muhammad’s own wives
characterized as prominent in advocacy and juridical advisory roles, and other
women taking on inspirational leadership roles beyond the norm in companion
religions. The chapter will attempt to set the scene for the volume by exploring
these themes. It will begin with a brief appraisal of the historical evidence and the
store that can properly be attributed to it in light of recent scholarship surrounding
the source texts of Islam. It will then move to appraise a sample of the wealth of
prominent Muslim scholarship directed at the issue of women in Islam, work that in
various ways illustrates that the current struggle to recover the voice of women is
crucial to no less than a recovery of essential features of Islam, at least partly lost in
our own time.

The Earliest Evidence

Phyllis Trible and Letty Russell ( 2006 ) proffer that “… understanding problems and
opportunities of the past and present among Jews, Christians and Muslims, as well
as envisioning a different future, resides more in studying the women Hagar and
Sarah than in stressing the putative unity located in Abraham.” (p. 1) Indeed, the
stories surrounding these two women, representing respectively the claims of Islam
and those of Judaeo-Christianity, stand increasingly at the centre of the contemporary
dispute, disenfranchisement and growing friction that characterizes the relationship
between Islam and its sibling ‘Western religions’. Hagar, Abraham’s Arabic wife
and mother of his fi rst-born child, Ishmael, is matriarch of the Arabic peoples and,
in that sense, of Islam itself. She it is who obeys the will of Allah, even in dif fi culty
and apparent rejection by her husband and his Israelite wife, in taking Ishmael back
to his own people where he can learn the Arabic ways in order to ful fi l his own
destiny to be the father of the Arabic people and patron of Islam, represented in
de fi nitive fashion when, together with his father, he builds the Ka’aba to mark the
Covenant with Allah. Sarah, meanwhile, is Abraham’s Israelite wife who initially
seems complicit in encouraging him to take a second wife in order to ensure an heir
but then quickly turns against Hagar (and Ishmael) when she is herself with child,
Isaac, who, according to the Israelite story, is ordained as the true heir because of his
pure Israelite heritage.

The importance of these stories, centred on the two foundational women of the
Abrahamic tradition, cannot be overstated when one considers that, for these people,
the identity of an individual resided in the maternal line. St. Paul seemed to under-
stand this when, in the Letter to the Galatians, he chose to contrast Hagar and Sarah
as matriarchs of the Old and New Covenants, rather than making reference to the
patriarchal heritage. Ironically, in conferring the status of matriarch of the original
Covenant on Hagar, he can be interpreted as endorsing, albeit well before the event
and no doubt unintentionally, the later Muslim claim that it was through Abraham’s
Arabic wife that Allah’s promise was ful fi lled. In one of countless points of intrigue
in the matriced lines of interpretation and cross-interpretation that characterize the

31 The ‘Women’s Movement’ in Modern Islam…

various source texts of the Abrahamic religions, Paul can actually be read as having
endorsed the claims of the Ishmaelites (the early Muslims) that their patriarch was
the heir to the Covenant, in precedence to Isaac. Of course, Paul’s intention was far
from this, his chief interest being in discrediting the claims of the so-called
‘Judaizers’, those who believed that Judaic adherence must necessarily precede
being Christian. He was also striving to draw out the link between Isaac, the
progenitor of the New Covenant, and Jesus (the new Isaac), as the de fi nitive heir of
the New Covenant. Nonetheless, in doing so, Paul makes the very point that later
Muslims would make, namely that Hagar is the matriarch of the Old Covenant and
that Ishmael, therefore, is the heir of the Old Covenant and, in that sense, heir to the
promise made to Abraham.

In a day and age that sees a large proportion of Islam, both mainstream and
radical, identifying itself as ‘children of Ishma’il’ ( Adang 1996 ; Ibn Hazm 1997 ;
Hoyland 2001 ), sometimes as an angry protest, and the name Ishma’il also associated
with radical Islamism by protesting non-Muslims (cf. Prophetic Roundtable,
www.propheticroundtable.org ), the dispute is clearly of huge moment and requires
a renewed and vigorous conversation around the issue. In similar fashion, the asso-
ciation of the name of Hagar with early and more recent Muslim claims around both
their own proper heritage and protestations that these claims have been persistently
misheard and rejected by the (Judaeo-Christian) West, makes the issue of recovering
the crucial matriarchal heritage of huge import to contemporary events. For not only
did many early Muslims refer to themselves as ‘Hagarians’ but, moreover, Hagar’s
importance to de fi ning the nature of being Muslim, in terms of submission to Allah’s
will and withstanding the onslaught of Judaeo-Christian hostility in ful fi lling that
will, are coming to hold increased importance in contemporary Islam:

Hagar (Hajar) does not see herself as a victim of Abraham and Sarah, or of a patriarchal, class
and race conscious culture. She is a victor who, with the help of God and her own initiative,
is able to transform a wilderness into the cradle of a new world dedicated to the ful fi lment of
God’s purpose on earth … In doing so (i.e. Muhammad leaving his own city and establishing
Islam), he followed in the footsteps of his foremother Hagar who, generations earlier, had
chosen to dwell in the desert to which God had directed her, making a home and community
out of an unknown land and people. She demonstrated by her faith and actions that for a
believer all of God’s earth is a sancti fi ed place and that loyalty to God supersedes attachment
to terrestrial bonds, be they of place or persons. (Hassan 2006 , p. 155)

Asserting the relevance of Hagar to the issue of women in Islam today is not to
proffer a naive or uncritical pertinence of source texts to a contemporary issue. Nor
is it to deny the importance of ongoing scholarship around the nature, history and
formation of the Islamic scriptures (Warraq 1998 ; Armstrong 2001 ; Ohlig and Puin
2009 ) . It is merely to highlight the importance of the original inspirational material
available to the earliest Muslim communities as well as to take note of the use to
which this material is being put in contemporary Islamic re fl ection. This re fl ection
seems to suggest that the role of women in Islam is arguably its oldest issue, in that
claims made about Hagar’s role in submission to Allah and the subsequent effecting
of the Covenant that sits at the heart of Islam’s central claims about itself, captures
nothing less than the core of Islamic self-identity. In a sense, Hagar is the fi rst

4 T. Lovat

Muslim. In a way that cannot be said of any of its companion religions, Islam rests
on the faith of a woman. This realization seems to sit at the heart of much contem-
porary Islamic scholarship, both that which deals speci fi cally with the issue of
women and that which deals with more generalized issues of reform. For those who
see reform as a de fi ning notion of all for which Islam originally stood, the issue of
women is central (Haddad and Esposito 1998 ) . There can be no recovery of Islam
without its settlement.

Mohamed Talbi

Mohamed Talbi is a prominent Muslim historian who specializes in Qur’anic inter-
pretation. Against the rise of radical Islamism in recent times, his passion and
commitment has been in utilizing his knowledge of the Qur’an and other inspira-
tional sources of Islam to show how unfounded and skewed are the claims of radical
Islamism as representing a return to Islam’s origins. Talbi’s work ( 1995, 2006 ) is an
interesting place to begin the recovery of the voice of women in Islam. It is especially
relevant to this issue because it relies heavily on the notion of ihtiram mutabadal
(mutual respect) as being central to the ethics of social relations in the earliest
communities of Islam. One might suggest that it is on the interpretation of ihtiram
mutabadal that much of the debate within Islam about the role of women rests.

Talbi is in no doubt that Islam was and is a religion of reform when properly
understood. This proper understanding centres on Muhammad’s belief that, in
Islam, he was constructing the community ( Ummah Wahida ) that God had fore-
shadowed in the Promise to Abraham, renewed to Moses and represented in the
followers of Jesus. Islam was therefore a reform of all previous attempts to construct
a community that lived by God’s ordinance, rather than human ordinance, including
being a reform of Judaism and Christianity. As such, its charter was to be found in
the prophetic tradition and, within that tradition, it was clear that the essential reform
envisaged of the Ummah was around the respect, care and tolerance that should be
extended to all people, with special mention being made of women and children,
among others. For Talbi, far from the radical Islamist construction of Islam as an
intolerant force bent on conformism and the relegation of women to second-class
status, Islam is in fact the religion of pluralism and acceptance of and respect for
human difference of all kinds, including gender difference.

Nettler ( 1999 ) , in commenting on Talbi’s contribution, says:

The Qur’an, as basis and foundation of the whole structure, is Talbi’s ultimate source. He
sees in his theory of pluralism a ‘modern’ idea from the depths of revelation. Despite his
obvious debt to modern thought, Talbi’s point of departure is from within the sacred text
and its early historical context. His approach to that text and history presupposes there is a
humanistic message of the Golden Rule and an empirical validity in historical sources such
as the Constitution of Medina which support that message. (p. 106)

Nettler’s reference to the Constitution of Medina is about the kind of community
that Islam fi rst established around the belief that it was the model community that

51 The ‘Women’s Movement’ in Modern Islam…

God had envisioned. By any standards, this community, together with most Islamic
civilizations of the early Middle Ages, was remarkable for its overarching ethic of
tolerance. Additionally, many features that one would associate with the Western
state and democracy, rather than with the stereotype of Islam presented by radical
Islamism were to be found in the communities built around the Constitution of
Medina. Among these features were those concerned with social welfare systems,
education and healthcare schemes, and included innovations in law ( Shari’ah ) and
new conventions designed to protect the rights and promote the status of women.
Almost a thousand years before the so-called Enlightenment in the West began the
move towards these features, they were part and parcel of early Islamic civilization
(Lewis 1987 ) . In this respect, Islam can claim to be one of the world’s great social
experiments where human rights of all sorts were enshrined in law. Talbi’s ( 1995 )
view on the role of women in this context is clear from the Qura’nic evidence:

We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and
tribes, that ye may know (be friendly towards) each other … (p. 61)

In a word, women and men are different but nonetheless equal, two halves of a
single pair, each incomplete without the other.

Leila Ahmed

Leila Ahmed ( 1992, 2006 ) offers an informed and balanced view of the issue of
women in Islam, and indeed of the origins of Islam itself. Unlike Talbi, she acknowl-
edges that there are two different and equally cogent interpretations of the nature of
early Islam, both of them inspired by the character of Muhammad who, she implies,
was a product of his time as well as being a reformer. For this reason, there are some
apparent inconsistencies in the testimony provided by the sources. Regarding the
issue of women, she maintains that the two interpretations turn on, fi rst, one that
seems clearly to endorse the notion that the moral and spiritual equality of all human
beings is an ethical imperative for the Ummah. On the other hand, there are more
than hints to be found in the inspirational writings of a hierarchy that relegates
women to an inferior status to that enjoyed by men.

In conceding the possibility of this dual interpretation, Ahmed might be seen to
be playing into the hands of the radical Islamist view on the place of women. On the
contrary, the importance of her work is in illustrating that, while it is plausible that
the hierarchical interpretation can be held, it is nonetheless based on a misunder-
standing of the essence of the Islamic reform. According to her, the dominance of
the hierarchical view throughout much of Islamic history owes more to the forces
that gained control in the early centuries of Islam than to their understanding of the
reform that Islam implied. As suggested, even the character, Muhammad, can be
seen in part to be bound by his heritage and so perceived reference on his part to
gender inequality comes hardly as a surprise. In contrast, granted the social context
and heritage, the real surprise and innovation is in the rigorous and exhortatory

6 T. Lovat

discourse around the moral and spiritual equality of all people, including between
women and men. Ahmed regards the interrelationships between Islam and the West,
emanating essentially from the colonial era of the nineteenth century, as crucial to
the recovery of this essential voice of Islam. Among other things, it is forcing Islam
to re-assess the role of women and so, in her view, to re-discover that it was in fact
Islam, not the West, that fi rst proposed the equality of women and enshrined in its
own laws a level of rights, including to inherit and own property, that would only
come to the West a thousand years later.

Amina Wadud

Amina Wadud builds on the above themes with at least as much recourse to the
Qur’an as her foundational source as is characteristic of Talbi. Wadud ( 1999, 2006a, b )
asserts that the issue of women is the central social issue to be found in the Qur’an
and that the entire testimony is aimed at reversing the beliefs of the surround-
ing tribes that women were somehow less than human. She infers that Judaism and
Christianity did not always help in this regard because their stories of the origins of
the world prioritized the creation of man and left woman as an apparent after-
thought. In contrast, she points out that the Qur’anic expression of creation, while
similarly constructed, carefully presents man and woman as a single pair, with a
picture of perfect equality in the Garden of Eden and equivocal sharing of guilt
when the forbidden fruit is taken. Most crucial to Islam is that man cannot be cre-
ated in God’s image, as Judaism and Christianity would have it, because Allah is
beyond being personalized, least of all gendered, in the way to be found in the
Judaeo-Christian scriptures. For Wadud, this de-gendering of God and the assertion
of equality and equivalent rights for women is central to the reform that Islam
represents.

Along with Ahmed, Wadud acknowledges that Islam’s development was far
from unequivocal in the way women were treated but she continues to point to the
radical reforms characteristic of the original Constitution to mount the strongest
possible case for the issue being central to the Islamic reform. In spite of the context
of the times, Islam brought radical changes to the issue. The Qur’an guaranteed the
right to inheritance, including of property (perhaps the most radical reform), as well
as the rights to initiate divorce and to testify in court. It protected women’s rights
against coercion, including against sexual violence even in marriage. Women and
men were to be equally bound by the laws of their land and religion, including being
equally liable for any punishment owing to misdemeanour, as well as equally liable
for the ultimate reward of entering Paradise. The testimony is clear that women
were extremely active as participants and leaders in the earliest communities.
A’ishah, allegedly Muhammad’s favourite wife, played a role as juridical advisor
(interpreter of Shari’ah ) in the days following her husband’s death. Like Ahmed,
Wadud believes that the current struggle to recover the voice of women is crucial to
no less than a recovery of Islam itself.

71 The ‘Women’s Movement’ in Modern Islam…

Popular Women Voices

Ahmed and Wadud are just two of a growing chorus of voices being raised by
Muslim women about the role of women in Islam. Others include: Fatima Mernissi
( 1975, 2006 ) , the Moroccan sociologist and author of Beyond the Veil ; Majida Rizvi,
the fi rst female Judge of the High Court of Pakistan and later Chairperson of the
National Commission on the Status of Women, most famous for her leading the
successful opposition to the Hadood Ordinance in Pakistan that all but stripped
women of their Shari’ah rights; Shirin Ebadi ( 2006 ) , Iranian former jurist deposed
to secretarial work after the Iranian Revolution and recipient of the Nobel Peace
Prize in 2003, most famous for her support of women’s rights in Iran and Islam
generally; and, Ayaan Hirsi Ali ( 2006, 2007 ) , Somalian writer of the Caged Virgin
and In fi del , former Muslim and converted atheist who challenges the very founda-
tions of Islam with especially sharp criticism of the malevolent effects of political
Islam on women in Muslim societies. While the others mentioned remain devout
Muslims, Hirsi Ali has abandoned the religion over its alleged failure to protect the
rights of women and others. Her impact on the quest to recover the voice of women
in Islam is nonetheless profound through her political and literary in fl uence.

In recent important work that captures the potential of women from across the
Abrahamic traditions to collaborate on study of women in Islam, Yvonne Yazbeck
Haddad, Jane I. Smith and Kathleen M. Moore ( 2011 ) focus on the changing experi-
ences of women and Muslim views about same in Western diaspora communities. It
offers a reappraisal of historical material from within Islam, of traditional Western
constructs of Muslim women and how Islam is changing in response to such reap-
praisals and critiques. The book focuses especially on the Muslim experience in
America, examining Muslim American analyses of gender, Muslim attempts to
form a new ‘American’ Islam and the legal issues surrounding equal rights for
Muslim females. It also looks at the ways in which American Muslim women have
tried to create new paradigms of Islamic womanhood and are reinterpreting the
traditions outside of the traditional patriarchal structures that would otherwise
subjugate them. This research, together with other work noted above, represents a
surge among female Muslim scholars to re-create the contemporary circumstances
for Muslim women. Of equal signi fi cance is the fact that, among the intense
scholarship being directed at reappraising the origins of Islamic source material
(cf. Ramadan 2007 ; Ohlig and Puin 2009 ) , female Muslim scholars (e.g. Mattson 2008 )
are increasingly playing a part.

Conclusion

In summary, this lead chapter captures something of the current debate about the
role of women in Islam, its sources in the tradition and some of its chief contemporary
advocates, reformers and critics. The issue of women’s rights in Islam is predictably
the most controversial of the many features of modern revisionist scholarship in and

International Journal of Refugee Law Vol. 22 No. 1 pp. 48–71
© The Author (2010). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
For Permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
doi:10.1093/ijrl/eep032, Advance Access published on January 21, 2010

Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status
Within the Context of Child Custody Upon
Divorce Under Islamic Law

EkATERINA YAhYAOUI kRIVENkO*

Abstract
This article analyses case law from the Uk, New Zealand, and Canada relating to
claims for recognition of refugee status presented by divorced Muslim women, revolv-
ing around the issue of child custody after divorce under conservative Islamic law,
which deprives women of any meaningful relationship with their children. The nega-
tive attitude of the Uk authorities is compared to the open and positive approach of
decision makers in New Zealand and Canada. The use and interpretation of aspects of
the refugee definition, such as persecution, particular social group and the standard
of state protection, are analyzed in more detail. The article argues that, in order to
adequately evaluate this type of claim, decision makers should take into account all
aspects of a woman’s experiences including the consequences of the decision on their
children.

1. Introduction
As the title indicates, this article deals with claims for refugee status made
by divorced Muslim women on the basis of automatic deprivation of
custody of their children upon divorce in countries which attempt to
preserve, allegedly unchangeable, Islamic law. Muslim women applying
for refugee status in these situations would like to escape this, in their
view, arbitrary and discriminatory rule, preserve a meaningful relation-
ship to their children, and also protect their children from possible nega-
tive consequences.

Through analysis of both case law and the attitude of decision making
authorities in the Uk, New Zealand and Canada, some suggestions for
appropriate ways for refugee status determination authorities to approach
such claims are formulated.

The claims of women for the recognition of refugee status in the cases
discussed in this article are situated at the intersection of gender related
claims (principle of non-discrimination) and implementation of the best

* PhD, Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland; LLM, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg i. Br.,
Germany; D.E.S., Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland; Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of
Montreal, Canada. The author can be contacted at: ekaterina.yahyaoui@graduateinstitute.ch.

49Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

interests of the child principle. The fundamental basis for these refugee
status claims is the application in the country of origin of an allegedly
Islamic, and thus unchangeable, rule that automatically deprives divorced
mothers of the custody of their children when the latter reach a certain
age or the mother remarries. Thus, from a more general point of view,
this article also contributes to a better understanding of gender related
persecution.

Integration of gender related claims into refugee law is regarded as well
established and the issue of gender related persecution attracts far less
attention today than was the case a decade or two ago. As a matter of prin-
ciple, gender-related claims are recognized as valid in the refugee status
determination procedures of the majority of Western states.1 Concrete
interpretations can differ, but a number of national gender related persecu-
tion guidelines,2 as well as the United Nations high Commissioner for
Refugees’ (hereinafter UNhCR) position on the issue,3 represent clear
evidence in favor of the general recognition of the fundamental validity of
such claims. however, as this article will attempt to demonstrate, we are still
a long way from an adequate recognition of the specificity of women’s
experiences of persecution, as is the case for many other non-traditional
forms of persecution. Particularly alarming in this context is the use of
several aspects of the definition of a refugee, as formulated in the Conven-
tion Relating to the Status of Refugees,4 with ‘a particular social group’
being at the center of this analysis.

The article will start with a brief presentation of the rule concerning
the issue of child custody upon dissolution of marriage in countries
applying religion-based, and thus allegedly unchangeable, Islamic law.
Some aspects of the general theoretical framework in terms of refugee

1 For an overview of the different situations in some countries, see, B. Ankenbrand, ‘Refugee
Women Under German Asylum Law’ (2002) 14 IJRL 45; J. Freedman, ‘Women Seeking Asylum’
(2008) 10 International Feminist Journal of Politics 154-72 (the situation in France); h. Crawley and
T. Lester, Comparative Analysis of Gender-Related Persecution in National Asylum Legislation and Practice in Europe
(Geneva: UNhCR, 2004); N. LaViolette, ‘Gender-Related Refugee Claims: Expanding the Scope of
the Canadian Guidelines’ (2007) 19 IJRL 169.

2 See, e.g., United kingdom (Uk), Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, ‘Asylum Gender Guide-
lines’, 1 Nov. 2000, available at: ; Canada,
Immigration and Refugee Board, ‘Guidelines Issued by the Chairperson Pursuant to Section 65(4) of
the Immigration Act: Guideline 4 – Women Refugee Claimants Fearing Gender-Related Persecution’,
13 Nov. 1996, available at: ; United States,
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, ‘Considerations for Asylum Officers Adjudicating
Asylum Claims from Women’, 26 May 1995, available at: .

3 UNhCR, ‘Guidelines on International Protection No. 1: Gender-Related Persecution Within the
Context of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of
Refugees’, 7 May 2002, hCR/GIP/02/01, available at: .

4 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 28 July 1951, 189 UNTS 137.
hereinafter, the Refugee Convention or the Convention.

50 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

status determination and human rights law will then be highlighted,
followed by an analysis of several cases where the issue of custody was
central to the claim. Finally, some conclusions and suggestions for appro-
priate ways of dealing with such claims in refugee status determination
procedures will be formulated.

2. The custody of children under Islamic law
Many countries with a Muslim majority population declare Islam to be
their official religion and the source of their legislation.5 however, in many
of these countries the only area of law that is closely linked to religious
interpretation is personal status and family law. Several countries with
significant Muslim minorities maintain separate religious laws and court
systems for the personal status and family law issues of these minorities.6

As traditionally presented in conservative Islamic discourses, the issue of
custody upon dissolution of marriage or the death of the father is regu-
lated in the following way. The physical custody (provision of care) of a
young child is granted to the mother, while the legal representation (or
guardianship) is always a father’s prerogative.7 Thus, even if the child can
actually reside with his mother until a certain age, she is regarded as no
more than a care-giver, whereas the father maintains decision making
power over all matters relating to the child. It is obvious that in this situa-
tion the father will always be able, if he is willing to do so, to control not
only the life of the child, but also of the mother. Upon the child reaching
a certain age, which varies significantly from one school of Islamic law to
another,8 or on the mother’s remarriage, custody of the child passes to the
father.9 The mother is deprived of custody automatically on either of these
events and traditionally courts or judges have no discretion in this issue.
Moreover, the father is able to challenge the initial custody right of the

5 Usually this proclamation is made in the Constitution of the concerned states. See, e.g., the Con-
stitution of Afghanistan, Art. 2; the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Art. 2A; the
Constitution of the kingdom of Bahrain, Art. 2; the Constitution of Morocco, Art. 6; the Constitution
of Malaysia, Art. 3 (1).

6 The most well known examples are India and Israel.
7 For a general overview of this distinction and its application in a number of modern Muslim

states, see, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML), Knowing Our Right: Women, Family, Laws and
Customs in the Muslim World (2006), 337-41.

8 According to some most conservative interpretations, the age at which the mother loses custody
of her children is fixed at as low as two years, e.g., as for boys in Iran. This is linked to the breastfeeding
of children, which, according to religious interpretations, should be continued until the child reaches
the age of two. This rule, therefore, demonstrates once more that the relationship between the mother
and the child is reduced to the simple physical function and thus perpetuates a clearly degrading view
of women. Other interpretations allow women to take care of their children until the age of majority.
For a general overview of various rulings, see, J. J. Nasir, The Islamic Law of Personal Status (2nd ed., 1990),
at 187-9.

9 Ibid., 178-80.

51Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

mother on grounds such as, for example, ‘immoral’ behavior or insufficient
religiosity of the mother. Another important consideration in deciding cus-
tody is the earning potential of the mother, that is, her ability to materially
support her child. This ability is often significantly limited or impeded by
various legal and social norms regulating women’s behavior.10 If, for what-
ever reason, the father is deemed unfit as a parent, the guardianship can be
granted to a male member of the father’s family, but not to the mother, or
to any member of her family.11

This general framework is being criticized and recognized as inadequate
by many Muslims themselves, and the modern legislation of several Muslim
countries has reinterpreted this inflexible and arbitrary rule, primarily, in
order to protect the principle of the best interests of the child.12 In many
countries the age limit at which custody passes to the father is fixed as
high as possible, in some cases being the age of majority or marriage, as in
Algeria for girls and in Morocco for boys and girls, for example.13 Accord-
ing to the legislation of many Muslim states, when a judge has to decide
custody issues, the principle of the best interests of the child should be
taken into account. This opens the possibility of women retaining custody
after the age limit.14 Other states include the obligation to consult the child
about his preference for remaining with the mother or with the father.15 In
Morocco, for example,16 not only is it possible for the child to remain with

10 E.g., legal impediments, such as prohibitions of certain professions; restrictions on residence and
free movement without a male relative; but, also, social barriers, e.g., difficulty of finding day-care
arrangements for children where there is no family support.

11 Nasir, above n. 8, 205-11.
12 It should be emphasized in this connection that all Islamic states are parties to the United Nations

Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 Nov. 1989, 1577 UNTS 3 (hereinafter, CRC). Although
many of these states accompanied their accession to the CRC with reservations, as such, the principle
of the best interests of the child was never questioned. Moreover, the two countries from which the
claimants in the cases considered below come, namely, Iran and Lebanon, have not formulated any
reservations to this convention.

13 See, Art. 65 of Algerian Family Code, promulgated by law No. 84-11, 9 June 1984, French text
available at ; and Art. 166 of Moroccan Family
Code (Moudawana), dahir No. 1-04-22 of 12 hija 1424, 2 Feb. 2004, promulgating law No. 70-03,
Bulletin Officiel No. 5358 of 2 ramadan 1426, 667, available at .

14 Among states with either legislation or jurisprudence referring to the principle of the best inter-
ests of the child when deciding the issue of custody are, e.g., Egypt, Iraq, the Maldives, Mauritania,
Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Syria. The most well-known examples from jurisprudence include,
Bangladesh: Abu Baker Siddique v. S.M.A. Bakar and others, 38 Dhaka Law Reports (AD) 1986; and
Pakistan: Mst. Zohra Begum v. Sh. Latif Ahmed Munawar, Pakistan Legal Decisions 1965, Lah. 695.

15 E.g., such is the practice in Indonesia, and so requires Art. 166 of the Moroccan Family Code,
above n. 13.

16 Morocco is selected not because it has the best legislation or the best practice in this respect, but
because of its recent reforms, which, while significantly improving the situation of women, still contain
several gaps and call for the attention and sensitivity of decision makers faced with claims for recogni-
tion of refugee status by women from Morocco. See, for example, the evaluation of this new legislation
as less option-giving in the document prepared by NGO WLUML, above n. 7, 346, as well as the case
described below, n. 18.

52 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

its mother, but the mother can be granted both the custody and the guard-
ianship of the child.17 Of course, women often still face many difficulties;
in particular, of providing the necessary evidence. Furthermore, in some
cases, even in these more liberal countries, women will be subjected to
treatment that could amount to persecution.18 Moreover, the introduction
of the best interests of the child principle alone will not necessarily result
in a greater respect for the mother-child relationship. If the country has a
very strong tradition of patriarchy, judges faced with a case of an unfit
father will favor other male members of the family over the mother.

Despite these positive developments in some parts of the Muslim world,
the situation in other Muslim states remains less advantageous, not only for
women but also for their children; both having no choice regarding separa-
tion once the child reaches a certain age. This occurs automatically, even
in the complete absence of a child-father (or other male member of his
family) relationship or when the father is unable to fulfill his parental duties.
In such countries mothers can eventually obtain only very limited visita-
tion rights, which are unenforceable, especially as the father, having both
custody and guardianship of the child, has sole responsibility for all deci-
sions related to the child and can change residence without consulting, or
even informing, the mother, who may thus become unable to locate her
child. In contrast, mothers who move with their children, both during
the custody period and after its termination, can be accused by fathers of
kidnapping and have been subject to sentences, including imprisonment.

3. Refugee law’s theoretical framework for dealing with
claims involving custody issues
It is easy to imagine the suffering and hardship imposed on mothers and
children when a conflict arises between a woman and her husband, or
former husband. The fundamental difference between custody disputes
arising, for example, in Western states and those occurring in Muslim
countries applying a conservative version of Islamic law is the arbitrary
character of the applicable rule. This rule not only neglects to take into

17 See, generally, Art. 231 of Moroccan Family Code, above n. 13, which mentions the father as the
first legal representative of the child and the mother as the second in the case of the father’s absence
or inability to exercise legal representation. Also important is Art. 175, which allows mothers to retain
custody of their children in the case of remarriage in several instances, including when the mother is
the legal guardian of her child.

18 For an example of recognition of refugee status to a Moroccan woman, who fled from her violent
husband with her two children to Canada, see, RPD file No. AA3-00181/00185/00186, 2004 CanLII
56670 (IRB), 21 May 2004. Although the case was decided shortly before the official entry into force
of the legislative changes, which significantly improved the position of women in family matters, the
decision takes them into account and still recognizes the refugee status of the claimant, paying due
attention not only to the particular situation of the claimant, but also to the remaining gaps in the new
legislation, and the insufficiency of enforcement mechanisms.

53Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

account the fundamental interests of the child, but also imposes a kind
of punishment on divorced women, or women wishing to divorce, who
are thus subjugated to and made dependant on their husbands, whatever
the reason for divorce.

how could refugee status determination authorities approach claims
made by women fearing the loss of custody and the end of a meaningful
relationship with their child? In order to answer this question and articulate
the wider implications, as suggested in the introduction, it is important to
recall some fundamental features of the refugee definition to consider their
relevance to these types of claims before examining the approach adopted
by the national authorities of the three countries under consideration.

One particular feature of the refugee definition contained in Article
1A(2) of the Convention relates to its legal articulation and application. It
can be described as the dismembering or division of refugee experience
according to each of the terms of the definition, and even beyond them.
Although this approach to legal concepts and definitions is a common legal
and judicial attitude, if applied too strictly by decision makers it can lead
to essentialization of some aspects of the refugee experience. This will
obviously be at the expense of other aspects of his or her experience, which
can result in the misrepresentation of the facts and, ultimately, in rejection
of the application and return to persecution. Although both the UNhCR
and several national authorities dealing with refugee status determination
emphasize the importance of a holistic approach,19 the elaboration of
various aspects of the refugee definition by the very same authorities leads
to an unwitting reinstatement of the fragmentation and disintegration
mentioned above.20

Several issues relating to the articulation of international refugee law
can be distinguished in this regard. First and foremost, does the treatment
of women in such situations amount to persecution? Lawyers will also
enquire about particular Convention grounds, with women as a particular
social group being their first thought. The issues of the agent of persecu-
tion and the availability of state protection will also be examined. Apart
from these issues, which belong to the narrowly defined area of refugee
law, more general questions of human rights protection, especially in coun-
tries operating some system of complementary or subsidiary protection,

19 For a UNhCR position, see, e.g., the emphasis made in Gender Guidelines, above n. 3, para. 7
(‘In attempting to apply the criteria of the refugee definition in the course of refugee status determina-
tion procedures, it is important to approach the assessment holistically, and have regard to all the rel-
evant circumstances of the case’). For an example from a national jurisdiction, see, the emphasis made
in the Uk case Horvath v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2001] 1 AC 489.

20 The division, according to particular terms of the definition (persecution, Convention grounds,
whereby particular social group is treated more extensively and separately, state protection, etc.), used
in national gender guidelines is illustrative of this disintegration of several aspects of the claim. See,
e.g., the very detailed table of contents of the Uk Guidelines, above n. 2, 2.

54 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

also deserve to be addressed. It is equally important to be attentive to the
situation, fate and claims of children in any proceedings when the issue of
custody is at stake.

Although the holistic approach, which does not separate the various
aspects of a claim is more productive, and even favored by the UNhCR,
as has been mentioned above, for the purposes of this study, it is more use-
ful to shed light on each of the aspects separately. This will demonstrate
the effect of this separation on women’s claims. These claims are presented
in a brief but holistic form below, before consideration of some of the legal
aspects.

4. Overview of women’s claims relating to the issue of
custody
This section will begin by examining two Uk cases. The negative
approach of the Uk authorities will be compared to the open and positive
attitude of decision makers in New Zealand and Canada in very similar
cases.

4.1 The EM case
In the most recent Uk case, 21 the appellant, a citizen of Lebanon, was
married in her country of origin to a man who, it was accepted by the
judges, married her for her money. he did not want children and was
violent. her first pregnancy failed after he hit her in the stomach. When
a child was born in 1996, the father went to the hospital planning to
remove the son from his mother and to take him to another country. he
was prevented from doing this, and became increasingly violent and un-
caring towards his wife and child. The appellant succeeded in obtaining
a divorce from the Lebanese courts. As a result of the divorce procedure,
the custody of the child was granted to the mother until he reached the
age of seven. After that date, the custody was to automatically transfer to
the father, or to a male relative from the father’s family. The mother
could only hope to obtain occasional and supervised visitation rights in a

21 The procedural history of the case, as considered in this article, starts with the decision of the
Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (hereinafter, the AIT), which is a result of the appeal lodged against
the negative decision of an immigration judge: Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, Appeal No.
AS/04832/2005, 11 Nov. 2005. This decision was followed by a judgment of the Court of Appeal of
England and Wales (hereinafter, the Court of Appeal), which dealt only with the application to stay on
humanitarian grounds: EM (Lebanon) and Secretary of State for the Home Department (21 Nov. 2006) [2006]
EWCA Civ 1531. The judgment refused to grant her this right to stay, which was only granted at the
final appeal by the house of Lords: EM (Lebanon) (FC) (Appellant) (FC) v. Secretary of State for the Home
Department (Respondent) (22 Oct. 2008) [2008] UkhL 64. Generally, the case is referred to as the EM
case. This case is discussed from a different perspective, and in a different context, in E. Yahyaoui
krivenko, ‘Feminism, Modern Philosophy and the Future of Legitimacy of International Constitu-
tionalism’ (2009) 11 International Community Law Review 232-7.

55Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

place designated by the court, but not at her home. The father and the
child had no relationship; and the child knew no other member of the
father’s family.

As her son’s seventh birthday approached, in order to avoid losing her
son, the appellant first left the place of her habitual residence and, in
December 2004, managed to come to the Uk with the child, where she
applied for asylum.

however, her asylum application was rejected, as was, initially, her appli-
cation to remain in the country on humanitarian grounds. Although her
final appeal to the house of Lords with regard to the permission to stay on
humanitarian grounds was successful, the history of the case, as well as the
rejection of her claim for refugee status, raises many questions.

The consideration of the application for refugee status is very brief. It
rejects both the fact that women in Lebanon constitute a particular social
group for the purposes of refugee definition, as well as the possibility of
treatment that might amount to persecution upon her return to Lebanon.
In the applicant’s request for permission to stay on humanitarian grounds,
which relied on the possible violation of Article 8 (right to family life) of
the European Convention on human Rights (hereinafter, the EChR),22
the reasoning of judges revolved around the notion of a foreign case that
required evidence of a flagrant violation of the right to family life. Judges
of the Court of Appeal justified their rejection by stating that no flagrant
violation of the applicant’s right to family life would occur in Lebanon,
since there would be a possibility for her to obtain occasional visitation
rights.23 The members of the house of Lords, while granting permission
to stay on humanitarian grounds, emphasized the highly exceptional cir-
cumstances of the case as a basis for their decision, thus avoiding passing
any judgment on the Lebanese legal regulation of custody.24 The position
adopted by both the house of Lords and the Court of Appeal is very ques-
tionable from the point of view of human rights protection. however, this
aspect of the case will not be discussed further because it does not directly
relate to the granting of refugee status.25

4.2 The ZH case
Another Uk case which is relevant to our analysis arose out of the
application for the recognition of refugee status by an Iranian national,

22 Convention for the Protection of human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms adopted by the
Council of Europe on 4 Nov. 1950, in force since 3 Sept. 1951. The official text is available at the
Council of Europe web-site: .

23 EM case, Court of Appeal, above n. 21, para. 35.
24 EM case, hose of Lords, above n. 21, para. 60.
25 Some of the issues arising in this connection were discussed in a previous article, Yahyaoui

krivenko, above n. 21.

56 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

who arrived in the Uk with her daughter.26 In Iran, she suffered verbal
and physical abuse from her alcohol and drug addicted husband, to
whom she remained officially married. To support her asylum applica-
tion, she outlined the difficulties faced by women in Iran when attempt-
ing to initiate a divorce procedure, including subsequent difficulties with
finding employment and a residence, as well as the possible accusation of
adultery and the prospect of losing custody of her daughter. She also
mentioned that her daughter feared her father and wished to have no
contact with him.

her application for refugee status was initially accepted but subsequently
rejected by the Immigration Appeal Tribunal (hereinafter, the IAT) on the
appeal of the Secretary of State for the home Department. The central
argument revolved around the situation of women in Iran, which, according
to the IAT, could not be compared to the situation of women in Pakistan, as
described in Islam and Shah,27 so that it was not considered possible to affirm
that women in Iran constitute a particular social group for the purposes of
refugee status determination.28

Although the issue of women as a particular social group in Iran is dis-
cussed in detail, the consideration of human rights claims is very brief.
One could even say excessively brief, taking into account the fact that the
refugee claim was rejected.

4.3 New Zealand’s cases
Contrasting with the attitude of Uk authorities is the position adopted by
New Zealand’s Refugee Status Appeal Authority (hereinafter, the RSAA)
and, even more strikingly, the approach of Canadian authorities. The
situation in New Zealand will be examined with reference to the cases of
two Iranian women, who feared losing custody of their children, sub-
sequent to divorce in one case and family breakdown in the other.

In the first case,29 the applicant, an Iranian woman, came to New
Zealand with her son, aged eight at the time of arrival. In Iran she was
married to a violent and indifferent man, who held her, almost like a pris-
oner, at his house. When she gave birth to her son, she was not allowed to
see her child and was initially told that he was sick and, a few days later,
that he had died. She discovered that her child was in face alive a year later,
during the final stage of divorce proceedings in which her husband was
granted custody of the child.

26 ZH (Women as Particular Social Group) Iran CG [2003] UkIAT 00207 (6 June 2003). hereinafter, the
ZH case.

27 R v. IAT ex parte Shah and Islam [1999] 2 AC 629.
28 ZH case, above n. 26, para. 74 in particular.
29 Refugee Appeal No. 71427/99, New Zealand: RSAA (16 Aug. 2000) available at:

.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6b7400.html>.

57Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

By chance, she discovered that her husband had sold his child to another
couple, and later that after being granted custody, the child did not reside
with him. Although she knew that she would never be awarded custody of
her child, she decided to seek intervention from an Iranian court in order
to protect her child. After a long sequence of judicial proceedings, she was
first granted one day per week visitation rights, which she was not able to
exercise because the father hid the child. Subsequently, although leaving
the formal custody with the father, a court in Iran gave her responsibility
for the full-time care of the child, provided she did not move out of the
matrimonial home in order to allow the father visitation rights, and pro-
vided she did not remarry. If she failed to comply with these conditions,
not only would she lose her son, but she would also be subject to punish-
ment by imprisonment.

The father was very angry about this apparent snub and the defeat, and
threatened to kidnap the child. Being afraid for her own safety and the
safety of her son, the appellant moved to another town and later left Iran
with her child. In addition to fearing the attitude of her former husband
and punishment upon her return, she also faced the loss of her son as,
before her departure, she had entered into a temporary marriage, breach-
ing one of the conditions of the court order.

Refugee status was granted to the woman only upon appeal. however,
the decision taken by the RSAA is exemplary in several regards. Not only
does it adopt a multifaceted and nuanced approach in the analysis of the
country of origin information, but the consideration of the case is one of
the best examples of the holistic approach, whereby all aspects of the
woman’s experiences were accorded necessary consideration. The RSAA
fully apprehended the arbitrary and discriminatory nature of the legal
system in place. The decision makers did not overemphasize her limited
‘success’ before the Iranian courts, and they accorded full weight to her
choices.

The second case from New Zealand, also decided by the RSAA, dem-
onstrates similar sensitivity and understanding.30 In this case, the appellant
came to New Zealand with her husband and her daughter, who was aged
three at the time of the decision. Initially, the entire family applied for
refugee status, although unsuccessfully. As a consequence, the husband,
who had been violent and possessive in Iran, became even more hostile
towards his wife, who refused to be fully submissive to him. her encounter
with a more liberal style of life in New Zealand reinforced her determina-
tion not to follow her husband and not to return to Iran. Therefore, she
lodged a separate appeal for recognition of refugee status for herself and
her daughter and was successful. The RSAA took into account the difficulties

30 Refugee Appeal Nos. 76226 and 76227, New Zealand: RSAA (12 Jan. 2009) available at: .

58 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

she could face upon her return to Iran, including possible divorce and its
consequences, such as difficulty in finding employment and housing, as
well as the real possibility of arbitrary denial of custody rights. Decision
makers also gave due weight to the situation of the child, who had no real
relationship with her father on a day-to-day basis.

4.4 Canadian cases
Several refugee claim cases, with child custody as a central issue, can be
found in Canadian case law. The consideration of cases is usually very
brief and leads to positive outcomes at first instance. Three cases are
considered here. The first is the case of a divorced woman from Lebanon,
whose situation was very similar to that of the appellant in the EM case.
The two other cases are claims presented by women from Iran, one of
whom was widowed prior to arriving in Canada, while the other,
although divorced in Canada, was still considered as a wife by her
Iranian husband, and was in a very similar situation to that of the Iranian
claimant in the ZH case.

The case from Lebanon31 concerns a woman who fled to Canada
with her minor child to escape the same custody rule as that involved in
the Uk case. As in the EM case, she was married to an indifferent hus-
band, who took care of neither her nor the child. The divorce was initi-
ated by the husband, who married again while still married to the
applicant and moved to Saudi Arabia. When the child was nearly seven,
the ex-husband initiated proceedings to take custody of the child. Since
he was still residing in Saudi Arabia, he acted through his brothers, and
other family members, who were involved in the Syrian Baath Party
and thus in a powerful position. The claimant also stated that, although
she was a faithful follower of Islam and fully aware of the custody rule,
she did not want her husband to take custody of the child due to his
violent activities and the absence of any relationship between the father
and son. Furthermore, the mental health problems (chronic low grade
depression) of both the mother and the child were also relied on in the
case.

In the first Iranian case,32 a woman and her son fled to Canada when,
after the death of her husband and her son reaching the age of seven, her
in-laws obtained custody of the child, mainly on the basis of her non-
compliance with the dress code and thus immorality.

In the second Iranian case,33 the woman arrived in Canada with her
two minor sons to join her husband, the father of the children, who had

31 L. (H.X.) (Re) [1993] CRDD No. 259 (31 Dec. 1993).
32 A.I.P. (Re) [1999] CRDD No. 12 (28 May 1999).
33 X (Re) 2000 CanLII 21385 (IRB) (29 May 2000).

59Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

already applied for refugee status. The claims of the family were joined.
however, upon refusal of the refugee claims and the husband’s desire to
return to Iran, the woman, who had suffered domestic violence and had
been divorced in Canada, filed a new application for refugee status. This
application included the difficulties she and her children would face
upon return, taking into account the non recognition of the Canadian
divorce by the husband and by Iranian authorities. She stressed that
upon their return to Iran the father of her children would divorce her
according to Iranian laws and would be granted custody of the children.
Moreover, taking into account her engagement to another man, her
husband and his family would accuse her of adultery and she would
face death by stoning.

In all cases resulting in positive decisions the Canadian authorities take
a holistic approach, not separating the experiences and needs of the women
and children. The issue of the mental health of both mothers and children
is also accorded a due weight.

Before considering some of the legal aspects of these claims, it is impor-
tant to emphasize significant common features in the cases presented
above. Firstly, in all the cases, a similar, allegedly Islamic, rule on custody
upon divorce, which arbitrarily deprives mothers of any meaningful rela-
tionship with their children, is central to the refugee claim. Even if other
factors intervene, for example, domestic violence or the possible accusation
of adultery upon return in Iranian cases, the formulation of claims by
women demonstrates that the request for refugee status is based on con-
cern for their children. It is not simply an attempt to revisit the issue of
custody. They are not simply concerned with their own well-being. In these
cases, the suffering of the mother is linked to the suffering of the child, and
vice versa. If the child is forced to separate from the mother, its well-being
will be significantly affected. The mother is often in a situation that makes
remaining married impossible, or one where the separation has been initi-
ated by the husband. Mothers with no other means of protecting the child
during separation proceedings face a state-established patriarchal hierar-
chy, which can harm children forced to remain with the father.

5. Consideration of relevant aspects of refugee claims by
national authorities
The following legal analysis concentrates on three issues that were
extensively discussed in all the decisions presented above: whether the
treatment women could receive upon return amounts to persecution,
whether sufficient state protection is available; and finally, whether
women constitute a particular social group. The issue of women as a
particular social group is addressed first, because it forms the core of
negative Uk decisions.

60 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

5.1 Women as a particular social group and other Convention
grounds
In the EM case, the applicant’s lawyer formulated her claim for recog-
nition of refugee status based on membership of a particular social
group, namely, women in Lebanon, and essentially argued that ‘there is
clearly no regard for woman’s rights in Lebanon’.34 The judges of the
AIT rejected this thesis relying mainly on two arguments. Firstly, since
the appellant was able to obtain divorce, despite her husband’s hostile
behavior, women are not completely deprived of rights.35 Secondly,
they referred to the Freedom house report, which, although recogniz-
ing the existence of some discriminatory practices against women in
family and personal status matters, states that ‘women enjoy most of
the same rights as men’.36

In this connection, AIT judges observed that:

Muslims in Lebanon are governed, in family matters, by Muslim law. The fact that
the rules of Muslim law operate in a way which some Western societies might
regard as discriminatory does not show that all women are deprived of standing
before the law.37

The judges do not explain why the existence of discrimination in family
and personal status matters cannot be considered as sufficient for the
purposes of the refugee status claim of the appellant. The AIT rejected
the claim that women in Lebanon can be regarded as constituting a par-
ticular social group for the purposes of refugee status determination in a
very brief, five-paragraph section. The fact that women are arbitrarily
denied such a fundamental right as the right to family life, and a relation-
ship with their children, is not seriously considered by the AIT. Moreover,
the quotation above suggests that the very fact that family matters are
governed by Muslim law is sufficient to justify at least some form of dis-
crimination without any regard to the fact that there exists in Muslim law
a variety of interpretative possibilities that allow for the establishment of
family law systems eliminating discrimination against women, at least to
some degree, in the matter of guardianship and custody of children upon
divorce.38 Furthermore, the judges did not address the right to freedom
of religion of Muslim women who refuse to submit to this particular
interpretation of Islam.

34 EM case, AIT decision, above n. 21, para. 6
35 Ibid., para. 7.
36 Ibid., para. 8
37 Ibid., para. 9.
38 As mentioned before, the analysis of the legislation of states incorporating, in one way or another,

Islamic law in their family law legislation reveals that in many such states the guiding principle in decid-
ing on the guardianship and custody of children upon the dissolution of marriage is the best interests
of the child and not the sex of the parents. See above n. 14.

61Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

The AIT added that, even if there were to be ill-treatment on one of
the Refugee Convention grounds, it would not amount to persecution.
This statement implies that if a mother was imprisoned upon return to
Lebanon for defending her right to a meaningful relationship with her
child, and to protect her child from a father’s abuse, it would not amount
to persecution.39 The very fact that such a regulation on guardianship
upon divorce places women in a highly dependent position, and subjects
them to the actions of their former husbands, perhaps even being treated
as a slave, seems either not important to judges or not apparent to them.
The issue of persecution in relation to the cases under consideration will
be discussed below.

Moreover, the use made of the country of origin information appears
uninformed and biased. First, the mandate of Freedom house, to whose
report the AIT refers, emphasizes the privilege accorded to civil and
political rights.40 Other types of rights, in particular those which are
relevant to the present case, are considered only marginally. In this light,
the use of the Freedom house’s report as the only documentary source
for country of origin information is highly inadequate. Secondly, the
decision makers should have, at least, recognised the critique of the
reports of this organization.41

The choice itself, the choice of judges to discuss the issue of women as
a particular social group before addressing the question of persecution, is
highly symbolic. It suggests that the judges looked for arguments to moti-
vate their prejudicial view of the case. It is particularly striking to see how
the analysis confuses the notion of persecution with that of a particular
social group. Despite the fact that it is commonly recognized today, includ-
ing in the Uk jurisprudence, that a particular social group cannot be
defined exclusively by the persecution – although persecution may be a
factor determining the visibility of the group42 – what judges in reality
assess, is the gravity of ill-treatment. A very similar pattern is visible in the
ZH case, where the issue of women in Iran constituting a particular social
group is discussed in more detail.

39 The fact that she most probably will have to serve a prison sentence on return to Lebanon is
recognized by the AIT. See EM case, AIT decision, above n. 21, para. 14.

40 For the mission statement, see, .
Although it mentions women’s rights, it keeps them in its general framework, which is focused on
freedom and democracy.

41 E.g., see, G. L. Munck and J. Verkuilen, ‘Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating
Alternative Indices’ (2002) 35 Comparative Political Studies 5-34, at 20-21 and 25-6 in particular.

42 For the UNhCR position, see generally, UNhCR, ‘Guidelines on International Protection No.
2: Membership of a Particular Social Group Within the Context of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Conven-
tion and/or its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees’, 7 May 2002, hCR/GIP/02/02,
para. 2, 14, available at: . For the Uk posi-
tion, see, Shah and Islam, above n. 27.

62 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

In the ZH case, the question of whether women in Iran constitute a
particular social group was again at the centre of the analysis. The use of
country of origin information was very weighted. Although sources
mentioned are more numerous and diverse, judges emphasised parts of
documents that supported their view of the situation (rejecting women in
Iran as a particular social group) and passed over contrary information
very briefly, without any substantial consideration.

The judges rejected the existence of a particular social group of women
in Iran by comparing the situation of women in Iran to that of women in
Pakistan. They emphasized the fact that the position of women in Iran is
not so lowly,43 that they have educational and employment opportunities,44
and that some laws allowing women to divorce and seek state protection
against domestic violence exist.45 The judges did not really evaluate or give
due weight to numerous references in the country of origin documents
regarding the difficulties faced by women. Thus, with regard to divorce,
the judges affirmed: ‘It may be difficult to obtain, but the legislative provi-
sion exist, they are not simply ignored by courts or made impractical for all
to use. . .’.46 They seem to overlook the fundamental principle that because
some members of the group are able to find protection, it does not mean
that such a group does not exist.47 Finally, it is clear that what judges in
reality assess, is the gravity and extent of ill-treatment, as well as the avail-
ability of state protection.

Furthermore, the judges of the IAT often mentioned insufficiency of
motivation provided by the Adjudicator who at first instance accepted the
arguments of the applicant, including the issue of women in Iran consti-
tuting a particular social group. however, the decision of the IAT itself
could not be regarded as motivated, it instead appeared to be constructed
in two parts (one containing quotations from the country of origin infor-
mation documents, the other developed around the IAT’s own arguments
and view) that do not bear any logical relationship with each other.

Contrasting with the attitude of the Uk authorities in these two cases is
the detailed and nuanced, realistic approach in the two New Zealand cases
selected for consideration. The documents that were used for evaluation
of the country of origin information are quite different in nature. They
include a variety of sources, ranging from more traditional, background

43 ZH case, above n. 26, para. 82.
44 Ibid., para. 74.
45 Ibid., paras. 91, 92.
46 Ibid., para. 92, emphasis added.
47 T. A. Aleinikoff, ‘Protected Characteristics and Social Perceptions: An Analysis of the Meaning

of “Membership of a Particular Social Group”’ in E. Feller, V. Türk, F. Nicholson (eds.), Refugee Protection
in International Law: UNHCR’s Global Consultations on International Protection (Cambridge University Press,
2003), 263-311, at 288 and 274, with particular reference to the position of the Uk authorities in
Shah.

63Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

documents, to newspaper articles and critical scholarly research.48 The
decision, although in a very concentrated form, presents a detailed view of
the situation of women in Iran. The issues of persecution and the availability
of state protection is analyzed before consideration of the applicability of
some of the Convention grounds.

The New Zealand authorities stress the centrality and depth of the state-
sanctioned gender discrimination to the construction of the theocratic
political regime in Iran.49 This is a very significant point, as it leads to the
view that, among Convention grounds for persecution in this particular
case, there are not only a particular social group of women, but also reli-
gion and political opinion.50

Similarly, the recognition of women as a particular social group in
Canadian cases occurs without any difficulty, with the emphasis being that
the arbitrary differential treatment is imposed on claimants simply because
they are women.51

Before coming to the analysis of other legal aspects of the cases, as a
concluding remark on this issue it is important to understand that in
determining the existence of a particular social group it is not necessary
to evaluate the gravity of ill-treatment and even less for this treatment
to amount to persecution. Whether courts adopt a ‘protected character-
istics’ approach or a ‘social perception approach’ in determining the
existence of a social group,52 it is difficult to find a country where
women do not constitute a particular social group. For example, the
issue of equal payment for work of equal value remains problematic in
all countries, thus reflecting inadequate appreciation of the value of
women’s work as compared to men’s. Obviously, the unequal treatment
of women will not always amount to persecution. however, as minor
and insignificant as the effects of the different treatment of women
might appear, if this treatment is motivated exclusively by gender,
women will constitute a particular social group. Moreover, from the
doctrinal point of view, taking into account the specificity of gender as
a characteristic, there is no reason to fear that other Convention grounds
will become superfluous.

48 Consider, e.g., the references made in Appeal No. 71427/99, above n. 29, paras. 1-11 to A. E.
Mayer, Islam and Human Rights: Traditions and Politics (3d ed. 1999); parts of M. Afkhami, E. Friedl (eds.),
In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran (Taurus, 1994); P. Paidar, Women and the Political
Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge University Press, 1995); as well as human Rights Watch and
WLUML reports and other governmental documents.

49 Appeal No. 71427/99, above n. 29, para. 5-7.
50 Ibid. paras. 86-9.
51 See L. (H.X.) case, above n. 31, 7; and A.I.P. case, above n. 32, paras. 8-13.
52 For an overview of these approaches and their definition, see generally, Aleinikoff, above n. 47,

at 294-301. For the UNhCR position on the matter, see, Guidelines, above n. 42, paras 6 and 7 in
particular.

64 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

With regard to the particular case of women facing the arbitrary rule
depriving them of the custody of their children, without any regard either
to the interests of the child or to the maintenance of a meaningful relation-
ship between mother and child, the conclusion is straightforward. Women
do indeed constitute a particular social group because the arbitrary treat-
ment they receive is for the reason of them being women. Moreover, it is
important to consider other Convention grounds, because in states with
theocratic patriarchal regimes, as in Iran, an attempt to escape this arbi-
trary custody rule can also defy the political and religious regime in place
and thus bring other Convention grounds, such as political opinion and
religion, into play. If the very basis of the political regime in place is some
form of patriarchy, for example, as in Iran or Saudi Arabia, not paying
attention to women’s actions in the private sphere reinforces the regime in
place and fails to recognize the significance and impact of these women’s
behavior. Furthermore, refugee status determination authorities do not
usually hesitate to describe some features of a legal system in a certain
country as inadequate or discriminatory. Why then is it impossible to pass
a judgment on a legal system that claims to be based on one or another
religion, as suggested by Uk authorities? Women, by their behaviour, do
contest this particular view of their religion. This was particularly clear in
the Canadian case of a woman from Lebanon, who stated that, despite her
being a faithful follower of Islam, she could not accept application to her
and her child of this religiously motivated, arbitrary rule. There is no rea-
son to deny the right of women to question and disregard the majoritarian
male interpretation of Islam.

5.2 The agent of persecution and the standard of state
protection
The RSAA stressed an important difference in the approaches adopted
by the Uk and the New Zealand authorities towards the question of the
standard of state protection in cases where the agent of persecution is a
non-state agent.

The Uk standard, as formulated in the Horvath v. Secretary of State for the
Home Department case,53 requires only a reasonable willingness of the state
of origin to operate a system of protection. The absence of a requirement
of effectiveness of such a system of protection leads to the possibility ‘that
an individual can be returned to his or her country of origin notwithstand-
ing the fact that the person holds a well-founded fear of persecution for a
Convention reason’,54 as was rightly pointed out by the RSAA. As always
with regard to such abstract notions as ‘reasonableness’, we have to be
aware of who measures this reasonableness and how. Is it reasonable to

53 Horvath case, above n. 19.
54 Refugee Appeal No. 71427/99, above n. 29, para. 62.

65Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

claim that a state shows reasonable willingness to provide protection if,
for example, a battered woman has to have suffered a permanent injury, or
has to be able to produce a medical report showing repeated injuries, in
order to obtain a divorce?55 The judges in the ZH case implicitly give an
affirmative answer.

If we consider the analysis made of the issue of the agent of persecution
in the ZH case, in the light of the standard of the state protection as
described above, the significance of the very restrictive attitude of Uk
authorities becomes apparent. The issue of the agent of persecution is not
discussed in the EM case at all. In the ZH case, the IAT judges made some
comments on this subject, despite their refusal to recognize that women
constitute a particular social group in Iran. When considering the availa-
bility of state protection in cases of domestic violence, the decision makers
adopted an attitude that seems inadequate from two points of view. First,
they disaggregated the issues in considering the availability and the possi-
bility of divorce, as a means to escape domestic violence, separately and
independently from the issue of the granting of custody and guardianship
upon divorce. Therefore, the decision makers ignored the important influ-
ence that husbands can exercise over their wives through the powers
granted to them with regard to their children. This remains true, even in
the very improbable case of a mother authorized to take care of the child
beyond the age limit. In all cases, Iranian courts will grant fathers very
generous visitation rights and restrict the mother’s rights, limiting her free-
dom of movement (and thus her ability to escape violence), as well as her
right to remarry (and thus her ability to find protection from her former
husband in a new relationship).56 Furthermore, by advising women to
separate from their husbands without considering the issue of the custody
of children, the Uk authorities made a choice for this woman, who,
according to their logic, should be able to abandon her child, even to an
indifferent father, in order to escape domestic violence. In doing so, deci-
sion makers establish a hierarchy of values that they impose on women:
escape from violence is more important than care for and relationship with
children. They also disaggregated the experience of women, who, in such
situations, have to face difficult dilemmas, sometimes preferring to remain
married to violent husbands in order not to be separated from their chil-
dren, as long as they consider it more appropriate for the well-being of
their children. The authorities, by adopting such an attitude, disregarded
the principle of the best interests of the child, which, as has been shown, is

55 Such is the situation in Iran, as reflected in the country of origin information quoted in the ZH
case, above n. 26, paras. 41, 44.

56 These are the conditions imposed upon the appellant in one of the cases from New Zealand
when she was permitted to take care of her child after the age limit. Appeal No. 71427/99, above
n. 29, para. 26.

66 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

closely linked to the refugee status claim of women. The consideration of
country of origin information in this case was again very one-sided. The
IAT selected statements which supported its own view of the situation,
without explaining this preference or why the remaining evidence, which
favored the appellant, was considered as non-relevant.57 This in turn
placed an excessive burden on the appellant and her daughter, who were
thus forced to return back to Iran and suffer persecution, merely to dem-
onstrate the insufficiency of state protection.

5.3 The issue of persecution
The current doctrinal and judicial view of the existence of persecution
is closely linked with violation of an applicant’s basic human rights. The
UNhCR handbook recognizes this link in the following terms:

a threat to life or freedom on account of race, religion, nationality, political
opinion or membership of a particular social group is always persecution.
Other serious violations of human rights – for the same reasons – would also
constitute persecution.58

The introduction of this intimate relationship between the existence of
persecution and the establishment of human rights violations as a formal
criterion in refugee status determination is attributed to the works of
James hathaway59 and his writings are often referred to by national
refugee status determination authorities.60 Despite the positive impact
hathaway’s analysis might have had on refugee protection, it had the
negative impact of reinforcing the highly criticized division between civil
and political rights, as opposed to economic, social and cultural rights.

57 See, e.g., the statement made by the IAT, ZH case, above n. 26, in para. 91, according to which
the police are willing to intervene in cases of domestic violence, if the husband is an alcoholic or drug
addict. Also see, the following statement on the availability of divorce (Ibid., para. 92), which is pre-
sented as a logical consequence of the first, and compare them to the quotation from the document
‘Divorce in Iran’, para. 41, which states that ‘the husband’s drug addiction is not cause for divorce on
the grounds of harm, unless it is shown that his consumption of opium has economically ruined him
and made it impossible to support the family’. The IAT does not consider the economic situation of
the family, but a family which is able to travel to Europe will certainly not be considered as economi-
cally ruined by Iranian authorities.

58 UNhCR, ‘handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the
1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees’, hCR/IP/4/Eng/REV.1,
(Reedited, Geneva, Jan. 1992), para. 51.

59 The main reference remains J. C. hathaway, The Law of Refugee Status (Butterworths, 1991). how-
ever, his later works, which added some human rights standards, are equally important. See, e.g.,
J.C. hathaway, ‘The Relationship Between human Rights and Refugee Law: What Refugee Law
Judges Can Contribute’ in The Realities of Refugee Determination on the Eve of a new Millennium: The Role of the
Judiciary, Proceedings of the 1998 Conference of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges,
Oct. 1998, 80-90.

60 For a detailed description of the influence exercised by his work, see generally, M. Foster, Interna-
tional Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation (Cambridge University Press, 2007),
27-33.

67Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

The central thesis of the approach proposed by hathaway, namely, that
‘refugee law ought to concern itself with actions which deny human
dignity in a key way’,61 is not contested and, as such, deserves to be
supported. however, his definition of the core of human dignity is closely
linked to the distinction between derogable and non-derogable human
rights, on the one hand, and between civil and political, as opposed to
economic and social, rights. According to him, the standard of protection
in the latter case is ‘less absolute’.62 This classification creates in the
minds of decision makers a hierarchy of rights and values attached to
them, reinforcing the much criticized public/private distinction in human
rights law.63 It also creates an impression that civil and political rights are
more important to the protection to the core of human dignity than
economic and social rights. This, in turn, places an additional burden on
many non-traditional claimants, including women. The Uk cases are a
perfect illustration of this paradox. In both cases the authorities refused
to recognize that the ill-treatment the women would receive upon return
amounted to persecution. Although this statement is made only at the
margins of the decisions, as already mentioned above, the analysis of
women as a particular social group helps to understand the motivation
behind this conclusion.

Firstly, it is necessary to recall the basis for the claims discussed: the
desire to avoid applicability of a rule arbitrarily depriving mothers of the
custody of their children upon the children reaching a certain age, or
the mothers remarrying. Although the application of this rule should not
be considered in isolation from the other factors of each case, it is necessary
to give an assessment of it separately.

In the Uk cases, the fundamental question of custody is not seen as at
all relevant to the issue of refugee status: ‘We do not accept that the differ-
ent approach to the award of custody means that there is no relevant court
protection’.64 In the ZH case, the IAT also states: ‘If the fear was that the
child would be put into the father’s custody on divorce or separation, the
Iranian custody laws are not so inhuman as to constitute a breach of
Article 3 [of the EChR] – there is no assertion or evidence of child
abuse’.65 This statement assumes, without any justification or motivation,
that Iranian custody laws will take into account the principle of the best
interests of the child. The motives of the IAT do not mention at all, and
thus ignore the absence of a stable relationship between the child and the

61 hathaway, The Law of Refugee Status, above n. 59, 108.
62 Ibid., 111.
63 For an example of the analysis of this public/private distinction, see, e.g., C. Romany, ‘Women

as Aliens: A Feminist Critique of the Public/Private Distinction in International human Rights Law’
(1993) 6 Harvard Human Rights Journal 87-125.

64 ZH case, above n. 26, para. 94.
65 Ibid., para. 98.

68 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

father, as well as the child’s fear of the father. In so doing, they disregard all
the consequences for the child’s well-being, not only the imminent separa-
tion from the mother, but also of the proximity to a drug and alcohol
addicted father. At this point some would object, affirming that the claim
to refugee status is presented only by the mother, the child making no
separate claim in the ZH case. This argument would be additional evi-
dence of the dismembering of the case, because it is simply impossible to
fully apprehend and evaluate the mother’s claim without taking into
account her child’s fate. The major preoccupation of the mother is not the
separation from her child, as such, but the fact that this separation is arbi-
trary and will impose on her child unbearable suffering, which the mother
fully shares. She feels herself responsible for her child, despite Iranian law’s
refusal of this responsibility of the mother. She cannot stand by and watch
her child being subject to treatment that may lead to severe physical and
psychological harm. A report by an NGO states, for example, that ‘often
women do not initiate divorce until they feel their children are old enough
to handle this traumatic change in care arrangements’.66 It is important to
mention that the success of the EM case before the house of Lords can be
attributed, to a very large extent, to the fact that the child was finally per-
mitted to intervene in the proceedings. This gave the Lords an opportunity
to more fully comprehend the situation in all its aspects, and to have a view
of the case that is very close to the holistic approach advocated here.67

Uk authorities, when refusing an application for refugee status, do not
consider the fact that the mother can never be fully responsible for her
child, and remains always dependant on her husband, even if he is violent.
We have to recall here again that, in the ZH case, the father is presumed to
be an alcohol and drug addicted person, which formed a premise allowing
judges to conclude that the claimant would be able to get a separation or
divorce from her husband. The premise itself is very questionable, given
the country of origin information quoted in the decision.68 In considering
the non-existence of a breach of Article 3 EChR, they refer only to the
absence of evidence relating to child abuse, but do not consider the situa-
tion of the mother, her possible suffering and mistreatment. Nor do they
seem to consider the possible mental health concerns for the child, if forced
to remain with the father, whom the child fears, and if separated from the
mother, who is the only person the child really depends on.

The consideration of rules relating to the granting of custody in Iran by
the RSAA is in a sharp contrast to the previously discussed Uk cases. The

66 WLUML, above n. 7, 340.
67 See, e.g., the following statement by Lord hope of Craighead: ‘(T)he case for allowing the appel-

lant and her son to remain in this country on humanitarian grounds is compelling. This is particularly so
when the effects on the child are taken into account’. EM case, hose of Lords, above n. 21, para. 18 (emphasis
added).

68 See, information provided above, n. 57.

69Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

RSAA emphasizes the fundamental division between roles of men and
women in relation to children. Men are legal guardians (decision makers)
and women simply care givers, and only for a limited period of time which
in Iran is fixed for boys as low as the age of two years. This distinction goes
completely unmentioned by Uk authorities. The implication of this rule is
that women, even if they are sometimes allowed to take care of their chil-
dren, are entirely dependent on their former husbands, who always remain
decision makers in relation to everything relating to the child. If a woman
does not follow her former husband’s instructions, she can immediately
lose her child.

The evaluation of the issue of persecution in relation to this custody rule
in the Canadian A.I.P. case is very interesting. The decision concludes that
‘her [claimant] having to separate from her only son after the death of a
husband is cruel and inhumane’.69 The general application of the rule of
Iranian Civil Code on custody, which is almost identical to that applicable
in Lebanon, is called a ‘Draconian measure’, violating prohibition of
torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 70 The
decision expressly refers to this prohibition as formulated in Article 5 of
the Universal Declaration of human Rights.71 What this suggests is a shift
in framing the issue of custody from belonging exclusively to the social and
economic sphere, to the civil and political domain. This shift is particularly
justified if we consider the previously mentioned remark of New Zealand’s
decision makers about the nature of the Iranian regime in place.

Both Canadian, as well as New Zealand’s, decisions in evaluating perse-
cution and gravity of harm enumerate several human rights instruments.
Thus, in the L.(H.X.) case, Canadian authorities mention the following
provisions: Articles 7 (equality before law), 16 (equal rights in relation to
marriage), and 25 (motherhood and childhood protection) of the Universal
Declaration of human Rights; Article 15 (equality before the law) and 16
(discrimination in relation to marriage and family matters) of the Conven-
tion on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women;
Article 3 (best interests of the child principle), 9 (right of children not to be
separated from their parents), and Article 12 (right to be heard of the child)
of the CRC.72 Although Canada is a dualist country, as is the Uk, in con-
sidering refugee status issues, it takes full account of international human
rights obligations. In this case, when assessing the harm suffered by both
claimants, the panel viewed it through the prism of commonly recognized
international standards and thus emphasized the seriousness of discrimi-
nation suffered by mothers, simply on the basis of their gender. In contrast,

69 A.I.P. case, above n. 32, para. 21.
70 Ibid., para. 13.
71 Ibid., para. 12.
72 L. (H.X.) case, above n. 31.

70 Ekaterina Yahyaoui Krivenko

the Uk authorities, although making no reference to international stand-
ards, clearly demonstrate their framing of cases in terms of, less important
to them, economic and social rights, relegating women’s experiences to the
so-called private sphere, thus making women’s suffering less important and
almost invisible.

6. Conclusions
The above analysis of case law clearly demonstrates the negative impact
of the disaggregation and fragmentation of a woman’s situation on the
outcome of their refugee status claim. This approach, adopted in the Uk
decisions considered above, essentializes and simplifies women’s experi-
ences. Although gender related persecution is generally recognized as
valid, for the purposes of refugee status determination, the kind of
persecution which is ‘acceptable’, according to Uk authorities, is still too
simplistic. It is still too far away from some notions central to feminist
legal scholarship, developed precisely in order to bring more visibility to
the specificity of some women’s experiences and situations: substantive
equality, systemic discrimination, and intersectionality.

The Uk attitude appears even more troubling if considered in the
light of cases from other jurisdictions, which are able to accommodate
and integrate specificity of some women’s experiences. Moreover, this
attitude of the Uk authorities, which tends to disaggregate women’s
claims, essentializing only one aspect of their experience, also stands in
contrast to the approach of the European Court of human Rights in
one of its most recent judgments concerning states’ obligation to protect
women from domestic violence.73 In the Opuz v. Turkey case, the applicant
brought a complaint against the Turkish government for not protecting
her and her mother from domestic violence. Despite the existence in
Turkey of laws intended to protect victims of domestic violence, and
despite the condemnation of the aggressor, the Court still found that
Turkey failed to protect the applicant and her mother because these laws
and condemnations, being inadequate and insufficient, did not have the
necessary effect. From the legal point of view, the Court affirmed that
the applicant’s rights, under Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of
torture and other cruel and inhuman or degrading punishment or treat-
ment) and, most importantly, 14 (prohibition of discrimination), had
been violated.

Legal theory might affirm that the law is a response to developments
taking place in society, considering law as being always too late, after

73 Opuz v. Turkey, Application No. 33401/22, judgment of 9 June 2009, available at .

71Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law

violence, after crime, which thus determines law’s nature.74 In terms of
refugee law, refugee protection, and thus recognition of certain forms of
persecution, comes only after the persecution, and lawyers have constantly
to adapt their understanding of what it means to be persecuted to the
multitude of forms that persecution can take. Unfortunately, this adapta-
tion often takes too long and differs from one state to another, despite the
Refugee Convention being a common denominator. however, more wor-
rying is the fact that sometimes one has an impression that certain decision
makers intentionally hinder the law’s development. As pointed out by Lord
hope of Craighead in the EM case: ‘On a purely pragmatic basis the Con-
tracting States cannot be expected to return aliens only to a country whose
family law is compatible with the principle of non-discrimination assumed
by the Convention’.75

74 See, e.g., this view of law in, Sigmund Freud, ‘Why War?’in James Strachey (ed.), The Standard
Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 22 (London, 1985), 203-15 at 204-6, and
its analysis by Costas Druzinas, The End of Human Rights (Oxford: hart Publishing, 2000), 298-300.

75 EM case, house of Lords, above n. 21, para. 15 (emphasis added).

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10 A L P H A K A P P A D E L T A N

Summary

In order to ascertain some of the facts concerning the relationship of early
childhood supervision to mental illness, all first admissions to Ohio state
mental hospitals for the 1952 fiscal year were analyzed in terms of menal dis-
order and type of early supervision. The following persons or agents were con-
sidered as representing particular types of early supervision during the forma-
tive years in the personality development of the individual: parents, mother
alone, father alone, mother remarried, father remarried, relatives, foster par-
ents, and institution. Besides parents (together), only mother alone, mother
remarried, and relatives were found to be type of early supervision statistically
significant with reference to rates of mental illness and particular kinds of
mental illness. Such findings seem to be of special significance with reference
to schizophrenia.

Because this study is actuarial in character rather than individual, the next
step should concern itself with a clinical investigation of the relationship be-
tween early childhood supervision and mental illness on the case study level.

In conclusion, our study seems to indicate that there is some validity in the
contention that every child should be reared by both parents together in order
for him to grow up into a happy, healthy, and useful citizen.

MARRIAGE AND THE STATUS OF WOMAN
In the Light of Islam

By ABDUL MAJEED KHAN
Faridpur, East Bengal, Pa\istan

The Institution of Marriage

The purpose of this article is to present an Islamic view of marriage and
the status of woman as they existed before, during and after the advent of
Islam. A discussion of religious principles is not the objective here. These are
discussed only where certain of them are understood to have influenced social
behavior in pre-Islamic and non-Islamic societies.

“One who marries perfects half his religion,” so said the prophet Moham-
med.-“̂ Marriage is a sacred contract into which every muslim must enter.
Matrimony in Islam may be regarded as a religious imperative. Islam main-
tains that human sex behavior is promiscuous by nature and views marriage
as the most practical method to combat vice. It also maintains that man will
drop to the status of animals and civilization will collapse if human sex rela-
ions are not regulated by some legalized form. Marriage is believed to be the
only acceptable and highly meritorious pattern thus far discovered through
which these sex relations can be regulated.

We find a contrast between the teachings of two great religions — Judaism
and Christianity and the principles of Islam with respect to marriage. In Islam
marriage is part of ones religious obligation. No such obligation is placed upon
the Christian or the Jew. With these groups marriage may be considered a
prerogative. Various kinds of sexual unions have been permissible in Hebrew
culture at various periods. In the annuals of Hebrew history little is said about
marriage and its importance as a prerequisite to a healthy society. The entire
matter appears to be left more or less with the individual.

A U T U M N N U M B E R – 1 9 5 3 11

Sexual union between a master or his son and the female slaves was not
uncommon among the ancient Hebrews. In fact, explicit permission for such
relations is found in the “Book of Covenant.” Cross states that while the
family, traceable in Hebrew history, was of a monogamous pattern it was not
considered a serious violation of the social order if one were to form an irreg-
ular union.^ Marriage, however, was never considered a religious obligation.

Procreation, considered by many to be an instinctive desire, is fundamental
to the purpose of marriage among most peoples. “We marry a woman in order
to obtain legitimate children,” said Demosthenes.”^ The early Christian saints,
however, did not concur in this belief since to them sexual relations, as such,
were considered sinful. St. Paul brought into Christianity Plato’s concept of
“celestial love” as a substitute for human sex relations. Because of these
attitudes, woman already shorn of much of her ancient status and influence,
weak since the development of patriarchal forms of society, now lost much of
her utility and purpose of life. The famous ascetic Tertullian ordered women
to be dressed in mourning and in rags. St. Bernard called her “The organ of
the devils.” St. John Damascene labelled her “The daughter of falsehood, senti-
nel of hell, the enemy of peace.”

Modern family institutions and marriage customs owe little to those early
ecclesiastical preachings. History bears evidences that during nearly nineteen
hundred years of the Christian era the institution of niarriage and the relation
between the sexes suffered repeated malignment from priests and temporal
rulers alike.

Classification of Marriage: Many European Orientalists and Social Scien-
tists have maintained that the Kor’an, in respect to marriage, divides women
into three classes: wife, concubine, and slave. This idea has been prevalent
since the beginning of the European Renaissance of culture and has gained
currancy in educated circles throughout the world. This statement, however,
is not in accordance with the spirit of Islamic law. Unregulated sexual rela-
tions between the master and his female slave and the practice of having con-
cubines antedates Islamic law and probably represents a picture of sexual
behavior at that time. A momin (believer) according to Islamic law can have
no sexual relations with a woman who is not his wife. “And marry those
among you who are single and those who are fit among your male slaves and
your female slaves,” is a Kor’anic injunction.^ After this injunction it was
highly illegal for any matser to keep his female slave in a status other than
that of his or his male slave’s wife. A master marrying his female slave auto-
matically changed her status and she betame his wife without reservation.
Lady associates in noble houses and in royal courts is one of the oldest cus-

toms traceable in history. King Solomon had three hundred concubines. There
were concubines in the royal houses of Greece, Rome and Persia and the cus-
tom is still prevalent among the noble houses in the Middle East.

Islam with all the zeal and enthusiasm of a new faith trying to give new
meaning to human life ordained that all the age-old human institutions not
serving any high ideals be abandoned and at the same time conferred the
highest merit on the institution of marriage and the family. Both marriaj^e
and procreation became a sacred duty for every believer. Merely being poor
was not a sufficient excuse for non-marriage as indicated in the Holy Kor’an:
” . ^ . if they are needy Allah will make them free from want out of His
Grace.”^ In encouraging marriage the prophet Mohammed is reported to have

1 2 A L P H A K A P P A D E L T A N

said, “Matrimonial alliances increase friendship.”^ Again the Kor’an says,
“Allah has made wife for you from yourselves and has given you sons and
daughters from your wives.”^

There is no reference anywhere either in the Holy Kor’an or in the tradi-
tion of the prophet Mohammed to the classifications of marriage indicated by
the European Orientlists referred to before. In the light of Islam a believer can
enter into a marriage contract only in one way, and the woman by virtue of
such a contract assumes but one legal status, that of a wife, notwithstanding
her social classification prior to marriage.

Types of Marriage: Here we meet with another fallacy, that of Islamic
Polygyny. This fallacy has continued to the present day the Kor’anic decrees
to the contrary nowithstanding. The reason for the persistance of this fallacy
may be that man by nature prefers to have sexual relations with more than
one woman and hesitates to correct any misunderstanding that might grant
him such a privilege. This misunderstanding of Islamic marriage arises largely
from the writings of European Orientalists who have only a meager knowl-
edge of Islamic institutions and take sentences from muslim writings out of
their proper context in order to prove a point. A wrong emphasis on a part of
a sentence can alter the meaning of the entire sentence. This appears to be
what has happened in the matter under discussion. They quote from the
Kor’an, “And if you feel you cannot act equitably toward orphans, then marry
such women as seem good to you, two and three and four; and if you fear
you will not do justice (between them), then marry only one.”^ This sentence
does not provide an open license to the practice of polygyny since this provi-
sion obtains only for those who are to undertake the care of orphans.

The core fact still remains that Muslim marriage is essentially monoga-
mous. The specific reason for which a second marriage could be contracted,
namely, a provision for the care of orphans has ceased to exist in modern
Muslim societies where orphans and helpless widows are taken care of either
by states or by local communities. Such marriages, therefore, no longer have
any occasion to exist. Moreover polygyny is further restricted by the first mar-
riage contract where invariably a Muslim husband makes a pledge to his wife
that he will not marry a second time while his first wife still lives. Under most
circumstances and in keeping with the spirit of Islam it is a great improba-
bility that a Momin (believer) will have in his house more than one wife at a
given time.

Legality of Marriage: Islam is exceptionally liberal in respect to marriage.
The sanction for a muslim man to marry a non-muslim woman is given in
Holy Kor*an thus, “This day all good things allowed to you, and the food of
those who have been given the ‘Book’ is lawful for you and your food is law-
ful for them: and chaste from among the believing women and the chaste
from among those who have been given the ‘Book’ before you (are lawful for
you) when you have given them their dowries, taking them in marriage, not
fornicating nor taking them for paramours in secret.”^ (The “Book” men-
tioned here refers to the New and Old Testament.) The permissibility of mar-
riage is not confined to Christians and Jews alone since as the Kor’an puts it,
” . . . revelation was granted to all nations of the world.”^® According to this,
the legality of marriage is extended throughout the globe. Marriage between
a muslim man and a pagan woman, according to the interpretation of Sir
Amir Ali is irregular but not void as the latter during her life alvyays stands

A U T U M N N U M B E R – 1 9 5 3 13

a chance of accepting one of the revealed religions. If she continues to profess
paganism even after the death of her husband, she loses her legal claim on
the property of her deceased husband but children of such a marriage are
always held legitimate and possess all legal rights over their father’s property.-*^^

Validity of Marriage: The essence of marriage, according to Islam, is the
consent of two parties after they have satisfied themselves about each other, to
live together as husband and wife and accept their responsibilities and obliga-
tions in the married state.^^ The prerequisites for the validity of a contract of
marriage are ‘aql (understanding), ‘bulughad (puberty), and hurriyyah (free-
dom) of the contracting parties.^^ Proposal for marriage can be brought for-
ward by either of the contracting parties. A period of time should lapse be-
tween assent given to the proposal and the performance of actual Ni}{ah (mar-
riage). During this period the consented parties should frequent each other
as “this is likely to bring greater love and concord between them.”^* Only a
small proportion of Muslims following native customs of Hindu India and in
other parts of the world know or at least attach any importance to this injunc-
tion. Fathers are more likely to keep their customary prerogative than to heed
religious injunctions in matters which concern the marriage of their wards.

Islam does not set any particular age for marriage as puberty or maturity
of understanding arrives at different ages in different geographical parts of
the world. Child marriage is wholly inconsistent with cannonic decrees. Mar-
riage of a minor daughter performed by her father can be annuled if such
marriage is not consumated later and the girl after attaining puberty declines
to accept her married status. But where this marriage is already consumated,
it stands as legal and can be dissolved only through the legal procedure of
seeking a divorce. This, however, is no longer a current problem in India or
in Pakistan. Parents’ right of performing child marriage is already prohibited
by national legislation. “Whoever performs, conducts or directs any child mar-
riage shall be punishable with simple imprisonment which may extend to one
month, or with a fine which may extend to one thousand rupees or with

Islam provides for certain degrees of prohibition in marriage relations:
“Forbidden to you are your mothers and your sisters, your paternal aunt and
your maternal aunts, and brother’s daughters and sister’s daughters, and your
mothers that have suckled you and your foster-sisters, and mothers of your
wives, and your step-daughters who are in your guardianship, born of your
wife to whom you have gone, and the wives of your sons . . . and that you
should have two sisters together, except what has already passed.”^^ Marriage
contracted within these prohibitions are considered void and the offspring
thereof illegitimate.

Status of Women

While (385) A.D.) celibacy was made compulsory during life for the
Christian priests, woman was considered as the supposed instrument of Satan
for the tempting of priestly virtue. ‘̂’̂ The great controversy over woman’s pos-
sessing a soul was prevalent in different intensities in all parts of the world for
seventeen hundred years of Christian history. During this period in one place
or another woman did not constitute a part of human society. St. Paul forbade
woman to enter the church and decreed that “it is good for a man not to

1 4 A L P H A K A P P A D E L T A N

touch a woman.”^^ The Greek Orthodox Church in Russia did not classify
woman as a human being until the time of Peter the Great.^^

The status of a married woman in later Hindu civilization was similar to
any other chattel belonging to her husband. She was to be burned alive with
her husbands’ corpse. The popular belief still prevalent in Indian societies is
that woman’s heaven lies at the feet of her husband. For a devoted wife to
drink her husband’s feet-washed water in some parts of India is still considered
highly meritorious. “Divorce is not known to general Hindu Law;^^ change
of religion or loss of caste does not operate as a dissolution of marriage, nor
does the adultery of either party, not even the fact that the wife has deserted
her husband and becomes a prostitute,”^^ nor does the gross immoral conduct
of husband of the fact that husband deserted his wife and lives with concu-
bine. It is only after 1946^^ that a Hindu wife under very limited circum-
stances can claim a separation from her husband and can demand a separate
maintenance.

Going further back into antiquity, in Hebrew history we meet with the
custom of wife purchase. Indeed, in the early periods the daughter was
esteemed as first merchandise.^”^ In Hebrew society marriage was only an act
of sale by the father of his daughter. There is no trace of any religious cere-
mony attached to such a marriage nor of even the simplest ritual of a wed-
d i 2 4

Prophet Mohammed was only fourteen years of age when fifty-nine bishops
convened the council of Macron (A.D. 585) to discuss whether or not woman
had a soul. This extreme madness of western bishopry was perhaps, never
known to the prophet of the desert. Nevertheless he soon became a rebel
against the existing social condition in which he was brought up, and before
long started receiving revelations from God. “I will not waste the work of a
worker among you, whether male or female, the one of you being from the
other.”^^ “And whoever does good deeds whether male or female, and he
or she is a believer, I will make him or her to live a happy life.”^^ Revelation
was granted to both men and women. “And when the angel said, Oh Mary!
Allah has chosen thee and purified thee.”^^ Thus under Islam, as early as in
the seventh century of the Christian era, woman attained a status on a par with
man. A momina (believing woman) even after her marriage does not forfeit
her rights to possess property or to transact or conduct independent business
or trade. “Man shall have the benefit of what he earns and woman shall have
the benefit of what she earns.”^^ It might be well to note here that even
today, in some jurisdictions in western societies a wife cannot hold her sepa-
rate property interest, and until recently she did not have the right to execute
a legal document without her husband’s signature bearing on it. In Islam
wife’s individuality does not merge with that of her husband. This can be
observed in Muslim wife’s equal right of divorce. Muslim woman was granted
the right of divorce against her husband under the protection of cannonic
law at a time when woman in the rest of the world was considered as a chattel
by ecclesiastical authorities.

The traditions of prophet Mohammed describe the status of woman at
home as that of a ri’yah (ruler).^^ The conjugal relationship between a hus-
band and a wife is described as ” . . . and one of his signs that He created
mates for you frorh yourselves that you may find quiet of mind in them, and
He puts between you love and compassion.”^^

A U T U M N N U M B E R – 1 9 5 3 15

Equalitarianism was far too remote a conception in early days of Islam.
It gives commission to an essentially democratic pattern of family institution
but, there still remains the influence of Hebrew male dominance. According
to Islam, man is still allowed to have his last say in external matters of his
family. Mohammed Ali^^ explains this feature as logical where male excels
woman in construction and physique. He also said that woman excels man in
qualities of love and affection. Woman is endowed with the quality of love to
a much higher degree than man.

However, woman always assumed great responsibilities and helped man in
war, in carrying provisions, in taking care of sick and wounded, helped man
in his field labor, discharged heavy administrative duty and in extreme circum-
stances even led armies in battle. Chalip Omar appointed a woman as superin-
tendent of the market of Medina.

Islam maintains a puritan outlook as far as woman’s dresses are concerned
and especially when she would go out on business. Corruption or sexual mis-
behavior was a great danger for woman in nomadic Arabia. So ordained God:
“And say to the believing woman that they lower their gaze and restrain their
sexual passions and not display their ‘ornaments’ except what appears there-
of.”*̂ ^ And display not your finery.””^^ “And let them wear head covering over
their bosoms.””^* This has a sf>ecial significance with the then prevalent pre-
Islamis Arab customs where woman would keep her bosom uncovered for
display of beauty.

The kind of Pwdda (veil) system which now appears common in almost
all parts of the muslim world like concubineage, bears almost no relation with
religious customs and practices of Islam.

Bibliographical Notes

1. Al-Hadith as quoted in Al-Mishak al-Masahih: Wali al-I^in.
2. Hebrew Family: Earl Bennct Cross.
3. Domesthenes’ oration to Neara.
4. and 5. Al-Kor’an.
6. The Religion of Islam: Mohammed Ali.
7. Al-Kor’an.
8. Al-Kor’an: Ch. 4. Verse 3.
9. Al-Kor’an: Ch. 5 Verse 5.

10. Al-Kor’an: Ch. 35. Verse 24.
11. Mohammedan Law: Sir. Amir Ali.
12. The Religion of Islam: Mohammed Ali.
13. Fatawai Alamgiri.
14. Al-Hadith as quoted in Al-Mishak al-Masabih: Wali al-Din.
15. Indian Child Marriage Restraint Act. XIX of 1929, Section 5.
16. Al-Kor’an.
17. to 19. Family: Reuter and Runners; Article: Conception of Marriage Idea: Theodore
Schroeder.
20. and 21. Hindu Law: Sir. D. F. Mullah; Section 441, Subsection 1 and 2.
22. The Hindu Woman’s Right to Separate Residence and Maintenance Act of 1946.
23. The Evolution of Marriage: C. H. Letourneau.
24. The Hebrew Family: Earl Bennet Cross.
25. to 28. Al-Kor’an.
29. The Religion of Islam: Mohammed Ali.
30. Al-Kor’an; Ch. 30. Verse 21.
31. The Religion of Islam: Mohammed Ali.
32. to 34. Al-Kor’an.

Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

Engaging with Islam to promote
women’s rights: exploring opportunities
and challenging assumptions

Nida Kirmani

Research Fellow, University of Birmingham and Islamic Relief

Isabel Phillips

Research Offi cer, Islamic Relief

Abstract: Although the promotion of women’s rights is often seen as a ‘secular enterprise’, efforts
to incorporate religion within gender-related advocacy are growing. Muslim faith-based organisations
(FBOs) are also being encouraged to engage in gender-related projects because of their supposed
‘comparative advantage’ in Muslim communities. This article critically analyses the efforts made
by development agencies and women’s organisations to promote women’s rights within an Islamic
framework or with the involvement of religious leaders. It then explores the possibilities and dangers
of such approaches with a particular reference to Muslim FBOs.

Key words: Islam, gender, women’s rights, FBOs, religion, Muslim communities

I Introduction
The promotion of women’s rights has long
been viewed as a ‘secular enterprise’ not only
by Western development agencies but also by
women’s organisations and activists based in
the Global South. This has been partially due to
the perception that all religions are inherently
patriarchal and opposed to women’s rights,
with Islam viewed as the prime example. As
well, feminism in many parts of the world
has developed as a reaction to traditional
structures and sources of authority, including
those related to religion. This has contributed

to a perceived antagonism between religion
and feminism. However, this view is slowly
changing as development agencies and women’s
rights activists become more aware of the
importance of taking religion into consideration
as part of development interventions. This has
led to limited efforts to engage with religious
discourses and actors as means of promoting
women’s rights in a manner that is ‘culturally
sensitive’. Furthermore, the growth of ‘Islamic
feminism’ in various parts of the world has
provided new opportunities to advocate for
women’s rights through the use of religious
concepts and texts.

88 Engaging with Islam to promote women’s rights

Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

Despite the recent efforts to reconcile
religion and women’s rights, little effort has
been made to critically analyse such ap-
proaches. At the same time, there is an in-
creasing push amongst some funding agencies
to promote Islamic approaches to women’s
rights and to partner with particular Muslim
faith-based organisations (FBOs), which are
assumed to have a comparative advantage
over secular non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) because of their supposed ‘cultural
proximity’ within Muslim communities (see
Benthall, 2008; De Cordier, 2009). Hence, the
need for critical refl ection is urgent. This article
analyses some of the efforts made by develop-
ment agencies and women’s organisations to
promote women’s rights within an Islamic
framework or with the involvement of religious
leaders based largely on a survey of secondary
sources as well as primary research conducted
amongst women’s organisations in India and
with the United Kingdom (UK)-based char-
ity, Islamic Relief, with a view to analysing
whether international Muslim FBOs should be
encouraged to adopt such approaches as part
of their strategies. It begins by contextualising
the emergence of Islamic approaches within a
wider discussion of the relationships between
both development and religion and feminism
and Islam. It then provides an overview of the
ways in which Islam has been used strategically
in women’s rights advocacy, as well as the
types of issues that have been addressed. The
fi nal section of the article aims to look critically
at the possible advantages and disadvantages
of deliberately engaging with Islam as part of
advocacy strategies, especially in relation to
international Muslim FBOs, using Islamic Relief
as an example.

II Development, Islam
and women’s rights
The promotion of women’s rights can be
viewed within wider context of ‘development’ –
a term which, although highly contested,
can broadly be defi ned as the betterment of
society as a whole. Development in its various

forms has long been viewed as a ‘secular
project’, with neo-liberal approaches focused
on the achievement of economic growth;
socialist approaches focused on the equitable
distribution of wealth; and later models focus-
ing more on ‘human development’, that is,
the development of capabilities and overall
well-being rather than simply the growth of
income (see Sen, 1999). Development has
also been seen as part of larger processes of
‘modernisation’ and ‘secularisation’ in which
societies are supposedly moving further away
from religion and other traditional structures
of authority towards a more economically
advanced and secular system (see Marshall,
2001; Rakodi, 2007). In all of these approaches
to understanding ‘development’, the role of
religion has largely been neglected both at the
theoretical and practical levels (see Selinger,
2004; Ver Beek, 2002).

However, the last ten years have wit-
nessed an increasing appreciation of the role
of religion within processes of development.
There are several reasons for this. First, the
proposition of secularisation theories that
the importance of religion would gradually
decline has not been proven, and many would
argue that there has been a global resurgence
of religion over the past two decades (see
Haynes, 1995). Furthermore, there has been
a growing awareness amongst development
theorists and practitioners alike of the import-
ance of considering non-economic factors
when approaching development, including
culture and religion. Hence, analysts of gen-
der and development as well as donors are
becoming increasingly interested in under-
standing the ways in which religion in its
various manifestations – in the form of beliefs
and practices as well as in terms of social
organisation and processes of identifi cation –
contributes to or detracts from the achievement
of development-related goals, including the
realisation of gender equality and women’s
rights (see Greany, 2006; Tomalin, 2007).

The promotion of gender and development
agendas is also tied to global and national

Nida Kirmani and Isabel Phillips 89

Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

women’s movements and various manifest-
ations of ‘feminism’,1 which have generally
been viewed as being hostile towards religion
by both feminists and non-feminists. This
is due to the fact that women’s movements
have often questioned religious traditions,
beliefs and institutions as part of their struggles
for gender equality. Women’s movements
frequently challenge religious precepts and
traditional structures of authority that they
see as undermining gender equality and thus
face opposition by religious groups. Hence,
most secular women’s movements have had
an antagonistic, or at least a tense, relationship
with religious discourses and actors, and have
viewed religion as a cause of oppression rather
than a source of liberation (see Phillips, 2009;
Winter, 2001).

At the same time, many feminists and
members of women’s movements have peri-
odically allied with religious groups or utilised
religious discourses in order to promote gender
equality, either as a proactive or a reactive
strategy. Since the 1980s, there has been a
general growth in religious feminisms – or
projects that aim to reclaim and reinterpret
religion from women’s perspectives or in a
manner that respects women’s rights – across the
faith traditions. This has been the case amongst
members of various religious groups who have
argued for reforms from within their respective
faith traditions and who have developed
nuanced readings of texts and practices
(see Donaldson and Pui-Lan, 2002; Sharma
and Young, 1999). Furthermore, processes of
globalisation, and especially the United Nations
(UN)-organised conferences in Beijing, Cairo
and Vienna, which have laid the foundation
for international gender and development
agendas, have facilitated both confl ict as well as
constructive dialogue amongst religious and
non-religious feminists dealing with similar
types of constraints across faith traditions
(Bayes and Tohidi, 2001). Reformist feminist
traditions have made great strides in reconcil-
ing feminism with faith in a variety of ways
and are challenging long-held assumptions

about the relationship between the struggle
for gender equality and religion within conser-
vative and orthodox circles as well as amongst
secular feminists.

In the case of Islam, there has been a growth
in religiously-grounded feminist approaches in
various contexts since the 1980s, which can
be seen partially as a response to the growth
of conservative Islamist movements around
the world. Badran (2009) argues that religion
has always been an intrinsic aspect of the
feminisms constructed by Muslim women,
whether they claim to be ‘secular’ or ‘religious’
feminists. Although effor ts to highlight
women’s rights within Islam have taken place
since the early 20th century (see Mojab,
2001), these efforts have grown signifi cantly
since the 1980s, with the work of scholars
such as Al-Hibri (1982), Ahmed (1992), El
Saadawi (1980) and Mernissi (1991) tracing
the historical effects of male interpretation
and patriarchal rule on Islamic practices.
Moghadam (2004) uses ‘Islamic feminism’
to describe the efforts of women operating
in Muslim contexts to ‘reclaim their religion
to undermine both Islamist2 patriarchal dis-
tortions and Western stereotypes of Islam
as backwards and terroristic’ (ibid.: 53). She
distinguishes between ‘Islamic feminists’,
who base their feminism explicitly on Islam,
and ‘Muslim feminists’, who she defi nes as
‘believing women’ who are critical of Islamist
politics and who use a mixture of religious
terminology and the secular language of inter-
national human rights in calling for reform
(ibid.; see also Karam, 1997). Individuals such
as Riffat Hassan (2002), Amina Wadud (2007)
and Aziza Al-Hibri (2004), who would all
fall under the category of ‘Islamic feminists’,
argue that Islam is not the cause of women’s
oppression, but that ‘culture’ and ‘patriarchy’
are the real culprits and that women must
reclaim religion from men in order to uncover
the truly egalitarian underpinnings of Islam.
‘Muslim feminists’, on the other hand, include a
spectrum of feminists from those who are
avowedly secular in their approach to those

90 Engaging with Islam to promote women’s rights

Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

that combine religious and secular approaches
depending on the context and the issue at hand
(see Kandiyoti, 1991a; Moghissi, 2005).

The growing awareness of the importance
of religion as a factor within processes of
development, combined with an increasing
drive to reconcile Islam and feminism, has led
to a heightening of donor interest in ‘women
and religion’, which has disproportionately
focused on Muslim women, especially in the
post-9/11 period, with Muslim women being
viewed as particularly oppressed and in need
of ‘salvation’ (see Abu-Lughod, 2002). This
interest has led some donors to promote the
adoption of religiously-grounded approaches,
which has included encouraging selected
international Muslim FBOs,3 such as Islamic
Relief, to utilise their supposed advantage
in Muslim communities to work on gender-
related programmes. Many women’s rights
advocates also argue that religion must play
an intrinsic role in gender-related advocacy
strategies if they are to be acceptable and
successful, especially in the context of Muslim
communities (see Adamu, 1999), and that
Muslim FBOs have the potential to work
effectively on sensitive issues in Muslim com-
munities because of their supposed ‘cultural
proximity’ (De Cordier, forthcoming). Before
looking more closely at the arguments for
and against using ‘Islamic approaches’, this
article broadly outlines some of the areas in
which Islamically-informed women’s rights
advocacy has taken place and the methods
utilised, in particular by development agencies
and women’s organisations, in various Muslim
contexts, with the understanding that any
in-depth analysis of these examples must also
consider the particular power dynamics of each
local context.

III Using Islam to promote
women’s rights
Since the 1990s, several organisations have
experimented with religiously-based ap-
proaches to gender-related advocacy, ranging
from UN agencies such as the United Nations

Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) (see
UNFPA, 2008) to national and local NGOs
and community organisations. Methods of ap-
proaching women’s rights advocacy in Muslim
communities generally fall into two overlapping
categories: the involvement of religious leaders
as advocates and partners in the promotion of
women’s rights; and the promotion amongst
women themselves of gender-sensitive an-
alyses and interpretations of Islamic texts and
concepts. These methods have been used
largely in the areas of reproductive health and
in relation to family laws, as these are the areas
in which Islam is most often invoked in order
to curb women’s rights.

T he involvement of religious leaders
in the promotion of women’s rights stems
from the belief that religious leaders are
respected members of their communities
whose perspectives will be trusted and whose
directives will be followed. A statement sub-
mitted by the UNFPA to the UN Commission
on the Status of Women argues that religious
leaders are most often key power holders
within communities and can be important
allies in the achievement of gender-related
development objectives:

Religious leaders are capable of mobiliz-
ing and empowering communities to demand
attention and seek solutions from government
and other decision makers on issues ranging
from gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS,
maternal deaths to family planning. Working
closely with these spiritual leaders, to fi nd
common ground can be achieved through
dialogue, networking, advocacy on gender
issues, and provision of reproductive health
services. (Touré, 2007: 5)

The inclusion of religious leaders is seen as
being particularly important in relation to
sensitive gender-related issues where the
involvement of perceived outsiders can be met
with fear and suspicion. Religious leaders are
viewed as key ‘gatekeepers’ whose support
can help dispel fears and lend credibility to
projects.

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Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

Religious-based approaches to women’s
rights advocacy tend to separate religion from
‘culture’ by engaging in textual excavation in
order to uncover the ‘Islamic perspective’ on
a particular issue, which is in line with the
approach taken by Islamic feminists. Religious
leaders often play a role in this and are brought
together by development actors in order
to discuss what Islamic teachings and texts
have to say about a particular issue and to
agree on a unifi ed stance. These meetings
can take different forms and the level of
direct involvement of the religious leaders
and the organisations can vary. For example,
discussions may be led by the religious leaders
themselves or directed by the organisations
involved, often depending on the proximity
of the leaders and their constituents and the
complexity of the issue at hand. In educating
religious leaders and encouraging them to en-
gage in gender-sensitive readings of texts, it is
hoped that they will fi lter this knowledge back
to the communities in which they are work-
ing by actively engaging in advocacy or by at
least facilitating the efforts of organisations
advocating for gender justice.

For example, a United States Agency
for International Development (USAID)-
sponsored programme in northern Kenya ini-
tiated a dialogue with religious leaders on how
to use Islamic teachings to promote better
reproductive health and family planning. After
initial consultations with religious leaders, it
emerged that terms such as ‘child spacing’
and ‘safe motherhood’ were preferable to
‘family planning’ since these are terms that are
mentioned in Islamic literature and are widely
understood and accepted by religious leaders
and members of the community. Knowledge
acquired in the training was disseminated in
the mosque and during public lectures
(Extending Service Delivery Project, 2008).
Another programme, implemented in the
Mindanao region of the Philippines by a variety
of organizations, including the UNFPA,4
worked with Muslim religious leaders to

tackle early, arranged and forced marriage
and violence against women. After extensive
consultations with community groups and
religious leaders, a series of khutbas (sermons)
on gender and reproductive health rights were
compiled in a handbook, which was intended
to be used in training sessions for imams
(Alamia, 2009).

Rather than using a top-down approach
by appealing to ‘gatekeepers’, other Islamic
feminist approaches have focused on en-
couraging women to themselves engage in
gender-sensitive analysis and interpretation
of Islamic texts and teachings. The guiding
principle behind such approaches is that Islam
has been (mis)interpreted in a manner that
refl ects the patriarchal nature of society at the
time it was revealed and therefore, rather than
relying on historical interpretations, religious
injunctions related to gender relations should
evolve over time. Advocates of this approach
tend to stress the supremacy of the Qur’an
over all other sources and argue that the hadith
(sayings and traditions of the Prophet) and
sharia (Islamic jurisprudence) refl ect human
(and largely male) interpretations. They
therefore encourage studying the Qur’an and
understanding the context in which it was
revealed (Hashim, 1999; Mirza, 2008).5 Such
approaches aim to counter the accusations of
critics who feel that gender-related advocacy
is an attempt to undermine religious precepts
and practices by proving that the values of
justice and equality are enshrined in the Qur’an
itself.

Most of programmes promoting gender-
sensitive analysis of religious texts have been
led by women activists, and have also tended
to focus on women, although some have also
included men. Programmes employing this
method commonly rely on workshops and
seminars in which participants are asked to
study particular religious texts, bearing in
mind the historical context in which they were
written. One of the pioneers of this strategy
has been the Malaysian-based group, Sisters

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Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

in Islam, which has inspired similar types of
activities elsewhere in the world. Most of
their work has centred on facilitating dis-
cussion and lobbying the government as well
as media-based advocacy. Tackling issues such
as Muslim family law, polygamy and domestic
violence, their arguments are based on a com-
bination of progressive interpretations of the
Qur’an and the promotion of international
human rights conventions (Othman, 2006).

Along the same lines as textual approaches,
some women’s organisations have used Islamic
concepts in order to promote gender justice.
Again, this approach encourages women to
work though a religious framework in order
to avoid accusations of being externally driven
and in order to gain wider acceptance. For
example, in India, where Muslims constitute
the largest religious minority, a number of
women’s groups have been promoting the
Islamic concept of the nikahnama, which is
a Muslim marriage contract, as a means of
protecting women’s rights. As a way of sub-
verting Muslim personal laws, which many
feel do not adequately protect women’s
rights, women’s groups have been encouraging
women to negotiate a nikahnama (marriage
contract) in which they outline their rights,
including rights to property and divorce, which
is an acceptable practice in Islam. They have
tried to popularise the idea through grassroots
education and advocacy and have tried to
publicise marriages that have taken place using
such contracts (Kirmani, 2009). For women’s
rights activists in India, such a strategy has
been considered appropriate given a context
in which Muslims are a ‘threatened minority’
and religious sensitivities are high.

Similarly, the Al Faruq Welfare Society,
which works in Palestinian refugee camps in
Jordan, uses the Qur’anic principle of himaya,
or protection of the woman, as the basis for
arguing against gender-based violence. The
programme’s social workers also use religious
concepts such as rahma (compassion), tasamuh
(forgiveness and tolerance) and sabr (patience)

to counter the practice of verbal and physical
abuse (Harmsen, 2007).

Resistance to change is often strongest
in matters related to reproductive health
and sexuality, which are seen as the most
intimate aspects of social life (see Moghadam,
2004). Furthermore, religious arguments
are often used to justify the regulation and
control of women’s sexuality and are often
invoked in support of practices such as female
genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and early
marriage, and hence any attempt to alter such
practices is often met with religiously grounded
opposition. It is for these reasons that Islamic
approaches to women’s rights have been most
commonly utilised in the fi eld of reproductive
rights as a means of countering religious
opposition and in the hopes of gaining wider
acceptance.

One programme that addressed the issue of
reproductive rights was the Fankanta project
in Senegal, which was implemented by a
German–Senegalese cooperative. Given the
strong association between Islam and FGM/C
in some parts of the world, programme leaders
decided that establishing the Islamic position on
FGM/C was a key priority, and that the best
way to do this would be to work with local
religious leaders. Although initially reluctant
to challenge tradition, religious leaders vowed
to advocate against the practice once they
learned about the adverse health effects for
women and girls. Following the meetings,
imams gave sermons in the mosque reiterating
that Islam did not call for FGM/C (GTZ, n. d.).
Similar programmes have been initiated in
Africa and the Middle East by the UNFPA,
which work with imams in order to address
reproductive health issues such as FGM/C and
family planning (UNFPA, 2004).

Women’s rights activists working in Muslim
contexts have long been struggling to reform
sharia-based laws. According to those working
towards reform, the laws bestow an inferior
status upon women and relegate them to a
subordinate position in society by denying
them opportunities and choices both inside

Nida Kirmani and Isabel Phillips 93

Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

and outside the family (Moghadam, 2002).
However, sharia-based laws are also fi ercely
protected in many contexts as symbols of
Muslim identity (see Shaheed, 1994). In
many countries, feminists have made great
strides in advocating for changes in family
and employment laws from within an Islamic
framework. For example, in Iran, where the
entire legal code is based on particular inter-
pretations of Islam, feminists have drawn on
religious notions of complementarity between
the sexes as a means of improving women’s
position in the labour market by arguing for
paid maternity leave, shorter working hours
and earlier retirement age, thus winning an
offi cial recognition by the state of women’s
double burden of having to perform paid work
alongside unpaid domestic work (Afshar,
1997).

Apart from country-specifi c campaigning,
advocacy around sharia-based family laws
has also been accompanied by a great deal of
international cooperation between activists
facing similar challenges. For example,
Musawah, which means ‘equality’ in Arabic,
was established in 2007 by an international
group of activists who had met in Malaysia with
the initiative of members of Sisters in Islam.
The organisation aims to connect women
around the world and unite them in a bid to
ensure a reform of family law so that women
are treated fairly. Underpinning their campaign
is advocacy for a new interpretation of parts
of the Qur’an, which is believed to be crucial
when challenging scholars and politicians
(Basarudin, 2009).6

These examples suggest that the impli-
cations of approaches that incorporate Islamic
perspectives into gender-related strategies
are overwhelmingly positive. However, it
should be noted that much of the evidence
collected for this review came from project
reports and promotional material produced
by the implementing organisations themselves
for public consumption rather than primary
fieldwork or external accounts. Given the
nature of their work, and in particular their

reliance on external funding, development
organisations are much more likely to present
a positive picture of their projects than a
negative one. Furthermore, organisations
that have implemented successful projects
are more likely to discuss their work publicly
than those that have failed. With this in mind,
the following section will not only analyse the
positive experiences just discussed, but will
also consider the possible dangers of and
assumptions behind approaches to women’s
rights advocacy that rely on religious discourses
and actors, as well as the implications of
encouraging Muslim FBOs to adopt such
approaches.

IV Utilising opportunities and
challenging assumptions
There are several advantages to engaging
positively with religion as part of women’s rights
advocacy. On a strategic level, using Islamic
approaches can be one way of deflecting
accusations of taking a ‘Western’ or anti-
Muslim approach. Gender-related advocacy
is often met with resistance on religious
grounds. In such situations, it is often necessary
for women’s rights advocates to use Islamic
arguments to counter criticisms (Adamu,
1999). Furthermore, in countries in which
part or all of the legal system is based on par-
ticular interpretations of sharia, women’s rights
advocates have had little choice but to work
within a religious framework, and many have
done so in creative ways. As well, gaining the
support of religious leaders and even using re-
ligious leaders as educators on women’s rights
issues can be an effective means of defl ecting
religiously driven resistance at the local level
and of winning over sceptics. The involvement
of religious leaders can also expose those who
use religion as a means of resisting change
and in support of their own interests, in this
case related to the maintenance of patriarchal
gender relations, by demonstrating the Islamic
basis for women’s rights.

Furthermore, for many women’s rights
advocates who are also believers in Islam,

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Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

such approaches offer a means of reconciling
their faith with their commitment to women’s
rights. Hence, taking an Islamic approach is
not only a strategic or a defensive position,
but one that springs from a genuine belief
that Islam is an egalitarian and just religion.
Those who fall into this category believe
that knowledge of Islam is the best means
of countering patriarchal misinterpretation
(Hashim, 1999: 12). For such activists, human
rights are an intrinsic part of Islam, and the
main job of women’s rights advocates is to
promote the principle of justice in support of
women’s rights.

Using religious-based approaches can
create spaces and opportunities for dialogue
amongst those who may otherwise be left
out of gender-related initiatives, including men
in general and religious leaders in particular.
Those working in the fi eld of gender and devel-
opment have long argued that it is necessary
to include men in any campaign to change
gender relations (see Connell, 2005). Hence,
working with religious leaders, who are by
and large men and who often have access to
large numbers of male community members,
is a means of involving men in gender-related
advocacy campaigns. Islamic approaches can
help convince men, who may otherwise be
sceptical, of the importance of protecting
women’s rights and can help stimulate a wider
dialogue about gender issues.

At the same time, there are several assump-
tions that often underlie religiously-grounded
approaches to women’s rights advocacy. In
her analysis of donor interventions in Muslim
communities, Balchin (2003) argues that the
focus on women and religion falls into three
broad categories: those that perceive religion
as an obstacle to achieving development;
those that see religion as the most signifi-
cant development issue; and those that see
‘Islamic feminism’ as a development solution.
She argues that much of the donor discourse
falls into the Orientalist trap and blames
Muslim men and ‘culture’, which is equated

with religion, for women’s oppression.
This ignores women’s ongoing struggles as
well as global inequalities and politics that
determine local power dynamics. As well,
donor approaches often equate ‘Islamic’
with ‘Muslim’, thus assuming that the prac-
tices of all Muslims must be ‘Islamic’ and
ignoring cultural variations as well as the
myriad other factors apart from religion that
determine the behaviours of those identifi ed
as Muslim. Balchin’s analysis demonstrates the
homogenising effects of such donor discourses,
which look at ‘Muslim women’ as a group with
common interests and either blame Islam for
all development problems or see Islam as the
only viable development solution in Muslim
communities (ibid.).

Others have also been critical of the
approach of Islamic feminists for various
reasons. First, such approaches tend to pri-
vilege religion, and that too, a particularly
textual approach to religion, as a determinant
of identity. This denies the complexity of pro-
cesses of identity construction, which are
determined not only by religion but also by
various social, historical, cultural, political and
economic factors (see Kandiyoti, 1991b). Mirza
points out that by privileging textual approaches
to Islam, ironically, Islamic feminists follow the
same methodological lines as Islamists:

both are anchored in the central texts of
the Quran and the hadith literature; both
represent their own interpretation as the
expression of authentic or ‘true’ Islam; and
both discourses have appropriated the notion
of the ideal past of Islam as the foundation of
law. (Mirza, 2008: 31)

Hence, Islamic approaches to gender-related
advocacy can inadvertently reinforce the
notion that the lives of Muslim women must be
governed solely by religious precepts and that
women must understand the true message of
Islam in order to claim their rights. This can
limit the terms of the debate to a presentation
of competing versions of Islam and can close
the space for secular feminist critiques (Balchin,
2003; Kandiyoti, 1991b; Zia, 2009).

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Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

Finally, approaches that focus on educating
religious leaders or rely on them to communicate
gender-related messages can legitimise their
authority within the community rather than chal-
lenging structures of power that keep women
in inferior positions. While religious leaders may
be infl uential members of the community, by
highlighting their role and seeking their support,
development actors may be reinforcing the
power of local men rather than empowering
women to claim their own rights. While it
is true that, in some communities, religious
leaders are important gatekeepers and must
be included, in many others, their infl uence
is limited. Women’s rights advocates should
aim to create spaces for dialogue rather than
reinforcing local hierarchies, which may hold
women in subordinate positions.

As mentioned earlier, certain international
Muslim FBOs are being encouraged by donors
to engage more directly on sensitive issues
such as those related to gender. However, as
of yet, most such organisations have stayed
away from advocacy and remained largely
engaged in humanitarian relief efforts and in
service delivery. Taking the example of Islamic
Relief in particular, one of the reasons for this
may be the fact that a signifi cant proportion
of their funding comes from religious forms
of giving such as zakat, which places certain
restrictions on the types of activities for
which the organisation can utilise these funds.
As well, international Muslim FBOs are a
relatively new phenomenon7 and are only now
beginning to expand their scope of activities
outside of traditional needs-based approaches
to poverty alleviation. Hence, in general, these
organisations tend to engage in activities that
are seen as directly benefi ting the poor, such
as providing humanitarian relief in emergency
situations, rather than engaging in activities
that do not yield immediate results such as
advocacy.

However, as Islamic Relief increasingly
receives funding from institutional donors, the
scope of their activities is gradually expand-
ing outside of relief and into longer-term

development projects. According to one of
its project managers, Islamic Relief began
taking institutional funding in 1997, with the
percentage of institutional funding growing to
about 30 per cent of the organisation’s current
income (Interview, 10 November 2009). This
has created the opportunity to engage in
more diverse types of activities and in new
areas. As part of a growing trend amongst
institutional donors to work with FBOs,
organisations such as the UK Department
for International Development (DfID) have
been encouraging Islamic Relief to expand
their fi eld of engagement into areas such as
gender and reproductive health. The push to
work with FBOs has raised concerns amongst
some feminists over the potential threats to
women’s rights posed by such partnerships,
as many FBOs, regardless of their religious
orientation, promote a conservative agenda
(see Pearson and Tomalin, 2008). At the same
time, it has been suggested by some (Benthall,
2008; De Cordier, 2009) that Muslim FBOs
such as Islamic Relief are best placed to work
in Muslim communities because of their sup-
posed ‘cultural proximity’.

However, there are several reasons why it
may be particularly diffi cult for international
Muslim FBOs to implement Islamic approaches.
First, such organisations may be hesitant in
adopting religious-based approaches because
of the fear of being perceived as proselytising.
Islamic Relief, like many international Christian
FBOs, maintains a policy of non-proselytisation
in the communities in which they work. Hence,
they will not engage in activities that are seen
to be promoting Islam, for example, building
mosques or promoting religious education.8
This position has largely been adopted as a
pre-emptive measure to defl ect any criticism
or suspicions of the organisation, especially
in the post-9/11 context in which Muslim
organisations have come under increasing
scrutiny (see Benthall, 2007). Islamic Relief is
also careful to maintain its professional image
as a non-partial humanitarian organisation.

96 Engaging with Islam to promote women’s rights

Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

For this reason, ironically, it may be more
difficult for Islamic Relief to adopt Islamic
approaches to gender-related advocacy than
it would be for a ‘secular’ NGO because this
might be construed as promoting Islam.

Furthermore, Islamic Relief, like most large
organisations, is ideologically and culturally
diverse. Not all of its employees are Muslim,
and even those who are identifi ed as such may
not agree on all issues pertaining to Islam.
Also, Islam itself contains various sects and
schools of thought ranging from those that
are extremely conservative regarding gender-
related issues to those that are relatively
progressive, and there is no clear hierarchy
within Islam in terms of authority on religious
matters. Hence, gaining a consensus about any
single issue is diffi cult, especially with regards
to contentious matters such as those related
to gender.9 In fact, incorporating religion into
advocacy strategies may be easier in ‘secular’
or non-religiously affiliated organisations
where religious sensitivities may not be as high.
Furthermore, most international development
organisations, whether secular or faith-based,
have staff working in very different contexts
all over the world and reaching consensus on
an acceptable organisational strategy may be
diffi cult bearing in mind the differing expect-
ations of benefi ciaries and donors.

Finally, the very premise that Muslim FBOs
have a privileged access to Muslim communities
that would give them an advantage in dealing
with sensitive issues such as those related
to gender is itself fl awed. Studies of Muslim
FBOs have asserted that in some instances,
these organisations may have an advantage
in Muslim communities that may otherwise
be suspicious of external intervention (see
Benthall, 2008; De Cordier, 2009; Kirmani
and Khan, 2008). However, such an argument
not only lacks empirical evidence, it reinforces
the notion popularised by Islamists and pro-
ponents of the ‘clash of civilisations’ thesis
(Huntington, 1997) that there is a unified
Muslim community and denies the complex-
ity and contextuality of identities. This is

fur ther complicated by the fact that, as
mentioned earlier, Muslim FBOs and the
communities in which they work are religiously
and ideologically diverse. Hence, there is no
reason to assume that an employee of a Muslim
FBO (whether Muslim or non-Muslim) would
be able to relate to a Muslim benefi ciary any
better than someone working for ‘secular’
NGO, or that they would be less able to relate
to a non-Muslim benefi ciary. As well, although
being labelled a ‘Muslim’ organisation may help
pave the way in some Muslim communities,
and especially in contexts where there is a
heightened defensiveness about NGOs that
are perceived as being ‘Western’, it can also
create complications and spark suspicion and
mistrust in certain situations, such as those
that have experienced religious-based confl ict
(Kirmani and Khan, 2008).

V Conclusion
The increasing efforts to engage with religion
as part of development efforts, especially with
regards to the promotion of women’s rights,
marks a signifi cant shift in development dis-
course and practice, which has historically been
viewed as a secular undertaking. However,
feminists working in Muslim communities have
always had to take religious perspectives into
account in their campaigning efforts, whether
they have engaged with religion positively,
negatively or defensively. Therefore, while
the approaches that have been discussed here
may be relatively new and underexplored
within the fi eld of ‘development’, much can
be learned from the insights of feminists, both
secular and religious, who have long been
grappling with such issues in Muslim contexts.
While no one working on gender-related issues
can afford to ignore religion in any context,
an analysis of approaches to gender-related
advocacy that utilise Islam demonstrates the
complexity of this engagement, including the
advantages and possible pitfalls of adopting
an explicitly Islamic approach. Furthermore,
as much of the available literature about
religious-based strategies is promotional rather

Nida Kirmani and Isabel Phillips 97

Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

than critical, there is a need for more research
into the outcomes of approaches that utilise
religious discourses and/or actors or that are
channelled through FBOs.

While there can be no singular strategy
for the achievement of gender equality, those
advocating for women’s rights must contextual-
ise their approaches within the particularities
of local power relations, which will include but
not be limited to a consideration of religion. If
religion is used as a means of justifying harm-
ful practices or unequal relationships, then
women’s rights advocates can certainly not
afford to ignore it. However, rather than pre-
scribing any religious-based solutions, women’s
rights advocates should aim to create a space
for dialogue about these issues. Focusing on
religion exclusively or as the primary means
of advocating for women’s rights denies the
complexity of identities and social relations
as well as closing the space for non-religious
or secular approaches. Also, it cannot be
assumed that international Muslim FBOs have
an advantage in approaching sensitive issues in
Muslim contexts, as the relationship between
any organisation and the community in which
it is working will depend on a multitude of
factors, including where the organisation is
perceived to be coming from geographically,
politically and ideologically along with the pro-
fessionalism and sensitivity of its staff. The
challenge for women’s rights advocates is
adopting an approach that takes their own
position into consideration and recognises the
complexity of factors that determine gender-
related constraints without privileging any
singular identity or set of actors.

Notes
1. With the understanding that ‘feminism’ is a complex

and contested term, which many women’s rights
advocates choose not to use for various political
reasons, for the purposes of this article, ‘feminism’ is
broadly defi ned as the belief that women and men are
equal in worth.

2. ‘Islamist’ is used broadly to refer to conservative,
orthodox versions of Islam, which see it not only as a
religion but as a political system – what some brand as
‘fundamentalist’ or ‘militant’ strands of Islam.

3. The term FBO or ‘faith-based organisation’ masks
a great deal of complexity and includes a range of
organisations. The authors use this term with caution,
recognising that the lines between ‘faith-based’ and
‘secular’ organisations are often blurry (see Berger,
2003), and that many Muslim FBOs, including Islamic
Relief, are based in Western contexts and are well
integrated in global funding networks, employing
similar language, procedures and strategies as their
secular counterparts. International Muslim FBOs
are in many ways more similar to other international
NGOs, than they are to local charities and welfare
organisations operating in Muslim contexts, many of
which are affi liated with religious political parties and
promote particular religious and political ideologues.
This article does not address the activities of these
organisations and concentrates rather on the strategies
of international donors, NGOs and FBOs operating in
Muslim contexts.

4. Other organisations included the Tarbilang Founda-
tion, Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional
para el Desarollo (AECID), the Assembly of the
Darul Ifta of the Philippines and Nisa Ul Haqq Fi
Bangsamoro.

5. Some feminists further argue that there is a distinction
between those verses that were revealed in Mecca
and those that were revealed in Medina. They assert
that verses revealed to the Prophet in Mecca contain
eternal truths, and are therefore universally applicable,
while Medinan verses were specifi c to the time in
which they were revealed (see Mirza, 2008).

6. Women Living under Muslim Laws, an international
network which does not advocate for a particular
approach, has been working since 1984 to provide
women’s rights activists with information, particularly
on family laws, as well as creating a dialogue in order
to share strategies and experiences.

7. Of the UK-based Muslim FBOs, Islamic Relief is one of
the oldest and was founded in 1984. This was followed
closely by Muslim Aid, which was founded in 1985.
Muslim Hands was founded more recently in 1993.

8. However, Islamic Relief does engage in limited activities
that have religious overtones, such as providing food
packages during Ramadan and distributing meat from
religious sacrifi ces.

9. For example, the authors of this article have been
engaged in formulating a gender policy for the
organisation based on a mixture of international norms
and Islamic principles. However, no policy has been
agreed upon to date partially because of the diffi culty
in gaining a broad consensus across the ideological
spectrum represented within the organisation. Any
attempt to consciously adopt Islamic approaches to
gender-related advocacy would presumably come up
against the same kinds of roadblocks.

98 Engaging with Islam to promote women’s rights

Progress in Development Studies 11, 2 (2011) pp. 87–99

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1
Introduction

intisar : [People say,] “How do you handle the

differences [as a Muslim woman]?” Yeah, it’s not an agenda,

you know: every day in the morning you wake up and say, OK,

now I’m going to pray and I’m going to go play basketball! It’s

contradictory, but it’s just life, we just go through it. We don’t

have a journal; we don’t have a schedule every day.

Intisar: Muslim Women in the Spotlight

I met Intisar at one of the informal Muslim gatherings on the fourth
fl oor of the student union at the George Washington University
campus. Affectionate and dryly witty, Intisar quickly became a good
friend despite the fourteen-year age difference between us. She had
a ready reserve of self-deprecating immigrant jokes, as did I, but
we had arrived in this country under very different circumstances.
I traveled from Pakistan to the United States in the early 1990s as a
cash-strapped doctoral student. Intisar, along with her large family
headed by a widowed mother, had fl ed war-torn Somalia as a young
child.

When she was in elementary school in the United States, Intisar
was acutely aware of the multilayered stigma attached to her as a
poor black African refugee and Somali Muslim. But there was one
thing she enjoyed at school: she loved basketball—and she played
well. This gave her immediate entry into the mainly African Ameri-
can basketball youth culture at school. Suddenly, the poor Somali
refugee was a cool kid. She successfully performed being an “inte-
grated” American youth—except that she was acutely aware of her
performance.

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AN: 582981 ; Shabana Mir.; Muslim American Women on Campus : Undergraduate Social Life and Identity
Account: s3931335.main.eds

2 Introduction

Intisar’s life changed as she approached puberty. Like the Sikh
mother in Bend It Like Beckham , Intisar’s mother disapproved of girls
playing contact sports. It exposed sexual attributes to the public eye,
and Intisar was, as she said meaningfully, “a big girl.” Intisar and
her mother maintained an uneasy compromise for a while. Intisar
started wearing hijab and continued to play basketball. This was not
easy. From her hijab and her physiognomy, non-Muslim peers at fi rst
deduced that she could not play basketball, rolling their eyes as they
passed her over during team selection. Then they gawked when she
played: She played basketball so well! They hadn’t seen that coming!
How could a Muslim woman combine hijab and sports?

As for her Muslim girlfriends, some privately gossiped about how
immodest it was to play a fast-paced contact sport like basketball—
with boys !—while others admired her for being a “cool hijabi ” (see
glossary). The woman who blocked and dribbled the ball also labored
to shatter stereotypes about weak, timid, secluded, and immobile
Muslim women. Intisar wilted under Muslim and non-Muslim peers’
scrutiny and “amazement,” and wearied of shattering the mold set
for Muslim women by both groups.

Eventually, Intisar’s mother lost patience and forbade basketball
altogether. Long afterwards Intisar continued to play in secret from
her family. While other teenagers hid condoms and pot from their
parents, Intisar guarded her big secret—sports. Her doubts grew and
she questioned herself. Was she absolutely sure it was Islamically
permissible to play a contact sport with boys? If it was not, she could
be serving as a bad example to other Muslims, legitimating a reli-
giously problematic act and destabilizing the besieged community,
during the War on Terror no less. The intensity of surveillance on
and by Muslims, especially of Muslim female bodies, magnifi ed the
implications of Intisar’s athletic activity. Intisar stopped playing bas-
ketball. She missed it. Sometimes, she shot hoops when she was by
herself.

This book unpacks the ways that people like Intisar are not free
to be . Intisar wanted to play basketball and to be a religious Muslim
woman. The questions poured in from all directions: Surely Mus-
lim femaleness and basketball were opposed to each other. Surely
the very American qualities we see in the sportswoman—mobility,
fl exibility, and freedom—are not qualities the immigrant and Mus-
lim woman can or should share. Intisar’s experience shows us that,

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Introduction 3

though identity options on U.S. campuses are becoming almost cli-
ché in their multiplicity and people identify with diverse, multiple,
and changing identity backgrounds, these options are not freely
available to all. Nor are these “options” chosen lightly: for Muslims,
whose backgrounds and lifestyles span a dizzying range, identity
choices can be explosive. For minoritized people in a racist social
order, these are not really choices at all (Waters 1990).

This book is an ethnographic study of Muslim American under-
graduate women on U.S. college campuses. Most of the women in
my research study were members of what is commonly called the
fi rst generation of Muslim Americans raised in the United States
after the 1964 immigration laws were liberalized. Muslim Ameri-
cans are, overall, highly educated, with 40 percent holding a college
degree or higher, compared to 29 percent among the general Ameri-
can public (Gallup 2009: 22). In this book, I investigate the relation-
ship between the reality of religious pluralism as it occurs on col-
lege campuses and the processes by which undergraduate women
construct their identities during one of the most formative times in
their lives. Contextualizing my study in religious and ethnic minor-
ity experiences generally, I fi nd that while the women experience
double scrutiny—from their own communities and from the domi-
nant ones—they fi nd and create spaces within both communities to
grow and assert themselves as individuals. They encounter numer-
ous confl icting expectations, and the process of becoming individu-
als for them is a tangled story of resistance, triumph, compromise,
and surrender.

What This Book Does

This book is based on a research study of Muslim American women
undergraduates at Georgetown and George Washington Universities
in Washington, D.C. In it, I examine the following:

» Muslim American women’s struggles on university
campuses to pursue religious authenticity while being
“normal” Americans/women/youth;

» majority Americans’ Orientalist stereotyping of Muslims;
» how Orientalist images constitute a pervasive presence in

Muslim American women’s own identity constructions;

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4 Introduction

» campus social and leisure culture via a new window,
the perspective of marginal students, demonstrating
specifi cally how campus culture marginalizes some Muslim
undergraduates;

» the fl awed pluralism in America and American campus
culture.

My work is interdisciplinary, but grounded in the discipline of an-
thropology. Anthropological studies of immigrants within fi rst world
contexts explore a variety of minority identity strategies, such as as-
similation into majority behavior patterns, selective “accommodation”
of such majority norms as are perceived as positive or benefi cial by
minority persons, and rejection of majority practices (Gibson 1998). I
examine all these types of cultural strategies among Muslim American
women. This study, situated in the fi eld of critical ethnography, uses
the case of Muslim American women as a vehicle by which to exam-
ine the cultural strategies of minority and religious undergraduates.

My most important fi nding is that Muslim women have multi-
dimensional identities—with religious, ethnic, racial, and gendered
aspects—that fl y in the face of the identities expected of them both
by many within Muslim communities (such as fellow Muslim students
and families) and by those outside their communities (non-Muslim
peers, college administrators, etc.). Second, in exploring how they
manage to “become themselves” within and against this context, I
fi nd that Muslim women undergraduates face a great deal of scrutiny
and pressure during years crucial to the construction of self-identity.
Third, as we see how liberal pluralism in U.S. higher education both
falters and succeeds, my book contributes to understanding how
dominant discourses are inscribed on marginalized people. In doing
so, I also celebrate the agency and strategies of the marginalized.

American Muslim Women

amber : [I wish faculty and peers understood] the basics about
what we believe, and to separate culture from the religion, that
American Muslims are a lot different from Muslims [elsewhere]. . . .
But that being American isn’t contrary. . . . Because I think a lot of
people think Islam is such a monolith; that every Muslim’s like
every single other person, and it’s not really like that. I mean, I

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Introduction 5

guess ideally it would be like that to some people. But it’s not like
that. . . . Nowadays, typical stereotypes. Threatening, the whole
clash of civilizations thing, especially with what’s going on.

I still wince at the memory of the above conversation I had with
Amber, a Pakistani American senior and an offi cer in the Muslim
campus organization. Beneath a taciturn surface, as she battled her
way through words, I sensed that anxious tears threatened to silence
Amber just a heartbeat away. This was a common occurrence in my
research interviews. I struggled to record and convey the “imperial
feeling” of post-9/11 America (Maira 2009: 24) as I encountered it in my
youthful research participants’ stress, fear, and inner struggles, but as
I did so, I was often faced with a wry, set, unhappy smile and diffi dent,
fragmentary remarks. I struggled to draw Amber out, but with every
utterance, she seemed to shut down in despondent fatigue. Still, while
Amber despaired of campus community members’ inability to see par-
ticular Muslim Americans, instead of the undifferentiated monolithic
world of Islam, she also hinted at the Muslim imagined homogeneous
community (“I guess ideally it would be like that to some people”) of
good, devout Muslims united on religious doctrine and practice.

Amber and I both reject monolithic notions of Muslim identity. Yet
I am also interested in the social processes that make some iden-
tities hypervisible while others become invisible. Among Muslim
American women’s various legacies, which ones “crowd out” others?
Why do we even speak of “Muslim American women” when we do
not usually speak of, say, “white American Christian women?” While
I recognize the religious affi liation of Muslim American women, I
also wish to subvert the notion that this descriptor is enough, or
even that it conveys anything beyond the kaleidoscopic term “Mus-
lim” itself. Although “Muslim women” implies a primarily religious
identity—and I certainly focus on their religious identities to the
extent that my research subjects did—these Muslim women are
also women , and the construction of gendered selves is extremely
signifi cant to this book, to their religiosity—however they construct
it—and to their ethnic-cultural identities.

And then they are Americans . How brash and radical it seems to
make that claim about Muslim women! How sensational it still is
for many Americans to see a brown-skinned woman in a silk heads-
carf and blue jeans open her mouth and speak “perfect” American

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6 Introduction

English. Why are Muslims and especially Muslim women so palpably
foreign , so deeply other? I suggest that a signifi cant portion of the
explanation lies in the peculiar relationship between Islam and the
West, in the Orientalist lenses many (Muslims and non-Muslims)
wear to examine Islam and Muslims. This book wrestles with that
troubled Islam-West relationship, but unlike other scholarship, not
as it is manifested in “big” cultural spaces of national policy, military
action, and popular cultural products. I investigate that Islam-West
relationship as it is situated in the “small” moments of Muslim wom-
en’s campus experiences. My research participants are also racially
and ethnically defi ned, but all, even indigenous white and black
Americans, become racialized, de-Americanized, and “religionized”
by their association with Islam.

The many varied Muslim women in the pages of this book may
furnish some readers with an unsettling confusion about which one
is a typical Muslim woman—because none of them is. Neither Intisar
(devout hijabi and part-time sportswoman) nor Yasmin (avid clubber
and introspective interrogator of religious absolutes) was a “norm” for
all Muslim American female undergraduates. The super-identity of
Islam often drowned their voices and overpowered their narratives,
yet these women’s identities shattered the theologocentrism (Rodin-
son 2006: 104) that equates all Muslims with Islam . These women’s
identities remind us that they are young, female, American, ethni-
cally distinct (for the most part), and in college, all at the same time,
and that they, in a variety of ways, create third spaces of identity.
These women are sometimes emphatically different and sometimes
indistinguishable from their majority American peers, as they do
what Intisar called “just life” and they “just go through it”—all of it.

The Research Moment

From 1996 to the present day (2013), I have keenly observed Mus-
lim American youth and gender identities. I collected data at my
research sites, George Washington University and Georgetown Uni-
versity, between August 2002 and May 2003. I continued to follow
up with my participants long after that date. In 2009, I interviewed
Muslim undergraduates at the University of Texas at Austin for the
triangulation of fi ndings. In 2010, I visited Georgetown and George
Washington Universities, logged observation time, and collected

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Introduction 7

fresh interview data on Muslim American students’ identity con-
struction. This updated data, while not the primary focus of this
book, corroborates the conclusions of my earlier fi eldwork, albeit
in a climate somewhat less charged than that of a year after the
events of September 11, 2001. My fi ndings throughout this decade
confi rm my conviction that racist Orientalist stereotyping and the
consequently “spoiled” Muslim American identities are an enduring
feature of American culture and higher education, not primarily a
consequence of the September 2001 attacks.

It was painfully awkward to be a researcher examining my Mus-
lim community in the post-9/11 climate. Muslim Americans expe-
rienced the War on Terror directly, through intelligence agencies,
law enforcement, physical and psychological attacks, and indirectly,
through military campaigns replete with human rights violations of
Muslim populations abroad (Maira 2009). Hundreds were secretly ar-
rested, incarcerated, and held without the presumption of innocence
in the investigation. Muslims in the United States often had little re-
course to fundamental legal rights. Political authorities, law enforce-
ment, and security agencies have targeted Muslim Americans on a
large scale since 9/11, and civil rights cases of harassment, violence,
and discrimination, as well as incidents of anti-Muslim hate crimes
have increased since 2001 ( cair 2005). Anti-Muslim hate crimes shot
up by 1600 percent in 2001, with a 10 percent increase between 2005
and 2006 (Read 2008: 40).

I have often agonized over the nature of my research in the politi-
cal climate after September 11, 2001, and the War on Terror. Many
have observed that my topic was timely, even professionally expe-
dient, but scrutinizing fellow Muslims in the post-9/11 atmosphere
was unspeakably uncomfortable, both ethically and emotionally. I
did not wish to become an unwitting pawn for the use of Islamopho-
bic pundits trawling my articles for evidence of Muslim sexism and
extremism (this fear was not unfounded; see Dowd-Galley 2004). An
ethnographer can try to present a community “as it is,” warts and all.
But over a decade after 9/11, the Muslim community is not allowed
the luxury of warts. I feared that my data collection could endanger
vulnerable youth and terrifi ed immigrant families, who witnessed
the fruit of their labors rot and stink before them.

And Muslim women were in the spotlight again. Hijab (the Mus-
lim headscarf) being the second-highest “trigger” of discrimination

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8 Introduction

( cair 2005, Ghumman and Jackson 2010), hijabis were the fi rst to be
recognized as Muslim and treated accordingly. Muslim women have
historically been objects of both pity and fear because they are as-
sociated with Islam and because are hyperfeminized as victims of
the stereotypically brutal Muslim man. More likely than men to be
recognized as Muslim because of their distinctive clothing, but less
likely to be deported than their male counterparts, Muslim women
were at the forefront of efforts to represent and defend their core-
ligionists. “We are not terrorists,” they said ad nauseam. “We are
not oppressed. Don’t pity us, but don’t fear us either. We are good
people. We are just like you. Islam means peace. Muslims are also
Americans”—but the unsaid part was: “We are very tired right now.”

This was the community I was investigating—tense, tired, and
under several layers of surveillance.

By the summer of 2002, I had been a fi xture in the D.C. Muslim
community for a year, having moved from Bloomington, Indiana. I
had also, for some years, been a public speaker and writer on West-
ern Muslims’ identity and religiosity, Muslim women, progressive
Islam, and Sufi sm.

I was an “insider” anthropologist in many ways, but in many ways,
my age, my immigrant status, my discipline (anthropology), and my
undertaking (scholarly research) distanced me from my participants.
Born in the United Kingdom, I grew up mostly in Lahore, Pakistan,
where I graduated from college, obtained a graduate degree, and did
a stint teaching English. Then I moved to Britain to do a graduate
degree at Cambridge University. My religious journey had taken me
through conservative, neo-fundamentalist, orthodox, and progres-
sive Islam, and for some years I had been, spiritually and intellectu-
ally, an orthodox Sufi as well as a progressive Muslim. By 2002, I was
a kind of moderate Muslim par excellence, almost as if I were crafted
to suit a diverse Muslim research sample. During fi eldwork, I tried to
drown many of my other roles in the researcher’s persona, muting
my voice so as to be a good interviewer for a variety of people.

Muslims in America

From an anthropological perspective, who we are is possible because
of where we are and when we are. While I am not of the opinion that
we are purely creatures of circumstance devoid of agency, I believe

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Introduction 9

that the specifi c possibilities of our agency—as well as the potential
to stretch our agency—are structured by our given circumstances.

For my second-generation Muslim American youth, these circum-
stances include the growing physical presence of immigrant popula-
tions in the United States. Their very presence (we hope) brings about
a cultural sea change that shifts the balance of the broader population
against xenophobia and toward acceptance. When the composition of
“us” is transformed, surely our perceptions of “them” will shift too?

Unfortunately, sometimes perceptions change for the worse.
I like to illustrate this by telling an immigrant story set in the 1950s,

before the Islamic revolution in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Af-
ghanistan. My uncle, then in his late teens, arrived amid farms in
the Deep South, the only foreigner in the area. Wherever he went,
he was recognized and greeted as “Mo” (for Mohammad) since his
face was splashed all over the newspapers as the exotic foreigner,
the attractive and debonair Pakistani student with a sports scholar-
ship at the local university. Soon enough, Mo showed up to introduce
himself to the mother of a young woman. Nancy’s mother wanted to
know where the young suitor was from, but, being more familiar with
the Bible than with the world map, she heard “Palestine” rather than
“Pakistan.” Most 1950s Americans didn’t know Pakistan existed, after
all. Young Mo adapted to being from Palestine for the moment since it
was the only category available to him. When the subject turned to re-
ligion, the youth tried to explain what Islam was, but being fairly un-
lettered in such matters (religion was not very popular among mod-
ern, Western-educated Pakistanis in those days), he did not get far. “Is
that like being Catholic?” the mother inquired suspiciously. “Oh no,”
Mo said. “Then,” Nancy’s mother announced, “you can date her!”

Mo assimilated steadily, raising a devoutly Baptist family with
Nancy, and granting he was never especially immersed in Islam, he
became a designated church speaker on the evils of Islam. In time,
Mo’s nephew immigrated during the 1970s and stayed with Mo and
Nancy while he attended college. The nephew was destined to become
cofounder of a Dallas mosque and of networks that enabled his chil-
dren to live rich and full Muslim and Pakistani American lives. In 1996,
Mo’s niece emigrated from Pakistan and became an anthropologist
aspiring to study Muslim American patterns of cultural adaptation.

While Euro-American Christendom is not new to horrid fascina-
tion with Islam, Muslims became known to the United States in a

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10 Introduction

new light after the Cold War. With the Iranian Revolution and the
collapse of the Communist bloc, the specter of Muslim power and
protest became the primary threat to U.S. global supremacy. Times
have changed. Today, Mo would have a better chance with Nancy’s
mother if he was a Palestinian Catholic. Mo’s neighbors in South
Carolina did not know what Pakistani Muslims were. Today Ameri-
cans think they do.

The 1960s were an eventful period globally, with the Algerian
and Iranian Revolutions and the rise of Islamist organizations. The
Muslim Brotherhood (in the Arab world) and the Jamaat-e-Islami
(in South Asia), ideological cousins in the Islamist movement, com-
manded a signifi cant following among diasporic Muslims until the
1990s. Muslim students had created the Muslim Students Associa-
tion ( msa ) in 1963, and in 1981, the founders created a community
organization, the Islamic Society of North America ( isna ), for the
Muslims who were no longer college students. When I arrived in
the 1990s, Islamist and Salafi -oriented South Asians and Arabs were
gatekeepers and activists within many predominantly immigrant
Muslim American religious organizations. To openly subscribe to
Sufi sm, feminism, or progressive Islam was to invite a good deal of
trouble in many religious contexts (as I learned!). The immigrant and
outwardly Islamist identity of these organizations remained quite
solid until the mid-1990s, when Sufi orders began to attract the
younger generation with the promise of deeper spirituality, the ap-
peal to greater universalism, and (in many cases) roots in medieval
Islamic interpretive sources. At the same time, the seeds of reform-
ist critique sown by postcolonial intellectuals started to bear fruit as
Salafi sm and Islamism began to lose their numerical majority.

Most of my participants were raised in the United States by par-
ents who had arrived in the 1970s or early 1980s. A small number
of them were more recent arrivals, and a few were converts. There
was a variety of types and levels of religious ideology, belief, and
practice among my research participants, yet all self-identifi ed as
Muslim. On most metropolitan American campuses today, the msa
is solidly second generation, and the predominantly international
(and male) msa is a thing of the past. An accurate count of Muslim
Americans is impossible to fi nd, and estimates vary widely, depend-
ing on the source, between 2.6 million and 6 million (depending on
how much you like or fear Muslims). Some say almost half of Muslim

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Introduction 11

Americans are indigenous (mostly African American), while the re-
mainder are immigrants from more than eighty countries (Read
2008, Cesari 2004: 10–11). Not only can Muslim Americans be racially
and ethnically identifi ed in a multitude of ways, but their religious
beliefs and practices are also legion.

Muslim Americans are situated at a nexus of political, religious,
racial, ethnic, cultural, and transnational identities. This nexus can
be most helpfully described as a “third space”—an in-between space
awkwardly straddling recognized categories, fi tting into none. Mus-
lim Americans’ identities do not fall into singular theoretical and
census categories. Moreover, conversion among African Ameri-
cans (though, in addition to new converts, there are a few genera-
tions of African American Muslims), whites, Hispanics, and Native
Americans means that Islam is not just an immigrant religion in
the United States. Muslim Americans’ identity construction fol-
lows the trends of earlier immigrants in many ways, but is compli-
cated by the lens of Orientalism (Said 1978). This makes Muslims
much less easily accommodated (Moore 1995: xi) and allows them
to be preemptively stamped with the stigma of being “not ordinary”
(Sacks 1984). The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the
fallout thereafter have threatened to further jeopardize the integ-
rity of Muslim identity (Steinback 2011). U.S. identity shifted when,
on that date, the United States experienced not only a rare chal-
lenge from a foreign source but also a direct attack on its soil. The
attacks gave birth to a new identity that combined the fragility and
hypermasculinity of a threatened superpower. For the United States
to fi nd itself in the shadow of real physical threat was a relatively
new and overwhelming experience. No longer buttressed by its Cold
War mission, America constructed itself in relation to “Muslim ter-
rorism.” Because the specifi c attackers were Muslim, a broad swath
of Americans decided that Muslims in general were fanatical terror-
ists. The terrorists’ hatred and violence could be simplifi ed, defi ned,
and explained briefl y by “Islam.” Images of men glaring through dark
eyebrows (a throwback to Ayatollah Khomeini’s omnipresent image
after the Iranian Revolution) and of fi gures enveloped in blue burqas
fl ooded our screens. A modern-day Uncle Mo would be welcomed
with suspicious glares and nseer (National Security Exit-Entry Reg-
istration) queues, rather than with young white women eager to
settle down with a handsome foreigner. As we learned in the case of

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12 Introduction

the Oklahoma City bombing, and years later in the case of the mass
killings in Oslo and on a nearby island, almost no terrorism could
take place in the world without the immediate assumption that the
perpetrators were Muslim. In the Norwegian Anders Breivik’s video
and written manifestos, he gives “frank, graphic expression to the
very opposite of pluralism,” to “fear of diversity, anger at immigra-
tion and multiculturalism, and a contempt for dialogue,” but we
should be painfully aware that a “muted articulation of this same
fear and anger can be heard in mainstream debates across Europe
and in the United States around issues of immigration” (Diana Eck,
e-mail communication, August 8, 2011). Recently, the Boston mara-
thon bombing has reignited the fl ames of this hatred.

In the wake of 9/11, information about Islam and Muslims has
been a hot commodity. Yet much of this so-called information is
based on little but opinion (at best) or xenophobia (at worst): much
of the content, like the Princess books about the Saudi royals, ad-
dresses readers’ thirst to “know” the Muslim Other but serves merely
to strengthen Westerners’ sense of superiority to Muslims ( fair
2008). On the other hand, in their effort to provide a counterweight
to the demonization of Muslims, Muslim writers and spokespersons
sometimes commit the common error of apologetics by idealizing
Muslims as ahistorical and religious (Kandiyoti 1991: 1). Based on
empirical data gathered by an insider, the present book attempts to
correct this imbalance and more by avoiding errors of both apology
and prejudice. I critique Orientalist stereotypes of sexist Muslims,
but I also investigate gender inequity among Muslim Americans and
examine the tendency of many of them to idealize their religious
community as a timeless, unchanging monolith.

America and Muslims

zeinab : I don’t think that being Muslim confl icts with being
American. . . . I’m not going to go out in shorts and a tank top
because I’m American. I’m going to go out in pants and a shirt
because I’m an American and I’m a Muslim. . . . I know so many
Americans who are feminists who hate short skirts, would
never wear it because it goes against their beliefs. There are
so many Jews who wear the yarmulke or when they get mar-
ried they put hats on or wigs on, but they do that not because

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Introduction 13

they’re un-American, but that’s what their beliefs are. A nun, or
a monk, they have a certain life in America: it doesn’t confl ict
with them. Similarly, I can be Muslim and live in America.

If a nun, a monk, or an Orthodox Jew can be an American and live by
his or her religious precepts, should it not be natural to be able to live
an Islamic life and be an American? Muslim identity or religiosity is
not inherently opposed to being American. But to many Americans,
the moniker “Muslim American” is an oxymoron rather than a de-
mographic group, and in many academic circles such notions as uni-
versal human rights and gender equality are perceived as inherently
in confl ict with “Islam,” while Christian or Jewish theology need not
be on the defensive. Islamophobia is neither fringe nor unusual and
is often intimately linked with such positive values as patriotism in
a nation where the president needs to emphatically clarify that he is
not a Muslim; where some fbi trainees have been taught that “main-
stream” Muslims (and not just extremists) are radical and violent,
and that being devout is an indicator of radicalization (Ackerman
2011); where military trainees have discussed the use of “Hiroshima
tactics” for “total war” against Islam (Shachtman and Ackerman
2012); and where the New York Police Department has conducted
surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods and Muslim college students
across the Northeast (Associated Press 2012).

A vocal segment of the American population believes that Mus-
lim Americans are, and should be , seen as enduringly different, as
un-Western and anti-Western. Campaigners against the tlc reality
show All-American Muslim were angered by the depiction of Muslim
Americans as utterly normal Americans. The bland, unremarkable
depiction of the Muslim characters was perceived as a momentous
threat—an attempt “to manipulate Americans into ignoring the
threat of jihad” (the Florida Family Association). For such people, the
normal Americanness of All-American Muslim characters only serves
as a warning of how the hidden enemy only pretends to combine the
qualities of clashing worlds (Nussbaum 2012).

But surely, some may say, these stereotypes belong in rural red-
state communities, and among those with no access to social sci-
entifi c analysis. Surely, in elite liberal college cultures, for example,
where professors deconstruct myths, where freshmen live together
in dorms, where students get credit for engaging in diversity-related

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14 Introduction

activities, Islamophobic stereotypes might seem outlandishly
strange. Many Americans assume that university campuses are bas-
tions of open, liberal, accommodating, and diversity-loving cultures
where difference fl ourishes and is nurtured. If we are to believe the
moral panic of the Right, the academy is the domain of “guilt-ridden”
Muslim-lovers, leftists, atheists, and socialists (they are apparently
interchangeable) (Spencer 2008: 228). Yet by examining how Mus-
lim American women’s subjectivities interact with campus culture,
I show that despite the fantasy (both liberal and conservative) of
college as a hotbed of tolerance, minority students are still subject
to majoritarian pressures to conform to Anglo culture. While I do
not see the post-9/11 era as fundamentally new in terms of Islamo-
phobic racism, this period offers rich and fresh possibilities for the
scrutiny of Orientalist Islamophobia in our everyday American lives.
While this book is about Muslim American undergraduates, it is also
about America. I am equally interested in America, in who America
is, and in who “America” thinks she is, via a study of Muslim Ameri-
cans, as I am interested in Muslim Americans and who they think
they are.

Muslims in College

To study America and Muslim Americans, I chose American univer-
sity campuses. At liberal university campuses “America” is arguably
at its most liberal and self-consciously inclusive. Since before 9/11,
the neoliberal backlash and the campus adventures of the intelli-
gence community and of law enforcement cast dark shadows on
the ivory tower. The action of this book is set in the (mostly) social
leisure spaces on campus and to a lesser degree, in the academic
spaces. Often the distinction between academic and social spaces
is an artifi cial one. Social spaces are “primal scenes of sociology”
and of crucial importance to social scientists since it is in the sus-
tained social encounter between “normals” and those who possess
stigmatized identities that “the causes and effects of stigma must
be directly confronted by both sides” (Goffman 1963: 13). As infor-
mal social networks are profoundly powerful in the constitution of
youth identity (Willis 1981), I focus on these in a variety of spaces—
classrooms, the extracurricular spaces of student clubs, and leisure
spaces such as parties, nightclubs, and bars.

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Introduction 15

In the fall of 2001, all across America, thousands of young Muslim
Americans, along with their college classmates, entered or returned
to college. A few weeks later, three planes fl ew into the World Trade
Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Now
these young Muslim Americans would have to prove continually
that they were not potential terrorists. Long before they entered the
classrooms and opened their mouths, they were known: they were
Muslim. In the newly under-attack country where they were born
and/or raised, they suddenly became xenophobic potential hijackers,
infl amed by a timeless hatred; and if they were “good Muslims, they
were attempting to exorcise that hatred.” The shadow of those planes,
once it had fallen on these young people’s paths, remained. The dark
shadow over higher education was lengthened when Dzhokhar Tsar-
naev, a student at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and
his brother Tamerlan, a part-time student at Bunker Hill Community
College, were identifi ed as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing.

This is a book about that long shadow. It is about how young Mus-
lim Americans come up with a rejoinder to the identity stamped
on them, how they snap back and explain and teach in many tones
of voice that they are American and Muslim and not violent, bar-
baric, or foreign. It is also about how they often cover those telltale
signs of Muslim identity and sometimes pass as non-Muslim (Goff-
man 1963). This book is about stereotyping, double consciousness,
self-surveillance, and essentialism visited on Muslim Americans by
both dominant majority Americans and other Muslim Americans. It
is also about those among them who tire of the projects of cultural
assimilation and social integration, who embrace the only identity
category available and stick out their chins to assert that they are
indeed different, religious, traditional, and weird. Their brows are al-
ready stamped with this identity: they embrace it and accept the rep-
resentative burden—because to refuse it would be cowardly, incom-
prehensible to the interlocutor, and/or exhaustingly complicated.

Muslims at Georgetown and George
Washington Universities

amber : I think it’s soooo stressful [being Muslim post-9/11]. . . .
Things happen, that remind me, constantly. Like today I got a
call from a good friend; she’s a very strong person, and she’s

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16 Introduction

sobbing on the phone. She’s like, “I can’t take it anymore. I’m
so stressed out.” . . . She’s very active [as an activist], and she’s
been on spring break so it’s been a week and she hasn’t done
anything. I guess she feels bad. She was sobbing for ten min-
utes on the phone, and she never cries, I never heard her cry,
so I didn’t know what to say. And that reminded me of what’s
going on. . . . Emotionally she’s just breaking down right now. I
asked her, she’s like, “No, I don’t know what it is. I’m being stu-
pid, I’m being stupid.” . . . And I can only attribute that to what’s
going on. Like our friend’s house was raided [by the fbi ]. . . . All
these things remind you: no matter how much you try to live
in this moment, we have to think about what’s happened in the
broader context. Yeah, we should try to have our own personal
goals but—.

In the summer of 2001, I had just moved from my campus in Bloom-
ington, Indiana, to live in Washington, D.C., with Svend, whom I mar-
ried in March of 2001. When I took the yellow Metro line past the
Pentagon on September 12, 2001, I felt a sick sense of shameful relief
that I did not wear hijab and that I had with me a white husband
who did not look obviously Muslim.

In the late summer of 2002, the memories of raids by fbi , customs,
immigration, and law enforcement agents at local Muslim homes
and offi ces were still fresh among prospective research participants
when I visited the two campuses for fi eldwork. In the large Mus-
lim American community of Greater Washington, D.C., Muslims like
Amber, whom I quote above, recalled friends being criminalized,
harassed, and humiliated in the post-9/11 raids (styled Operation
Green Quest). These sweeps affected my friends and acquaintances,
as well as prominent community leaders with a solid track record of
working within the system to facilitate Muslim American academic
and charitable pursuits. The efforts of these community activists
to engage with American democratic institutions were now tarred
as fronts for terrorism. Two of my research participants, Heather
and Sharmila, told me of one case, in which the northern Virginia
home of their girlfriend was attacked by law enforcement offi cers:
a man broke down the door, handcuffed the mother and adolescent
daughter, ignored their protests, and photographed them without
their headscarves, only later troubling himself to inform them that

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Introduction 17

he was an offi cer with a search warrant. Such incidents could not
fail to have the desired effect on other Muslims—including myself—
instilling fear and a sense of perpetual surveillance.

Muslim student groups were under surveillance (Skolnik et al.
2002), and suspicion was so palpable that my most religiously skep-
tical Muslim research participant once commented on her certainty
of campus Muslims being monitored. Both Georgetown and George
Washington Universities have local msa chapters, and these fi gure
prominently in my fi eldwork. Local campus msas are relatively in-
dependent of the msa of the United States and Canada (known as
msa National). Like all predominantly undergraduate organizations,
with their diverse membership and high turnover, local msas cannot
be described in static terms. Demographic factors such as signifi cant
Gulf Arab student populations and the presence of infl uential ex of-
fi cio members—long-standing graduate students, for instance—can
bring longevity to a specifi c collective style and in an msa ’s pub-
lic character. The collective practices and identities of the Muslim
campus group at my alma mater, Indiana University, for example,
shifted in the 1990s, with a signifi cant rise in the number of second-
generation Muslim Americans and Muslims from Southeast Asia
and Turkey to rival the numbers of Gulf Arab students, ousting them
from their gatekeeping position in the mosque and msa .

In the summer of 2002, I commenced feverishly negotiating ac-
cess with Georgetown and George Washington authorities. I also so-
licited permission and intermediary assistance from the msas as
local gatekeepers and cultural spaces of resistance for many campus
Muslims (hooks 1990b). My initial recruitment of participants relied
on sign-up sheets at msa meetings and included msa members and
student offi cers. As I became more integrated into the communities,
I identifi ed and recruited participants who did not belong to the msa ,
some who had never attended an msa event, and a few who did not
know that there was a Muslim club on campus.

Both the Georgetown msa and the George Washington msa had
earned university awards for service and activism. Each had strong
membership networks and held regular events such as lectures,
ice cream socials, coffee nights, Eid banquets, and prayer vigils. Ra-
madan was the most active time of the year, when msas organized
fastathons (collective interfaith fasting) and congregational suhoor
and iftar meals and prayers. The Ramadan meals of suhoor and iftar

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18 Introduction

were popular among a variety of Muslim students who gathered to
alleviate some of the increased homesickness during this month.
(Imagine, for example, Christian students attending college during
the Christmas season).

In class and cultural style, the George Washington University
( gwu ) and Georgetown University (Georgetown) Muslim students
were fairly similar with some subtle differences. Due to geographic
proximity, shared nightlife venues, and similar academic foci, the
two student communities also overlapped rather often at social
venues and local events. It was not uncommon to see Georgetown
Muslim students at gwu events and vice versa. Class and academic
rivalries between the two universities have been highlighted in such
formats as a student-produced video, gwu msa vs. Georgetown msa .
In the highly exaggerated caricature, stocky gwu msa men in bulky
navy hoodies and sweatpants were mocked as the poorer, ghetto,
macho “Georgetown waitlist” by their slim, supercilious, bohemian
Georgetown counterparts in khakis and colorful polo collars.

As affl uent, private universities with substantial numbers of
Muslim students, Georgetown and gwu are quite comparable for
my purposes. Both universities have majority white undergraduate
populations and a large international student body. Georgetown, a
Jesuit university and a “hot big city school” (Mathews 2007: 53), is
popularly believed to be “hotter,” wealthier, more bohemian, more
liberal, and more laid back than its secular counterpart, gwu . The
physical and architectural layout of the campuses generate distinct
styles of community: the urban campus of gwu tends to bleed into
the urban off-campus world of Northwest D.C. more easily than does
Georgetown, and gwu lacks Georgetown’s green and cobblestoned
open public spaces that allow students to mill about within cam-
pus limits. The upscale, off-campus commercial world adjacent to
Georgetown seems to become absorbed within the Georgetown stu-
dent population. There thus exists a more youth-centric, exclusive
yet bohemian climate at Georgetown and a somewhat less bohe-
mian and more urban and worldly feel within the gwu community,
yet both campus cultures exude wealth and are characterized by a
combination of hard partying and hard studying.

Most existing studies of Muslim American students tend to focus
on minors who live with their families and attend grade school. My
book focuses on what happens when adolescents grow up, go to

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Introduction 19

college, and move away from parental supervision. Most of my par-
ticipants were residential students, but a few had families within
commutable distance. My Georgetown sample was overwhelmingly
residential, while my gwu sample was about one-third commuters.
A few of my participants lived in a cluster of apartments designated
as the Muslim Interest Living Community ( milc or “Muslim Hous-
ing”): in these apartments, residents were not permitted to consume
alcohol, nor could a man and a woman be alone together at any
time. Muslim housing, open to students of all faiths with an “inter-
est” in “Muslim lifestyle,” was particularly benefi cial for those who
preferred an atmosphere free from the hedonistic excesses of cam-
pus leisure culture.

Although Georgetown and gwu enroll undergraduates who pos-
sess a combination of strong class and academic capital and my
research participants all occupied elite spaces, these participants
were not exclusively upper class. A few were solidly wealthy. How-
ever, many benefi ted from the universities’ student aid packages,
and some relied almost entirely on student aid. To classify them
roughly by socioeconomic background, the South Asian participants
were all middle to upper class; the Arab participants were middle
class; the black and white participants were upper-middle to lower-
middle class; and my Somali participant of refugee background was
now a frugal member on the margins of the middle class. As a left-
leaning scholar, I wish I could speak more about the women’s class
backgrounds than I do in this book, but in the elite spaces of these
universities, socioeconomic status was a sensitive matter and I did
not want to pain (or lose) my research participants. I examine social
class broadly, in terms of how social class (often treated as the pri-
mary form of social advantage in anthropological studies of differ-
ence) can be trumped by the stigma of religious identity, how being
a religious Muslim can reduce socioeconomic privilege. My partici-
pants’ sense of belonging in campus culture fl uctuated according to
how visible their Muslim identities were.

Georgetown and gwu both have fairly well equipped and well de-
signed musallas (Muslim prayer rooms). The Georgetown musalla, in
a residence hall basement, is decorated with Islamic art and a prayer
carpet. The gwu musalla is located in the student union and has
custom carpeting, conveniently low steel sinks for ablutions, and
separate doors for men and women. The presence of the musalla

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20 Introduction

attracted gwu Muslim students to socialize in the nearby lounge
area on the fourth fl oor; so many of my interviews took place in
the surrounding classrooms. During my fi eldwork the gwu musalla
was also spatially (but fl exibly) divided into male and female prayer
spaces by a six-foot-high folding screen. When I visited the campus
six years later, the screen had been set aside and I interviewed a male
msa member in the musalla (he and I sat together alone, something
I had never seen happen in that musalla before). Neither musalla
was large enough to accommodate the entire Muslim campus com-
munity for Jumʿah prayer. A church basement in Foggy Bottom was
rented for the gwu Jumʿah prayer; this bare but convenient urban
location brought local professionals and employees to the campus
community. Typically, when students are obliged to fall back on the
non-campus community for resources, the infl uence of outsiders
is bound to increase (Hermansen 2003). I heard more conservative
discourse at the gwu Jumʿah, due mainly to the presence of non-
students and graduate students. The Georgetown msa held its Friday
service in an activity room at the center of campus, which attracted
far fewer non-campus attendees than the gwu Jumʿah service.

Many Georgetown Muslims proudly described their msa as more
inclusive than others. Conservative Muslims at other local univer-
sities (the msas at George Mason University and the University of
Maryland at College Park were reputed to be very conservative dur-
ing that time) disapprovingly described Georgetown Muslims as
“too liberal” in their gender norms, measuring by the porosity of
the Muslim community and the degree of gender “mixing.” Liberal
Muslims at both gwu and Georgetown shuddered at the notion of
separate Muslim organizations for women (extant at some universi-
ties), preferring their own intertwined styles of religiosity, class, and
gendered behavior.

A variety of ideological backgrounds were represented in both
msas . The msa could be roughly divided into the relatively conser-
vative, “offi cial” gatekeepers (this was in itself a diverse group) and
large groups of more “liberal” individuals. As I examined their roles
on campus, I realized that all of these various Muslim “types” were
engaged in the construction of Muslim American youth culture, al-
beit in different ways. Power shifted across and between these par-
ties in different spaces and at different times. Mainstream American
observers tend to identify the “liberal” Muslims as “oppressed” by the

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Introduction 21

conservative “gatekeepers.” Yet I found the Georgetown gatekeepers
pitted against a hegemonic liberal secularity both within the Muslim
community and in the broader campus culture.

While gwu had a short-lived part-time chaplaincy, Georgetown
was the fi rst American Catholic university to hire a full-time Muslim
chaplain, Imam Yahya Hendi, who served as a liaison between Mus-
lim students and the university administration. Both institutions
had strong academic programs focusing on Islam and the Middle
East: Georgetown had the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and
the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (where I was a vis-
iting researcher), while gwu had the renowned Sufi expert Seyyed
Hossein Nasr.

Ethnographic Methods

In researching young Muslim American women who were engaged
in constructing identities that were also being constructed for them,
ethnographic methods were the only possible choice. I conducted
participant observation at two private university campuses, as well
as informal conversational interviews with twenty-six undergradu-
ate Muslim women, thirteen at each campus. I spent over one year
shuttling between these two Muslim college communities on and
off campus, participating directly and indirectly in everyday campus
events and non-events, immersed in my participants’ “interpreta-
tions of their world” (Miles and Huberman 1994: 8).

On a typical day of fi eldwork, I would type up fi eld notes and head
out to one of the campuses. I would wait for a prearranged interview
in a university lounge while I transcribed interviews and watched
students study, lounge, socialize, and vegetate. After two or three
interviews, I would accompany a research participant to an msa lec-
ture or an iftar meal, and we would proceed together to the Rama-
dan tarawih prayer. As night fell, I would take the subway back to my
apartment in Arlington. On other days, I would have one long inter-
view at the local café, and then my participant and I would walk over
to the Metro station together. Or I would arrive on campus just in
time to lie down on the ground in the Red Square “die-in” sponsored
by campus activists to protest the war in Iraq. Then I would proceed
to a classroom observation and afterward hang out in Red Square
at Georgetown or on the fourth fl oor of the student union building

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22 Introduction

at gwu , where I socialized and had valuable impromptu conversa-
tions with Muslim undergraduate men and women. I watched bul-
letin boards and the campus newspapers and kept myself abreast of
major campus events. Along with participants, I attended lectures,
day conferences, political demonstrations, music concerts, student
performances, interfaith dinners, Nowruz celebrations, birthday par-
ties, congregational prayers, class lectures, and even a bridal shower
and a wedding.

Over the course of the academic year, I had 126 interviews with
my participants (which, in addition to fi eld notes, I personally tran-
scribed, being too poor to hire someone). I held interviews in library
study rooms, student lounges, apartments, and cafés. During ini-
tial interviews, I introduced my fi eldwork as being about university
life and identity, and only asked “basic” and non-probing questions
about participants’ majors, hometowns, interests, preoccupations,
and the like. After this, I started asking open-ended questions like
“How have you been?”; “What’s been happening lately?” My ques-
tions during later interviews were a cross between my research
questions and each participant’s particular interview content. This
approach worked remarkably well most of the time. My participants
would give me the latest news—academic anxieties, budding ro-
mances, travel, and so forth. In an early interview, Amber expressed
relief that she would be fi nished with msa work on graduation, so
we fell to chatting about the different types of people involved in the
msa , without my having to probe her on Muslim identities. When I
told Elizabeth how diffi cult it had been to identify African Ameri-
can Muslim participants, she explained why the African American
students were “undercover,” and marginal in the predominantly im-
migrant msa . When I pressed Intisar for details about the social dif-
fi culties of sophomore year, she told me of her sense of emotional-
cultural isolation, and her desire to create a Somali student club.
We discussed religious, ethnic, cultural, youth, and gender identities,
being Muslim American in that historical moment, but particularly
experiences on and off campus that shed light on being Muslim
American female college students.

As my participants and I shared many of the same cultural and
social fi elds, they accepted me as an insider with relative ease. Ob-
servant Muslims accepted me as a Muslim who observed obligatory
rituals and important practices. Less religiously observant Muslims

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Introduction 23

confi ded in me as a critical Islamic feminist with progressive lean-
ings in religion. I shared something important with all of them.

Alcohol, Clothes, and Dating

If you have eyed the titles of my chapters with curiosity, you may
want to hear why alcohol, clothes, and dating are the themes that or-
ganize a book about Muslim American undergraduate women. Some
readers have wondered if the choice of these tropes illustrates a lam-
entable Orientalist tendency to focus on the image, both desexual-
ized and hypersexualized, of the Muslim woman.

Muslim American undergraduate women function within major-
ity social and leisure culture, even as many of them wrestle with
it. As peer culture is the most powerful stuff in the construction of
youth identities, it was no surprise when the prominent motifs of
alcohol, clothes, and dating emerged from the data during analysis.
After completing data collection and the grueling task of transcrip-
tion, I searched through my data and played with it, arranging and
rearranging, reading and rereading observation notes and interview
transcripts, inserting parenthetical comments, profoundly over-
whelmed by the quantity of data, issues, and tropes. I started try-
ing to identify patterns and themes to represent my fi ndings. While
patterns aplenty arose from the data, I agonized over identifying the
right patterns, the ones real anthropologists would construct. I did
not pull fi ndings out of the void. To use a more painful metaphor, I
pushed them out after the data had gestated for a time, half encoun-
tering and co-creating the fi ndings within data.

Initially, I established several categories of data analysis—
pluralism, integration, identity, gender, Muslim student groups, and
parents/families—but these categories unsettled me: as a qualita-
tive researcher I, of course, acknowledge my role in constructing
fi ndings, but these were entirely my own categories—nerdy, meta-
analytic themes that could have emerged from keywords in jstor . I
contemplated structuring chapters around large themes such as the
relationship between being American and being Muslim. But as I re-
hearsed organizing a document around cerebral “big themes” (found
in my research questions and the literature), I noticed that doing so
distanced my analysis from the data and broke up the connecting
issues in an artifi cial manner. One of my main goals was to show

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24 Introduction

how being American, being Muslim, being youthful, being students,
and being women happened seamlessly in these women’s lives. How
could I make sense of their lives if I chopped them up, like body parts
in horror fi lms, into “chapters”? Added to this discomfort were the
scholarly trepidation of being one of the fi rst researchers to treat the
subject and the anticipated guilt of “doing it all wrong” and estab-
lishing a pattern for others thereafter.

As I plowed through the data, I grew increasingly appreciative of
how my participants had expressed their engagement with identities
not in abstract terms but through particular, concrete experiences,
such as the pervasive presence of alcohol on campus. In fact, they
talked about drinking a great deal . They also seemed very interested
in (surprise!) boys, dating, romance, marriage, fashion, and clothes.
Identity themes were traceable in these behaviors and among them
with greater integrity and greater fi delity to my participants’ voices.

This is how domains of behavior emerged as vehicles to represent
how Muslim American women handled the radioactive elements of
campus sociability and how they identifi ed themselves and cate-
gorized themselves vis-à-vis Muslim and non-Muslim Others. For
example, almost every participant raised the issue of alcohol con-
sumption, her position on it (whether she drank or not, whether she
occupied drinking spaces), and her opinion of others’ alcohol-related
practices. Every participant deeply pondered the problem of clothes,
her own sartorial practices (whether she wore hijab and what she
considered modest garb), and a survey of Muslim and non-Muslim
sartorial practices. And everyone wanted to thrash over gendered
behavior, the opposite sex, and various gendered practices such as
courting and dating. Drinking or not drinking, clubbing or not club-
bing, dating or not dating, observing current fashions or not—these
factors were signifi cant determinants of how one became an integral
member of core peer culture and of Muslim community culture/s.
These three groups of practices emerged as the most salient expres-
sive principles or heuristic tools in the data, and three data-driven
chapters grew around them.

But What about Academic Concerns?

You may ask why academic concerns are not salient in my book. I
asked the same question as I approached my fi eld data: why did my

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Introduction 25

research subjects talk endlessly about bars and clubs (or not going
to bars and clubs), about headscarves and not wearing headscarves,
and about boys, but not so much about that fascinating seminar or
that fi nal exam? The issue at stake is what scholars believe should
preoccupy undergraduates at college as opposed to what really con-
sumes them. While my research subjects studied hard, academic
work was not so much at the heart of their Who am I journeys. Un-
dergraduates’ academic and social lives were profoundly social.
Therefore I concern myself with Muslim students’ experience of the
social dimension of college, but, for all that, my participants’ aca-
demic lives are integral to the book (e.g., in chapter 4, see Latifa’s
engagements with classroom spaces and Amber’s engagement with
the politics of political debate in class.)

The importance of peer social cultures informs scholarly work in
education in general and in higher education in particular, and it
is refl ected in the sexy course titles to be found in college course
catalogs today. Social connections are important to youth. Moreover,
it is in the social spaces of educational cultures that youth identi-
ties are most vulnerable to symbolic violence. In the United States,
being “normal” is closely coupled with being white and Christian,
or at least with conformity to majority cultural practices of a social
nature—among those, drinking, sartorial style, and dating.

The Research Sample

I have provided a table with participants’ basic demographic infor-
mation in the appendix. The members of my research sample dif-
fered in age, race, ethnicity, and types and levels of religiosity. My
participants included hijabis and non-hijabis who would be de-
scribed as pious and, on the other end of the continuum, very liberal
participants who were unrecognizable as Muslim, as well as a num-
ber of middle-of-the-road Muslims. I chose to steer clear of an es-
sentialist view of “Muslim” while not draining the term of all mean-
ing. I therefore made sure to select participants who self-identifi ed
as Muslim, whatever their religious practice. Some questioned the
fundamentals of Islam, others were devoutly pious, and most took a
position between these two points.

From an initial reliance on convenience sampling (recruiting
“whoever I could get”), I started trying to obtain maximum-variation

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26 Introduction

sampling as soon as my fi eldwork took off, locating research par-
ticipants of divergent racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds and
employing snowball sampling as I was introduced to potential par-
ticipants by existing ones. In terms of representing a diversity of
racial and ethnic backgrounds, I was generally fortunate, but I could
not hope to be comprehensive: my participants encompassed some
of the range of the Muslim American population, as I had black,
white, and Hispanic Muslim women, and Muslim women of Paki-
stani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Iranian, Arab (Libyan and Iraqi), and Afri-
can (Somali) origins. Examining my sample of primary participants
critically in early 2003, I found it to be composed mainly but not
exclusively, of rather religious undergraduates who were associated
with the msa . The range of Muslim religious identities on campus
was far wider than I had initially generalized from my previous expe-
rience of Muslim student communities. In the course of data collec-
tion, I also discovered that some potential participants had gathered
from my initial e-mail (recruiting “Muslim students” for research)
that I was looking for “good Muslims.” These potential participants
had then decided not to volunteer since they were not good Mus-
lim representatives. At this stage, however, my desperate eagerness
to fi nd “less religious” participants was borderline laughable. I tried
every strategy except outright requests for introductions to Muslim
women who drank and slept around. I searched university e-mail
directories, using common Muslim last names of South Asian and
Middle Eastern origin, and selected women’s names. In a recruit-
ment e-mail to students with last names like “Khan” and “Moham-
med,” I asked them if they would be interested in participating in a
research project, and purposely toned down the “Muslim” element
in my letter. This staggered and refl exive search for participants re-
sulted in far more participants than I had originally intended to in-
terview, twenty-six to be exact. Scheduling all the interviews into my
participants’ busy schedules and into a comparative study of two
campuses was somewhat onerous, but such are the unpredictable
vagaries of fi eldwork.

Most participants were born and all were raised in the United
States. Most of my research participants were of immigrant back-
ground, while others (and this was a deliberate choice) were not. The
Americanness of Muslim Americans complicates the racism and na-
tivism that easily relegates Islam to foreignness but also illustrates

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Introduction 27

the power of Orientalism in trumping the racial and indigenous ad-
vantage of white and black Muslims. Four participants were converts:
two whites, one black, and one mixed race (Hispanic and black). I
had eleven Pakistani Americans, fi ve Bangladeshi Americans, two
Iranian Americans, two Arab Americans, one Somali American, and
one Indian American. I had participants from all academic years of
college. Most of my participants were Sunni, but I had two Shi’as
from each campus. Two of the Georgetown and six of the gwu par-
ticipants were hijabi during the fi eldwork: the numerical difference
results partly from sampling procedures and partly from the respec-
tive msa ’s cultures. Although non-hijabis held offi ce in both msas ,
non-hijabis felt more comfortable in Georgetown’s msa than in the
one at gwu . I had four commuter participants, while the other par-
ties were residents in dorms or in off-campus apartments.

All the Muslim undergraduates I encountered during my fi eld-
work were academically and professionally driven, and most had
relatively clear plans for future careers. Most of my participants were
quite ambitious in terms of career plans: Washington, D.C., was a
city hospitable to professional development in the foreign service,
law, development, and academic careers in religious and area stud-
ies. Since students in the sciences tended to be too engrossed in their
own academic and social networks for participation in a research
study, I had only a few such participants—Muna, Faiyza, and Roshan.
Almost all of my twenty-six primary participants had a strong sense
of combined religious, cultural, and civic mission to be exemplary,
productive, successful, and “normal” as Muslims, students, and Mus-
lim American women.

In addition to the primary participants, I interviewed other female
Muslims, some Muslim male students, and some non-Muslim stu-
dents and conducted observations of the broader campus commu-
nity. The rich data I gathered in the fi eld strengthened my certainty
of focus on Muslim American women due to the unique gendered na-
ture of Muslim religiosity and its interactions with campus culture.
But my research also whetted my appetite for future research that
would include male Muslim American youth and other faith groups.

Most of the success of my research project must be attributed
to the trenchant analysis, the tremendous candor, and the excel-
lent good humor of my participants. These young Muslim Ameri-
can women wanted to fi t in, to resist and transcend assumptions,

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28 Introduction

to be happy in romance and marriage, to be high achievers, to have
successful careers, to serve, to change, to be safe, and to rock the
boat. They experimented with different ways of being ethnic, cul-
tural, American, Muslim, successful, and “normal”—all at the same
time. In order to build a picture of their campus lives, I use their
own words culled from interview data—hard-hitting, often hilari-
ous, never one-dimensional, acidly realistic about their challenges,
and irrepressibly ambitious in their desire to break the molds within
which they often found themselves trapped.

In this book, you will fi nd an ethnographic portrait of Muslim
women’s identities as they become on two East Coast metropolitan,
private, elite campuses—in their own accounts and in my observa-
tion. As a portrait is inevitably somewhat static in nature, it cannot
capture motion, process, or change over time. Today, my participants
may not identify with all their identity work and their comments
in the past. But in this book, I attempt to capture that fl eeting yet
powerful moment of their college lives, demonstrating how the pro-
cesses of becoming Muslim, women, college students, and American
youth are multifaceted, complex, and widely divergent for Muslim
women. Like many researchers entrusted with intimate musings,
I remain intensely invested in my participants’ success and their
happiness. In many cases, we have long transcended the research
moment and become close friends. I root for them as, today, they
complete graduate and professional studies, enter career fi elds, gain
promotions, and are rising stars within their various professions—
medicine, diplomacy, religious studies, area studies, law, interna-
tional development, and so on, many of them also falling in love,
getting married, and having children. In more recent conversations
with them and with other Muslim American students, I fi nd that the
concerns appearing in this book regarding identity, campus social
cultures, gender, and Muslim religiosity remain a constant.

A Map of This Book

In chapter 2, I discuss the powerful campus culture of hedonism and
sociability and how this focus gives the lie to the college narrative
of freedom and pluralism in Muslim American women’s experience.
I also name the Orientalist and essentialist discursive construction
of Muslims on American university campuses and discuss what

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Introduction 29

Muslim students do to comply with, resist, adopt, and exploit the
prevalent Orientalist discourse that threatens to “spoil” their identi-
ties on campus.

In chapters 3 to 5, I discuss the ethnographic data closely, zero-
ing in on particular areas of campus social experience. In chapter
3, I explore how participation in alcohol culture informed Muslim
American women’s identity construction and participation in cam-
pus culture. In chapter 4, I examine how Muslim undergraduate
women sought to be authentic and normal while constructing third
spaces of hybridity with and in spite of particular kinds of attire. In
chapter 5, I show how my participants constructed normal, different,
and fusion identities with reference to sexual and gendered behav-
ior. In the conclusion, I discuss my research fi ndings pertaining to
Muslim women’s identity work, pluralism on university campuses,
and broader American culture.

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173

6
Conclusion

“Covered” and Assertive Muslim Identities

yasmin : Like, either I have to be completely assimilated, com-

pletely into this culture or either I have to become completely like,

Muslim, and be separate instead of a part.

Muslim women felt the tension of binary identities on campus. Did
it have to be a zero-sum game? Did you have to be socially divided
from hedonistic campus culture or completely assimilated “into this
culture”? Yes, actually, it seemed very much like a zero-sum game
when Muslim identities were mauled not only by American military
and intelligence actions but also in the social spaces of campus cul-
ture, when “that outcast . . . that really foreign belief about alcohol”
and hijab, modest clothes, and not-dating clashed with the narrowly
conceived “normal” American college student.

As my participants constructed Muslim American identities, they
deployed as well as “covered” racial, cultural, and religious attributes
contextually, and religionized identities were also inscribed on them.
Increasingly perceived as outsiders, Muslim women made the camou-
fl aging of religious identities an integral element of their response to
encompassing cultural and political surveillance. As the boundaries of
Americanness contracted, pushing out immigrants and people of color,
Roshan and Heather tacitly disavowed the stigma of Muslim identity,
protected it from public exposure, and disguised their religiosity under
the secular “uniform” of “normal” behavior. In invisibility lies safety.
In liminality one may conduct one’s identity work in relative security.

Yet when the individual regards his or her own attributes as
“defi ling” (Goffman 1963: 7), how genuine can such safety be?

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Account: s3931335.main.eds

174 Conclusion

Muslim American women treated Muslim modesty, courtship, and
teetotalism like dirty secrets, contaminations that reduced their
normalcy quotient in campus culture. Yasmin, for instance, toned
down the visibility of her religious affi liation by strategically ex-
cluding Muslim referees from internship applications: “Can you
really change things from outside the system?” she asked. “So I
think it’s much more likely you can change the system from the
inside.” A political and cultural sea change required long-term,
low-key labor. The luxury of being true to oneself—whatever that
meant for an individual—was not available until the cultural proj-
ect of Muslim American indigenization was complete. So Yasmin
disavowed and covered Muslim identity: if accepted by the domi-
nant majority, if “inside” the system, she might become part of a
cultural undercurrent that would eventually pull Muslims into the
mainstream.

Sharmila and Amber rejected the passivity of Yasmin’s silences:
the critical political situation demanded “loud” identities, not cov-
ered ones.

amber : Yes, now in every single thing I feel like I have to speak
up [bitter laugh]. No one else is going to do it for us and we’re
just going to be stomped on. And yes, it’s constant pressure, but
if I don’t do it then I’m not going to respect myself. . . . There’s
a handful [of Muslims on campus] who care. And the rest, . . .
they don’t do anything about it. . . . They’ll be like, . . . “They [law
enforcement and intelligence] are all going to take us all.” . . .
But they’re not going to do anything. . . . It [apathy] is a way to
protect themselves too. . . . Personally.

But Sharmila and Amber, as conservative hijabis, along with their
friends and families, prominent Washington area religious Muslims,
were already at risk in the war on terror. The apathetic Muslims were
protecting themselves “personally,” but the visible Muslims were con-
structed as primarily Muslim , and not as private persons with secular
interests and identities to protect. Her plans for the future in jeop-
ardy, Amber became more visibly and vocally Muslim, rather than less
visibly like Yasmin. For overtly religious Muslims like Amber, who
had never been a vocal person, assertive identities were inescapable,
rather than a choice.

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Conclusion 175

Conservative Muslims like Amber could not benefi t from the “di-
versity showcase” of college. When it is a subdued ingredient blended
into a medley of fl avors, differentness is “interesting” and “fun,” but
when bold and noticeable, differentness is seen as menacing and
alien. Muslim women quickly learned that, to belong in campus so-
cial and leisure cultures, it was better to “cover” their religious Mus-
lim identities, implement (or pretend to implement) the hedonistic
hidden curriculum, and transcend religious and ethnic commit-
ments. Visible Muslims, however, had no choice but to “speak out.”

Whether in the form of Yasmin’s covered identities or Sharmila’s
loud identities, the heart of campus culture—like the heart of Ameri-
can culture—remains populated by half-real minority individuals,
or rather half-real members of homogeneous essentialized groups.
The bodies inhabiting multicultural student clubs and the drama of
veils and turbans pictured in glitzy brochures remain framed by the
majority gaze.

Social Integration in Campus Culture

Amber’s conspicuously Muslim identity did not mix well with domi-
nant majority culture, true, but visible Muslims, because they were
not socially well integrated into core campus culture, were not under
undue pressure to cover their religious identities. Once you were out,
you were out, after all. Muslims whose identities seemed outwardly
“ambiguous or unformed” (Yoshino 2007: 44) masked their Muslim
identities to earn the privilege (?) of peripheral social participation
in campus culture.

Like mainstream campus culture, Muslim enclaves were fraught
with diffi culty. Muslims constructed religionized Muslim identities
and shaped religionized Muslim spaces, in which Amira and Yas-
min felt alienated. Amira objected to the msa enclaves that were
Sharmila’s “enfolding rubric” and her safe space for visible religiosity.
The muted religious identities that worked for Yasmin did not suit
Sharmila. Minority enclaves were unseemly, Haseena said, because
“it’s having to do with being in America. You know what I’m saying.
Because you can’t close yourself off to like—because you have to
deal with everyone. You can’t just be like, I’m going to only deal with
people that are like me. Like, that’s not how it works.” Amira agreed,
even as she attacked the Patriot Act.

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176 Conclusion

amira : Become—it’s like becoming a citizen. There’s a lot that’s
attached to it. It’s not just, oh I’m going to live in a country and
enjoy the prosperity and not really become a part of it, not re-
ally contribute to it. And I think that’s the difference between
assimilation and—just living separately. . . . Yes, there’s a social
disadvantage but also, it can make it easy for you to live in an
insulated world, where everyone you know doesn’t drink. You
become cushioned, and I think that’s a very bad [thing].

Muslims became excessively “cushioned” in community enclaves,
unprepared for the “real world,” Amira contended. Yet the real world
already pervaded these college students’ lives, relegating to the mar-
gins any signs of difference, however skillfully disguised. Amber and
Sharmila sought an “insulated world” because they were marked
with the visible stigma of loud Muslim identities. Muslim American
undergraduate women were already in the “real world,” making the
same costly choices of conformity and resistance.

While it does not seem appropriate that students should spend
all their college years in protective enclaves—“like, that’s not how it
works,” as Haseena said—it also does not seem fair to ask minor-
ity freshmen to plunge themselves into mainstream campus culture
without the buffer of minority communities (if desired). White Chris-
tian American students can be immersed in a predominantly white
Christian social world for the four years of college (and for their lives,
if they wish), but minority students’ search for camaraderie and
community is typically pathologized as ghettoization or balkaniza-
tion. My research fi ndings challenge “the university and its observ-
ers to imagine segregated spaces that nobody has to worry about or
apologize for, or for that matter to label as self-segregated. Instead,
these ethnic spaces can be understood as inevitable features of a
country and a university still gripped by the realities of race, even
as the university makes its own noteworthy efforts to forge new ties
and spaces” (Abelmann 2009: 166).

In chapter 5, I alluded to “unspoiled” or “healthy” Muslim Ameri-
can identities constructed in relative freedom from the constraining
effect of stereotypes. By highlighting the symbolic violence Muslims
experience in mainstream campus culture, I do not mean to sug-
gest that they should be forever divided from their majority peers
to construct religionized identities in Muslim enclaves. In this book,

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Conclusion 177

I follow the trail of essentialized, religionized stereotypes inscribed
on and adopted for public consumption by Muslims. The individual’s
authenticity is threatened by the imperative to perform stereotypi-
cally minority identities (such as Islamicized conduct) as it is by the
imperative to “pass” as majority persons (such as non-Muslims) (Yo-
shino 2007: 23). In a “healthy” campus culture hospitable to Muslim
students’ religious and American identities, Muslim women would
possess the freedom, fl exibility, and vocabulary to construct their
American, Muslim, ethnic, gendered, and youthful identities, to “em-
phasize [their] multiple subject positions,” and to decide how Mus-
lim, mainstream American, or ethnic to be, how much to “mute or
fl aunt [their] identities” (Yoshino 2007: 79). This means that I must
recognize myself (and be recognized) as a woman, a double immi-
grant from Pakistani as well as the United Kingdom and culturally
both Western and Pakistani, a heterosexual, a Muslim feminist, a
cancer survivor, an anthropologist, an academic, and a resident of
the United States for much of my life now—rather than merely as
“Muslim” or “Pakistani.” To treat our identities as complex, simulta-
neous, and seamless not only opens up multiple possibilities of iden-
tity for us but also “rupture[s] the boundaries between groups” and
connects us to multiple communities of interest (Carlson 1994: 6, 22).

Campus Culture and Policy

Despite the efforts of higher education leaders, the vacuum of ef-
fective, authorized campus policy on religious minority students
enhances the unauthorized power of mainstream leisure culture.
Mainstream campus leisure culture is engaged in policy formation
by appropriation (Levinson and Sutton 2001: 3) in the student union,
the dorm, the local bar, and the nightclub, where diverse identities
are most vulnerable to homogenization. Even moderately deter-
mined students can break the constraints of a “dry” campus, and
campus housing habitually bends the rules on overnight opposite
sex guests. Students who refuse to join in such culturally authorized
bending of policies are uncool, marginal sticklers who must learn to
disavow their identities in order to belong.

Campus policies related to leisure matters that affect religious
Muslims are weak, shallow, inconsistent, and selectively applied.
Campus policy in many such areas (e.g., drinking and overnight

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178 Conclusion

dorm visitors) also fails to refl ect meaningful acknowledgment of
campus demographics. “Limp endorsement and bland acceptance
of principles such as ‘nondiscrimination,’ ‘diversity,’ and ‘openness’
in the abstract” not only enable “the Right’s ruthless appropriation
of the vision and language of multiculturalism” but also protects
the hegemony of the dominant group (S. Giroux 2005: 315). More-
over, “religion-blind” policy is incomplete in its religion-blindness, as
even accommodations for minority students (such as Georgetown’s
Muslim housing) are majority-referenced and uphold dominant
group hegemony. Policy accommodations for minorities often fail
to achieve their goals because majority students, accommodated
across the length and breadth of campus culture, must be equally
accommodated within such special minority provisions such as
Muslim housing.

Campus Culture, Assimilation, and Pluralism

Students have a “seismographic” quality (Dahrendorf 1974). They
sense, record, and make manifest the tremors and fi ssures underly-
ing the cultural day-to-day. College students do not by themselves
invent Islamophobic anxieties, Orientalist essentialism, and Muslim
women’s hypervisibility on campus: they co-construct campus cul-
ture and make these problems visible in ways that we can scrutinize
and address. Rich in the possibilities of cultural interrogation and
creative chaos, campus leisure culture brings out in sharp relief the
problems that plague American pluralism. In campus social spaces,
where symbolic violence occurred on an excruciatingly intimate
scale, the potential for symbolic violence was garbed not in force
and incivility but in “good times,” sociability, and romance (Holland
and Eisenhart 1990). In the leisure rituals of drinking, clubbing, fash-
ion, and dating—“integral to social life, . . . unspectacular, repetitive,
and predictive” (Magolda 2000: 34)—“the real work of creating com-
munity (or of resisting it) occurs” (Quantz and Magolda 1997: 222). At
the heart of campus social culture, despite diversity policy, minority
youth are most vulnerable.

Campus culture at Georgetown University and George Washington
University offered students the liberty to select from a variety of so-
cial options. But these options ranged between the (normal) majority
cultural core and the (not normal, weird, stigmatized) periphery, so

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Conclusion 179

in reality, the “closed openness” (Asher 2007: 69) of campus pluralism
accepted but a limited range of difference. Muslim religiosity was
decidedly located at the periphery of campus culture, and if anything
could make religious Muslims normal, it was concealed religiosity.
Like gays, blacks, and women in the United States, Muslim Ameri-
cans feel “increasing pressure to pledge an allegiance—to fade grate-
fully into the mainstream or to resist in the name of persisting dif-
ference” (Yoshino 2007: 78). Those who refuse to cover marginalized
identities are perceived as having “somehow forfeited social protec-
tion against all kinds of micro- and macro-aggressions. They are, ef-
fectively, ‘asking for it’” (Galman 2013: 125). Assimilation is proffered
as an escape route from discrimination: if a Muslim woman can hide
her Muslim identity, she can be normal. But when young Muslim
American women drink, dress “like everyone else,” and start dating
simply to fi t in, this is an occasion not to celebrate the possibilities
of American pluralism but to examine its infl exibility.

Today, university communities make public commitments to in-
clusion, integration, and diversity. Yet a right-wing backlash against
liberal multiculturalism has been turning campuses into ideological
battlegrounds that frame diversity as particularism. Conservatives
and neoliberals complain vociferously about diversity, about the “si-
lencing” of conservative politics in classrooms, about the demands
for “political correctness,” and about the alleged lack of immigrant
acculturation. Though cultural assimilation has had a face-lift, the
expectation that “newcomers” and Others should bury their angular
differences in an Anglo facade is not just alive and well: we have
experienced a “renaissance of assimilation” (Yoshino 2007: 3).

Intensely mindful of the scrutiny that read them as static texts
and half persons, Muslim women spoke to the gaze in its language.
They varied their social roles, masterfully playing them out in differ-
ent situations, now stretching the possibilities of identity and now
adapting to its constraints, and simultaneously negotiating multiple
expectations emanating from the non-Muslim majority, from con-
servative and liberal Muslims, and from the self.

Will the Real Muslim People Please Stand Up?

I was as nervous as a freshman that Friday evening in August when
I arrived at the Copley Hall musalla for the Georgetown msa open

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180 Conclusion

meeting for all members. I had been “screened” by msa offi cers and
was to deliver my research recruitment spiel as the meeting con-
cluded. It had taken me a good few weeks to make it this far. I was
diligently trying to fi t in, wearing a studiously friendly manner and
a conservative fi tted hijab I never wore otherwise. At thirty-four, I felt
staid and old as I glanced around the musalla. The room was fi lled
to capacity with fresh-faced Georgetown students, a few of whom
I now knew, a large group of young, attractive, stylish men and
women stealing chaste glances at each other as they brainstormed
msa events for the year. They all sat on the carpet—men on the left
side, women on the right—in a rather cramped basement room,
where muffl ed laughter from the Copley dorm residents trickled in,
as Heather and Nikhat talked about religion and community. Mean-
while, on that mild fall evening much of the campus community was
already whiling away the hours at trendy Georgetown nightclubs.
Some of the demure attendees at the msa meeting would probably
join their non-Muslim friends after the meeting. Some would drink,
some would not, some would dance, some would not. And on Mon-
day morning, they would go to class and listen to white people talk
about Islam and terrorism, and Islam and women.

Yasmin did not sign up for research participation that evening. A
few weeks later, after a few interviews, she revealed that her reluc-
tance had stemmed from a sentiment that she “shouldn’t really be
the one representing Islam.” She had thought that I, as a researcher
of “ Muslim American college students” was “looking for real Muslim
people who like, live the real Muslim lifestyle ” (emphasis added).

No one could singularly represent Muslims. But by participating in
the discursive representation of Muslim Americans via my research,
Yasmin came to consider the possibility that her voice counted. In
the rugged and varied terrain of Muslim American identity, her navi-
gation of identity borderlands (Anzaldúa 1987) made sense. Argu-
ably, those borderlands made more sense than imaginary “real Mus-
lim people” did.

yasmin : I think it’s really made me understand, and made me
think about the fact that—you know what—I am a Muslim and
I have the right to represent Islam as much as anyone else
does. . . . [I used to think], “it’s not me; I’m trying to be Mus-
lim; some of the time, I’m not really doing it.” But I think it’s

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Conclusion 181

really made me—you kind of gave me—. . . I was like there’s so
many other Muslims out there like me, who are just like, “if I’m
not always the one who’s always organizing the protests, or
doesn’t do the [religious] study, or outwardly doesn’t look im-
mediately to someone as Muslim, then something’s not right.”

At the margins of the Muslim American community and with
deep involvement in “normal American” culture, Yasmin staked her
claim as a Muslim woman with a right to speak as a Muslim woman.
As she did so, she contrasted her fl exible, “some of the time,” half-
concealed (“covered,” as Goffman would say) Muslim identities with
those real Muslims who projected visible, forceful, representative
identities in the political sphere (“always organizing the protests”)
and in the religious sphere (“doing the [religious] study”), who “out-
wardly look immediately to someone as Muslim.”

People like Yasmin shrank when called on to “represent Islam,”
not because they were not Muslim, but because the terms of the
discussion were all wrong. Who could claim to be the real Muslim
people? More important, during the War on Terror, who would want
to be those real Muslim people?

Those visible Muslims had the power and the glory of being rep-
resentatives. It was to them that “heads turned” (Amber), and it was
they who were perpetually interrogated about the Islamic stand-
point on terrorism and polygamy. These representative Muslims
were reduced to just Muslims. They were “the Muslim girls[s] who
don’t [drink/have sex/party]” (Sarah). Yasmin was free to be complex
and American, and Tehzeeb to be “low-key and on the margins.” But
Amber’s politicized and religionized identity was drained of its nor-
mal American youthfulness. Hijabis were not free to play basketball,
and non-hijabis’ temperance was endlessly shocking to their non-
Muslim peers. Yasmin chafed against her invisibility as a Muslim
representative, while Amber was trapped in the task of ineffectual
Muslim representation, always apologizing, always defending, al-
ways in vain.

Muslim women asserted that majority peers really could not
fi gure them out without abandoning previous assumptions about
Muslims. To understand, they had to directly approach these fellow
Americans without the use of discursive translations. As she con-
structed new modalities of Muslim and American youthful gendered

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182 Conclusion

codes, Intisar claimed fundamentally that her peers “really couldn’t
fi gure [her] out” until they came directly to her and “embraced that
difference” (chap. 4). It was not enough that they tolerated her hijab:
she demanded that her peers master a new vocabulary. But Intisar’s
challenge was stifl ed by America’s existing vocabulary about Mus-
lims. She was not , she explained, “your regular Muslim girl.” And
Latifa added, she was not “your typical, traditional Muslim female.”
Given a chance, my participants could remedy your “perception
that all Muslim girls cover their heads, all Muslim girls don’t talk to
people that are not Muslim, all Muslim girls are very intolerant or
uncomfortable” (Amira). They could demonstrate by their “normal
American” comportment that they were “a little different” (Latifa),
and then non-Muslim Americans could “approach [Amira] about it.”
(What was “it”? Muslim womanhood? The true nature of Islam? The
normalcy of Muslim Americans?)

Intisar, Amira, and Latifa were compelled to begin with a negative
statement, an apology, an explanation, a footnote. To reshape the
terms of the discussion, they had to employ the Orientalist, essen-
tialist American vocabulary about Muslims. In order to edit the ste-
reotypical image of a subjugated, immobile, timid, xenophobic Mus-
lim woman, Muslim American women were obliged to fi rst adopt
that image and to work with it. The stereotype was unavoidable.

As Muslim women revised stereotypical images, they in the pro-
cess perpetuated these images. And as they adopted their peers’
vocabulary and attempted to correct it, my participants found that
they had become offi cial representatives of “Islam.” By its very na-
ture, such representation was centered on static images, rather than
on the constant fl ux of diverse lives and identities.

In this book, I have shown the play of multiple identity layers and
the manner in which Muslim American women contextually em-
phasize and overemphasize particular identities. This kind of ethno-
graphic scrutiny enables us to jettison such old and overused iden-
tity tropes as the oppressed Muslim woman, the angry hijabi, and
the secularized non-hijabi Muslim. On encountering these tropes,
we may also become aware of how they are forged. Today, in aca-
demic publications and popular diatribes, the notions of timeless,
unchanging, angry, and essentially un-Western Muslim identities
feed the right-wing frenzy for such civilizational confl ict and spells
danger for our very survival on this planet. In this climate, as we

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Conclusion 183

explore the dynamic, changing, and strategic nature of identity, we
may come to see the Other as a complex work in progress, rather
than as a fi nished product perpetually engaged in warfare against
Us. We may also realize that They are really part of Us .

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Terence Lovat. Women in Islam : Reflections on Historical and Contemporary Research. Springer, 2012. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=523061&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Shabana Mir. Muslim American Women on Campus : Undergraduate Social Life and Identity. The University of North Carolina Press, 2014. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=582981&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Khan, Abdul Majeed. “MARRIAGE AND THE STATUS OF WOMAN In the Light of Islam.” Alpha Kappa Deltan, vol. 24, no. 1, Sept. 1953, pp. 10–15. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=23129879&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Kirmani, Nida, and Isabel Phillips. “Engaging with Islam to Promote Women’s Rights.” Progress in Development Studies, vol. 11, no. 2, Apr. 2011, pp. 87–99. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/146499341001100201.

Krivenko, Ekaterina Yahyaoui. “Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law.” International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 22, no. 1, Mar. 2010, pp. 48–71. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/ijrl/eep032.

CHECKLIST FOR RESEARCH ESSAY: FIRST DRAFT

Essay writer’s anme____________________Reader’s name___________________

Please answer each question briefly. Try to explain your answer in terms of specific examples from the essay you are reading. Write your responses in the role of a collaborator on a writing project.

SECTION # I

A- Title:

1. Is there a title? ________Yes ________No

2. Is the title centered? _______ Yes _______ No

3. Does the title specifically state what the paper is about? _____ Yes _______ No

4. The title is NOT underlined, italicized, or quoted, right? Did the writer do this correctly? ___Yes ____No

B-Introduction:

1. Does the opening paragraph clearly set the context for what the paper is about?? ______Yes ______No

2. Is there an attention-getter in the first sentence of the paper? ____Yes ______No

3. After the first couple sentences, does the writer provide the background detail of the case? ______ Yes _____No

4. Is there a good transition between the attention-getter and background information? ____Yes ____No

5. Does the introduction pose a “Research Question” that the writer will research?

______Yes _______ No

6. Is there a thesis that answers the research question? ______Yes _______ No

7. Is the thesis at the end of the first paragraph? ______ Yes ______ No

8. Please, write done

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C-Body

Paragraph #1

1. Is there a topic sentence (reason) in the first sentence of this paragraph?

_____ Yes _____ No

(Remember that a topic sentence is not a question or a quote).

2. Does the writer set up the quote or paraphrase with his or her own ideas and words? _____ Yes ____ No

3. Does the writer provide quotes and/or paraphrases to support the topic sentence? ____ Yes ____No

4. Is the quote connected to the writer’s own words? _______Yes ______No

(Remember that you do not want a quote hanging out by itself).

5. After the quote, is there some kind of explanation of how the quote supports the topic sentence? ______ Yes _____No

(Make sure the body paragraph does not start or end with a quote.)

Paragraph #2

1. Is there a topic sentence in the first sentence of this paragraph?

_____ Yes _____ No

(Remember that a topic sentence is not a question or a quote).

2. Does the writer set up the quote or paraphrase with his or her own ideas and words? _____ Yes ____ No

3. Does the writer provide quotes and/or paraphrases to support the topic sentence? ____ Yes ____No

4. Is the quote connected to the writer’s own words? _______Yes ______No

5. After the quote, is there some kind of explanation of how the quote supports the topic sentence? ______ Yes _____No

(Make sure the body paragraph does not start or end with a quote.)

Paragraph #3

1. Is there a topic sentence in the first sentence of this paragraph?

_____ Yes _____ No

(Remember that a topic sentence is not a question or a quote).

2. Does the writer set up the quote or paraphrase with his or her own ideas and words? _____ Yes ____ No

3. Does the writer provide quotes and/or paraphrases to support the topic sentence? ____ Yes ____No

4. Is the quote connected to the writer’s own words? _______Yes ______No

(Remember that you do not want a quote hanging out by itself).

5. After the quote, is there some kind of explanation of how the quote supports the topic sentence? ______ Yes

_____No

(Make sure the body paragraph does not start or end with a quote.)

Paragraph # 4

1. Is there a topic sentence in the first sentence of this paragraph?

_____ Yes _____ No

(Remember that a topic sentence is not a question or a quote).

2. Does the writer set up the quote or paraphrase with his or her own ideas and words? _____ Yes ____ No

3. Does the writer provide quotes and/or paraphrases to support the topic sentence? ____ Yes ____No

4. Is the quote connected to the writer’s own words? _______Yes ______No

(Remember that you do not want a quote hanging out by itself).

5. After the quote, is there some kind of explanation of how the quote supports the topic sentence? ______ Yes _____No

Make sure the body paragraph does not start or end with a quote

D- Conclusion:

Now read the conclusion paragraph of the essay. Does it do the following things: (it should?)

a. Restate the thesis in a different way.

b. Offer a reasonable suggestion about solving the argument.

c. Summarize the main points made in the essay. __

If the final paragraph does not do any of these things, then write suggestions to the writer here.

_______________________________________

SECTION # II

A-Citations and Works Cited Page:

Please write either “Yes” or “No” in the blanks before each entry as appropriate.

1.______At least 5 different sources are cited (direct quotes or paraphrases)

2._____ At least 5 citations in paper (more paraphrases and summaries than direct quotes)

3._____ Citations come BEFORE the period in a sentence (except on extended quotes)

4._____ Citations contain NO COMMA between author and page number.

5._____ Each quote is sandwiched between an intro and a following comment (insight)

6.______Are the borrowings gracefully introduced?

7.______Has the writer provided documentation?

8.______Has the writer explained why they are significant?

9.______Has the writer interpreted them?

10. Is the Works Cited in a separate page?

11.______Does the label Works Cited appear centered at the top of the page typed regularly (no bold, italics, or underlines, and only initial caps)?

12.______Are sources capitalized?

13._____ Are all lines of an entry after the first line indented?

14._____ Does each entry end with a period?

15.______Are article titles in “quotation marks”?

16._____ Are names of books underlined?

17._____ Are entries alphabetized by the author’s/editor’s last name or entry’s title

SECTION # III

1. How many total parenthetical references are in the entire essay? (should be min. of 5 )__________________________________

2. How many different sources are cited? ________ (should be min. of 5)

3. Are there any direct quotations from the source material? __________ If so, are any of them longer than four lines? If there any long ones, remind the writer here to use the proper citation.

4. Is it clear when the writer is summarizing someone else and when s/he is using his/her own ideas? _______Yes ______No

5. If the writer has a problem in this area, then make suggestions here.

6. Is the
Works Cited page format correct? _______Yes ______No

7. Check for alphabetizing of sources; indents; font; information included in source citations. Are they correct? _______Yes ______No

8. Paper is at least 4 full pages, not including the works cited page; keep in mind that the longer and more in depth your paper, the higher your ideas/content grade will be. Is the paper short? _______Yes ______No

9. Quotations formatted with correct number of quotation marks, commas, periods, etc. Are they correct? _______Yes ______No

10. Has each quotation the correct parenthetical citation at the end of it?

_______Yes ______No

11. Is (qtd. in ) used when someone other than the author of the source is quoted? And Are 3 quotation marks surrounding quote are also used in this situation? _______Yes ______No

12. Does the writer use 5 or more sources in paper; articles & books? _______Yes ______No

MLA Sample Paper 1

Last Updated 9/10/09

MLA Sample Paper: Text

Velasquez 1

Rosa Velasquez

Professor Nguyen

English 1A

2 June 2004

Personality and Birth Order: First-Borns and Later-Borns

Does birth order have any effect on personality? The naysayers,

including psychologists, Monica A. Seff, Viktor Gecas, and James H. Frey,

argue that “research on birth order effects has been remarkably inconsistent

and inconclusive with regard to various personality and behavioral

outcomes.” MIT historian Frank Sulloway disagrees. In his book, Born to

Rebel, he offers proof of the relationship between birth order and personality.

Researching the lives of historical figures, Sulloway observes that

later-borns tend to champion liberal or unconventional ideas while first-borns

do not: “Later-borns were more likely than first-borns were to support each

of the 61 liberal causes . . . surveyed, from the Protestant Reformation to the

American civil-rights movement” (qtd. in Cowley). Rule-breaking later-

borns include Susan B. Anthony, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.,

and Charles Darwin. In contrast, first-borns defend the status quo (Sulloway

79). Naturalist Louis Agassiz fits this mold. The most influential naturalist of

Use 1 ”
margins and
double-space
throughout.

Your last name and
page numbers
should be right
justified and typed
in the header 1/2″
from the top of the
page.

To cite an
electronic
source that has
no page
numbers or
paragraph
numbers,
simply give the
authors’ names.

For an indirect
source in which
one author is
being quoted or
paraphrased in
another author’s
work, cite the
indirect source.

When quoting,
summarizing, or
paraphrasing an
author, use the
present tense.

Use an
ellipsis (. . .)
when
omitting
original
material.

In-text
citations
typically
consist of the
author’s name
and the page
number.

When
mentioning
an author in-
text for the
first time,
include his or
her full name.
Thereafter,
the author can
be referred to
by last name.

Use an easy to
read font like 12
pt. Times
Roman.

Your name, instructor’s
name, course number, and
date in international style
(day month year, no
commas) are double-
spaced and left justified.

The title is centered with all major
words capitalized. It is not
underlined or italicized.

MLA Sample Paper 2

Last Updated 9/10/09

MLA Sample Paper:

Works Cited

Velasquez 2

his day, first-born Agassiz staunchly opposed Darwin’s radical notions about

biological change:

When Darwin proposed a revolutionary solution–that all

nature’s variety stems from a simple process that preserves

useful variations and discards harmful ones–the authorities

were appalled. “A scientific mistake” thundered Louis

Agassiz, [. . .] “untrue in its facts . . . and mischievous in its

tendency.” (Cowley)

Velasquez 5

Works Cited

Cowley, Geoffrey. “First Born, Later Born.” Newsweek 7 Oct. 1996: 65+.

Expanded Academic ASAP. Web.

23 May 2004.

Seff, Monica A., Viktor Gecas, and James H. Frey. “Birth Order, Self

Concept, and Participation in Dangerous Sports.” Journal of

Psychology 127.2 (1993): 221+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web.

23 May 2004.

Sulloway, Frank J. Born to Rebel. New York: Pantheon, 1996. Print.

A quotation
of four lines
or more starts
on a new line
and is
indented 1″ or
10 spaces.

When omitting material
from a quote that already
contains an ellipsis, put
brackets around your
ellipsis.

Quoted material
within a block
quotation are
enclosed with
double quotation
marks.

In a block
quotation, end
punctuation
comes before
the in-text
citation.

Sources are
listed in
alphabetical
order by
author’s last
name. If
there is no
author,
alphabetize
by the first
major word in
the title.

The entire
reference list
page is
double-
spaced and
has 1″
margins.

The works
cited list
begins on a
new page.

The second
and
subsequent
lines of each
entry are
indented 1/2″
or 5 spaces.

In-text

Citations/Parenthetical Citations

When quoting (copying the author’s exact words), paraphrasing (rewording an author’s ideas in your own words), or summarizing (condensing an author’s ideas in your own words), give credit to the author or source in an in-text, or parenthetical, citation. Note: the sample works cited entries would be double-spaced in an actual works cited page.

Print Sourcesp

Author/Page

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Example of the Work Cited: “Poll: Rich Eye Space Tourism.” The Learning Channel. Discovery Communications, 2001. Web. 23 May 2002.

Running head: PILLARS OF ISLAM

Abbas1

“The Status of Women Under Islam”

Bader Abbas

Dr. Ghazi Nassir

ENGL 102-14

Research Paper 1st Draft

Date: 28/01/2021

Islam is a faith that is professed in many parts of the world; the religion is distributed in many parts of the world. Islam is a religion that accommodates all people by free will, as long as they share in the faith. Islam, like other religions, has governing principles that guide the lives of Muslims. Muslim women are the most affected by the governing principles. Muslim women are under strict guardianship laws; for women to do most things they have to have consent from their male relatives such as fathers, brothers and even sons. Some of the activities or things that women do that require consent from their male relatives include traveling, marriage and divorce, employment, education, opening and operating a bank account and surgery, more so surgeries that were sexual in nature. For a long time, Saudi Arabian women were not allowed to vote, however, that law was overturned and women are now allowed to vote and also contest for positions in the local government. The above example is one of the many limitations that face Muslim women. The status of women under Islam is not clearly defined, consequentially, the role and functions of women in Islam are not clear. Comment by Ghazi Nassir: Read and follow the map regarding the introduction paragraph. Where is the debate? Where is the research question?Where is your thesis? Follow the map and the checklist. Comment by Ghazi Nassir: Comma splice Comment by Ghazi Nassir: Insert comma after overturned

Through the analysis of Muslim women more so those that live in Western nations, one cannot help but notice that they are more liberated compared to those that live in Islamic nations in the Middle East. Muslim women who live in the United States are at liberty to attend schools as they desire, some of them can participate in sports, they can drive and also influence policies and decisions in their schools and their communities. From the analysis, it is evident that the status of women under Islam is not clearly defined.

The lack of a clear definition of Muslim women status has three main limitations. First, women under Islam cannot function at their full potential. Secondly, based on the current status, women cannot influence as much as they want policy and decisions in their community. Lastly, the lack of a clear status for women exposes the Muslim community to limitations. The current status of women in Islam is not clearly defined for women to fully take up their roles.

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study is to examine the understanding of women under Islam as concerns their status. The study will employ a qualitative study that will target Muslims and their perception of women status in the Islamic community.

The following research questions will help to guide this qualitative study:

RQ1: What is the status of women under Islam? Comment by Ghazi Nassir: Delete

The gap in the literature is a need to identify current state of Muslim women status in the society. The gap was used to define the problem statement. This study will address the challenges that Muslim women undergo by understanding the Islamic culture. The study research questions each then targets uncovering these reasons contributing to the difference in the status of women under Islam. This study may add to the literature which focuses on women rights in the Islamic culture.

Qualitative methodology will be used in this study. Qualitative methodology is the most appropriate methodology that provides rich data and not bound by limitations. Qualitative methods are appropriate because it will help to provide real life evidence from the explanations of Muslim women. It is appropriate for answering the research questions that focus on the status of women under Islam. It is appropriate for addressing the problem statement which notes the potential of women under Islam is not fully known as their status in the society is not clear.

The design for this research will be a qualitative descriptive study. This qualitative descriptive design is the most appropriate design for the problem statement that the lack of a clear status for women under Islam limits them from exploiting their full potential. Furthermore, it is appropriate for the research questions because it gives the participant an opportunity to express the points in regards to the study subject in length. The literature review involves analyzing five publications.

The first article to be reviewed is one titled American Muslim Women on Campus. The article is about Muslim women and their experiences in College. Yasmin one of the ladies who shares her experiences states that “I learned to tone down my Muslim attributes as I feel that Islam attributes hamper my aspirations and achievements” (174). Yasmin states that she refrains from putting Muslim references on her resume for fear that she may be sidelined due to the Muslim inclination. She believes that the only way she can help her fellow Muslims is by first getting an opportunity and then working from the inside to get other Muslims in the system.

An analysis of Yasmin’s and the other Muslim women experiences in the university and colleges reveals that the women are unsure of their status. There are those women that want to do away with the attributes that identify them as Muslims as it hampers their operations and interactions. It is possible to conclude that the Muslim status of the women hampers their status and limits their potentially as they have to fit into the already set up profile of Muslim women.

The second article is titled engaging with Islam to promote Women’s right by Kirmani Nida. Based on the article, Muslim women do not have equal rights to Muslim men. Furthermore, the few rights that they have are not respected and honored. Kirmani, writes an article that focuses on the use of Muslim faith based organizations to advocate for the rights of Muslim women. The organizations are more likely to be received by the Muslim community as they have been running gender-related projects for a while. Based on the effort being put in aiding Muslim women, it is clear that they have a poor status in the community.

Kirmani emphasizes that women rights need to be developed for the status of women in the community to be lifted and recognized. In majority of Muslim states,

“Women are disregarded in comparison to men” (91). It is easy for them to be abused and nothing much will happen. According to the article, for the status of Muslim women to change, their rights have to be upheld. The Islamic culture needs to put up measures to ensure that their women’s rights are respected and not violated. Through the rights, Muslim women can live to their fullest.

The third article under review is titled Marriage and the status of women in the light of Islam by Abdul Khan. The article looks at two main things. The first thing that the article focuses on is the institution of marriage as per Islam. According Khan, marriage is a sacred contract that every Muslim should take part. As per his explanation, “Marriage is encouraged to reduce sexually immorality” (12). The second focus of the article is the status of women. Surprisingly, Khan states that the individuality of a woman does not merge with her husband’s. An indication that men and women have equal rights as per Islam. Khan uses prophet Mohammed’s explanation to explain why women have equal rights to men. Based on the explanation, the status of women is equal to that of Muslim men.

An analysis of the article confirms that the current status of Muslim women is a forced state as opposed to that which is supposed to be normal. Prophet Mohammed’s teachings confirm that Muslim women are entities by themselves and that they should not be oppressed. The current oppression that is associated with Muslim women status is wrong and it hampers their development and contribution in the community.

The fourth article is titled Muslim Women’s Claims to Refugee Status Within the Context of Child Custody Upon Divorce Under Islamic Law by Krivenko Ekaterina. The article is based on case laws in Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom relating to child custody cases under divorce in Islamic laws. Muslim women divorced in the three countries mentioned above find it easy to win child custody cases which is the opposite of the Islam culture. According to the Islam culture, “Children belong to the father and priority for raising child is given to fathers as opposed to women” (50). Since New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom do not follow sharia laws and also do not observe Islamic cultures, it has become easy for Muslim women that are refugees to win custody cases.

Experts on the Islamic culture caution decision makers in the nation of not taking into account the Muslim experience in making their decisions as regards such cases. The Islam culture’ experts’ advice that decision makers to consider the consequences of their decisions on Muslim children; Muslim children might not relate well with decisions that favor Muslim women as far as children custody is concerned. Based on the article it is clear that the status of Muslim women in Islamic nations is significantly lower than in westernized nations.

The last article under review is titled women in Islam. The article has a lot of information on women under Islam. It focuses on the differences between modern Islam and traditional Islam with emphasis placed on Muslim women. In addition, the article compares Muslim women in Islamic states and those in westernized nations. From the article it is clear that “Muslim women that stay in westernized nations such as Australia have significantly higher status compared to those in Islamic nations in the Middle East” (64). Furthermore, the article states that modern Islam is more liberal compared to traditional Islam. One good example that best explains the difference between the two is women driving in Saudi Arabia. In the past, it was illegal for women to drive but now women can drive legally in the nation.

An analysis of the article confirms that the status of women under Islam is fast changing for their good. Muslim women are slowly getting higher status than before and this is as a result of globalization. Nevertheless, the status of women under Islam is still wanting. According to the article, there needs to be changes in the Islamic culture to accommodate changes in the world.

Based on the literature review study, it is clear that the status of women under Islam is not clearly defined. Muslim women are still tied down by Islamic practices that favor men. The roles and duties of woman of majority of Muslim women are child home keeping and parenting. Based on the study, the first and second hypothesis of the study are confirmed: the status of women under Islam is not defined and Muslim women do not have a status by themselves as they are considered to be under men. There is a need for the status of Muslim women to be defined.

Based on the study it is clear that the lack of a clear definition of Muslim women status has three main limitations. First, women under Islam cannot function at their full potential. Secondly, based on the current status, women cannot influence as much as they want policy and decisions in their community. Lastly, the lack of a clear status for women exposes the Muslim community to limitations. The current status of women in Islam is not clearly defined for women to fully take up their roles.

Obviously, you did not understand the nature of the assignment, and certainly you did not follow the map and the checklist.

· I would like to see an essay(Introduction (Background info, debate, research question, and thesis) ends with a thesis/ your position, Body-at least four paragraphs- each paragraph starts with a topic sentence that includes one of the reasons behind your thesis, supported with quotation(s), summary, or paraphrase) from your sources (articles and books)to show and to support your points/topic sentences, and conclusion).

Works Cited

Khan, Abdul Majeed. “Marriage and the Status of Women in the Light of Islam.” Alpha

Kappa Deltan, vol. 24, no. 1, (Sept 1953): 10–15.

Kirmani, Nida, and Isabel Phillips. “Engaging with Islam to promote women’s rights.” Progress in Development Studies, vol. 11, no. 2, (Apr 2011): 87-99.

Krivenko, Ekaterina Yahyaoui. “Muslim women’s claims to refugee status within the context of child custody upon divorce under Islamic law.” International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 22, no. 1, (Mar 2010): 48-71.

Lovat, Terence. Women in Islam: Reflections on historical and contemporary research. Dordrecht: Springer, 2012

Mir, Shabana. Muslim American women on campus: Undergraduate social life and identity. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

Introduction women’s status before Islam

Syed Mohammed, Ali. The Position of Women in Islam: A Progressive View.Albany: State

University of New York Press, 2004. Print.

“In pre-Islamic Arabia the status of women was even worse. Women were treated as nothing but chattel”

Page # 1.

Introduction Women’s Status in Islam

Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill | Nijhoff, 2009. Print.

“Muslim women, as well as men, are called upon to acquire extensive knowledge to understand and follow all the teachings of Islam”

Page # 15.

Present the Debate among the Scholars

Alatiyat, Ibtesam. and Hassan Barari. “Liberating Women with Islam? The Islamists and Women’s Issues in Jordan.” Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions, vol.11, no. 3– 4, (Sept 2010): 359–378.

The two authors Hassan Al-Barari and Ibtisam Al-Attiyat explain in their article “Liberating Women with Islam? The Islamists and Women’s Issues in Jordan”, how the Muslim woman in Jordan is still fighting for the rights granted to her by Islam, such as the right to representation in the government and parliament, cases of killing women in defense of honor, and the issue of raising the marriage age. However, Islamic movements still oppose these rights, saying that Islam is a religion of justice, not equality, and pressure is being put on the government and parliament members to refrain from passing such laws.

Page # 360-367.

Present the Debate among the Scholars:

Syed Mohammed, Ali. The Position of Women in Islam: A Progressive View.Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2004. Print.

” Of course, the Muslim woman’s position is far from an exalted one today. This is surprising and unacceptable in light of the rights conferred on women by Islam over 1400 years ago”

Page #3.

First Paragraph Women and Education:

Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern

Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill Nijhoff, 2009.

“Muslim women, as well as men, are called upon to acquire extensive knowledge to understand and follow all the teachings of Islam, and to abide by the fi ve essential religious duties known as the Pillars of Islam. A Muslim cannot perform these duties, which include the ritual ablution, daily prayer and the correct recitation of the creed, without fi rst learning how to do so, and certain verses of the Qur’an have to be memorized in order to pray.”

Page # 15.
Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern
Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill Nijhoff, 2009.

” There can be no doubt whatsoever that it was the Prophet’s wish that not only should women receive a proper education, but that they should also participate actively

in the Muslim community”

Page # 17.

Second Paragraph Women and Marriage:

Syed Mohammed, Ali. The Position of Women in Islam: A Progressive View.Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2004. Print.

“The Quran and the Hadith confer the right of independence to a Muslim woman to enter into a marriage contract without the interference of the marriage guardian”

Page # 38.

Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill Nijhoff, 2009.

“Because it is absolutely essential to a valid union that the woman gives her consent to it, the Sunni law requires two witnesses being present at the conclusion of the marriage contract, each of whom has to ensure that both the man and the woman give their consent freely, and without any coercion.”

Page # 31.

Third Paragraph Women and Inheritance:

Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill Nijhoff, 2009.

“The reforms brought about by the Shari’ah secured inheritance rights for women by ensuring that no-one falling into what are classed as “vulnerable categories” (i.e., women, as well as children and the elderly) can be excluded from their rightful inheritance in the estate of a deceased; which means neither the deceased’s parents, spouse nor children can be excluded”

Page # 19.

Omran, Abdel R. Chapter 3: The Status of Women in Islam. Family Planning in the Legacy of Islam, Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books, (1992): 40–58.

the author emphasizes that the differences in inheritance between women and men are among the most common misconceptions about women’s position in Islam. The author explains the verses that form part of the inheritance law and argues that the share’s size may differ according to circumstances and responsibilities. Usually, higher shares go to those who need more. She adds that a Muslim man is responsible for all the females in his family, including his sister, in the event of the father’s death, so Islam has made a man’s inheritance double of a woman’s inheritance, and not as it argued that Islam did not equate Women and men and make them less important, because Islam is the one that established the right of women to inherit.

Page # 52-55.

Forth Paragraph Women and Work:

Sidani, Yusuf. “Women, Work, and Islam in Arab Societies”. Women in Management Review, Vol. 20 No. 7, (2005): 498-512.

“Khadija the wife of Muhammad the Prophet of Islam was a thriving business‐woman and at one point her husband’s employer. Later on, Muslim women became active and played a visible role in the affairs of the young community.”

Page # 499.

Ridley, Yvonne. “Muslim Women Contribution to Economic Activities: A Viewpoint”. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 7 No. 1, (2016): 2-5.

“Muslim Women Contribution to Economic Activities: A Viewpoint”, the author Yvonne Ridley quotes,” Islamic Sharia does not discriminate Muslim women economically nor socially as often portrayed in the Western media. Islam outlines the specific rights and obligations of men and women to ensure development of a healthy society”

Page # 2.

Conclusion:

Sidani, Yusuf. “Women, Work, and Islam in Arab Societies”. Women in Management Review, Vol. 20 No. 7, (2005): 498-512.

“’Men and women represent two branches of a single tree and two children from the same father, Adam, and mother, Eve. Their common origin, their general human qualities, their equal accountability in relation to religious duties (with ensuing reward or punishment) and the unity of their destiny all testify to their equality (

Al‐Qaradawi, 1998

).”’

Page # 500.

Introduction women’s status before Islam

Syed Mohammed, Ali. The Position of Women in Islam: A Progressive View.Albany: State

University of New York Press, 2004. Print.

“In pre-Islamic Arabia the status of women was even worse. Women were treated as nothing but chattel”

Page # 1.

Introduction Women’s Status in Islam

Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill | Nijhoff, 2009. Print.

“Muslim women, as well as men, are called upon to acquire extensive knowledge to understand and follow all the teachings of Islam”

Page # 15.

Present the Debate among the Scholars

Page # 360-367.

Present the Debate among the Scholars:

Syed Mohammed, Ali. The Position of Women in Islam: A Progressive View.Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2004. Print.

” Of course, the Muslim woman’s position is far from an exalted one today. This is surprising and unacceptable in light of the rights conferred on women by Islam over 1400 years ago”

Page #3.

First Paragraph Women and Education:

Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern

Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill Nijhoff, 2009.

Page # 15.
Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern
Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill Nijhoff, 2009.

” There can be no doubt whatsoever that it was the Prophet’s wish that not only should women receive a proper education, but that they should also participate actively

in the Muslim community”

Page # 17.

Second Paragraph Women and Marriage:

Syed Mohammed, Ali. The Position of Women in Islam: A Progressive View.Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2004. Print.

“The Quran and the Hadith confer the right of independence to a Muslim woman to enter into a marriage contract without the interference of the marriage guardian”

Page # 38.

Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill Nijhoff, 2009.

Page # 31.

Third Paragraph Women and Inheritance:

Nasir, Jamal J. The Status of Women Under Islamic Law and Modern Islamic Legislation. Vol. 3rd ed. rev. and updated work, Brill Nijhoff, 2009.

Page # 19.

Omran, Abdel R. Chapter 3: The Status of Women in Islam. Family Planning in the Legacy of Islam, Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books, (1992): 40–58.

Page # 52-55.

Forth Paragraph Women and Work:

Sidani, Yusuf. “Women, Work, and Islam in Arab Societies”. Women in Management Review, Vol. 20 No. 7, (2005): 498-512.

Page # 499.

Ridley, Yvonne. “Muslim Women Contribution to Economic Activities: A Viewpoint”. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 7 No. 1, (2016): 2-5.

Page # 2.

Conclusion:

Sidani, Yusuf. “Women, Work, and Islam in Arab Societies”. Women in Management Review, Vol. 20 No. 7, (2005): 498-512.

Al‐Qaradawi, 1998

).”’

Page # 500.

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