Short Speech on Gender Equality and Development in the Light of Islam
By Amansur Gresik from
In conjunction with the program of International Women’s Day
Den Haag, the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), 7 March, 2008
Email: amansurgresik@yahoo.com and ma07029@iss.nl
I thank you very much for being given the opportunity to deliver speech on “Gender Equality and Development in the Light of Islam”. It is also a good opportunity for me to share with you some of my ideas and thoughts on the subject matter including in the context of Islam. I am very grateful to be here as part of Interfaith Dialogue Chaplaincy alongside Gender Committee of the Institute of Social Studies the Hague in the International women’s Day Program which among its objectives include the promotion of gender equality and development, promotion of leadership of women, their role, their contribution and their participation in all sectors of development hoping that their involvement will help reduce poverty, sustain economic growth and create great civilization in the history of human life.
Heading for sustainable economic growth, human well-being and endless efforts toward poverty reduction is human ultimate goal which in my opinion must include women empowerment and participation, as well-being, prosperity and successful poverty reduction in societies must be enjoyed by both men and women by getting them into active participation in the development process especially women. So, improving the role and status of women, recognizing their contribution is very essential to any strategy of development and to any strategy toward poverty reduction and the emergence of welfare state.
As far as gender equality is concerned, first, I would like to address most in my speech and stress on empowering women as this is indispensable tool for advancing development and reducing poverty. Second, as far as Islam is concerned, although I am not theologian, but from the best of my knowledge of Islam and my understanding of the Qur’an, it convinces me to say that men and women are equal with respect to treatment before the law, equal in opportunity, equal in access to heath, access to resources in economic, political and educational sphere and are equal in human rights.
Gender equality requires equal rights be it the right to freedom from fear, freedom from wants, freedom of expression, freedom to tell the truth, no matter how hard and difficult it is to tell the truth, but the essence is that no one will never be allowed to harm those who testify the truth, as telling the truth is a pillar of justice and without this, other freedom will fade away and a just society is only a dream, a good community is impossible and will never exist.
A just society requires that everybody has the right to be treated with justice, the right to treated equal before the law, the right to equity in opportunity especially in access to economic, political, and educational opportunity which must be regarded as part of human rights. If decent life is to be achieved, if equitable and sustainable development is to be achieved and if poverty reduction is to be our goal, then there is no way but women’s status must be improved, women empowerment must be in our agenda, women emancipation has to be given support, women’s rights must be respected, the right to work, to earn money, to go to school, to own property, to make decision, to fully actualize their potential and the right to means of living, as all of those are not the monopoly of men, as all of those are not only belong to men, but both men and women are entitled and have the same rights as human beings and as vicegerent on earth. It is also significant that their roles and contributions must be respected and recognized, be it in food production and other production activities, be it in income generation and management of natural resources, be it in community organization and community development, be it in the house or outside the house activities, be it in the domestic arena or in the international arena, we have to respect them, we have to give them recognitions as they are indeed essential for equitable and sustainable development.
Having said that, one might ask a question whether men and women are equal according to the perspective of religion. Most people still believe that men are superior to women based on the assumption that woman is believed to have been created from man’s rib and her existence is therefore secondary to man. Since the creation of women is derived from man, she becomes derivative throughout the time and all the time. This idea is really destructive and very damaging to women existence throughout history of human life. How common the assumption is, how common the idea is, how common the notion is and how common the belief is, although it is correct and even my mother believes that the woman who will be my wife is she who is created from my rib, but indeed we never know exactly, whether woman is really created from man’s rib, the thing is that one should not posit the status of women as secondary to men. Indeed Islam declares that men and women have an equal status and value before God, and only piety (the degree of taqwa) that differentiates one individual from another, as mentioned in the Qur’an;
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوباً وَقَبَائِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ
Yusuf Ali: “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous (pious) of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things). (Surah al-Hujurat;13).”
Another notion on the superiority of men over women which many people believe is coming from the understanding of the word qawwamuna derived from qiwamah in the Qur’an which some people translate this Arabic word qiwamah into English means superiority, whereas in fact, we can translate it as responsibility for and taking care of the family. The Qur’an mentions that word as follows;
الرِّجَالُ قَوَّامُونَ عَلَى النِّسَاء بِمَا فَضَّلَ اللّهُ بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ وَبِمَا أَنفَقُواْ مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ
Yusuf Ali: “Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means..,(Surah al-Nisa’;34)”
Sahih International: “Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth.”
So, whatever the differences in the interpretation of that verse is, for me what is urgent and really needed is careful reading as far as the Qu’ranic texts and the interpretation of those texts is concerned, so that it is the value substance which is justice that must be portrayed and taken into account, not the superficial one. What actually people need is equal treatment on the basis of justice regardless of their gender. A just treatment is absolutely needed according to their needs and circumstances. So, it is very clear that the Qur’an never states that ones gender is superior over the other. It is also clear that the sole basis for superiority of any person over another is piety and righteousness, not gender as mentioned in the Qur’an. In addition to that, human being is also able to reach superiority regardless of gender by possessing high moral and ethical values, code of conduct, good etiquette and proper behaviour in accordance with universal value system, be it is in the vertical relationship (in relation with God) as well as in the horizontal relationship (in human relationship). This is because in Islam the last prophet was sent to all human beings in this world mainly to build and develop moral values, so that one will never underestimate and look down to another.
إنما بعثت لأتمم مكارم الأخلاق (الحديث).َ
“Verily I have been sent to all of you only to better establish and build moral values”.
So, when people are conscious about their beings as human that can exercise freedom of the will based on their mind and intellectual reasoning which is not given to other creatures, when they realize their existence on the earth as vicegerent of God to establish a social order characterized by justice and compassion, when they know exactly their rights and duties to do the good and to avoid the evil, to distinguish between right and wrong and when their lives are guided and driven by moral value system, there will be strong imperative from within for the people to act toward good, progress and development for the sake of humanity and justice which requires equal treatment and recognition of the need to help equalize those who are suffering from deficiency and backwardness. This will lead to bring everybody at par and equal without discriminating one another regardless of their gender.
The other notion on the superiority of men over women is that the creation of woman is mainly to serve man, so that her existence is not of fundamental importance and not to complement each other but rather her existence is only instrumental to the existence of man and supportive to whatever man is going to do and to make decision. In other word, woman is considered powerless and consequently she tends to have fewer rights, lower education, lower health status, lower income, lower access to resources and lower access to decision-making than man. In fact it is not true and woman is not created to serve man, but both are created to serve the will of God which among other things is to establish justice, to respect each other, to complement each other, to propagate peace and spread out the blessing for all creatures, to call for the blessing for the universe and to live together in harmony and righteousness.
It is very interesting that from the very beginning of its birth, Islam has already declared that boys and girls are the same in the sense that they are human and deserve equal treatment, equal opportunity in life. The Qur’an has revealed the history of the barbaric behaviour of the society who killed its baby girls alive and stressed on how human life is very meaningful regardless of gender by saying and questioning the baby girls who have been killed alive;
وَإِذَا الْمَوْؤُودَةُ سُئِلَتْ بِأَيِّ ذَنبٍ قُتِلَتْ
Sahih International: “And when the girl [who was] buried alive is asked, For what sin she was killed.(al-Takwir;8-9).”
This is what Islam has advocated a very long time ago and until the end of the day. This is really breakthrough of civilization as how Islam has changed the people behaviour from barbaric non-human to human, how Islam has raised the degree of women from nothing to a thing, from being powerless women to powerful women, from being valueless to valuable. So it is indeed amazing that Islam from the very beginning of its birth has put the position of women into high degree of dignity and self esteem.
In order for women to be powerful and to have equal treatment, there should be no more discrimination against women and girls, there should be no more wrong perception against women and girls, there should be no more bad treatment against women and girls, but there must be program designed to improve status of women, to push greater involvement of women and their roles in the development process and the most important is to strengthen women empowerment, so that they will be able to have greater control over their own lives, enhance their ability to shape their own destiny, to shape their own future and hence to achieve with them sense of dignity and self esteem. Again women empowerment and women emancipation is indeed essential to any strategy to achieve sustainable development and to have poverty reduction.
In my opinion promoting women empowerment could be in the form of economic empowerment, political empowerment as well as educational empowerment, though most of the time, economic and political empowerment come after educational empowerment. This is because the better educated women are, the greater the potential for women to make progress and development of the family with respect to income generation, access to resources and its management and any other activities leading to further development and poverty reduction. When women are economically productive, society as whole becomes economically stronger and more resilient. When women are socially active, society as whole will get benefit from the widespread of the social movement and the practice of human rights. When women are politically involved and active in their participation and in the decision making, the practice of democracy, become more vigorous and flourish.
I personally perceive that it is because women emancipation and empowerment is beneficial to humankind that religion calls upon the urgency of gender equality. It is because women emancipation and empowerment is significant to contribute to the well-being of society and society to prosper economically that gender equality is embodied in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is because women emancipation and empowerment is believed to be able to help construct a great civilization in human life that gender equality is embodied in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and it is because women emancipation and empowerment is believed to be able to build a just society with full of respect and honour through educating their children as mothers that gender equality is a must and so on and so on. Mother is considered as a big school for the children future, the better the quality of the mother, the better the future generation. In the hand of mother is the future of the children and so is the future of the generation and nation.
So, my understanding toward my religion convinces me that gender equality is indeed in line with Islam, and there is no contradiction at all between the Islamic teaching and gender equality
