The Feminine Power Supporting the Prophets

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

I was struck by Jim Garrison and Banafsheh Sayyad’s article last year for the Huffington Post: “Muhammad was a Feminist”....

Muhammad’s first wife, Khadijah,...... already a mother of three, and a successful merchant. With more caravans than all the other Quraysh traders put together, she led a wealthy, independent lifestyle, refusing many offers of marriage from wealthy men, and chose the penniless Muhammad for her new husband.
This was remarkable at a time when most women were treated like property and barely had any rights at all until the advent of Islam. The very fact that the Prophet of Islam was chosen by such a unique woman, and felt honoured to take her hand, is of extreme importance – the Quran was given to a man who honoured and respected the feminine more than any other man of his time. How fitting, since the Quran granted women unheard of rights, like the right to divorce and inherit property, and could have set in motion an evolving women’s emancipation if Muslims had been awake to its message. Sadly, in the centuries after Muhammad and Khadijah, the possibility of women’s emancipation was inevitably sidelined by the patriarchal establishment that hijacked Islam. In our time however, we can reconnect with this great heroine and appreciate her and the feminine strength she manifested in the way that she and Muhammad would have wished.

To read more:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/livingtradition/2017/05/feminine-power-supporting-prophets/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Muslim&utm_content=49

[guillaumeb]

1. And in addition:

As I reflected on the importance of women in prophethood I realised that Muhammad is not unique in his respect for women. Jesus also had important women in his life, most especially the much revered Mother Mary.

[Stargleamer]

2. Because marrying a 6-7 year old girl and then consummating the marriage

when she was 9, (40 years his junior) is such a feminist thing to do.

Also, the parts of the Koran dealing with women's testimony counting for so much less, is right up there too.

[guillaumeb]

5. And what did you think of the actual article?

[Stargleamer]

7. Not much

"the Koran granted women unheard of rights"--it whitewashes how the Koran said men could beat their wives. Not much rights given there, when you're beaten down.

I'm supposed to be impressed by this?? Women's lives were still restricted, what the article extols is just how some of Muhammad's wives were able to do some stuff within narrow confinement. like help on missionary work or whatever. One who genuinely is supposed to love women as the article proclaims would have tried to do a lot more than that.

Also one of his wives was 6 years old!!! How is this loving women? On what planet???

[Major Nikon]

11. Not to mention polygamy, war rape, and handing out female sex-slaves as door prizes

[MineralMan]

17. Yeah. How does all that work out for Muslim women in general?

Of all the major religions, Islam offers the least freedom and agency to women. Not a great track record, nor a great example from our OP, I think.

[Voltaire2]

3. You can stop at "Mohammad's first wife".

[guillaumeb]

4. I will assume that you stopped reading at that point.

And thus missed the point of the article.

[edhopper]

6. I did

and the author doesn't understand the hypocrisy of talking about Feminism and a man with nine wives, including a child.

At least he admits the majority of Muslims, today and through history disagree with him about the Quran.

[trotsky]

8. And there it is. The BEST you can offer up to support the silly notion that somehow...

your Abrahamic religions are "pro-women" is to note the women who SUPPORT all your male prophets.

In other words, you are celebrating women being relegated to a secondary, supporting role.

Why didn't Jesus have a single female disciple? Why didn't Mohammed name a female successor?

I guess strong women are OK only when they support men. That's what you choose to celebrate. Pardon me if I don't think that's particularly noble.

[MineralMan]

9. An apologist, cherry-picking stories.

I read it. Apologetics don't cut it. All one need do is look at the plight of the modern Muslim woman to see that this is just a puff piece that chooses only positive stories to tell, out of all the rest.

Surely you can find better material somewhere...

[Major Nikon]

14. The article probably would have same effect had they mentioned Muhammad's child raping

[MineralMan]

16. Yabbut it didn't. Although, sometimes some people

don't notice what is contradictory when quoting such things. That's always amusing.

[Act_of_Reparation]

10. "Patriarchal establishment that hijacked Islam"

Nope. If it seems patriarchal, it's probably because it was written by, and thereby reflects, the sexual ideals of 7th century Arabian men.

[Major Nikon]

12. ...

[MineralMan]

18. Precisement!

[marylandblue]

13. Article has an unintended irony

Mohammed married an independent successful woman under pre-Islamic conditions, which means women did have some rights at that time. Then it laments the loss of women's rights under Islam.

[Act_of_Reparation]

19. And deliberate obfuscation

A passing mention is given to Aishah. The author says she's strong and her story "well known", but beyond that doesn't elaborate.

That's because Aishah was six or seven when she was betrothed to Muhammad, and that shit really doesn't jive with the author's schtick.

[Voltaire2]

15. In almost all Islamic countries women are by law

second class citizens, effectively minors, their legal rights controlled by a male guardian, either their husband or a male relative.

The title of the article itself unintentionally illustrates just how deeply embedded misogyny is within Islam.

[Major Nikon]

20. Much of that happened relatively recently

Or at least the resurgence of it, brought to you by the forces of fundamentalism. Prior to that many Islamic countries were pretty progressive as far as women's rights were concerned. Meanwhile right here in the US fundamentalism is turning back the clock on not just women's rights, but pretty much all human rights. Nevertheless we must believe more organized religion must be a good thing.

[MineralMan]

21. And here as in the Islamic world, it is old men perpetrating that.

Old fundamentalist men.

[Voltaire2]

22. Prior to that many of these countries were explicitly

secular and were part of the pan Arabist nationalist movement that fought colonialism and promoted modernity and socialism. That all fell apart in the 70s and 80s, creating an opening for resurgent Islamic fundamentalism.

The more power religion has in society is almost universally correlated with a proportional decrease in the status of women.

[Major Nikon]

23. It's also almost universally true the more popular religion is the more it seeks power

So while the idea of separating church and state might seem plausible, in reality it never is.