Islamism and Gender: Male Perspectives

Abstract

In this chapter, I highlight the different male Islamists’ ideas and claims with respect to the position of women in society and the roles they are ‘allowed’ (according to certain interpretations). Having realized by this stage that men’s voices in general receive a great deal more coverage and are more powerful than women’s voices, I took a con-scious decision to limit male Islamists’ voices. The male Islamists whose works I examine are Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali, Sheikh Muhammad Mitwalli Al-Sha ‘rawi, Sayyid Qutb, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Adil Husayn. My choice of these male Islamist voices is controversial — and deliberately so. The controversy lies in the fact that some of them are arguably voices of official or state Islam, i.e. Al-Sha‘rawi and Al-Ghazali. Indeed, these two men have appeared and continue to appear frequently on state-controlled television. I have shown, through the voices of the various feminists, that the state does not object to certain aspects of Islamist ideas — especially those that concern women. I have relied on the many Islamists I spoke to, to recommend whom they considered the influential male Islamists in their lives. The men who are presented in this chapter, therefore, and who have not been interviewed, are the ones that were mentioned in answer to my questions, and in the course of many talks held with Islamist activists.