Blindspot!
From Issue: 1033 [Read full issue]
Greatest Injustice
If sexual ethics in the Quran aim to promote contentment and spiritual welfare, why is s e x in Muslim societies, one may legitimately ask, the source of so much injustice and unhappiness? Why is the female body seen as a site of female shame and male honour? How has the barbaric practice of female circumcision, an inheritance from pre-Islamic cultures, survived? The simple answer to these questions is that such notions and practices have nothing to do with the Quran but everything to do with cultural traditions, customs and practices. They are not exclusively Arab or non-Arab; they are derived from and are part of many cultures. As time-honoured practices and ways of thinking and operating in the world, they were inveigled into the Quranic framework, retained and newly re-justified with the rubric of Islam; some even became part of the Sharia as it evolved through the centuries and exists today.
Women in Muslim societies face the greatest injustice in relation to rape. Under certain Sharia legislation, such as the Hudud Ordinance of Pakistan or the Hudud Bill of the Malaysian State of Kelantan, zina, i.e. illicit s e x, and rape are seen as the same thing and fall under the same rules. Of course, the two are quite distinct. Zina is consensual s e x, and even though it is out of wedlock, it may involve love and mutual affection. Rape is non-consensual s e x under force and duress: it is an aberration of power, violence and humiliation. Only a perverted mind would see both as the same. Yet, under Sharia legislation, the rules of zina are applied to rape; and the rape victim has to bring four male witnesses of just character to prove the charge against her attacker. The most frequent outcome is that the rape victim is doubly victimised: not only has she been raped, but she is also accused of adultery or fornication and imprisoned! So the rules that were supposed to protect women from slander are used to sanction state violence against them. Those who frame such laws and apply them in the name of Islam are the real transgressors, who 'overstep His limits' and 'will be consigned by God to the Fire, and there they will stay—a humiliating torment awaits them' (4:14).
Compiled From:
"Reading the Qur'an" - Ziauddin Sardar, p. 320