Iranian Women "Honored" on Thursday ! (page 3)

~Merry
Out of curiosity, what sect of Islam do you belong to ? What do you think about Sharia Law ? Is it something only fundamentalist Muslims adhere to ? In my other post about FGM you seemed a little quiet about your own beliefs about the subject, so, what do you believe ? Would you consider circumcision for yourself...if it was "required" by your faith ?
I don't mean to be too personal and I'm not trying to fight. It just seems to me (who has a lot to learn) women already have hard enough times as it is in other male-dominated religions...Islam takes women rights's backwards, imho.
Rabbit

* I'm just a Muslim. I don't belong to a sect of Islam because I believe it is wrong for Islam to be broken into sects (e.g. Sunni, Shi'i), but I guess some would term me Sunni because the teachings which are labeled Sunni seem to me to be truest to the Qur'an and the Sunnah, as far as I understand them. I have not chosen a School of Jurisprudence to follow (e.g. Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi'i), but plan to accept whichever one my husband follows when I marry. I think that would be best. I am only about a year old in Islam, so I have much to learn. I appeciate questions like yours which help me do more research and thinking about important issues.

*I think Shari'ah Law is very important for Muslims. Here is an article on its importance, which I am reading now (clickable link)-- Shari'ah: The Way of Justice. As it states in its conclusion:

Today’s Muslim societies are not model societies — they are infested with ills and evils – yet the comparatively stable family life, absence of delinquency, low crime rates, much greater freedom from drugs and alcoholism, warmth of brotherhood, generosity and mutual aid and help – all these are the legacies of that divinely given code of life, the way to Justice, which once they used to adhere to, and yearn to have the change to return to – the Shari’ah.

I believe that Islam is perfect (and Shari'ah along with it), but humans are imperfect in their understanding and application of them. Some Muslims and the things they do are even evil and twisted, but that is not because of Islam, it is in spite of it and contrary to it.

*My faith does not require female circumcision. I am in agreement with this from http://www.minaret.org/fgm-pamphlet.htm:

One fundamental of the Islamic law is that what is not prohibited is allowed. This makes for a great deal of tolerance in the religious law. As a result of this tolerance many pre-Islamic practices were not immediately eradicated by Islam. When such practices came to be unpopular (or unfashionable) in future centuries, the tolerance of Islamic jurisprudence was mischaracterized by those inimical to Islam as "backward." It was as if someone from a genteel class of society were to condemn America's toleration for body piercing among its young people as proof of the "barbarism" of American law. It would be wise to remember that there is a great burden of proof that Islam puts upon those who wish to prohibit a practice, and that the requirement for such proof is a strength of the Islamic law. Toleration is a strength, not a weakness.
In this discussion I shall refer to any form of permanent cutting the genitals as "genital mutilation." Some may feel this is prejudicing the case, since the words certainly sound pejorative. I think the term is fair, however, since the purpose of all the procedures under discussion–and the purpose of male circumcision and of the now commonly practiced forms of body piercing, including the piercing of the ears done by almost every Western female–is unquestionably to mutilate those parts of the body cut or pierced. The issue of interest, then, is not whether mutilation is involved but rather whether it is religiously (or morally) and/or medically desirable or contraindicated.
Although there is no reference to circumcision at all in the Qur'an, there is a well-established tradition of male circumcision in Islam as a "sunnah" act. In the Abrahamic tradition this act is understood as a fulfillment of a covenant with God, but there are numerous health reasons for the practice. There is no mandate at all for female circumcision, however, neither in the Qur'an, the traditional reports (called hadith), nor medical theory.
Although female circumcision is not mandated, one tradition of disputed authenticity permits (but does not encourage) the removal of a minuscule segment of skin from the female prepuce, provided no harm is done: A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina [Madîna]. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to her: 'Do not cut severely as that is better for a woman and more desirable for a husband.'–Sunan Abu Dawûd, Book 41, #5251. One does not want to make too much of this tradition, as it is classified as "weak" by Abu Dawud (the compiler) himself. Nonetheless, it clearly forbids severity in circumcision and bases such limitation on both the potential to harm the woman and the potential to make her less desirable to her husband. Yet, despite the restriction against severity, the Prophet did not here prohibit circumcision completely.
Permitting such a ritual constitutes an act of tolerance by Islamic law for pre-Islamic practices, and may be overruled by the Islamic prohibition against harmful acts. Consider, for example, that Islamic law protects a woman's right to sexual enjoyment, as demonstrated by the fact that a woman has the right to divorce on the grounds that her husband does not provide sexual satisfaction. It follows that Islamic law prohibits clitorodectomy (partial or complete removal of the clitoris) or infibulation (excision of part or all of the external genitalia and stitching/narrowing of the vaginal opening), or any genital mutilation which impairs the woman's ability to enjoy sexual relations. Such prohibitions are consistent with the hadithic warning against severity in female circumcision.
If the Islamic law does not mandate female genital mutilation and tolerates only the most mild form of circumcision (and that only if it produces no adverse effects in the child), then how does it come about that so many people from certain countries with large Muslim populations insist that savage acts which exceed these limits are not only permitted, but required by Islamic law? The answer becomes obvious when one realizes that Christians from many of these countries also insist that the tradition is mandated by their religion as well. People often confuse traditions rooted in local culture with religious requirements.
Immigrants from such countries now residing in the United States stand between the culture of their heritage and the American culture of their environment. They cannot and should not be expected to abandon their religion. There should be no doubt, however, that the young amongst them, at least, will be willing to abandon old-world cultural practices at odds with their adopted culture when such practices are unsupported by religion. (This is because they carry no cultural bias towards such practices. On the contrary, they may absorb biases against them from their adopted culture.)
For Muslims, cliterodectomy and infibulation should be considered harâm (prohibited) practices and opposition to it should be part of our ongoing mandate to fight against superstition and oppression. As to the mildest form of female circumcision, the risks to the girl's future ability to enjoy sexual relations with her husband must place it at best in the category of makrûh (disliked) practices. Since it has neither hygienic nor religious value, there is no justification for Muslims to engage in this painful and potentially harmful practice and it would be best to avoid it completely.
Wa Allahu a`lam. (And God knows best.)

*Personally, I feel that Islam protects my rights as a woman quite beautifully, balancing the rights of men and women, parents and children, in submission to the rights of our Creator over us. But being an isolated Muslima, I have never had to stand up for my rights against any Muslim individual or group who I felt threatened that which Islam guarantees me, something that I know does happen and is happening on the large (national) and small (personal) scale.

I also hope I shall continue learning about women in Iranian society (and other Muslim societies as well). Right now I am reading here-- http://www.salamiran.org/Women/NROW/1995/Introduction.html

~Merry

Iranian Women "Honored" on Thursday !

Rabbit

Merry Magdalene

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