Women, Islam and Democratization

by Nawal El Saadawi
Cairo, Egypt 30 October 2002

I- Power Not Justice:

I cannot write about Islam if I do not compare it with Christianity, Judaism and other religions.
I spent many years studying the Quran, and comparing it with the other two divine books. A Muslim is expected to believe in the three monotheistic religions. In my childhood I heard my father say that God sent his three holy books to enlighten all people. The word “God” seemed to me as though created by my father. Father and God seemed one to me. Later on I came up against the authority in school and in the state. The head of the state was like a god or semi-god. When I became a grown up woman I discovered higher authority outside our country called the American president. He was a full god or global god, not a half-god like the local president.
The crime of Eve in Torah (The old Testament) was knowledge. She ate from the tree of knowledge and was condemned by God. The New Testament inherited all the values and laws that consider women inferior to men from the Old Testament. The third divine book “The Quran” inherited the previous two holy books, but made some minor changes. For example the “Tree of Knowledge” has no name in the Quran. Eve and Adam were both sinful after eating from the tree. However, God forgave Adam alone since the text in the Quran here is in the singular, and refers to Adam.
In Ancient Egypt, before the slave system was established, we did not have one Male-Sky-God. There were many female and male gods, and they were also the rulers. They lived, married, had children and died like all people. One of them was called “Nut”, she carried the title “goddess of sky”, her husband “Geb” was “god of earth”, their daughter “Isis” was “goddess of wisdom or knowledge”, her sister “Maat” was “goddess of Justice”.
We cannot have justice or freedom or real democracy without knowledge. Justice and democracy disappeared when the slave system came into being and a male-sky-God who condemned knowledge and women.
In ancient Egypt women were respected, children carried the name of the mother, and divine authority was based on justice and not power. Before the death of “Nut” in the year 4988 B.C. she told “Isis”, her eldest daughter, who inherited her on the throne: “I do not enjoin you to draw your authority from divine power but from justice and compassion”. However this philosophy changed when the slave-feudal system was born and there was only one-male-sky-god. Monotheism is a pillar which upholds the class-patriarchal system under which god, the father, the son dominated. The mother or the daughter disappeared in the bible under the word: “the holy ghost”. The woman became a ghost. After being a goddess she became the devil, or the “other”, that was looked upon as the sinful or as an infidel.
In January 1991 “George Bush”, the father, holding the bible in his hands declared war on the devil in Iraq. Today in October 2002, George Bush, the son, who inherited his father’s throne, carries the bible and declares war against what he calls the “Axis of Evil”, or the devils in Iraq, Iran and other countries.

II- Dictatorship

The Israeli army took the land of Palestine by force, in the name of the “Promised Land”. God inhis holy “Torah” ordered his chosen people to invade this land and kill the natives living on it. This divine political command launched the laws of the jungle which have ruled over our world to this day. It justified dictatorship, colonialism and foreign occupation by military force. It gives American and Israeli governments full authority to kill other people and take their land, their oil and their other resources. It created double undemocratic national and international laws and double standards in all the domains of life; whether political, economic, sexual, social, moral, cultural, legal, religious or other. It made power the basis of rule and not justice.
The United Nations inherited these double standards. It submits to American and Israeli military mass destruction and power. It cannot send inspectors to Israel to inspect its nuclear power. It cannot order economic sanctions on Israel because it did not obey UN resolutions. But the UN can punish other countries like Iraq easily even if they obey the UN resolutions.
The greatest crime in Monotheism is to warship another god other than the one-sky-male god. This is mentioned in His three holy books. Thegreatest crime is “polytheism” and not “injustice” or “dictatorship”. “Obediance” is the basis of religious and political education in Jewish, Christian or Islamic societies. A creative intelligent child is called a devil, since the devil (Iblis) was the first to disobey God. He was punished, was dismissed from paradise, and will be burnt in God’s Hell-Fire. Fear of punishment is the basis of obedience dictatorship. Men and women who defend human rights, justice or freedom are punished in all countries, in the so called “democratic” developed West, or in the so called undemocratic undeveloped East. The type and degree of punishment varies from country to country, according to the political system, not according to its religion.

III- War is needed

After the collapse of the “Soviet Union” the patriarchal capitalist military system had to create a new devil for our world cannot live without the existence of the devil. If there is no devil there will be no need for a god to punish him. There will be no war on earth and no hell-fire in sky. Our world cannot live without war, since power is the rule, and since foreign occupation and colonialism are justified by God’s books.
In the last twenty five years I traveled to many countries in Europe and North America. I discovered that women are inferior to men in all these societies. Western women, especially working class poor women, are still fighting for equal rights in the family and in the state. While middle class and upper class women gained some sexual and individual rights in most industrial countries. This was the result of the participation of women in industry and paid work outside the home. They were paid less than men but they gained a degree of economic independence, which helped them to resist and revolt against male domination in the family. They developed the knowledge and courage to challenge the double standards in the bible and in state laws.
Because of colonialism and the collaboration between local governments and foreign military powers our struggle for liberation was hindered during the 19th century. In Egypt under British occupation (from 1882 to 1956) religion was used to hinder our revolution, to prevent democracy and to divide people. Instead of fighting colonialism and local governments the Egyptians were drawn into religious conflicts between Muslims and Copts (Christians). Egyptian women were dominated by their men in both Muslim and Christian families. All Egyptian women were circumcised, or exposed to surgical removal of the clitoris whether Muslims or Christians. They had to cover their heads if they went outside the home. The law of obedience, virginity, monogamy, and other Christian and Islamic values governed all women regardless of religion. However “Islam” was selected by British power to be the “only” religion that discriminates between men and women and preaches dictatorship. The British believed in the Bible only. To them it was the only divine book.

IV-To justify state terrorism

They ignored the story of Eve the sinful, the praising of the Virgin Mother and condemnation of sexuality even inside marriage, the double moral standards and praising of obedience and dictatorship, the divine commands to occupy other lands and kill their people and other unjust Christian and Jewish ;aws.
The British government helped the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948 by military force. Today the American government supports Israeli army in killing the Palestinians and taking their land. The Anglo-American colonial powers ignore all the negative inhuman divine laws in the Bible. They select the negative parts in the Quran only. They even change the positive values in Islam into negative ones. This is the political game played by global colonialists and their allies in the local governments. They adopt double standards, violence, terrorism, and dictatorship whenever these serve their economic interests in what they call the Third World, or the Middle East. They give us names and decide for us our identity, our economy, and our type of government.
Today G. Bush (the son) speaks about changing the system of authority government in Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan or Sudan as if they are under his rule. He declares that he will use military force to do that. If the United Nations does not support him he will do it alone.
This is dictatorship, but he speaks about American democracy! Contradiction is the basis of the military capitalist patriarchal system, and its religions and family values.
The American feminist movements are struggling against G. W. Bush’s un-democratic rule. They call him “the self-elected president.” The majority of American women and men did not elect him. Democracy in the U.S.A. and in most capitalist countries is challenged by feminist and progressive movements.
Today the majority of countries and people are against the war, but G.W. Bush ignores them and declares almost every day that he will fight Iraq (and others) alone.
Even the United Nations system lacks real democracy. The very few powerful countries which dominate the UN and its Security Council have what is called a “veto”, and can use it against the majority of the world.

V-Islam is enemy

After the so called “Eleven September” event of 2001, the word “Islamic terrorism” replaced “communist terrorism”. Many men, women and children were killed under the slogan “fighting terrorist communists or socialists”. Today many men, women and children are killed under the slogan “fighting Islamic terrorists”.
Today Islam is picked out as the only religion thaty is against democracy and against women.
If you point out the defects in the Bible you are labeled anti-semitic or atheist or anti-democratic, or even a terrorist Muslim.
If you point out the defects in Islam or the Quran you are considered liberal, civilized, developed, democratic.
We have to unmask this political game before we can speak about women, Islam and democratization.
We have to lift the veil off our minds and see these double standards globally and locally. We have to compare the Quran to other holy books before we judge Islam. A fair comparison will help us to discover that the Quran or fundamental teachings of Islam are relatively progressive in relation to women and democracy. Religion is a political ideology and political power cannot control people without religious power.
Nawal El Saadawi
30 October 2002
Cairo, Egypt