AS in any culture, however, some Muslim women do fall victim to domestic violence, despite the volume of teachings by the Prophet that condemn spousal abuse. Instead of studying the problem within in the broader context of violence against women, Islamophobes cling to a narrow interpretation of isolated and out-of-context Qur'an verses, which supposedly show a correlation between domestic violence and Islamic teaching. This counterproductive practice, known as prooftexting, is an ongoing problem for Christianity as well; it applies to any self-proclaimed religious expert who attempts to justify an opinion based on partial and/or misleading “proof”. Deeper study and understanding will show that Islam actually gave women more rights from its inception than either Judaism or Christianity. Islam, for example, treated women and men as equal life-partners. None of the demeaning, restrictive or judgmental teachings about women found in the Jewish Torah or Christian Bible (both Old and New Testaments) appear in the Qur'an. A Jewish woman, for example, cannot remarry unless her divorcing husband gives her permission. St. Paul taught that a woman has no “head” (i.e. identity or personal authority) of her own, but that her husband is her head as much as she is his body. In 1st Timothy 2:12- 14, Paul writes: “I do not allow women to teach or to have authority over men. They must keep quiet. For Adam was created first and then Eve. And it was not Adam who deceived. It was the woman who was deceived and broke God's law.” Renowned Christian theologian, Prof. Rosemary Radford Reuther, notes: “Traditional Christianity adopted this reading of the Fall story, in which Eve was the primary guilty partner in causing historic evil in the world … Woman's subordinate status, therefore, not only reflects her original inferior nature but also is a just punishment for her guilt in causing evil to come into the world, thereby leading to the death of Christ. Far from saving her, the death of Christ only deepens her guilt, while it absolves the male of his faith and allows him to represent the male saviour.” The great Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, echoed the same tradition as St. Paulwhose theology he most admired: “The wife was made subject to the man by the Law, which was given after sin ... the rule remains with the husband and the wife is compelled to obey him by God's command. He rules the home and the state, wages war, defends his possessions, tills the soil, plants, builds, etc. The woman, on the other hand, is like a nail driven into the wall. She sits at home ...” Ironically, Luther's own wife (a former nun) was an accomplished businesswoman, musician, scholar and mother! Professor Reuther comments further: “Grumbling by women about this status or their efforts to change it represent for Luther a wrongheaded effort to revolt against a punishment that they must be forced to accept and bear as an expression of their sinful status." The story is no better for women when told by John Calvin. Confronted by centuries of Catholic and Protestant teachings filled with judgmental or at best, ambiguous attitudes towards women, one cannot blame Muslims for being both confused and skeptical about the message of Christianity. This kind of antifeminist theology is totally alien of Islam. Professor Reuther explains that: “ … the Council of Toledo in AD 400 decreed that if a wife of the clergy transgresses his commands, the husband may beat the wife, keep her bound in their house, and force her to fast but ‘not unto death'.” She adds that canon (church) law gives a cleric the “right to beat his wife harder than does the ordinary man … Most customary and town law in the medieval and Renaissance periods gave husbands the right to beat their wives, although it was usually said that they should do so ‘reasonably' or ‘moderately'.” For the past 1,400 years, no such laws or practices have been decreed or sanctioned in any Muslim country. Yvonne Ridley, a British journalist who converted to Islam said that, based on her lifelong experience as a feminist, “women do not need liberating from Islam but from ubiquitous male chauvinist fear.” In the process of studying Islam and its beliefs, she re-examined the liberal tradition of her Western Christian upbringing and “saw its paucity in relation to the rights granted to women by Islam 1,400 years ago”. The Qur'an mentions two women virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the wife of an Egyptian Pharaoh as models of piety for all humanity, men and women alike. The Qur'an also mentions two other women who should not be emulated by anyone the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot (66:10-12). (To be continued next week).
