Secular feminisms and Islamic feminisms: some instances in the Arab world
In Muslim societies, the first treatises in favour of the emancipation of women appeared in the 19th centuries and were devised by reformist religious men and nahda[1] thinkers. This intellectual trend – to which the islah[2] was associated – was animated by men and women from different faiths (Muslims, Christians and Jews) and reflects the diversity of the Arab World.
The Nahda's reformist and feminist elites
From the outset, some of the Nahda actors saw the issue of women's education as a prerequisite condition to the process of modernisation of the mainly Muslim Arab world; such was Rifa'a al-Tahtawi[3] who was in charge of the first mission of Al-Ahzar University students in France at the end of the 1920s. As a result, he proceeded to sift through Islam's fundamental texts (Quran and hadith) in the light of the new ideas being framed in the European languages. He published The Honest Guide for Education of Girls and Boys: in open advocacy for girls' education, this pioneering work promotes gender equality regarding access to education. Al-Tahtawi wards off the adversaries of girls' education, found notably in Al-Hazar's conservative circles, with a virulent critique grounded in religious arguments, citing some of the Prophet's wives, namely Aisha and Hafsa who were educated women.
Two generations later, the Nahda sprang out another leading light in the person of Qasim Amin[4] . His major contribution is to be found in two founding essays, namely Tahrir al-mara (The Liberation of Woman) and al-Mara al-jadida (The New Woman, 1900). In these books he champions the improvement of women's (in his view parlous) condition in Muslim societies, the primacy of reason, the modernisation of Islam, access to education for all, etc... The first book, published in 1899, raised a hue and cry in conservative circles and marked a sea change in Egyptian society. The book, which relies on theological arguments, amounts to a strong advocacy in favour of women's emancipation, the end of sexual segregation, the access of women to education, the abolition of repudiation and polygamy.
Against this background of intellectual ferment whence elites emerged that did not owe all their knowledge to a still pivotal religious training and education, Qasim Amin's books influenced Tahar Haddad[5] . In Our Women in the Sharia[6] and Society (1930), the Tunisian scholar first analysed the impact of Sharia law on women's condition in order to propose a theological argumentation that sought to reconcile religion and modernity. He calls for the legal emancipation of women, their education, and their involvement in social life, while also advocating successoral equality and the foregoing of polygamy and repudiation. To this end, he relies on a rational and contextualised interpretation of the founding sources of Islam, championing a dynamic reading of the scriptural texts (Quran and hadith) differentiating between two levels, namely the so-called immutable truths (e.g. the oneness of God, justice etc.) and mutable laws (e.g. matrimonial, social, relational), which amount to a 7th century-specific set of conventions found in Islamic sources and destined to be adjusted to societal evolutions. The Sharia relating to women's status (e.g. marital subjugation, inheritance ...) belongs with these changeable laws, it must be reassessed with in mind a gender equality on a par with the Quranic spirit and the exemplarity of the Prophet of Islam. Haddad's proposals, though violently censured by conservative politicians and traditional religious types were taken into consideration, a few months after Tunisia's independence, for the promulgation of the August 1956 Code of Personal Status.
