Are Muslim Men Against Equality?
By Rizani Hamin –February 5, 2018
As a Sri Lankan Muslim woman working on women’s rights issues, this is unfortunately a question that my sisters and I ask ourselves almost everyday.
More so in light of information surfacing about drastically contradicting viewpoints on key issues amongst members of the 2009 government appointed Committee, which was set up to recommend reforms to the 1951 Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act (MMDA).
The debates surrounding the MMDA in Sri Lanka – similar to the debates around issues involving Muslim women globally – have become, to put in simple words – a gender war.
The division between men and women on opposing sides of the debates is becoming more and more distinct. Muslim women have been at helm of advocacy and activism for MMDA reforms for decades, amidst everyday allegations of ‘feminist, western, Zionist, anti-marriage, anti-Muslim and anti-Islam agendas’ and despite repeated risk, threat and intimidation faced by women from members of the same community.
The number of supportive Muslim men who truly believe in equality of men and women and are willing to articulate and advocate for it – we can literally count on our fingertips.
The split of opinions within the 2009 Committee is no surprise, as indicated last year with ACJU’s alternate report. In fact it is well documented that the biggest opposition for progressive MMDA reforms has been from Muslim men who are considered religious and community leaders and who supposedly hold the ‘best interest of the Muslim community at heart’. However it is the limited reaction from some and absolute silence from other ordinary Muslim men, whom we hoped are more in touch with everyday realities, that has been more appalling.
So what is it? What is so wrong about Muslim women asking for a law that will guarantee rights for both husbands and wives and promotes a marriage based on mawaddah wa rahmah (love and compassion), rather than harm and fear?
What is so impossible about a law that will guarantee legally, that Muslim children get the same protection of their rights as the rest of their non-Muslim peers? That having the minimum age of marriage as 18 means children have more opportunity for education and skill development so they have more options in life and are able to pursue them if they choose to do so? Will this hurt or help the Muslim community if our children have more time and chance to develop their potential?
What is so satanic about Muslim women upholding their belief in a humane religion of Islam and demanding for a MMDA that will limit the possibilities of discrimination and injustice against women and instead safeguard marriages?
