I was born into a family in which the Islamic virtues of public service and scholarship were both prized and practiced. Our ancestor was an Afghan nobleman who moved south and, in 1728, carved out a state for himself in the region between Lahore and Delhi, in Mughal India. My earliest memories of our large establishment are of exuberant diversity. On the Muslim festivals of Eid, friends of all faiths feasted with us. Christmas was celebrated singing carols with our Christian friends and Divali at Hindu homes. We had a boisterous time with friends in our garden at the Hindu festival of Holi, squirting colored water on each other. Among the people who worked around our house were Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and many castes of Hindus, whose numerous progeny were my playmates. Poets and musicians gathered at our house, their verse and music reflecting the exquisite blending of the many-hued cultures and faiths that surrounded us. Thursday evenings my father took me to the crowded 13^th century shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya, among the most revered Muslim Sufi saints of South Asia, to hear “Qawwali”, the mystical music genre created by one of the world’s outstanding musical geniuses, Amir Khusro, beloved disciple of the saint. Today this shrine is just as popular as it once was and 65 percent of the devotees of this Muslim mystic are non-Muslims.

My parents were faith-blind, gender-blind, class-blind and color-blind. This understanding of Islam was not proclaimed - it was a self-evident truth that was lived. Often my father pointed out to me that the first surah of the Quran, considered the essence of the Quranic message, states that God is “Rubb al-Aalimeen,” the Sustainer of all the worlds and, therefore, all peoples are equal in His sight. It was this inclusive spirit of Islam that was taught by the saints and teachers of the mystical path (the Sufis) and influenced the entire way of life of Muslims, emperors and peasants alike, in South Asia.

My father, an army General, made sure my upbringing was no different from that of my brothers. He was devoted to all the women in his life but he particularly doted on me and actively encouraged my headstrong ways. It therefore made perfect sense to me when, growing up, I read stories from the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that told of the exceptional devotion and respect he gave to the ladies of his family, his loving indulgence towards children and kindness to animals. These were among the Prophet’s attributes that a good Muslim emulated.

I learnt about the Prophet’s gentle mother who died, leaving him orphaned at age six. It was in loving memory of her and his caring foster mother that he proclaimed, in one of his most famous sayings, “Heaven lies beneath the feet of mothers.” Understandably, Muslim mothers frequently remind their children of their exalted status, with barely concealed triumphalism, since this statement cannot be contested by fathers.

The Prophet’s marriage to Khadija set a precedent which even today may be considered too progressive. This strong, independent, twice-widowed, 40 year old lady employed the 25 year old future Prophet to run her business. His personality so impressed her that she proposed marriage. She was the first person to accept Islam and through endless persecution, exile and hardship, she was his partner and most trusted advisor. In a society where polygamy was the norm, their beautiful monogamous marriage lasted 26 years until her death. Needless to say, not many Muslim men (or, indeed, of any faith) have adopted such criteria when choosing a bride. Nonetheless, this concept of marital bliss has permeated the consciousness of Muslim men. We see this, for example, in the history of the six great Mughal emperors who united India and created the wealthiest and most magnificent Empire of its time (1526-1858). A deeply loved strong woman was at the center of their lives. It was, after all, a Muslim man, the fifth Mughal emperor Shahjahan, who built the sublime Taj Mahal as a monument to his beloved queen. The abiding love of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent of Turkey (1494-1566), most powerful sovereign of his time, for his queen, Hurrem, is the stuff of legends.

The Virgin Mary is the iconic symbol of spiritual purity for Muslims and I learnt that she will be the first person to enter Paradise, leading the way for all virtuous human beings. The 19^th chapter of the Quran is named “Mary” and celebrates the virgin birth. Muslims also believe that the Prophet’s daughter, Fatima, whose exemplary piety closely resembles that of the Virgin Mary, asked for and was granted permission by God to intercede for us on the Day of Judgment. Then I was taught about Aisha, the young lady who the Prophet married after Khadija’s death. She was high spirited, extremely intelligent and outspoken, and he loved her dearly. She actively supported him in the founding of the new Community of Medina and always asked probing questions about his actions and policies. It is to this lady that Muslims owe one third of the Hadith (reports of the Prophet’s actions or sayings) and she is one of the foremost authorities on Islam. Later in life she even led an army into a battle that she initiated. Umm Salama, whom the Prophet married after she became a war widow, advised him on political matters, and was also central to the creation of Hadith. The Prophet’s heroic granddaughter, Zainab, defied the tyrant Yazid who usurped power in 682. So fearful was Yazid of her powerful oratory that he had her murdered. There are countless such examples of outstanding women from Islam’s earliest days, who were our role models.

Resourceful and strong women were the only sort I knew or was related to. Indeed, some were the bane of my youth. Others, had they lived in 16^th century Italy, would have put Lucretia Borgia to shame. In my extended family, powerful, highly placed men, were scared only of their wives. Growing up, I knew ladies who had been in the forefront of the struggle against British colonialism and those who were pioneers in different fields.

Of course, there were segments of society which did not hold such liberal views about women, but educating women was a given. When I was at Karachi University in the 1960s, 55% of the student population was women. Some wore the veil while others sported revealing outfits but there was nothing unusual about this. The unique charm of Pakistani culture was that no one expected conformity, least of all, demanded it. Coexistence and pluralism, inculcated by the Sufis, was prevalent everywhere. Later, as I traveled widely in rural areas I saw extreme inequalities of wealth and privilege, the beneficiaries of which (allied with a colonial trained self-serving bureaucracy in Islamabad) prevented access to education and social change to the poor of their regions. Thus the natural transition to a modern and educated society, as was happening gradually in the cities, was prevented. Invariably, in situations of great economic deprivation and ignorance (such as slavery in the US or feudalism in Pakistan), women suffer the most. In all my travels, however, I never encountered any hostility as a woman with a different way of life, because the norm was to be respectful of others.

My father constantly emphasized that Islam taught balance in life (e.g. 2:143). To be accountable on Judgment Day, reason and free will on earth is a prerequisite. He explained that freedom of action and thought was every Muslim’s right, to be tempered with a strong internalized moral code. So I could not reconcile the restrictions on women that I observed with what I had been taught. Fortunately, my husband and I shared very similar viewpoints, as he was raised in the same traditions. Shortly after my marriage, a minor incident occurred which gave me pause. I had deferred to the practice of adopting my husband’s name but in a TV interview my maiden name appeared by mistake. The next day a British educated male colleague referred to me, only half in jest, as a “Western feminist.” Later, a well meaning  family friend informed me that now I “belonged” to my husband’s family and no longer in my own! Where did such ideas emanate from? I embarked on a quest to understand the position of Muslim women through history and I share with you some of what I learnt.

The egalitarian message of Islam arises from the belief in the One God. If we are all God’s creation, we are equal in our createdness regardless of gender, race, religion or color. In the context of faith, there is no distinction between a Muslim man and woman. Both have the same rights and obligations, enjoy God’s bounties equally and are promised the same rewards in heaven (e.g. 3:195, 4:124, 16:97, 33:35, 40:39-40).

The Quran illustrates this through the story of Adam and an unnamed spouse. They were created together (4:1) from a single soul (nafs: a grammatically feminine word); indeed the human pair is created to find tranquility and love in one another (30:21). Both broke the moral law together, both repented and both were forgiven. Thereafter, both had to earn God’s pleasure through good actions on earth.

It is also important to note that God is never specifically gendered as masculine or feminine. He is the Friend who is beyond gender. God’s favorite attribute for Himself is “Rahman,” the compassionate and merciful. The root of “Rahman” is “rahm,” the womb. So it is the feminine that God Himself exalts!

It is within the context of society that we see gender-based distinctions. In Islam the foundation of social order is the family and within it obligations differ, depending on age and gender. The Quran celebrates the humanity of women and advocates a society where women have economic (4:32, 4:7) and legal independence (e.g.2:282) – a revolutionary concept at that time. Muslim women and men are privileged in different realms. Interestingly, if a husband accuses his wife of adultery, her testimony trumps his (24:5-9)! The Quran addresses a seventh century tribal society in which social patriarchy was the entrenched norm. Some misogynist practices, like female infanticide, were immediately denounced; others such as polygamy and divorce were restrained. By our contemporary standards though, some verses appear non-egalitarian. While permitting polygamy, stringent conditions are spelled out and the Quran states that since these are impossible to meet, monogamy is recommended. Adopting a policy of gradualism was probably the only approach in a polygamous patriarchy.

The radical transformation in the status of women brought about by the Quran was actualized in the Community created by the Prophet in 622. Women had access to the Prophet, freely pledged allegiance (60:12), sought redress of grievances in public arenas and demanded that God address their concerns in the revelation. Umm Salama was an eloquent advocate of women’s rights. They were so successful that not only was their spiritual equality established (33:35 et al) but Chapter 4 bears the name “Women” and laid out new laws on inheritance (depriving men of their position of privilege), among other reforms. A woman did not take her father’s name or her husband’s, because she was an individual in her own right. (Here I discovered that carrying my own name was my Islamic right). She could choose her husband, stipulate conditions in the marriage contract (the original prenups) and divorce him unconditionally (2:229). 2:187 sets forth the Quranic principle that a husband and wife are “garments unto each other:” a charming concept evoking many forms of mutual support. Understandably, Quranic pronouncements on women shook the male population to the core, and they tried to distort the injunctions through the device of interpretation. During the Prophet’s life, women were not passive either, knowing that he stood with them. He even appointed a woman, Umm Waraqah, as prayer leader of her household.

Islam spread rapidly after the Prophet’s passing in 632. It is a unique fact of history that wherever Muslims settled – whether in Mali in West Africa, Spain in Europe, Anatolia, Central Asia or South Asia - they catalyzed the indigenous cultures and created civilizations where artists and intellectuals of every faith and persuasion flourished. This pluralist spirit, so important in accommodating the Quran’s message to different cultural settings, in fact worked against Muslim women. Islam became established in ancient lands such as Mesopotamia, Byzantium, Persia and India, with deeply embedded traditions of misogyny, social hierarchy, and sexual control and seclusion of women. For example, Muslims in India so seamlessly absorbed cultural attitudes in which husbands were objects of veneration and wives property, that many, like our family friend, believe them to be Islamic norms.  In Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean Quranic injunctions on women were drastically re-envisioned by male scholars who were products of these cultures. Within the first two centuries of Islam, a process of interpretation or exegesis began in which the status of women declined sharply. The exegesis was enshrined as religious law (Shariah) and came to be confused with the Quran itself. Spurious interpretations are used today to misguide ignorant Muslims and a gullible West.  

Hadith are the reports of the Prophet’s actions and speech by those who were close to him, and are regarded next in importance to the Quran as a source of normative behavior. After the Prophet’s death, human nature being what it is, fabricated hadith grew exponentially, causing widespread concern. Misogynist hadith also sprang up, which was ironic since Islam is the only major living religion which includes women’s accounts in its main religious texts. The preeminent scholar, Bokhari, pioneered the discipline of hadith verification around 830 and accumulated 600,000 hadith. After arduous research he could vouch for the authenticity of only about 3000. Most misogynist hadith were added in the 11^th century! Moreover, given the choice of numerous egalitarian hadith, earlier jurists, and Wahabis today, perversely present the six misogynist ones that qualified as reliable. Understandably, modern scholars now stress the necessity of re-evaluating hadith compilations. Turkish religious authorities are currently doing so.

Despite such problems, Muslim women retained very important rights, such as legal and economic independence, and played prominent roles in society across the Muslim world.

Middle class women owned property and were active in business, while the wealthy took part in commercial trading and managed vast estates. Women of modest means worked in a variety of occupations. The Quran repeatedly emphasizes charity. Wealthy women everywhere, particularly of the nobility, endowed mosques, hospitals, universities, poorhouses, caravanserais and other charitable institutions. It was a Tunisian lady, Fatima bint ben Fehiri, who in 859 founded Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco, the world’s oldest functioning university and the model for later institutions in Europe. Women were great patrons of art and culture. This was particularly evident in the glorious cultural achievements of the Mughal Empire in India. Apart from setting trends, Mughal women played politics and polo, studied mathematics and astronomy and hunted tiger. In the domain of religious scholarship, women show up frequently in biographical dictionaries of religious professionals. They are less in evidence in secular studies. In medieval times, the Middle East provides examples of women judges, professors and army commanders.

In Sufism, the fount of Islamic spirituality, women, of course, had leadership roles. Rabia of Basra, in Iraq, one of the pioneers of Sufi thought in the 8^th century, first articulated the vocabulary of love as a means to the divine. Throughout history, women Sufis have been exalted as devotees, teachers and social critics such as Fatima of Nishapur in Iran (d.838) and Jahanara, daughter of Emperor Shahjahan, in 17^th century India.

I grew up hearing stories of women who wielded political power. My mother was named after Razia Sultana, whose pious father bequeathed the throne of Delhi to her in 1236 because he considered her his most qualified heir. I am also related to the royal family of Bhopal, a Muslim state with the unique distinction of highly successful rule (1819-1926) by 4 generations of women. The heroic Queen of Awadh, Hazrat Mahal, in 1856, commanded Hindu and Muslim troops in battles against the British, who invaded her prosperous and progressive realm on the pretext of bringing reforms. She is still revered in legend. The brilliant Nur Jahan, beloved of Mughal Emperor Jahangir, ruled India jointly with him early in the 17^th century. And then there is the compelling story of Bakhtunissa, appointed governor of Kabul in 1581 by her brother, Emperor Akbar the Great (one of history’s most enlightened rulers), to quell a rebellion in Afghanistan. Within a short time she stabilized the area and Akbar avoided regional conflict. Her success was so exemplary that a hundred years later Emperor Aurangzeb handed the governorship of Kabul to another lady, Shahabji, to control new uprisings. She maintained peace from1678-98.

Other women rulers from the Muslim world include Khayzuran, who exercised power during the reign of three Caliphs of the Abbasid Empire in the 8^th century; in the 11^th century are two Yemeni, a Fatimid and a Berber queen; a Mamluk queen in Cairo and a dynasty of Mongol queens in the 13^th century; a 15^th century queen in Andalusia and four 17^th century queens of Indonesia. Is it any wonder then that the four largest Muslim countries (Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey) have elected women seven times as Presidents and Prime Ministers? Muslim men, it should be noted, have no problem in electing women leaders. In 1965 Fatima Jinnah bravely opposed Pakistan’s military dictator, Ayub Khan, and was elected President, probably the first woman President in the world. But her election was stolen.

So why has there been such a one-dimensional portrayal of Muslim women in the West? They have been as feisty, multi-faceted, talented and courageous as women everywhere. Perhaps the major villain of this piece is colonialism. Images of oppressed Muslim women were critical to the colonial construct of culturally inferior Muslims who it was justified to dominate. The veil was held up as the symbol of oppression. In the perverse way that political expediency can ricochet, the colonized then clung to this piece of cloth as a symbol of resistance! The well-known British journal, The Economist, valiantly upholds this colonial tradition today by only publishing images of Muslim women looking like spooked rabbits. Colonialism caused major deterioration in the status of Muslim women when new personal laws reflecting regressive Victorian ideas on gender were written. In England at that time, among other forms of discrimination, women lost their identity and control of their assets when they married (they didn’t get the vote till 1928). Here I found the other answer I sought. The colonial laws gave Muslim men an advantage, so they were accepted with alacrity. Ah, such cruel irony: British colonialism deprives me of my identity and when I want it back, I am accused by Western educated Muslim men of being a Western feminist!  

Now, scholars, including Muslim feminists are revisiting interpretations that do not reflect the Quran’s egalitarian ethos or which contradict its rulings. They also argue that changing socio-cultural and economic realities demand a fresh approach to many verses and that the Quran itself provides mechanisms for this. Muslim jurisprudence originated in a vibrant tradition of enquiry and debate. In this spirit, a prescient group of Muslim modernizers from the eighteenth century onwards have offered new interpretations in the face of new global realities, such as colonialism and industrialization, and an unprecedented shift in the economic and educational opportunities available to women world-wide. The current re-examination continues that process.

NOTE: The translation of the Quran I refer to is: The Message of the Quran, translated and explained by Muhammad Asad.