Jewish and Muslim Women Today [...]

Introduction

Jewish and Muslim women today: feminist demands and religion
 
 
This article focuses on the issue of women in Judaism and Islam, using the perspective of gender to take a comparative approach to these two religions rooted in the Mediterranean heritage. The way Jewish and Muslim women worship today, their new approaches to religious texts and laws (Muslim shariah and Jewish Halakha), the corpus of their legal system, their present demands and the construction of gender-based religious identities – all these reveal processes which are similar in some ways, different in others.
We will focus on the following themes:
  • Jewish and Muslim women's access to the prime texts: for some the Torah and Talmud (rabbinic discussions on the biblical text), for others the Qur'an and Hadith (accounts of the Prophet's words and deeds); access to study and interpret them, which gives rise to new, feminine ways of understanding them
  • Access for women to the place of worship, in the mosque or synagogue, and the emergence of new religious functions for women
  • Debates on women's rights and family law (in relation to marriage and divorce)
  • Questions about sexuality, lesbianism and artificial reproduction
            This article will discuss the similarities between Judaism and Islam on the most pressing topics affecting women and the ways in which these issues are addressed by the states, the religious authorities and by the women themselves. We shall observe that for decades women of both religions have challenged male authority on religious norms, on legal knowledge and ceremonial functions. They also challenge men's control over their bodies and their sexuality, citing feminist demands which are often similar. Starting from an inter-faith reflection, the aim of this article is to present the ways in which women participate in the religious sphere as well as their demands for equality in worship and equal rights, both in their countries of origin and in the context of migration.
            Obviously different women observe their religion to different degrees, belong to different strands of Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative and Reform) or Islam (Shia and Sunni, with their legal schools – Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali), each of which takes a different position on the status of women and their role in worship; from those differences come different interpretations, perhaps the most visible example of which is the wide variety of Islamic head-scarves (hijab, niqab, burqa) and of Jewish headgear (hat, cap, scarf or wig). Indeed it would have been more appropriate to speak of “Judaisms” and “Islams”, but the singular is used here out of convenience and because it is more orthodox.

Introduction

I. Feminism and religion: a few...

II. Women's access to religious...

III. Women's Rights, Family Law

IV. Sexuality and reproduction

Conclusion

Bibliographic references

Abstract

This article focuses on the issue of women in Judaism and Islam, using the perspective of gender to take a comparative approach to these two religions rooted in the Mediterranean heritage. The way Jewish and Muslim women worship today, their new approaches to religious texts and laws (Muslim shariah and Jewish Halakha), the corpus of their legal system, their present demands and the construction of gender-based religious identities – all these reveal processes which are similar in some ways, different in others...

Author

Anteby-Yemini Lisa
Research fellow, CNRS, IDEMEC, MMSH