ISLAM AND POLITICS

Can a Woman Become a Head of State?

This is a crucial question as regards equality, whether a woman can become a head of state. What is the real position? Is there any Quranic provision, or provision in the Hadith, against a woman becoming a head of state? There is absolutely nothing to this effect in the Quran that forbids women to become the head of state. There is, however, the Hadith on the basis of which the theologians argue that a woman cannot become head of the state. The Hadith is ?Those who entrust their affairs to a woman will never know prosperity?.

Mernissi, a well-known Muslim feminist, tries to investigate this Hadith by making a double investigation --historical and methodological-- of it and its author, and especially of the conditions in which it was first put to use. Mernissi says it is supposed to have been Abu Bakrah who heard the Prophet utter this Hadith. Abu Bakrah reported that the Prophet pronounced this Hadith when he learned that the Persian had named a women to rule them: ?When Kisra died, the Prophet, intrigued by the news, asked: And who has replaced him in command? The answer was: ?They have entrusted power to his daughter?. It was at that moment that the Prophet is supposed to have made the observation about women. After the investigation, Mernissi concludes that even though that Hadith was collected as shahih (authentic) by Bukhari and others, it was hotly contested and debated by many and there were some who used it as an argument for excluding women from decision-making.

Mernissi?s opinion is almost the same as Engineer?s point of view. By quoting Umar Usmani, Engineer argues that this Hadith did exist before the battle of Camel in which Aisha, the wife of the Prophet, participated. Abu Bakrah, the narrator of this Hadith, remembered it only after the battle started and Aisha assumed command of the army against Ali, who was elected as the fourth Caliph. Abu Bakrah did not remember it earlier, which is proof enough of the fact that it was forged in the context of the battle as a political weapon.

In the context of the Battle of Camel, moreover, it is necessary to point out that the Prophet?s wife Aisha was in command of the army which had many illustrious companions of the Prophet in it. None of them objected to her being in command, nor did they desert her for that reason. Even the Abu Bakahr, the narrator of the above Hadith did not desert her. Had he been convinced that the Prophet had prohibited women from being leader or head he should have deserted Aisha as soon as he recalled this tradition. How then could it be said that a woman cannot become leader of the government when her leadership was accepted by such eminent companions of the Prophet?

Even if the above Hadith is taken seriously, as Mernissi suggests, we have to look at the conditions in which that Hadith was pronounced by the Prophet. Considering the background of the Hadith, it is clear that it was said by the Prophet to comment on the case in which Kisra?s daughter has been chosen as the head of the state. This means that the object of the Prophet?s discourse is that it was only Kisra?s daughter not women in general whose capability to become the head of state was known to the Prophet. This Hadith, moreover, is only a khabariyah (statement), not a nahy (prohibition).

From the above discussion, it is clear that scholarly feminists try to clarify the misunderstanding of sexual equality in Islam by interpreting and explaining in more detail several Quranic verses and Hadith which have lead to misconception of women?s status, role and rights in Islam.

posted by Alin at 3:45 PM