Ayesha Chaudhry, a Ph.D. candidate in the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Department at New York University, critiqued mainstream perceptions of the role of women in Islam last night before an audience of roughly 100 in MacMillan 117. Her talk served as the opening to Islam Awareness Month.
Chaudhry, who is the wife of Rumee Ahmed, Brown's new Muslim chaplain, recounted and analyzed stories of women in the Qur'an - from the Queen of Sheba to Jesus' mother Mary - in an effort to help dispel popular myths framing Muslim women as underrepresented, "voiceless" and "oppressed by their religion," she said.
Brown Muslim Student Association President Lamia Khan '08, who introduced Chaudhry, told The Herald Chaudhry's field of expertise, gender studies in Islam, was a particularly fitting and salient topic to kick off Islam Awareness Month. The role of women figures prominently in the "monolithic vision of Islam" perpetuated by ignorance and misguided media coverage, she said. Islam Awareness Month aims to bring greater depth, knowledge and understanding to this monolithic vision, Khan said.
Chaudhry began the lecture by surveying Orientalist perceptions of the Muslim woman, from early white male painters and travelers in the Middle East to later feminist interventions. Many of these representations were not only misguided, but also suppressed the voices and agency of the women they depicted, she said.
On the contrary, Chaudhry said, "the Qur'an allows women much greater agency and bearing on their lives" than many people imagine. She added that "the gender differences in the Qur'an, if any, are a result of the contextual complexities in society in the seventh century."
The Qur'an is believed by Muslims to be the direct word of God, revealed through the Prophet Mohammed in seventh-century Arabian society. Chaudhry said it was "only natural" that the patriarchal nature of that society influenced the Qur'an. "Maybe the Qur'an is a patriarchal text," she said, "but not because God is a patriarch."
The first story Chaudhry discussed addressed the issue of fitna, or the sexual power women possess over men. Chaudhry said fitna is often used in Muslim societies to excuse sexual desire, but the story of Zulaykha gives both men and women responsibility and agency in their sexuality. "In a society where women's sexuality is at best secondary and at worst nonexistent, the Qur'an here is giving women more of a central role," she said.
Another story included that of the Queen of Sheba, or Balquis, who is one of few secular powers depicted favorably in the Qur'an, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, referred to as Maryam. God's recognition of Mary's labor pains in the Qur'an humanizes and centralizes the female experience, according to Chaudhry.
The last story in Chaudhry's analysis displayed God's intervention against injustice in women's lives. In this story, God saw the husband of Khawlah bin Tha'lab, companion of the Prophet, had exploited a barbaric pre-Islamic law in order to divorce her. God subsequently banned the law.
Chaudhry said that these stories, while diverse, exemplified the agency and responsibility the Qur'an grants women over their lives and their ultimate salvation. "Although women may be defined by the men in their lives, the men have no bearing on their salvation," she said, again emphasizing the difference between society and the word of God.
"The biggest struggle for me as a Muslim woman is how to examine the Qur'an while maintaining its integrity, but while also maintaining my integrity as a woman of the 21st century," she told The Herald after the lecture.
