Zainab Al-Suwaij began her lecture at the AWARE CENTER in Surra, Kuwait by noting that regardless as to whether the topic is “Islam in East or West” or “Politics in the Middle East” today, “The discussion always turns to women.”
She added, “The same goes for the topic of Human Rights, which also turns to the status of women.”
“Western Scholars definitely have a different focus than do Scholars in the East, though,” Al-Suwaij continued, “Islamic scholars look to (1) women’s issues in the Sharia and in tradition, (2) our religious book, and (3) how we deal with women.”
In contrast, “in the West women’s rights and concepts of universal rights, fall into one pile when we are discussing women’s issues.”
In Iraq, meanwhile, discussions of these issues often fall into matters, like headscarves and ‘Islamization’ today. Al-Suwaij explains, “This is because as far as ‘feminism in Islam’ is concerned, there is in Islam no feminism [in the Western sense], simply women’s rights.”
On the other hand, as Al-Suwaij has many female Kuwaiti friends involved in electioneering in Kuwait and other Gulf countries these days, she notes, “Women in the Muslim world are becoming more and more integrated into the political realm. The Era now seems to be one where women are seeking rights without respect for how it affects Islam and culture.”
Al-Suwaij extrapolates, just as with most any universal faith, “Islam is adopted generally at a personal level, but no one applies every facet of it to his life [i.e. 100%].”
IRAQ, IRAQ
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