What Do Muslim Women Want?

By Geneive Abdo and Dalia Mogahed

13 December 2006

The Wall Street Journal Europe, 12

(Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

Religion and modernity are butting heads again, or so it seems -- this time in Egypt. The country's cultural minister, Farouk Hosni, touched off a fiery, mostly male-dominated debate last month when he commented to a local newspaper that the increasing numbers of women in his country wearing headscarves marked a "regressive" trend in society and a turn away from modernity. But do millions of Muslim women agree that embracing Islam, expressed by wearing the hijab, is in conflict with modernity? In fact, Muslim women paint a much more complex picture of their lives and desires than others paint for them. In their minds, the choice is not one between Islamic law and modernity; the two are not mutually exclusive.

Consider the recent findings of a Gallup Poll of 22 predominantly Muslim countries, including Egypt, over the last 16 months. The survey represents the views of more than 90% of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims. Majorities of women in these countries say they think women should have the same rights as men. At the same time, they also say that Shariah, the sacred law of Islam, should be a source of the nation's laws. For many Westerners who associate Shariah with the lack of women's rights, this might appear to be a stark contradiction. But that is not quite correct.

Shariah literally means "the road to water," and represents the moral compass of a Muslim's personal and public life. Historically, the principles of Shariah could be used to limit the power of the sultan; after all, he would never claim he was above God's law. Therefore, when Muslims call for Shariah and gender equality, both are calls for the rule of law and an end to inequality. In many countries, Muslims are calling for the application of Shariah because even when the constitution states that Shariah is the primary basis of law, in practice, this is not enforced by officially secular governments.

Among the women surveyed in our poll, Egyptian women are most likely to believe Shariah should be the primary source of legislation: 62% say it should be the only source of law, and 28% say it should be a source, but not the only source. In nearly every country surveyed, aside from officially secular Turkey, a majority of women say Islamic law should either be the primary source of legislation or a source.

For decades, the role of women in Islamic societies has provided one of the primary battlegrounds in the cultural war between East and West. As a result, Muslim women have been placed in two artificial and mutually exclusive categories: modern and secular or religious and traditional -- even backward. The assumption is that, although the numbers of women choosing to veil in Egypt and elsewhere are growing, this trend is a result of either ignorance or women surrendering to pressure from their husbands or fathers.

In contrast to the popular wisdom that women are content even if they believe they are second-class citizens, Gallup's survey found that women in the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed believe they should have equal legal rights as men, from voting rights to employment opportunities and access to the highest posts in government. Some 83% of Iranian women, for example, say women should be able to hold leadership positions in the cabinet and national council. Still, when the same Iranian women were asked the Shariah question, 66% said Islamic law should be a source, and 14% said the sole source, of legislation.

Majorities of Muslim women also say that religion is an important part of their daily lives. When asked to associate descriptions with the Islamic world, the most often chosen statement among men and women was "attachment to their spiritual and moral values is crucial to progress." When asked an open-ended question about what they admire most about their own societies the most frequent response was "people's attachment to the teachings of Islam."

These findings muddy the oversimplified debate that posits religion against modernity, and they reflect a trend in Islamic societies that is gaining momentum: While Muslim women favor gender equality, they do not favor wholesale adoption of Western cultural values. Instead, they want to pick and choose which aspects of the West and the East will form the basis of their lives.

This trend is evident among the rich and famous Egyptian movie stars who have opted for a veiled life off the screen. Egypt's stars are powerful cultural icons, and it was their recent testimonials of embracing Islam and leaving behind their lives in the fast lane that were a factor in Farouk Hosni's remarks. As more and more prominent women in Egypt have announced publicly their desire to wear headscarves, the public debate in the country has become more heated.

As Muslim women try to reconcile religion with modernity, a few clerics are helping them along the way. Amr Khaled, arguably the most popular television preacher in the Arab world, has become the guardian for Muslim youth and educated women who are embracing Islam. With the business suits (not clerical robes) he wears for sermons and a London address, Amr Khaled has found a third way between secular liberalism and radical Islam. Through his teaching, he has attracted millions of followers much like Enas, a fashion-conscious member of the Egypt's affluent class. After listening to Amr Khaled, she was "awakened spiritually" and then began wearing the hijab. "Our image of Islam used to be that it was only for poor people, old fashioned people who wore white galabyias [long traditional tunics] and had scruffy beards, not the chic upper class," says Enas. "By listening to Amr, I realized how much my life was missing without a focus on God."

The young Egyptian, who has a doctorate in pharmacy, is now pursuing a degree in Shariah studies. "Because our laws are not based on Shariah today, injustice and corruption are rampant. I wanted to study Shariah," she says, "to teach the young people so the next generation would be better than the current one -- so our country would progress."