It is obligatory to be a feminist these days, but this has led to some bizarre situations. Recently, Yassmin Abdel-Magied declared on ABC television (where else?) that Islam ranks as ‘the most feminist religion’, while Sariya Contractor has an oft-cited website article on ‘The Prophet Muhammad’s respect and love for women’. In the aftermath of Ms Abdel-Magied’s effort – which was the fruit of a taxpayer-funded tour of the Middle East and Africa – 49 Muslim scholars demanded an apology from the ABC for not protecting her. ‘Milking the bull’ has become a profitable course of action under modern Western law. Since everybody is supposed to be a feminist, what is the status of women in Islam, the modern West, and in Christianity?
First, let us look at Miss Muslim. She often wears a hijab, which is fine, but in the Yemen a niqab is required and in Afghanistan a burkha. These cover the whole face which has the effect of removing the woman from most of society. I am not sure that ought to be illegal but it hardly seems to be liberating in any sense. Islam has a number of other beliefs and practices attached to it which affect women. Female genital mutilation is common, and seems to be increasing, across the Islamic world. In Saudi Arabia, the centre of Sunni Islam, women are not allowed to drive cars. In Iran the Shia thought police will tell a woman not to talk to an unrelated man in public, and to wipe lipstick from her face. Child marriages are still allowed since, after all, Mohammed himself married Aisha when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine.
Many have suggested that the problem with Islam is not the original religion but the way it has been interpreted in Islamic societies. However, the evidence points the other way. Muslim men can have up to four wives, although Muhammad himself married at least eleven as well as taking in a number of concubines (Qur’an 4:3). The Qur’an tells Muslim men with disobedient wives to ‘scourge them’ (Qur’an 4:34). The hadiths are often debated – when convenient at least – but there are many which teach that Paradise will contain few women, yet, confusingly, promises to some Muslim men up to 70 beautiful virgins, as well as luscious fruit, wine, and gold. All in all, it does not seem that Miss Muslim dwells in a feminist paradise.
What, then, about Miss Modern Westerner? If feminism means anything to the thoroughly modern Western woman, it surely means the right to behave as a man and to receive all the supposed rights of a man. This has been interpreted, in the first place, to mean sexual freedom. If a man can sow his wild oats and get away with it, so too can a woman, armed with contraception. If something goes wrong, there is always abortion. There are periodic calls to make mandatory a certain percentage of women to sit in parliament or on boards of directors of companies and public utilities. All that is supposed have something to do with liberation, but it rather looks like a pandering to male sexuality and a burdening of women with extra tasks.
There is liberation for women in dressing modestly (1 Tim.2:9) – not in a niqab but neither in something which is skimpy and flaunts their sexual appeal. C. S. Lewis pointed out that promiscuity will hurt both sexes but it will hurt women more. Feminists are yet to wake up to this fact. Many a modern Western woman could do with being liberated from liberation.
Finally, there is Miss Christian Believer. A number of social commentators, including professing Christian believers, have praised the role of the Enlightenment and the separation of Church and state in promoting what we still like to think are modern Western freedoms. One might reply that the French Revolution guillotined more people than it liberated. Secularism is a precarious foundation for freedom and decency. Miss Christian Believer has the Word of God which tells her men and women are different, and this is reflected in their differing functions in life. Women are not meant to rule the household or the church (Eph.5:21-24; 1 Tim.2:11-12), but in every other respect there is freedom based on a right grasp of reality. For married women, their first task is to manage their households (1 Tim.5:14). The Bible also tells Miss Christian Believer that sexual relations find their meaning in a lifelong marriage with one man (Gen.2:24; Heb.13:4). The demand for sexual purity applies to both men and women (Hosea 4:14); what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Women are equal to men in sin (Rom.3:10-12), in worth (moral laws apply to both sexes), and in redemption (Rom.5:12-21). The ideal woman is not a wallflower (cf. Prov.31:10-31). Mary made the better choice when she sat at Jesus’ feet in order to take in His teaching, while Martha busied herself with household chores (Luke 10:38-42). It has been much misused, but the Christian ‘manifesto’ is found in the words of the apostle Paul: ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:28). Not in Islam nor in secularism but in Christ do women – as well as men – find all their needs met: salvation, meaning, coherence, freedom without chaos, and order without oppression.