On 7/21/06, Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Jul 21, 2006, at 3:32 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> I'd say that Ahmadinejad is an Islamic feminist, religious but modern:
>
> <blockquote>President Ahmadinejad hails exemplary women
>
> Tehran, July 17, IRNA
>
> Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a ceremony on Monday to mark
> the aupicious birth anniversary of the blessed daughter of Prophet
> Mohammad (PBUH), praised exemplary women of the country.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica article on Fatimah, which is
no doubt infected with imperialist/Orientalist notions about the
world: "In general she was devoted to her domestic duties and avoided
involvement in political affairs." Exemplary in some sense, but
feminist?
Doug
It is said that in Shiite theology Fatima (the daughter of Muhammad,
who married Ali) is more important than Aisha (the wife of Muhammad),
though Aisha is more important than Fatima in Sunni theology.
This is what Ali Shariati, the most important intellectual influence
on Iranian revolutionaries, said about Fatima in his essay "Fatima Is
Fatima":
<blockquote>The value of Mary lies with Jesus Christ whom she
delivered and nourished. The value of Asiyah, the wife of Pharaoh,
lies with Moses, whom she nourished and befriended. The value of
Khadija lies with Mohammad (pbuh) whom she befriended and with Fatima
to whom she gave birth and who she nourished.
And the value of Fatima? What can I say? To whom does her value
belong? To Khadija? To Mohammad? To Ali? To Hussein? To Zaynab? To
herself!!</blockquote>
Since little was and is known about Fatima, Shariati was largely
reading her life creatively in a way that suited him, which is to say
for the Islamic feminist purpose of arguing that women's rights and
Islam are compatible and that women of Muslim societies can find
precedents for their own struggle for equal participation in society
in their own cultural history.
The women that Ahmadinejad actually honored were honored for their
professional accomplishments, not for their domestic duties:
"Exemplary women such as the dstinguished Quran translator Tahereh
Safarzadeh, the first Iranian woman expert in the field of nuclear
sciences and the first Iranian female professor of physics were given
plaques of honor in the ceremony, in which the wife of Supreme Leader
Seyyed Ali Khamenei also participated"
(<http://president.ir/eng/ahmadinejad/cronicnews/1385/04/26/index-e.htm#b1>).
To whom does their value belong? To themselves.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>
