Page 46 - Shahrvand BC No.1235
P. 46
ng explorers, English Section 46
Greenpeace plant flag on
seabed at North Pole, call The Misogyny of Salafist Doctrine 46
for global sanctuary
By: Reina Faraj Translated from As-Safir (Lebanon).
North Pole, April 15, 2013 — Four “The Arab Spring has strengthened the Salafists and their misogynist doctrine”
young people on a mission with
Greenpeace have planted a flag on There is a rising misogynist Salafist women played important roles in various 1392 نیدرورف30 جمعه- 1235 شماره/ سال متسیب
the seabed beneath the North Pole, discourse within the political changes fields, including religious knowledge.
at the same spot where a submarine going on in the Arab countries experiencing Muslim jurist Fatima al-Samarqandi, who In touch with Iranian diversity
planted a Russian flag claiming tumult. This discourse derives its lived in Aleppo in the 2nd century AH,
the Arctic for Moscow. The young exclusionary energy from the male-biased studied the Islamic Hanafi doctrine from her Vol. 20 / No. 1235 - Friday, Apr. 19, 2013
people planted their ‘flag for the doctrine established by some Muslim father and memorized the hadiths that her
future’ four kilometers beneath imams. father had collected. They issued religious
the ice at the top of the world and The Salafist movement seeks to isolate edicts together.
called for the region to be declared women from public life and limit their There are many more women in Islamic
a global sanctuary. role in the family. It considers women to history. Some women who lived in the 16th
The campaigners held a ceremony this weekend at the geographic be a source of discord and grants them no century knew Islamic law, one of them
North Pole, led by two Arctic Indigenous ambassadors. There they cut political rights beyond the right to vote, and reaching the rank of Islamic jurist. Also, the
a hole in the ice and lowered a flag designed by a child from Malaysia, only in a way that seems like a “pledge of Damascene Sufi Sheika Aisha al-Ba’oniyyah
through the freezing waters to the seabed. allegiance.” Regarding women’s right to bint Youssef (d. 1516) went to Cairo, where
The flag is attached to a glass and titanium time capsule containing the hold public office, the Salafists consider she was allowed to issue doctrinal opinions
signatures of nearly three million people, including actors, musicians, it unacceptable because they favor the and teach. Hajima bint Hayyi al-Awsabiyyah
artists and business leaders who asked for their names to be taken concept of “stewardship” over the concept (d. 701) was described as one of the most
to the Pole when they joined Greenpeace’s campaign calling for the of the state. Contemporary Salafists hold important female jurists in Damascus. She
Arctic to be protected from exploitation. basic premises that limit full citizenship for taught many men and enjoyed the trust of
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu this weekend women. Caliph Abdul Malik bin Marwan, whom she
joined the call for a global sanctuary, saying: "I offer my full support The 14th century jurist Ibn Taymiyyah is regularly met in the Damascus mosque.
to these young people who travelled to the North Pole on behalf of a good example of how Salafists seek to So while historical evidence confirms
those whose lives are being turned upside down by climate change." marginalize women. He was very influential the role of women as Islamic jurists, it
Hollywood actor Ezra Miller — star of We Need to Talk About on the Salafists of his time. He held views seems that the Salafists wish to ignore
Kevin and The Perks of Being a Wallflower — is one of the youth about various women-related issues, such as the fact that women’s conditions have
ambassadors who planted the flag and the names. Another is 26-year- alimony, menstruation, prayer and dowry. changed. Perhaps because it threatens their
old Josefina Skerk, an Indigenous activist and Sami Parliament He was concerned about the growing masculinity. So they are turning more and
member in Sweden. influence of women, so he decreed that more toward male-biased jurisprudence to
whoever obeys women destroys his country. control women. It is difficult for the Salafist
"By coming to the top of the world and planting this flag, we’re In his book "Al-Tawhid," Sheik Ibn discourse to change. They are haunted by
hoping to inspire young people everywhere. We’re here to say this Uthaymeen explicates the hadith reported the supposed sedition present within the
special area of the Arctic belongs to no person or nation, but is the by Sheik Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab female body and seek to reduce and control
common heritage of everyone on Earth," Skerk said. "Our names and (1703–1791) as follows: “Some use the it by means of religious edicts.
those of millions more are now planted on the seabed beneath the Pole. term sayyida [feminine of sayyid which In the Egyptian Salafist scene that followed
Together we're asking that this area be declared a global sanctuary, off- means mister] when referring to a woman. the January 2011 revolution, there was a
limits to oil companies and political posturing. We stand in solidarity For example, they say that some things are controversy regarding the running of veiled
with Indigenous Peoples, in the whole of the Arctic, whose way of life specific to men and other things to sayyidas. women for parliament. Several Salafist
is now being threatened by the unchecked greed of industry." But this is a distortion of reality because parties nominated women on their electoral
The expedition coincided with the first ever meeting at the North only a man is deemed a sayyid. The Prophet lists based on a fatwa issued by Yasser
Pole of the Arctic Council, the governing body comprised of foreign said, 'The women are your helpers,’ which Burhami, the head Salafist in Alexandria.
ministers and senior officials from Arctic states. As the expedition means that they are captives, and he said He said that while “nominating women is
started, Skerk requested a meeting with the group, but was refused. that a man is the ‘shepherd of his family and negative, it is less negative than allowing
The week-long expedition to the Pole is part of a global campaign to responsible for his flock.’ So the singular into parliament those who wish to change
protect the Arctic, under threat from climate change, oil companies, form should be imra’a [woman] and the Article 2 of the constitution. Moreover, the
industrial fishing and shipping. As global warming melts the sea ice, plural form should be nisa’ because only election law requires every electoral list to
companies such as Shell, Gazprom and Statoil are moving in to exploit a man is a sayyid and women are men’s include at least one woman ... In principle,
the region's oil as nation states lay claim to areas previously covered captives. So calling a woman sayyida is a this is not allowed. But fatwas in modern
by ice. distortion of reality.” times are not absolute. We have said that
The Arab Spring Salafists went beyond Islamist parties, including the Al-Nour party,
The youth ambassadors and Greenpeace campaigners have challenged the early Salafists’ teachings. They not are not forbidden from nominating women
the companies and nations seeking to profit from climate change. By only sought to isolate women socially and in order to ward off the evil of leaving
planting the time capsule and flag, they have drawn a line in the ice, politically, but some Salafists — particularly parliament for liberals and secularists, who
telling the polluters and oil companies: you come no further. the Egyptian Salafist Abu Islam — issued would write a constitution that would fight
The young people are part of a Greenpeace team that trekked for one peculiar fatwas justifying the rape of the Islam, restrict the Islamic call, and even
week across the frozen ocean in freezing winds and temperatures of women in Tahrir Square under the pretext prevent and punish it.”
minus 30 degrees Celsius. They traveled around 10 km a day, each that it was punishment for them unveiling The Salafists are obsessed with women and
dragging heavy sleighs weighing 80kg behind them. In a remote and themselves. Salafist Sheikh Abu Ishak are trying to exclude them from public space
dangerous environment their supplies dwindled as the shifting ice al-Hawini likened a woman’s face to her because women have been increasingly
took them further from the Pole. The team then hitched a ride with a genitals, thus indicating that women are active in the Arab revolts, especially in
helicopter that was flying in from the nearby Barneo Base, to put them required to wear the niqab [full face veil]. Egypt and Tunisia. The “phobia” against
within striking distance of the Pole, allowing them to ski and drift The Salafists consider women to be sex active women are making Salafists tighten
a shorter final distance and complete their journey to the top of the objects that are a permanent threat to society. their control over them by using the Islamic
world. But is this Salafist discourse a reflection of concepts of halal and haram. Most fatwas
the growing female public presence? And issued in Arab countries are directly related
If you are interested in becoming a Volunteer for Greenpeace in why can’t the Salafists accept women’s to women’s bodies, which constitute fertile
Vancouver, contact: changing role in society? ground for Salafist imagination.
Jessie Schwarz, the Volunteer Organizer for Western Canada, based It goes without saying that the Salafist The Salafists have broken with the notion
out of Vancouver. She also visits Calgary, Edmonton and Victoria movement is not prevalent in the Arab of equality promulgated in the Quran. They
periodically to work with volunteers there. She can be reached at world, although it controls many satellite have misinterpreted Islamic texts and are
Jessie.schwarz@greenpeace.org channels that influence its followers. We going against the enlightened reformist
Office: also cannot overlook the Islamic interpretive jurisprudence regarding women. This
1726 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia V5N 4A3 battles that were fought by Islamic “Bedouin Islam,” as described by Sheikh
Phone: (604) 253-7701 reformers such as Rifa’a al-Tahtawi, Imam Mohammed al-Ghazali, cannot deal with
Fax: (604) 253-0114 Muhammad Abdu, Tahar al-Haddad and historical changes because it is bound by an
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/ other Muslim revivalists. exclusionary vision.
Throughout Islamic history, Muslim women
played a role and never lived in complete Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/
isolation. If we go back to the overlooked pulse/culture/2013/04/salafist-misogyny-
history of Islamic translations, we find that doctrine.html#ixzz2QjLOnweu
Greenpeace plant flag on
seabed at North Pole, call The Misogyny of Salafist Doctrine 46
for global sanctuary
By: Reina Faraj Translated from As-Safir (Lebanon).
North Pole, April 15, 2013 — Four “The Arab Spring has strengthened the Salafists and their misogynist doctrine”
young people on a mission with
Greenpeace have planted a flag on There is a rising misogynist Salafist women played important roles in various 1392 نیدرورف30 جمعه- 1235 شماره/ سال متسیب
the seabed beneath the North Pole, discourse within the political changes fields, including religious knowledge.
at the same spot where a submarine going on in the Arab countries experiencing Muslim jurist Fatima al-Samarqandi, who In touch with Iranian diversity
planted a Russian flag claiming tumult. This discourse derives its lived in Aleppo in the 2nd century AH,
the Arctic for Moscow. The young exclusionary energy from the male-biased studied the Islamic Hanafi doctrine from her Vol. 20 / No. 1235 - Friday, Apr. 19, 2013
people planted their ‘flag for the doctrine established by some Muslim father and memorized the hadiths that her
future’ four kilometers beneath imams. father had collected. They issued religious
the ice at the top of the world and The Salafist movement seeks to isolate edicts together.
called for the region to be declared women from public life and limit their There are many more women in Islamic
a global sanctuary. role in the family. It considers women to history. Some women who lived in the 16th
The campaigners held a ceremony this weekend at the geographic be a source of discord and grants them no century knew Islamic law, one of them
North Pole, led by two Arctic Indigenous ambassadors. There they cut political rights beyond the right to vote, and reaching the rank of Islamic jurist. Also, the
a hole in the ice and lowered a flag designed by a child from Malaysia, only in a way that seems like a “pledge of Damascene Sufi Sheika Aisha al-Ba’oniyyah
through the freezing waters to the seabed. allegiance.” Regarding women’s right to bint Youssef (d. 1516) went to Cairo, where
The flag is attached to a glass and titanium time capsule containing the hold public office, the Salafists consider she was allowed to issue doctrinal opinions
signatures of nearly three million people, including actors, musicians, it unacceptable because they favor the and teach. Hajima bint Hayyi al-Awsabiyyah
artists and business leaders who asked for their names to be taken concept of “stewardship” over the concept (d. 701) was described as one of the most
to the Pole when they joined Greenpeace’s campaign calling for the of the state. Contemporary Salafists hold important female jurists in Damascus. She
Arctic to be protected from exploitation. basic premises that limit full citizenship for taught many men and enjoyed the trust of
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu this weekend women. Caliph Abdul Malik bin Marwan, whom she
joined the call for a global sanctuary, saying: "I offer my full support The 14th century jurist Ibn Taymiyyah is regularly met in the Damascus mosque.
to these young people who travelled to the North Pole on behalf of a good example of how Salafists seek to So while historical evidence confirms
those whose lives are being turned upside down by climate change." marginalize women. He was very influential the role of women as Islamic jurists, it
Hollywood actor Ezra Miller — star of We Need to Talk About on the Salafists of his time. He held views seems that the Salafists wish to ignore
Kevin and The Perks of Being a Wallflower — is one of the youth about various women-related issues, such as the fact that women’s conditions have
ambassadors who planted the flag and the names. Another is 26-year- alimony, menstruation, prayer and dowry. changed. Perhaps because it threatens their
old Josefina Skerk, an Indigenous activist and Sami Parliament He was concerned about the growing masculinity. So they are turning more and
member in Sweden. influence of women, so he decreed that more toward male-biased jurisprudence to
whoever obeys women destroys his country. control women. It is difficult for the Salafist
"By coming to the top of the world and planting this flag, we’re In his book "Al-Tawhid," Sheik Ibn discourse to change. They are haunted by
hoping to inspire young people everywhere. We’re here to say this Uthaymeen explicates the hadith reported the supposed sedition present within the
special area of the Arctic belongs to no person or nation, but is the by Sheik Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab female body and seek to reduce and control
common heritage of everyone on Earth," Skerk said. "Our names and (1703–1791) as follows: “Some use the it by means of religious edicts.
those of millions more are now planted on the seabed beneath the Pole. term sayyida [feminine of sayyid which In the Egyptian Salafist scene that followed
Together we're asking that this area be declared a global sanctuary, off- means mister] when referring to a woman. the January 2011 revolution, there was a
limits to oil companies and political posturing. We stand in solidarity For example, they say that some things are controversy regarding the running of veiled
with Indigenous Peoples, in the whole of the Arctic, whose way of life specific to men and other things to sayyidas. women for parliament. Several Salafist
is now being threatened by the unchecked greed of industry." But this is a distortion of reality because parties nominated women on their electoral
The expedition coincided with the first ever meeting at the North only a man is deemed a sayyid. The Prophet lists based on a fatwa issued by Yasser
Pole of the Arctic Council, the governing body comprised of foreign said, 'The women are your helpers,’ which Burhami, the head Salafist in Alexandria.
ministers and senior officials from Arctic states. As the expedition means that they are captives, and he said He said that while “nominating women is
started, Skerk requested a meeting with the group, but was refused. that a man is the ‘shepherd of his family and negative, it is less negative than allowing
The week-long expedition to the Pole is part of a global campaign to responsible for his flock.’ So the singular into parliament those who wish to change
protect the Arctic, under threat from climate change, oil companies, form should be imra’a [woman] and the Article 2 of the constitution. Moreover, the
industrial fishing and shipping. As global warming melts the sea ice, plural form should be nisa’ because only election law requires every electoral list to
companies such as Shell, Gazprom and Statoil are moving in to exploit a man is a sayyid and women are men’s include at least one woman ... In principle,
the region's oil as nation states lay claim to areas previously covered captives. So calling a woman sayyida is a this is not allowed. But fatwas in modern
by ice. distortion of reality.” times are not absolute. We have said that
The Arab Spring Salafists went beyond Islamist parties, including the Al-Nour party,
The youth ambassadors and Greenpeace campaigners have challenged the early Salafists’ teachings. They not are not forbidden from nominating women
the companies and nations seeking to profit from climate change. By only sought to isolate women socially and in order to ward off the evil of leaving
planting the time capsule and flag, they have drawn a line in the ice, politically, but some Salafists — particularly parliament for liberals and secularists, who
telling the polluters and oil companies: you come no further. the Egyptian Salafist Abu Islam — issued would write a constitution that would fight
The young people are part of a Greenpeace team that trekked for one peculiar fatwas justifying the rape of the Islam, restrict the Islamic call, and even
week across the frozen ocean in freezing winds and temperatures of women in Tahrir Square under the pretext prevent and punish it.”
minus 30 degrees Celsius. They traveled around 10 km a day, each that it was punishment for them unveiling The Salafists are obsessed with women and
dragging heavy sleighs weighing 80kg behind them. In a remote and themselves. Salafist Sheikh Abu Ishak are trying to exclude them from public space
dangerous environment their supplies dwindled as the shifting ice al-Hawini likened a woman’s face to her because women have been increasingly
took them further from the Pole. The team then hitched a ride with a genitals, thus indicating that women are active in the Arab revolts, especially in
helicopter that was flying in from the nearby Barneo Base, to put them required to wear the niqab [full face veil]. Egypt and Tunisia. The “phobia” against
within striking distance of the Pole, allowing them to ski and drift The Salafists consider women to be sex active women are making Salafists tighten
a shorter final distance and complete their journey to the top of the objects that are a permanent threat to society. their control over them by using the Islamic
world. But is this Salafist discourse a reflection of concepts of halal and haram. Most fatwas
the growing female public presence? And issued in Arab countries are directly related
If you are interested in becoming a Volunteer for Greenpeace in why can’t the Salafists accept women’s to women’s bodies, which constitute fertile
Vancouver, contact: changing role in society? ground for Salafist imagination.
Jessie Schwarz, the Volunteer Organizer for Western Canada, based It goes without saying that the Salafist The Salafists have broken with the notion
out of Vancouver. She also visits Calgary, Edmonton and Victoria movement is not prevalent in the Arab of equality promulgated in the Quran. They
periodically to work with volunteers there. She can be reached at world, although it controls many satellite have misinterpreted Islamic texts and are
Jessie.schwarz@greenpeace.org channels that influence its followers. We going against the enlightened reformist
Office: also cannot overlook the Islamic interpretive jurisprudence regarding women. This
1726 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia V5N 4A3 battles that were fought by Islamic “Bedouin Islam,” as described by Sheikh
Phone: (604) 253-7701 reformers such as Rifa’a al-Tahtawi, Imam Mohammed al-Ghazali, cannot deal with
Fax: (604) 253-0114 Muhammad Abdu, Tahar al-Haddad and historical changes because it is bound by an
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/ other Muslim revivalists. exclusionary vision.
Throughout Islamic history, Muslim women
played a role and never lived in complete Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/
isolation. If we go back to the overlooked pulse/culture/2013/04/salafist-misogyny-
history of Islamic translations, we find that doctrine.html#ixzz2QjLOnweu
