The freedom of the Muslim woman is something that has been subjected to criticism and has raised doubts in the Muslim world. Since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, this issue has been the center of social and cultural work as well as conflicting civilizational patterns. The only reason behind this is that the issue, in the conception of colonization, orientalism and their allies, from the beginning meant development of the conflict mechanisms by transferring problems within the Muslim home and family. The family is the nucleus that has strongly resisted the westernization and intellectual invasion throughout the past centuries that witnessed the most violent attacks against Islam under the pretext of backwardness, imitation as well as the lack of receptivity to civilizational development and the ability to cope with progress.
The advocators of colonization and those who follow it probably intended to raise doubts and sow dissension in order to pave the way before colonization after consolidating the psychology that was already prepared for it. This is according to the expression of the late Algerian Muslim thinker, Maalik ibn Nabi . We do not deny that during the second half of the 19th century many Muslim thinkers, scholars and cultured people, whether with good or evil intention, followed the western campaign that aimed at distorting the image of Islam and raising doubts about its unchangeable values and immortal fundamentals in organizing the affairs of the community and the family. Moreover, we do not deny that the conflict was very strong and fierce with regard to the seriousness of the social, cultural and political European agenda at that time.
This was due to two firmly inter-related reasons: The first was that Muslim communities were living under the heavy pressure of backwardness and stagnation that was the result of applying worn out traditions that influenced Muslims and dominated the values of the true Sharee'ah within themselves. The second was the attempt of Muslim thinkers and scholars to look for a way out of such conditions and follow the same pattern of civilization that was paved by their righteous predecessors.
Within the framework of this dual tension between the causes of stagnation and the attempt of uprising, the European colonizer, who was motivated by the crusader-hatred for Islam, was working to destroy the remaining pillars of the Islamic edifice and sought to arouse spiteful attitudes against ‘the backward traditions’, as they claim, which are, in fact, nothing but the core of Islam.
The beginning of deterioration
Qasim Amin, the aristocratic Egyptian writer, employed his pen to write about woman in the Muslim Egyptian community. His call was spread all over the Muslim world for it was considered the first courageous attempt to examine this issue. This issue remained semi-closed before Muslim thinkers and scholars because it was related to the social traditions that people were used to and familiar with. This made scholars and reformers hesitate before indulging in such issues for fear of clashing with the community and for fear of criticism.
In 1899, Qasim Amin issued his first book about woman under the title of "The Liberation of Women". In the introduction of his book, an attempt was made to formulate the content within the framework of the Islamic identity and it called for general reform, including social reform. There is nothing strange about this because Qasim was the student of Muhammad ‘Abduh (the known social reformer).
Qasim was a student of Muhammad ‘Abduh and his companion in Paris when he was issuing (with Jamaal Ad-Deen Al-’Afghaani) Al-‘Urwah Al-Wuthqa Newspaper. Qasim Amin used to help Muhammad ‘Abduh translate from the French language that he had mastered.
Dr. As-Sayyid Ahmad Faraj believes that Amin's book was 'Islamic at the roots'. Its ideas agreed with many of the ideas of his contemporary Islamic reformers.
In his attempt to prove his call to liberate the Eastern woman, Qasim Amin depended on proof from the Prophetic Biography, the Noble Hadeeths and Quranic verses. He defended the Sharee'ah-approved Hijab, which he claimed that the scholars of Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) agreed upon and that is represented in uncovering only the face and palms. He criticized the tradition of isolating the woman at home, and called to discarding the traditional Hijab, the woman's veil, which, as he claimed, made the woman unable to walk, ride, or even breathe, look, and speak except with hardship. He adopted the view of his Shaykh, Muhammad ‘Abduh, in rationing the number of wives when he (‘Abduh) gave the ruler the right to prevent polygamy in case corruption spreads as a result of transgression and the misuse of this right on the man’s part.
Regardless of what is in this book, its background and writer made many cultured people believe that it expressed an objective need to free the woman from social and cultural isolation that was imposed on her due to the accumulation of traditions that contradicted the essence of Islam. During this time, all Muslim reformers agreed that it was necessary to reform such irregular conditions and start the initiative of the Muslim, male or female, in establishing the desired revival after that long and deep slumber that colonization had worked hard to make everlasting.
Only one year later, however, Qasim Amin followed his first book about the liberation of women with another one that shocked those who had accepted his first book. It was called “The New Woman,” and was published in 1900. It seemed from the title that it declared the birth of a new woman, other than the woman who is known to Muslims; a woman who rebels against all traditions and against Islam as well. On the other hand, he might have meant that his new call was not like the previous one that called to liberating the woman, and that it did not aim at liberating the Muslim woman from her chains, but goes beyond that to make her assume a new character all together.
A new stage
This book initiated a new stage in the life of its writer. He directly moved from the reformist reconciliatory call that was based on the methodology of the Salaf, to westernization and cultural uprooting. He severed his relations with the ideas of Muslim reformers who had supported his previous call, like Shaykh Rasheed Ridha and Shaykh ‘Abdul-Qaadir Al-Maghrabi declaring his alignment with his social and cultural class, which was the Egyptian aristocratic class that followed the West in its approach, clothing and culture.
One researcher believes that Amin's book, “The New Woman”, was an apology that he presented to Princess Nazli, who had a close relationship with Sa‘d Zaghlool, chief of the Liberal Al-Wafd Party, who advocated the ideologies of the Young Turks for the content of his book, “Egypt and the Egyptians”, that he wrote in 1894, refuting the claims of the Christian orientalist, Duc. d'Harcourt, who attacked the Eastern people. In this book, Qasim Amin defended woman, as well as traditions and the traditional Hijab. This indicates that he outlined many intellectual transformations before unveiling the shameless face of the westernized secular educated person, who was never satisfied with a moderate solution; rather, he wanted to eradicate the roots of the Islamic values in favor of western secular ones.
Considering that the period between the first and the second book was only one year, it is more than likely that the ideas of the second book were already prepared, for it is difficult to believe that a man's situation could differ completely within such a short period of time. In this way, Qasim Amin no longer defended the Sharee'ah-approved Hijab upon which the jurists agreed as he mentioned in his previous call, but he openly called to tearing up the Hijab and eradicating its effects. He considered Europe the model to be followed. He believed that European modernity was not pure and good, but that it was the purest good that man had managed to attain.