Zainab al-Ghazali
Zaynab Al-Ghazali زينب الغزالي | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 3 August 2005[1] | (aged 88)
Occupation | Founder of the Muslim Women's Association (Jam'iyyat al-Sayyidaat al-Muslimaat) |
Zaynab al-Ghazali (
The historian Eugene Rogan has called her "the pioneer of the Islamist women's movement" and also said she was "one of [Sayyid] Qutb's most influential disciples."[3]
Biography
Early life
Her father was educated at
For a short time during her teens, she joined the Egyptian Feminist Union[5][2][6] only to conclude that "Islam gave women rights in the family granted by no other society."[7] At the age of eighteen, she founded the Jama'at al-Sayyidat al-Muslimat (Muslim Women's Association),[6] which she claimed had a membership of three million throughout the country by the time it was dissolved by government order in 1964.
Allegiance to Hassan al-Banna
Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, invited al-Ghazali to merge her organisation with his, an invitation she refused as she wished to retain autonomy. However, she did eventually take an oath of personal loyalty to al-Banna (Mahmood 2005: 68). Even though her organisation did not formally affiliate with the Muslim Brotherhood,[2] al-Ghazali went on to play a significant role in the Brotherhood's attempted revival in 1964, after it was forcibly disbanded by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954.[7]
Theory
Eugene Rogan writes that al-Ghazali "devoted herself to the vanguard role envisaged by Qutb's manifesto—preparing Egyptian society to embrace Islamic law." This included "Islamic training of our youth, elders, women and children," among other activities. "In the long run, [her and her peers'] aim was nothing less than the overthrow of the Free Officers' regime and its replacement with a true Islamic state."[3]
Zeinab al-Ghazali promulgated a feminism that was inherently Islamic. She believed in a "notion of habituated learning through practical knowledge"[8] of Islam and the Qu'ran, and she felt that women's liberation, economic rights, and political rights could be achieved through a more intimate understanding of Islam.[9] al-Ghazali also believed that a woman's primary responsibility was within the home, but that she should also have the opportunity to participate in political life if she so chose.[9] al-Ghazali's Patriarchal Islamist stance allowed her to publicly disagree with several issues that "put her at odds with male Islamist leaders".[10]
Muslim Women's Association
Her weekly lectures to women at the
Some scholars, like
If that day comes [when] a clash is apparent between your personal interests and economic activities on the one hand, and my Islamic work on the other, and that I find my married life is standing in the way of Da'wah and the establishment of an Islamic state, then, each of us should go our own way. I cannot ask you today to share with me this struggle, but it is my right on you not to stop me from jihad in the way of Allah. Moreover, you should not ask me about my activities with other Mujahideen, and let trust be full between us. A full trust between a man and a woman, a woman who, at the age of 18, gave her full life to Allah and Da'wah. In the event of any clash between the marriage contract's interest and that of Da'wah, our marriage will end, but Da'wah will always remain rooted in me. (al Ghazali 2006)
In justifying her own exceptionality to her stated belief in a woman's rightful role, al-Ghazali described her own childlessness as a "blessing" that would not usually be seen as such, because it freed her to participate in public life (Hoffman 1988). Her second husband died while she was in prison, having divorced her after government threats to confiscate his property. Al-Ghazali's family were angered at this perceived disloyalty, but al-Ghazali herself remained loyal to him, writing in her memoir that she asked for his photograph to be reinstated in their home when she was told that it had been removed.
Life in prison and release
After the assassination of Hassan al-Banna in 1949, al-Ghazali was instrumental in regrouping the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1960s. Imprisoned for her activities in 1965, she was sentenced to twenty-five years of hard labor but was released under Anwar Sadat's Presidency in 1971.
During her imprisonment, Zainab al-Ghazali and members of the Muslim Brotherhood underwent inhumane torture. Al-Ghazali recounts being thrown into a locked cell with dogs to pressure her to confess an assassination attempt on President Nassir. "[S]he faced whipping, beatings, attacks with dogs, isolation, sleep deprivation, and regular death threats...."[3] During these periods of hardship, she is reported to have had visions of Muhammad. Some miracles were also experienced by her, as she got food, refuge and strength during those difficult times.[citation needed]
After her release from prison, al-Ghazali resumed teaching. In the period 1976–1978, she published articles in Al Dawa, which was restarted by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1976.[14] She was editor of a women's and children's section in Al Dawa, in which she encouraged women to become educated, but to be obedient to their husbands and stay at home while rearing their children. She wrote a book based on her experience in jail.[citation needed]
Support for Afghan mujahidin
While in her seventies, al-Ghazali visited
Memoir
She describes her prison experience, which included torture, in a book entitled Ayyām min ḥayātī, published in English as Days from My Life[15] by Hindustan Publications in 1989 and as Return of the Pharaoh by the Islamic Foundation (UK) in 1994. (The "Pharaoh" referred to is President Nasser.) Al-Ghazali depicts herself as enduring torture with strength beyond that of most men, and she attests to both miracles and visions that strengthened her and enabled her to survive.[16] The Philosopher Sayed Hassan Akhlaq published an essay review about the book along with some critical points.[17]
Legacy
Zaynab al-Ghazali was also a writer, contributing regularly to major Islamic journals and magazines on Islamic and women's issues.
Although the Islamic movement throughout the Muslim world today has attracted a large number of young women, especially since the 1970s, Zaynab al-Ghazali stands out thus far as the only woman to distinguish herself as one of its major leaders.[7]
References
- ^ Campo, Juan Eduardo. Encyclopedia Of Islam( 2009). p. 76. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- ^ ISBN 0253339189. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-465-07100-5.
- ^ Campo, Juan Eduardo. Encyclopedia Of Islam( 2009). p. 262. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- ^ The Relationship Between Islamism and Women in Civil Society: A Look at Turkey and Egypt. 2015-03-01. p. 33. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- ^ a b Tucker, Elien J. (2000-06-01). Women and the Palestinian national movement: a comparative analysis. p. 17. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- ^ ISBN 0-02-864859-5.
- JSTOR 656537.
- ^ ISBN 0-300-04942-0.
- S2CID 154643462.
- ^ Miriam Cook “Zaynab al-Ghazālī: Saint or Subversive?” Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Vol. 34, Issue 1 (April 1994), 2.
- ^ Leila Ahmed Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1992),199.
- ^ Roxanne L. Euben, Muhammad Qasim Zaman (eds.) “Zaynab al-Ghazali” Princeton Readings in Islamist thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden. (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2009), 275
- S2CID 225274860.
- ISBN 9781780744476. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
- ISBN 3872947249, p. 122 - 126
- ^ "Akhlaq's Reflections on Zainab al-Ghazali's "Return of the Pharaoh"".
Further reading
- al-Ghazali Return of the Pharaoh, The Islamic Foundation 2006
- Elizabeth W. Fernea. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985.
- Mahmood, Saba, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, Princeton University Press 2005
External links
- Media related to Zainab al Ghazali at Wikimedia Commons