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Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessing
Fuqaha and ulama (experts in Islamic jurisprudence and religious scholars)
I start this visual message that I send to you, in your mosques and institutions, by introducing myself
My name is Sara al-Azmeh
I was born in Damascus to an Arab Muslim family
I am a Norwegian citizen and currently living in Sweden
I speak to you from the outside of Stockholm mosque
I decided after some consideration to send a visual message
instead of writing a letter to you honourable scholars
Many questions have concerned me for several years
They are connected to Islam as religion
because it's my parent's religion and the religion I grew up with
and I know that the same questions concern many Muslims, believers and non-believers
Therefore, I would like to ask you the questions
and I will make some comments and tell about the thoughts that had been turning in my head
In God's holy book it stands
"O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate"
It's about that God has created the human kind from one soul
He created a mate for the man, the woman, and he created a mate for the woman, the man
It stands in six sura in the holy Quran
What is the significance of the one soul as the source of the two sexes
The many interpretations have stressed on equality in value
This means that the human being, whether man or woman, has the same dignity
Equality in dignity is not controversial
The disagreement is on issues of equality between man and woman in social life, and civil and political rights
On the one hand, the Honourable interpreters give the woman the same value and dignity as the man
On the other side they robs many of her rights
they limit her opportunities in the workplace, in the street and in the political life
I ask you: Why?
Why does not equality in value, and that man and woman are created from the same soul, lead to that man and woman obtain equal right and duties?
This is not only a question about women's right
The limitations in women's possibilities affect the whole Muslim society
What happens to a body when it's paralyzed on the one half side? What happens when the movement and opportunities for half of the population is limited?
This society is backward, its developmement in the fields of scientific research, industry, arts and creativity is slow
I think that this point of the Islamic law should be reconsidered
What is inequality between man and woman based on?
First, I would like to ask about garment, the woman's garment
Our scholars say today that the Muslim woman must cover her entire body except for the face, hands and feet
Some scholars say that the woman must cover her entire body except for the eyes
to allow her to see
There is a scholar in Saudi-Arabia who is connected to the mosque of the Medina
He believed that the woman must cover her entire body except for one eye
that would give her the most limited sight
these interpretations that exceed each other in hardness and fanaticism, what is the quranic source for them?
The only vers in the Quran that mentions the woman's garment
there the believing women are commanded to wrap their "Khimar" over their "juyub"
The question is: what is a "khimar" and what are "juyub"?
Are "Juyub" every lim and the entire body?
How do the scholars find evidence for this view?
I'm in favor of the standpoint that interpret "juyub" as areas where skin meets skin
For example, chest, armpit
I interpret this verse as a call to the believing women to dress modestly
When they are in public places among men and women who are strangers to them
It is not possible to interpret this verse to mean that women must cover their hair
Khimar was an ornament, a piece of fabric that the woman fixed in hair here, and she can cover the chest with it so
without covering the face and the hair and the hole body down to the feet
These exaggerations are the result of copying the customs that prevailed in ancient societies
and transfer them to the present time
To believe in Islam should not mean
living according to customs and traditions, including dress, from the sixth and seventh centuries in the Arabian Peninsula
The main problem in Islam is that the dominant traditions of the Prophet's time
was not understood as changing social customs, which are bound to time and place
but many scholars have turned them into fossilized traditions
They became a kind of straight path, a part of the religious law
This does not harmonize with the spirit of a religion that is sent to all mankind
and for all times and eras
respectable scholars
Why do we recreate the past instead of living in our time
striving to do the good and benefit humanity?
It is said that the woman is fitna (temptation, chaos)
and that man has an instinct, it is a human need for sex, a sex drive
and that man is unable to control this drive
if the woman goes out on the street uncovered or without a veil
cover the entire body, hide the body details, and even the face
But this case is logically incorrect
because it is also a natural human need for food
We humans have an instinct to look for food
It's a natural need and to eat gives pleasure
But there is no single scholar who says to the baker
you must hang a curtain in front of your shop window,
so you do not activate the instincts and desires of the men and women who pass by your window!
There is no single scholar who says to street seller who roll his carriage around
that he must cover his vegetables with a black veil so that he does not trigger the desire of people
Food is a need. Sex is a need
We do not have to handle instincts too strict
The *** drive will be controlled in a natural way
when we establish a more civilized society
where men and women learn new ways of interaction and relationships
in a civilized manner, in fraternity, with kindness and mutual respect
women do not need to look like mobile, black tents, for us to arrive at this result
in the twenty-first century
We must liberate Islam from the old time's chains
It doesn't mean that we forget our cultural heritage ignoring good traditions
It means that we try to read the Quranic text
in the contemporary context
in economic matters, when it comes to tourism, commerce etc.
our Muslim scholars have managed to come up with new interpretations that fit the our time's need
but when it comes to cases involving women's freedom
equality between men and women
it has not at all been interpretations that harmonize with the requirements of the contemporary time
I therefore hope, respectable scholars, that you take this message seriously
it derives from a good intention
I want to give the one drop that I have to support
the process of adaptation and progression in the Islam
My only goal is that our Muslim communities
move towards welfare and freedom
Thank you
(At the main entrance to the mosque)
It is said that the woman and man were created from one soul
and that the woman has the same religious status as the man
That she has the same value before God
Then why does not the woman walk into the mosque through the same entrance?
Why must she go to a side door,
go up a narrow staircase to sit in a small room
that is separated from the main hall by a curtain or a fence of wood?
Why?
Therefore I have forsaken the faith
because I couldn't feel a sense of belonging to Islam as a young woman
when I was young
I was a believer. I prayed the five prayers
I rose and prayed night prayers
I recited the Qur'an ten times, I learned many Suras by heart
but when I was sixteen, seventeen years old
I felt that a God who doesn't give me worth and dignity
and and who asks me to cover a body that he himself has created
is not my God that I loved as a child
Therfore I decided to quit prayers, fasting and reciting the Quran
but now, forty years old
and after studying the history of religion, especially Islam, at the University of Oslo
I have realized that there is a great variation in our heritage of Islam
The problem doesn't lie in the Quran or Islam as a religion
the problem is that the traditions of distant time
and interpretations of scholars who lived for a thousand years ago
in completely different societies
with with completely different needs
with no internet, not similar to our modern societies
The interpretations and commentaries by scholars from ancient times
are been turned to sacred texts by some of today's scholars. Forgive me, God!
The scholars were people. They were neither prophets or gods
Shaykh al-Ghazali, may God show him mercy and let him enter heaven's gardens
He was an ordinary man
He wasn't of a different nature than me, he was no better than a student studying religious law today
We can't transform our time to a copy of the Past
If the scholars, the gentlemen, do not allow me as a woman
to look like this
modestly dressed, but without having to hide in a tent in order to move on the streets
If they allow me to enter the mosque with Muslim brothers, next to my husband through the mosque's main door
and let us pray side by side
then I would consider to accept Islam
But now
I want to express my feelings and thoughts
about the current situation for the Islamic religious law
On today's religious interpretations and regulations in the Muslim world
with a painting that I have worked on the past few days
that shows my thoughts and my feelings
I really wish that the social reality that this painting reflects, will soon be changed
Thank you for listening!