Should Muslim women study?

Durban -An article by an unknown woman prompted a severe backlash for asking if Muslim women should be studying at university.

In the article, posted on the Jamiatul Ulama (Council of Muslim Theologians) website, the woman argues that Muslim women should be home-makers instead of exposing themselves to the university environment, which is “extremely immoral”.

“Campuses are breeding grounds of sin where free mixing between the genders, immoral relationships, improper behaviour, foul language and immodest dressing cannot be avoided. Also, women who rub shoulders with men in their workplaces generate tension in their homes.

“The amount of Muslim marriages that run into problems because of extra-marital affairs in the workplace cannot be ignored. In addition, a home where the mother is absent from nine to five is clearly harmful to her family, especially her children,” said the woman.

She said homemaking was the way of pious women throughout the history of Islam, and that women who followed this path produced Muslim luminaries.

Safiyyah Sujee hit out at the author of the article on Facebook, asking her to first teach Muslim men to stop drinking, doing drugs and having casual sex at campus, and to stop abusing their wives at home.

Her post has been widely shared and commented on. The matter was also to be discussed on an Islamic radio station.

“ then come and tell me why we must be deprived of knowledge and become dependent on a generation of morally dilapidated individuals. Also, let me know how halaal it is for a male gynae to be working on your wife’s parcels. Because female gynaes must be haraam.”

Sujee added that the first word of the Qur’an that was revealed was “Read”, but the instruction was not limited to men.

Dr Faisal Suliman, chairperson of the South African Muslim Network, said it was erroneous to assume that education deprived one of the ability to keep a home.

He said it was also wrong to assume that someone with education was “irreligious”.

“The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said ‘Seek knowledge even it be in China’. The prophet’s wives were among the greatest sources of knowledge and history regarding what the prophet said and did, from which Muslims take knowledge. There is no prohibition at all in Islam against women studying at university, neither is there any basis to say that people who don’t study are backward,” Suliman said.

“The issue of promiscuity is a problem in all societies and across religions. Muslims are like other human beings and are likely to be affected by social ills like any other people,” he said.

Thandile Kona, president of the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa, said women scholars existed in the days of the prophet.

“One of the oldest universities, which is in Morocco, was established by a Muslim woman. Aisha, one of the prophet’s wives, was consulted for a lot of information that was passed on to her by the prophet. In that sense, she and many other Muslim women were scholars. It is therefore baseless to claim that Muslim women were made to be home-builders and to raise children,” Kona said.

The Jamiatul Ulama did not comment.

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