Tunisian
Religious Reforms Challenge Egypt's Al Azhar
by Hany Ghoraba
Special to IPT News
September 19, 2017
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 Tunisian President
Beji Caid Essebsi marched straight into a battle with Egypt's highest Sunni
authority, Al-Azhar's mosque and university, when he proposed social and
religious reforms giving women more freedom in marriage and guaranteeing
them equal inheritance rights.
A substantial part of that agenda became law last Thursday when
Tunisia's parliament ended the ban on Muslim women marrying non-Muslim men.
It is a direct result of controversial reforms Essebsi proposed, ending a
ban imposed in 1973.This was done while proposing new law to secure gender
equality in inheritance rights.
Egypt's Al Azhar has ferociously condemned these reforms as un-Islamic,
contradicting what it called the "Fundamentals of the Faith."
Marriage to non-Muslims may harm Muslim women due to differences in faith
and traditions and could lead to women being prohibited from practicing
their faith freely, said Al Azhar Deputy Imam Abbas Shoman.
Essebsi's proposals mark the first time the leader of a Muslim-majority
nation personally announced critical social reforms, which also include
giving women equal inheritance to men despite traditional Shari'a-based
laws. These reforms aim for gender equality in Tunisia.
Al-Azhar also opposes the inheritance changes, Shoman said, saying they
contradict the Quran's guidance. "Allah instructs you concerning your
children: for the male, what is equal to the share of two females," it
says.
Though not wielding the same influence as the Vatican Pope's over
Catholics, the moral authority wielded over Muslims by Al Azhar's grand
imam is recognized in all four corners of the globe. Al Azhar once
represented a pillar of modernity and moderation in the Islamic world, but
that changed when ultra-conservative Wahhabism and Muslim Brotherhood
Jihadist doctrine ascended during the 1950s. More radical Salafi doctrines
became part of the core curriculum.
Opposing Modernity
Essebsi's call for gender equality is a step toward a secular path,
which is a radical departure from most predominantly-Muslim countries. It's
not surprising, therefore, that it generated a storm of protest and
condemnation from the Al Azhar sheikhdom (administration). To them,
Tunisia's reforms counter straight-forward Quranic verses concerning the distribution of the
inheritance between women and men and marriage to non-Muslims.
Those verses dictate that a man receives twice as much inheritance as a
woman. That's because men traditionally pay for the expenses of the house
that includes the family's women until they get married and move into their
own homes Thus, a man should acquire twice as much as his sister or women
counterpart to carry on with his duties. That mayhave made sense 1,400
years ago, but in the 21stcentury that is hardly the case
anymore.
Women have attained huge milestones in the past two centuries and even
in the Muslim majority nations. For example, Egypt's feminist movement
started in the early 20th century, and by the 1950s, Egyptian women had
voting rights even before women in Switzerland. Egypt has a major
representation of women in all political, economic and social fields.
Countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia, and Turkey had a female presidents
or prime ministers.Today, more than a third of Egyptian households are
financed by women, the Egyptian National Centre for Social and
Criminological Research (NCSCR) reports
The issue of Muslim women marrying non-Muslims has been a source of
debate and conflict for centuries. Advocates of Tunisia's reforms argue
that the Quranic verses governing marriage outside the faith apply to men
and women. The only prohibition is marrying an atheist or a follower of
polytheistic religions.
Nevertheless, for more than 1,400 years it became the norm that Muslim
women are prohibited from marrying non-Muslim men. Scholars argued Muslim
women who married outside the faith might not be free to practicing their
religion. Reform advocates believe that 21st century women freely choose
their own life partners and are aware of any consequences.
Renouncing Al Azhar's criticism, Essebsi condemned "foreign
interference" in internal Tunisian affairs. Tunisian religious bodies,
including the Diwan of Fatwa, support
his reforms.
Counter-Reform Syndicate
Al Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed Al Tayeb was reputed to be a moderate Sufist
who many in Egypt hoped would counter the growing influence of the
university's radical alumni. Alas, he has faced criticism from liberal
Egyptian intellectuals and secularists for blocking any tangible Islamic
reforms. During his reign, Al Azhar has waged witch
hunts against Egyptian Islamic reformers such as Islam Al-Beheiry. Al-Beheiry spent a year in prison for
blasphemy because he dared to condemn some major Islamic traditionalist
scholars' works, calling them the source of modern terrorist ideologies. He
was later released after being granted a
presidential pardon.
More than two years ago, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made a
historic call for a religious revolution targeting
interpretations and misconceptions of religious scripture that drives
jihadist ideologies. Al-Azhar's sheikhdom met the call with defiance,
despite displaying fake enthusiasm for the government and the media. As a result,
no new laws have been introduced and no curricula have changed with Al
Azhar's influence on Egyptian state affairs is growing stronger.
Yet al-Sisi is not challenging the religious institution enough out of
fear that the Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian Salafists might use the
pressure to restore their influence in Al-Azhar. However, a confrontation
with Al Azhar seems inevitable since it has already been infiltrated by the
very Salafists and radicals whose influence al-Sisi wishes to eradicate.
Ironically, Tunisia's Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Ennahda Party has
been mostly vague about the social reforms. Despite the protest of some of
its main leaders, no official statement has been issued Ennahda vice
President Abdel Fattah Mourou said that marriage is a matter of personal
freedom under Tunisia's constitution.
Ennahda, which rose to power after the 2011 Arab Spring, was voted out just three years later. Now it is trying to
appear as moderate as possible to regain its strength and weather the storm
of anti-Islamist sentiment prevailing in many Middle Eastern nations.
Essebsi is implementing reforms he deems necessary for his country's
social progress. These reforms already are having a ripple effect in the
region and might lead to further social progress. Essebsi has done what
al-Sisi called for about for more than two years ago, but never took any
tangible steps to implement. These reforms may be not exactly what al-Sisi
wanted when he called for a complete change of Islamic rhetoric that shuns
all forms of extremism and violence. Nevertheless,Essebsi's reforms are a
bold step forward for total social and religious reforms that the Middle
East desperately needs.
Hany
Ghoraba is an Egyptian writer, political and counter-terrorism
analyst at Al Ahram Weekly, author of Egypt's
Arab Spring: The Long and Winding Road to Democracy and a
regular contributor to the BBC.
Related Topics: , women's
rights in Islam, inheritance,
marriage
to non-Muslims, Tunisian
reforms, Beji
Caid Essebsi, Al
Azhar, Sunni
Islam, Abbas
Shoman, Islam
Al-Beheiry, Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi, Ennahda
Party
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