QIWAMAH-2 A FEMINIST READING OF THE CONCEPT

DAY 4

QIWAMAH-2

A FEMINIST READING OF THE CONCEPT

How was the classical patriarchal interpretations challenged?

Many women scholars took it upon themselves to reinterpret the concept of qiwama keeping in mind the ethical framework of the Quran. 

Aisha Taimur states that the verse is actually a rap on the knuckles of negligent husbands who did not fulfill their responsibilities towards the family. So if men don’t do their job they also loose their status. She says, financial support is a condition of guardianship and not the reason for it. If you want to remain a guardian, you better do your job of providing and maintaining. 

Asma Barlas says that even though the Quran wants the man to be the breadwinner, there is nothing which turns him into the head of the household. 

Khaled Abou El-Fadl says if the man is not supporting the family then his qiwamah does not exist. If a woman is supporting the family or if she is an equal contributor, then both are maintainers. Husband’s sole right over being a qiwamah ends. 

Amina Wadud calls for transcending the text. Instead of grappling with the difficult text, it is important to look at its trajectory and see where it wants us a human beings to go. The Quran is a gateway, a pointer, towards better possibilities. It wants us to go beyond what is given. We are in a post-text, post-revelation world where the Quran is a text in process. It is a document rooted in its history and at the same time pointing to better possibilities. 

Kecia Ali says that the Quran itself wants us to depart from its literal provisions. Its rules and regulations must be taken as a starting point for human development and not the end. The divine message of the Quran has to make sense on the earth which is at a different realm than the divine. In its application it looses its divinity. The rules are not able to capture the divine spirit and message. The words, the text fail to convey the divine guidelines because it has to make sense in the here and now of the time when it was revealed. 

How is qiwamah as a concept used elsewhere in the Quran?

Qawwamun which is plural form of qawwam. Which comes from the root word qama which has 30 different meanings. Stand up, comply, carry, take on, proceed, rise up, provide for revolt, endure, and lift up. The verses 4:135 and 5:8 has usage of qiwamah in the public sphere. It reads thus: 

Verse 4:135

O ye who believe! Kunu qawwamin [stand out firmly] bilqisti [for justice], as witness to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor, for Allah can best protect both. Follow to the lusts of your hearts lest you swerve, and if you distort justice or decline to do justice verily Allah is well acquainted with all that your do.

Verse 5:8

O ye who believe! kunu qawamin [stand out firmly] lillahi shuhada bilqisti [for Allah as witnesses to fair dealing] and let not the hatred of others to you make your swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just, that is next to piety and fear Allah. For Allah is well acquainted with all that you do. 

So there are two dimensions to qiwamah – private dimension and public dimension 

Both these verses exhort men and women to respect values of justice, fairness and impartiality in all their actions and judgements. Both verses say, be firm and rigorous in your implementation of justice and be determined and precise in your testimonies. 

Both verses command unconditional respect for the values of fairness and justice even in the matter of a judgment against oneself or ones relatives, the rich or the poor or even an enemy whom we resent or dislike. 

So finally what would the feminist interpretation of this verse read like?

Men are supporters to the women and family, because in that context they are the ones who bring in the money. Also Allah favours one over the other [no gender specification given]. Qiwamah is a duty and responsibility so that men bring in money and women manage the family. In the light of the other meaning of the term qiwamah, this arrangement is fair and just as both are doing what they are able to do. So men have qiwamah not because they are men but because they have the social capacity to earn. If then and even now, women also have the capacity to earn, so even they have qiwamah. 

So to sum up?

• First there is a need to confine male qiwamah to family

• Second it is only because he is bringing in the money

• Third if women bring in money there would be two qiwamahs in the house

• Even if women don’t bring in money her unpaid care work is equivalent or sometimes more than what he actually earns. So all women by default are qiwamah because they manage the household with their labour. 

• So he brings in money and she does household chores which has economic value which puts them on par with each other 

• In instances where women work in the house as well as earn money outside, their qiwamah by logic is more than the men. 

Women are then qiwamah?

Women who are homemakers are qiwamah because of their labour. In addition, all those women who also work outside, are double qiwamah and women who work only outside are qiwamah anyway. That puts a whole lot of women who take responsibility of themselves and their families, who are supporters and maintainers and protectors. 

THEN WHO IS THE REAL QIWAMAH IS ANYONE’S GUESS!!!

Reference:

Interpretive Legacy of Qiwamah as an Exegetical Construct, Omaima Abou-Bakr

An Egalitarian Reading of the Concepts of Khilafah, Wilayah and Qiwamah, Asma Lambrabet