Wanita di dalam Islam

by Fatima Mernissi

Karya-karya Mernissi sarat dengan pengalaman individualnya. Setidaknya pengalaman individualnya itulah yang memacunya untuk melakukan riset historis tentang sesuatu yang dia rasa mengganggu paham keagamaannya. Misalnya kita lihat dalam karyanya The Veil and Male Elite (diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia, Menengok kontroversi Keterlibatan Wanita Dalam Politik, (Surabaya: Dunia Ilmu, 1997) yang kemudian ia revisi menjadi Women and Islam: A Historical and Theological Enquiry (diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia: Wanita dalam Islam, Bandung: Pustaka, 1994). Pelacakan Mernissi terhadap nash-nash suci baik Al-Qur'an dan Hadis didasari pada pengalaman individunya sehari-hari ketika berhubungan dengan masyarakat. Seperti misalnya hadis-hadis yang ia sebut misoginis yang menyatakan posisi perempuan sama dengan anjing dan keledai sehingga membatalkan salat sesorang, dikarenakan rasa ingin tahu yang mendalam terhadap posisi Hadis tersebut. Pengalaman itu ia dapatkan waktu remaja di sekolah.

Genres: Female Authors

306 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Fadillah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The english title for this book is Woman and Islam : An historical and theological enquiry which was published in the year of 1991. I found an indonesian version of the book in the Pelita Dhihin Bookstore and decided to just buy it. First of all, before i review this book, i need to state whatever i wrote is based on what i have read - hence you might agree to disagree with my opinion and take on the book. Secondly, As much as i want this book to be updated, i know it will not be possible since the author died in the year of 2015. I believe an additional details on how muslim women has make it so far amidst the islamophobia and bigotry - surviving the haram police and the intense scrutiny of their own community especially when it comes to religion. The book started with a pretty basic introduction of Islam - the history and the Prophet Muhammad’s interaction with women either among his relatives, wives or followers. The book took a brave approach calling out many misogynist and sexist Hadith (which i am pretty sure most muslim women are already familiar with since it has been used to further subjugate us into submission) - Some of it were that women cant be a leader, most of those who resides in hell are women, women has a same level as shoes, female dog thus it can taint your ibadah and so on and so forth. Although some of these hadith come from Bukhari and Muslim but the legitimacy of it is questionable and The author did pretty good job on strengthening her arguments with solid evidences. She also highlighted that Abu Hurairah whose also one of the top contributors of Hadith (which has memorized and collected 5300 Hadith) in the span of 3 years of friendship with Prophet Muhammad seems almost impossible and shady. To top it off, some of these misogynist and sexist hadith did come from Abu Hurairah record of his recalling what Prophet Muhammad Said. There are few occasions where Aisyah, Prophet Muhammad’s wife reprimand him about it but unfortunately these hadith has become a major weapon for most of muslim men to exert control. I find this informative and i would need to read more books on regard of this but Fatima Mernissi did open a new perspective for me to look at these hadith especially on how she dissected it in the book. I used to just be dismissive of these problematic hadith especially when it diminishing women’s capability with “i don’t think this is what Prophet Muhammad try to say” or “there’s an issue of translation but now” , the default may lies on those who memorized and recorded it and it was not verified by those who have much closer ties with Prophet or spent more times with him. The book also covers inheritance which during Prophet time, most of his followers insisting on not giving an inheritance to a women as they never work, go to war or earn those properties - they wanted to maintain the customs that has been practiced before Islam. Besides that, the term Sufaha was being misused and solely referenced to a women while in reality, it was not. It applied to both gender equally. There are many issues covered such as domestic violence, Slavery and etc but i will not put it in my review. I would urge people to read the book itself. Overall, this is quite an informative book minus the comment as i mentioned previously that it certainly need few updates. I would recommend to whoever wanted to learn, get a second opinion, obtain a different angle of the Islam view on women.
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[Indra Pratama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sebuah sudut pandang menarik dalam memahami posisi tradisional perempuan dalam Islam. Fatima mengajukan analisis kontekstual, terutama dalam periode Madinah, sebagai pisau analisis ayat-ayat Hijab.

[Salrizk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really open my mind about konvervative things in islam who depend with kultural things and mala gaze.
I love being muslim and feminist.