An analysis of the discursive representations of women’s sexual agency in online fatwas : a case study of askimam.org
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Date
2015
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Abstract
Combining a feminist post-structural methodology with a legal interpretive
framework located in classical texts, this study analysed six fatwas on South Africanbased
Mufti Ebrahim Desai’s online fatwa platform, askimam.org, to provide insights
into the discursive representations of women’s sexual agency. By virtue of their
potential to provide data on lived experiences of sex and intimacy in modern contexts,
and the legal interpretive reasoning they prompt, the analysis of these fatwas revealed
competing and complementary discourses on women’s sexual agency. Petitioners
grapple with the dissonance created by their pietistic loyalty to the legal tradition of
marriage, and expectations of mutuality within contemporary marriage. They rely on
varying dimensions of health to argue for women’s choices in the sexual arena. In
their responses, some muftis accommodate women’s sexual refusals and desires using
an ethical framework, and they support mutuality using strategies of sexual
communication and benevolent masculinity. Unlike other facets of health, which are
managed in the juristic space as spiritual concerns, physical health concerns related to
sex are managed within a biomedical ethical paradigm, thus linking sexual rights to
physical health. The study shows the potential for muftis to link sexual rights to
psychological and emotional facets of health and the possibilities to adopt an ethical
paradigm that includes other medical and allied therapies. Amongst the fatwas
produced by Desai and his students, Desai’s own fatwa, in the context of reform
inclinations on his website, suggests this possibility. Although the online fatwas of
askimam.org do not diverge substantially from the legal logic of Muslim marriage,
they provide a glimpse into how Deoband muftis are thinking about the model of
marriage, through an emphasis on mutuality and health and well-being, in order to
preserve the marriage and maintain the stability of the contemporary Muslim family.
The study proceeds to analyse how foundational sources, Qur’an and hadith, are
utilised in this regard, and concludes with an analysis of how the online space is
gradually reformulating traditional concepts and norms, thus facilitating new
prospects for reconfiguring gender relations.
Description
Master of Art in Gender and Religion. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2015.