#mawqif

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Have you ever wondered if a woman is capable of being a leader? If yes, to what extend is her capability while empowering the world? Or what are the pros and cons of having a woman as a leader and does Islam encourages having woman on the lead in accordance to the Syariah? Will her leadership be much different compared to the leadership of a man? But what exactly is the yardstick in opting for a woman as a leader in this world?

The topic of women has always been something for people to talk about. Whether it’s about women’s right, women in leadership, or even the role of women generally is always considered as a controversial issue. In the past, these could have been a taboo. However in this modern context people are voicing out their opinions and putting in a lot of effort in trying to give women a better place in this world.

The forum started out with the question of when women started taking the role of leadership and why it became an issue. Feminism has always been a topic that had a lot of angry responses. People had negative opinions and there were a lot of frustration on this. Our politics is very much anti women. Over the years there has been a start of female politicians running for presidential candidate however these female politicians feel the need to show the public how tough they are and they are always under pressure to portray toughness.

The question here is: Why does a woman need to be tough? Toughness is a masculine trait that has brought a lot of destruction throughout the history. Example is the First World War that had repercussion on Manliness and gender role and masculinity playing a part in its history. Dr Luqman also emphasised on how he believes that everything moves according to nature. It’s either we break it or succumb to it and live according to the nature. Why is it that men have to act like they are tough and women are shy? Is it the behaviour based on coincidence or is it because of nature? He shared with us a story about his female manager who asked his favour to talk to his male colleague because she was scared to talk to the men when the reality is she is the manager and should have superiority over them. This story may actually indicate that shyness is a natural phenomenon that was built in women.

Dr Khairil said that here the change is not about bringing woman in leadership but challenging the culture that has been defining our social political structure throughout history, and to be able to achieve this, it requires the participation of not only women but also men. Female leadership is one of the solution provided that it actually succeed in bringing a different culture and not just having a woman saying she wants to be president. Because to just make such claims will only get people frustrated and they will start questioning how women can bring a different value to our politics. The politics of men has been so destructive and we have the politics of aggression, politics about toughness and politics about showing how one country is more powerful than the others. Which is why the politicians have to move beyond this and in order to achieve this we need a more feminine spirit.

Another aspect that we should look at is the verse from the Surah An-Nisa’ verse 34, Allah says in the Qur’an {الرِّجَالُ قَوَّامُونَ عَلَى النِّسَاءِ}. Here the context of the word “قَوَّامُونَ” in the verse has to be first clarified. Is the term restricted to the house or is it open to public roles and authoritative position? Hence it is important to understand that the interpretation of the Qur’an should be based on the society that we are living in so that we can live in harmony.

Islam does not prohibit women from being leaders because if we look at one perspective, women are usually the ones leading the disciplinary part of the children aside from their job as taking care of the household welfare. On another hand, if women were to hold leadership position then how does she cope with her responsibility towards her family and herself alongside her responsibility towards the country and the people? That is why women cannot be a khalifah and this is also the reason why we see man rising and growing to become CEO and bosses because the pressure is on the women to perform multiple roles.

If we were to look back at the Islamic history, the greatest example of women in leadership is Khadijah r.a who showed great leadership in her business as an entrepreneur. Once, Umar ibn Al-Khattab r.a appointed Samrah bint Nuhaik as an overseer of the market as the leader and she would carry a whip in the market to discipline people. Some of the Sahabah saw that as a sign of authority.

Patriarchy plays a very important factor in recognizing women’s position in leadership. In some community, for example the Malay community, patriarchy is very subtle and not visible because we see women in front desks and are allowed to voice out regularly, however, generally most of society are considered pro patriarchal. It wasn’t that long ago when the Malay Muslim society are checked off the patriarchal mindset compared to the old who still believes that girls do not have to go to school because they will eventually be married off and end up in the kitchen.

However women is still under the spotlight in many ways. For example in IIUM itself female students always get scrutinized for their dress code. Compared to the boys who wear t-shirts and sandals and do not get told off. Another example is gang rape cases where the rapist says it’s the girl’s fault. This statement actually makes you wonder the mentality this kind of people have. Sadly women are always given the blame.

If anyone were to argue that patriarchy is natural, it’s something that can be challenged. Because gender roles cannot be natural. It is conditioned as male and female is biological and it cannot be changed whilst gender role is socially constructed. It requires performance and one needs to perform their gender role in order to be male or female. It is important to distinguish between sex and gender role.

Over the years, the interpretation of gender indication has dictated towards men. Comparing this to the Arabic language, in the Qur’an where gender plays a very important role in determining masculinity and femininity. Muslims know that God is referring Himself as ‘him’ and this does not mean that He is a man but the nature of the language.