http://hdl.handle.net/1813/3290 2013-06-19T18:36:47Z 2013-06-19T18:36:47Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/23554 2011-08-18T05:00:52Z 2009-09-28T00:00:00Z

Title: American Muslim Women Challenging Conventional Understanding of Islam Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: Muslim women all over the world have been mostly viewed as secondary and/or complementary in the structure of all Muslim societies. In order to challenge and transform these un-Islamic views, women needed to retake their principal role and reinterpret the primary source of Islam, the Qur’an. In doing so during the past two decades, some American Muslim women, including myself, are challenging the conventional understanding of Islam in the hope to implement a fundamental aspect of the social justice contract between Muslims and Islam. Indeed, this was the first essential step toward accomplishing the comprehensive human rights for ourselves, as well as challenging the unwarranted authority, the hijacked Islamic authority, by Muslim men for about 14 centuries. Although the conditions during the last decade of the 20th century were right for Muslim women peaceful revolution that is firmly grounded in the Qur’an, the drastic change in the global political landscape since 2001 reversed these conditions for the majority of Muslim women. There is no simple solution, and there is no hope for any meaningful reform in the near future. Both Muslims and Westerners are to blame. Description: This lecture was presented at Kendal of Ithaca on September 28, 2009. The Streaming Video is provided by Cornell University.

2009-09-28T00:00:00Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/17484 2010-10-02T01:10:24Z 2010-09-16T00:00:00Z

Title: Why Muslim Women Are Re-Interpreting the Qur'an: A Transformative Scholarship-Activism Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: Muslim women all over the world have been mostly viewed as secondary and/or complementary in the structure of Muslim societies. In order to challenge and transform these un-Islamic views, women needed to retake their principal role and reinterpret the primary source of Islam, the Qur'an. In doing so during the past two decades, some American Muslim women, including myself, are transforming the conventional understanding of Islam in the hope to implement a fundamental aspect of the social justice contract between Muslims and Islam. Indeed, Muslim women are challenging the unwarranted authority, the hijacked Islamic authority by Muslim men, and moving toward accomplishing the comprehensive human rights for themselves. This event was part of the CAPE Lecture Series. Description: Also vaialble at the CornellCast Website: http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoID=865&startSecs=0&endSecs=3974

2010-09-16T00:00:00Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/17403 2011-08-18T05:03:10Z 2010-07-19T00:00:00Z

Title: Why Muslim Women Must Reinterpret the Qur'an Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: Nimat Hafez Barazangi, Ph.D. '88, a research fellow in the Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies program at Cornell, suggests it's time for Muslim women to have a peaceful, silent revolution firmly grounded in the Qur'an. Barazangi works to improve attitudes and conditions for women in Islam. She is the author of "Woman's Identity and the Qur'an." The lecture, moderated by National Public Radio correspondent Laura Sydell, was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on July 19, 2010. Description: This lecture is also available at the "CornellCast" website at http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoID=813

2010-07-19T00:00:00Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7780 2007-06-27T06:16:56Z 1996-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Vicegerency and Gender Justice in Islam Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: This chapter summarizes Islamic view of life as a system and analyzes some implications of this system for family and male-female relationships. It is necessary, therefore, to replace the conceived notion that Islam is a religion limited to the ritual acts of worship (the five pillars) with the affirmation that Islam is a system designed for a purpose, and that this system is either accepted as a whole, understood within its ontological worldview, and acted upon within its components, or its practice may not be total. It is as important to understand that one cannot be operating partially within this system and still claim it as the base of operation. That is because whenever something is not accomplished according to what the system was designed to achieve one cannot discredit the system for not fulfilling its goals. One might understand the reason(s) that have lead to the unexpected results, rather, by exploring the steps that may have been missed during the application. I am proposing that Islam as a system or an ideology has a central concept (or an essence) around which certain principles (or secondary and tertiary concepts) are built. These principles vary in their priority depending on their closeness to objectifying the central concept. The closer they are, the higher value they should be given and the more consideration they should receive in application of the system. Then on the outer circle (of the imaginary diagram) there are the auxiliary hypotheses (or the manifestations) which, if were appropriated within the framework of the central concept and with the essence of the principles as the base, will achieve the intended results (or the outcome) of the system. The focus of this paper is on the Islamic principle of al-Khilafah (vicegerency of human beings to Allah as the Only God and the Supreme Guide), its social implications for the family, and where and how its manifestations may have been mistaken for its essence. Al-Khilafah is the purpose of the Islamic system, that is, fulfilling the purpose of creation and the will of Allah through human morality. The first part of the argument is that the principle of al-khilafah has been generally understood by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and has been practiced by the majority of Muslims on its manifestation level and not at the essence level of the principle. Furthermore, the perception (conception and practice) of this principle has been generally outside the Islamic ontological view and without consideration of the central concept of Islam, Tawhid (the Oneness of God and humanity). The second part of the argument will be stated as follows. Unless scholars, Muslims or non-Muslims, who are concerned with the study of Islamic family realize the different conceptual levels of the Islamic system, understand the variation in the implications of the different conceptualizations, and use the central concept as the epistemological base, their attempt to understand or prescribe solutions to injustice in male-female relations in the Muslim family will fail. Also, as long as Muslims are practicing the principle of al Khilafah and its social and political implications on the manifestation level only, they will not fulfill that principle nor the central concept of Islam, Tawhid. Description: Copyright 1996, University Press of Florida. This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the edited book Islamic Identity and the Struggle for Justice following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through the University Press of Florida: http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=BARAZS96. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#2

1996-01-01T00:00:00Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7779 2007-06-27T06:17:06Z 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Muslim Women's Islamic Higher Learning as a Human Right: The Action Plan Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: How do we expect the Muslim woman, collectively and individually, to identify with Islam as revered teachings and to act within its parameters, and to accommodate new human knowledge, be it that of a local Mufti's (clergy) injunction or a human rights advocate's recommendation, while neither Muslim societies nor human rights advocates recognize her self-identity as an autonomous spiritual and intellectual being? Accessing Islamic higher learning (deeper knowledge of the Islamic primary sources, the Quran and the authentic Hadith [prophetic tradition]), is argued to be the means by which the Muslim woman self-identity is recognized as a trustee. Relying solely on others' interpretations to guide her spiritual and intellectual needs is by itself an evidence that the Muslim woman's right to understand, to consciously choose, and to actively act on her choice of Islam is being compromised. Muslim Woman's deeper knowledge of the Islamic primary sources is significant to defining her relationship to God and to others. Muslim woman's understanding of "human rights" within the Islamic worldview, based on pedagogical reading (the art of learning and teaching) of the Quran is significant. I derive the rationale behind the demand for woman's educational rights from the Islamic worldview. The methodologies of the discipline of education and the strategies to implement the platform for action--that define the parameters for the Muslim woman's human rights--are grounded in that worldview. Examining her role as a human entity in the Quran does not merely concern the Muslim woman's "free choice;" it concerns her ability to maintain the pedagogical dynamics of Islam to effect a sustainable change in history. Self-realization of Muslim woman can only effect a sustainable change in history when that self-realization unfolds the meaning of trusteeship. The Quranic intention of trusteeship or vicegerency (AL-khilafah) (2:30) eliminates the replacement of the individual trusteeship by proxy. The intent of this essay is to make a pedagogical interpretation of the word and the script of the sacred, analyzing empirical data concerning Syrian Muslim women's perception of Islam regardless of their educational level. Such an interpretation is to be a meaningful exercise to women living in the post-modern era and to produce an action plan for the Muslim woman to regain her identification with Islam. One of the Quranic intentions in entrusting human beings with individual rights and responsibilities toward themselves, each other, and the universe is to bring a balance between the sexes. The interpretations of these rights and responsibilities, therefore, need to stem from efforts to exact the balance between polarized perspectives that have dominated, for instance, the fields of Muslim women's studies and of human rights activism. The strategic implications of this chapter lie in : (1) presenting a pedagogical paradigm to rethink and to act within the balanced perspective of Islam and its primary source, the Quran, away from the many layers of "taqlids" (following precedence) and from Western rationalization of Islam, (2) facilitating for Muslim women the strategies to realize their identity and to re-learn Islam in its clear, transforming meanings, and (3) interpreting human-rights activists' concerns within the Quranic concerns for a just human society, where justice means balance and fair play in the order of things, and a sustainable change of women's role. Description: Copyright 1997, Syracuse University Press. This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the edited book Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation: Beijing Platform following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through the Syracuse University Press: http://syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/index.html. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#2

1997-01-01T00:00:00Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7778 2007-06-27T06:17:17Z 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The Equilibrium of Islamic Education: Has Muslim Women's Education Preserved the Religion? Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: I focus on issues of equilibrium in Muslim women's education to understand the tension between the ideals and practice and its ramifications for Islamic and Muslims' education in the United States. I argue that one maintainer of Muslim women's low effectiveness, perpetuated across new generations of Muslims, is the general perception that women are the preservers of culture and religion by proxy. The issue before us: How is it possible for a morally dependent individual to instill the character of autonomous spiritual and intellectual Muslim who can integrate effectively in a "pluralistic" society? In addition to the various degrees of perceptions and misconceptions about Islam, religious tolerance and Multiculturalism, the problem is mainly of perceiving women, particularly Muslim women as morally dependent and, hence, socially and politically irrelevant or non-central to issues of Islamic education. With the exception of few, the majority of Muslim women are neither involved in the educational decsion-making of the Muslim community nor of this nation. Often perceived as preservers of customary practices instead of agents of cultural change and contributors to inter-cultural understanding, Muslim women and their Islamic higher learning has been marginalized. Description: Copyright 1998, Nimat Hafez Barazangi. This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the edited journal Religion and Education following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through Religion and Education: http://fp.uni.edu/jrae/islamicissuetoc.htm. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#2

1998-01-01T00:00:00Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7777 2007-06-27T06:17:01Z 1996-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Parents and Youth: Perceiving and Practicing Islam in North America Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: This chapter examines how some Arab Muslim youth and families in North America perceive themselves both as Arabs and as Muslims in the context of Canadian and United States societies. Parents are concerned with how best to transmit the Islamic ideological and Arab cultural heritage to their children. One of their problems derives from differences among Arab Muslims, who come from varied national origins and hold several interpretations of the Islamic view, not all of which are based on the Qur'an; as a result they also have different nationalistic attachments to their understanding of Arab heritage. A second problem arises between immigrant parents and their American-reared children. The children may participate in American culture to a greater extent than their parents, and they are constantly faced with the conceptual need to accommodate potentially conflicting points of view. Effective identity transmission requires the determination of the nature and extent of the different interpretations held by parents and their children and of the way these interpretations are reflected in their practice of Islam and association with the Arabic heritage. Description: Copyright 1996, Temple University Press. This is a reprint of a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the edited book Muslim Families in North America following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through Alberta University Press: http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?lid=41&bookid=162. This article was reprinted with permission by Temple University Press: http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1255_reg.html See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#2

1996-01-01T00:00:00Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7776 2007-06-27T06:16:51Z 1999-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Self-identity as a Form of Democratization: The Syrian Experience Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: This chapter combines historical research and a field reporting of participatory action research (PAR) with one of the grassroots women's movement in Syria. I will analyze the participatory or democratization efforts by members of this informally organized group (the group) that is working toward Muslim women's self-identity. Islamic higher learning and its relation to Islamic principles of gender justice provide the framework of this analysis. Various factors have been affecting the priorities in women's Islamic knowledge and self-realization within the predominantly Muslim society of Syria. Even when the group emphasizes community-based informal education and social welfare activities, inside and outside views of Islam and Muslim women do influence the decision-making process. These decisions may concern matters ranging from the group agenda to the members' identifications with Islam. Interpreting Islam in this group's course of action is, consciously or unconsciously, affected by the domestic, national and international affairs of Syria. The present Syrian constitution does not declare Islam as a state religion. Yet, it is hardly possible to find a discussion of any issue in Syria or any other Middle Eastern and Muslim countries without invoking a "monolithic" representation of Islamic religion-cultural and political image. Meanwhile, no studies attempted to present the Islamic conceptual and pedagogical foundations for individuals' self- identity with Islam and the consequent civic decision-making process that affects the individual and communal life. As a PAR researcher and educator, my working and reporting on this group is to argue for the change in discourse to be able to understand Muslim women's movement towards democratization. Some members of the group felt a need to further their indigenous educational strategies and invited me to participate in the group's study-circles. The group strategies consisted on reading the Qur'an and acting on what they learn. I knew of the group earlier and had informally observed some of their activities during subsequent visits to Syria. My presence in Syria for a period of three months annually during 1995-1997 helped develop this research and educational working relationship with the group. Considering the Islamic principle of self-discipline for self-realization as neither inferior nor superior, this group affirms autonomous responsibility as central to the Islamic religio-political process of educating. The group interpreted this principle to mean first-hand knowledge of Islam from its primary sources. Intimate knowledge of these sources (the Qur'an and the books of Hadith that contain the Prophet Muhammad's extrapolation of Qur'anic principles) is viewed as the only means to 'liberation.' Liberation is intended to rid oneself of the dichotomous agendas of "liberal" vis-a-vis "traditional" interpretations of Islam.3 The group's primary concern have been to understand and apply the Qur'anic way of life. Participatory decision-making process in the group, has been confined within the males' 'traditional' (i.e., grounded in absolute principles) interpretation of Islamic texts concerning the role of individual within a religio-socio-political structure of family and society. My work with this group, as a facilitator, takes the Islamic principle of self-discipline one step further to affirm self-identity within the Islamic premise of gender justice. To facilitate their movement from the predominantly males' interpretations of the Islamic primary sources is to make the Islamic principle of trusteeship (Qur'an, 2:30) explicit through higher Islamic learning. A Muslim individual may not fulfill the Islamic pedagogy of a trustee without being able to autonomously choose, understand, and act on her choice of Islam as a worldview. This process requires both autonomous morality and intimate knowledge of the Qur'an before an individual can act as a trustee. Proxy or heternomous moralities--though represent prevalent practices--do not replace autonomous morality. Community welfare is central to Islamic principles of governing, but it does not preclude the primacy of autonomous morality as a form of self-governing. Within the guidance of the Qur'an and Hadith, when in conflict, the community collective welfare takes precedent over individual rights. My analysis of this group self-learning and self-governing is intended to present a form of democratization by this Syrian feminine movement to affirm Muslim women's agency. The group may not call its work democratic, nor feminine. This movement, though, has achieved and maintained some form of effective intellectual and civic participation despite the historical and cultural constraints that dominated the Syrian society, like other Muslim-Arab societies. My intention is not to compare this Syrian grassroots movement with other movements inside or outside Syria, but to change the perception of Muslim women's invisibility as an indicator of full dependency and/or oppression. By changing the discourse we find that "mainstream" literature concerning democratization, Syrian society, and Syrian Muslim Arab women have overlooked this type of groups because these groups are not connected to the center of power. Applying self-identity for self-realization approach within the Islamic framework of gender justice as a base of participation or democratization presents different set of assumptions. Self identity for self-realization approach presupposes higher Islamic learning to re-gain the power of knowledge as a means of active agency. Further synthesis of the context of this study, the history and culture of Syria provide evidence for this group's active agency. Description: Copyright 1999, Indiana University Press. This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the edited book Democratization and Women's Grassroots Movements following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through the Indiana University Press: http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1037_1100_1188&products_id=21083. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#2

1999-01-01T00:00:00Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7775 2007-06-27T06:16:38Z 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Muslim Women's Islamic Higher Learning as a Human Right: Theory and Practice Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: Limited access to Islamic higher learning is argued to be the basis for the Muslim woman's inability to emancipate and to self-identity as a Khalifa (trustee)--a Qur'anic mandate (or potential) of human existence. Muslim woman's reliance solely on others' interpretations to guide her spiritual and intellectual needs, be it those of Muslim or of non-Muslim men and women, is by itself an evidence that Muslim woman's right to understand, to consciously choose, and to actively act on her choice of Islam is being compromised. Full access to the Diin, the Islamic belief system, calls for the Muslim woman to take part in the interpretation of Islamic teachings of the Qur'an and the Hadith and to maintain the pedagogical dynamics of Islam, rather than being limited to maintaining the human re-production, the Muslim family structure, or the individual human rights as suggested by others. My understanding of woman's gender justice vis-a-vis "liberation" within the Islamic worldview is based on epistemological reading (the philosophy of knowledge) of the Qur'an. The rationale behind the demand for woman's access to knowledge is derived from the Islamic framework. The methodologies of the discipline of education and learning and the struggle for human dignity that define the parameters for Muslim woman's emancipation are grounded in that framework. To examine her role as a human entity in the Qur'an does not merely concern the Muslim woman's "freedom of expression;" it concerns the woman as an autonomous spiritual and intellectual human being who can effect a change in history. The intent of this chapter and of my overall research is to make a contribution towards an educational and pedagogical interpretation of the Qur'an for women living in the post-modern era and thereby to produce an action plan for the Muslim woman to regain her identification with Islam. My analysis of empirical data concerning Muslim women's perception of Islam, the contemporary North American Muslim woman, in a historical context serves to clarify the meaning and the implications of Islamic higher learning regardless of these women's educational level. Preliminary observations suggest that the majority of Muslim women's movements do not aim to eliminate the tension between the two sexes by claiming sameness in the struggle for equality. Rather, their goal is Taqwa (to balance) the tensionback in favor of woman, as the Qur'an intends in the first place when human beings, male and female, were entrusted with individual rights and responsibilities toward themselves, each other, and the universe. I will argue that one of the basic principles of Islamic justice is gender justice. The interpretations of these "equal" rights and responsibilities, however, stem from different perspectives of Islam. Muslim women groups are scattered on a continuum from the idealized polemic Muslim to the idealized static Western perspectives. Few are those who are making efforts to exact the balance between these perspectives. The pedagogical implications of this research lies in : (1) intervening among Muslim men by coaching them to rethink and to act within the balanced perspective of Islam and its first source, the Qur'an, away from both the many layers of Muslim "taqlid " (following precedence) and from Western interpretations of Islam, (2) facilitating for Muslim women the environment and the means to realize their identity as autonomous spiritual and intellectual beings, and to realize the vastness of their task in educating themselves and others in Islam--encluding changing the entrenched paradigm of understanding Islam studies and its practice, and (3) integrating human-rights activists' concerns within the Qur'anic concerns for a just human society, where justice means the balance and fair play in the ideals and realities among all humans. Description: Copyright 2000, Syracuse University Press. This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the edited book Windows of Faith:Muslim Women Scholar-Activists in North America following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through Syracuse University Press: http://www.syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/books-in-print-series/women-religion.html. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#2

2000-01-01T00:00:00Z Barazangi, Nimat Hafez http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7774 2007-06-27T06:16:55Z 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Al Huwiyah Al Dhatiyah lil Mar'a Al Muslimah Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: See attached abstract in Arabic. Description: Copyright 2003, Dar Al-Fikr. This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the edited journal Al Mar'a wa-Tahawlat Asr Jadid following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through Dar Al-Fikr: http://www.fikr.com/cgi-bin/_listgroup.cgi?tp=2&step=0. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#2

2003-01-01T00:00:00Z