GUARDIANSHIP
There is a certain guardianship forced on us, both men and women, by society. This guardianship takes the form of men of religion and men of politics. This is what takes shape in societies with tribal thinking and with dictatorships. The same authority can be said in an intellectual thinker, whether his ideas are based in religion or something else. He, too, can take power for himself by capitalizing on his intelligence and taking advantage of those who are uneducated or ignorant. The late Egyptian thinker Nasr Abu Zayd confirms that “the guardianship of the intellectual ends to one result, the ultimate dictatorship of politics from one side, and the priesthood of thought from the other side. Hence, the guardianship on the audience—based on its lack of awareness—results in fixing the missing consciousness and supporting it.”
I was filled with the most basic questions about the rules and laws that governed everyday behavior: Why must we wear the hijab? What is the point? Why are we forbidden to drink alcohol? Why am I forbidden to marry a non-Muslim man? But to ask these questions was to place oneself in dangerous territory.
I decided I didn’t want the guardianship of men—political, religious, intellectual, or otherwise. Their rules for governance were hollow.
Stop…
Forbidden…
Don’t disbelieve…
Ask for forgiveness…
God forbids…
The girl has gone mad…
I said to myself, “Girl, keep your madness to yourself and stay away.” How can I repeat and memorize rules that I am not convinced of? How do I defend a cause for something that cannot even be discussed? How can I stand up for my rights when I don’t have a right to address the clear, apparent truth?
Because reality almost never aligns with truth.
Or perhaps reality, with the divinity of masculinity and the existing societal texture, should not be affected by a threat from truth. Truth here is destructive, and the society, the preservation of its very structure, are more important.
That rule regarding pregnancy, for instance. How can any rational person accept that pregnancy can last for four years? The teacher’s answer was, “They have modified the time, and it has become two years.”
No argumentation in religion.
This dialogue stuck in my mind for ten full years. To start over again with the same question and receive the same answer that lacks logic or reason. Anyone using logic has fallen to zandaqa (disbelief), as the most honorable Imam Ibn Taymiyyah said. (This statement is also attributed to Imam al-Ghazali and al-Suyuti.) The rule is there to preserve the home. “The child is for the bed!” I cannot deny how much I like the rule that encourages the protection of families. But the question remains: Is there any protection left for the family? Or is it just for the preservation of the institution of marriage? It should not collapse. Or is it the preservation of the prestige of man and his nearness to divinity? He is the god, the god of the family. He can produce in the uterus of his wife a son in four years.
Sorry, two years.