Princess Sarvath on: Education of women in the Muslim world
Regional, Culture, 12/10/1998

Editor's note: We bring you Jordanian Crown Princess Sarvath El Hassan Bin Talal speech at the John Hopkins University due to its comprehensiveness and depth despite the princess's description of the speech as an "attempt to talk to you about the education of women in the Muslim world."

Princess Sarvath: Muslims today number some one and three quarters of a billion souls, and are notable for their total disparity; an inevitable result of so many varying factors. The differences in their population size and dynamics, their ethnic make-up and languages, their natural resources, and the lack of parity in their levels of material wealth, make any attempt at generalization not only impossible but foolhardy.

To start with, Muslims can be Shia or Sunni. If Shia, they can be of any one of a large number of denominations or, if Sunni, they will follow one of the four schools of religious interpretation, Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i or Hunbali, all of which have differing views on personal status law.

Then there are the peculiarities of each 'Muslim' country on its own and within its region. Muslim countries are set against the incredibly diverse cultural backgrounds of Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, South East Asia, the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East.

One has also but to look in some slight detail at the history and varied colonial backgrounds of a few Muslim countries to see how they were additionally influenced, for better or for worse, by the colonizing power. If one were to try to focus on the effect this had on the status of women, their education and their role in society, and then to choose at random, say Morocco, with its French Protectorate antecedents; Pakistan which as part of undivided India knew over two hundred years of British colonial rule at the height of its power; Jordan which was for four hundred years part of the Ottoman Empire, followed by some thirty under the British Mandate; and finally study Indonesia, with its period of being governed by the Dutch, these influences would immediately become clear.

In Morocco, the French women from the influential governing classes tended to be far more at home in elegant salons than in the often less than salubrious premises offered by social welfare projects. It goes without saying that they were usually extremely soignée and excellent hostesses. There was little intermingling of the two nationalities at a social or professional level. Therefore, in the context of the day to day life of ordinary Moroccans, this resulted in overtly little in the way of imposing an alien culture upon an unwilling peoples.

Personal Status laws and other legislation affecting women and civil society were not touched. The French put their efforts into urban planning, establishing well planned modern cities and an excellent network of roads. Large, prosperous farms, under French ownership were to be found throughout the country. However, an infrastructure, in the crucial areas of education and health, that would have helped spread their influence amongst the general population, and in particular impacted on women, was not something the French invested in or left behind for the Moroccans to build on. And those Moroccans who did go to school, studied about French history, geography and culture to the total exclusion of their own. Having said that, very few Moroccans did benefit from any sort of educational process. At Independence, in 1956, after forty four years of being a Protectorate, there were only 40 Moroccan men who were university graduates, and no women at all. In fact, there were only six women who had even completed secondary school.

Deprived of outside influences, for better or for worse, Moroccan ways and culture thrived and evolved into the sophisticated, urbane society we have come to know. However, Moroccan women have only become really involved in the social development of their country within the last two decades. With limited tools - an illiteracy rate of 59 % - the scope of that involvement is much more limited than its potential would indicate. Moroccan women today are in a strange situation. While much of Moroccan public law has been brought into line to conform with UN and universal norms of human rights and obligations, women's issues in total are relegated to what some feel is the sacrosanct and therefore static domain of family law.

There is however, no doubt as to the sincerity of the support given to the education of the younger, contemporary Moroccan woman. When my mother was sent as Ambassador to the Moroccan court, there were those who felt that it would be very difficult for her to perform well in such a male dominated society, especially as long ago as 1964, but in fact the leadership of Morocco, from the King downwards welcomed her appointment as a good role model of a Muslim woman who had achieved in public life, and everyone went out of their way to be welcoming and accommodating.

By contrast to French ladies, British women of most social strata have always been much concerned with what one might term "good works." There was always an interest and involvement in education and health care, which influence certainly left its mark on the women of the Indian sub-continent. The concept of voluntary work became and has remained an integral part of the lives of most educated women there. Unfortunately, in the area of law, British influence was detrimental to Muslim women. Customary Law in the Indian Sub-Continent in the late 18th Century had in many spheres over-ridden Sharia law, sometimes to deprive women of rights accorded them under the latter. When the Shariat Act of 1937 was passed, the customary law, prevalent in many parts of India - and which barred women from succession to agricultural land - was retained. This disability was removed in Pakistan but continues still for Muslim women in India It should be noted, however, that in some places as for example Bengal - East Bengal is now Bangladesh - this restriction did not ever apply.

On the whole the British chose to accept the status quo as regards the laws governing inter-personal relations. Those less than liberal legal attitudes to women did not jar them as they were far more in keeping with the status of British women. Muslim women in the 19th century had far more rights to property than did their British counterparts, although the greater social freedom enjoyed by British women created the impression that women in the West on the whole enjoyed rights superior to those enjoyed by Indian women. This placed those who wished to agitate for the implementation of the legal rights of Muslim women in an awkward position. On the one hand, to leave matters as they were was to negate these rights, but to insist on change could be seen as inviting interference from the occupying power.

The net result of this unhappy situation was a freezing of Muslim personal law but there was a plus side to this saga as well. Although for many years denied their rights, the fight for the improvement of the status of Muslim women and for parity with men in political spheres was taken on largely by Muslim men themselves. As a consequence, Indian Muslim women did not have to endure the long struggle against men to achieve civic rights. Rather, men and women united against the negative attitude of their British rulers.

Educationally, British attitudes to education coupled with the Indians' own inclinations, meant that there were countless schools, colleges and universities in British India, for girls and boys, by the time of Independence in 1947. Many of the finest of these had been founded in the closing years of the nineteenth century. They ranged from Indian funded and run establishments, to secular English run and medium schools which were modeled on the great British private schools, and missionary run institutions. The level of the educated Indian elite was on a par with the best in the world, and in addition to having access to a good education at home, if they had the means and inclination, many Indians, both men and women, went to Britain for university and professional training. Hence there were in 1947 innumerable graduates of Oxford, Cambridge and London universities, medical schools, the Inns of Court and military academies. This fine educational legacy and tradition did much to benefit modern India and Pakistan.

On the lighter side of life, many mem-sahibs of the Raj were also sadly unimaginative in adapting their culinary tastes to the more exotic palate of India. This has left its own unfortunate legacy in the pints of murky Brown Windsor Soup and Custard which have been the bane of many a so called English style menu until quite recently in both India and Pakistan !

Moving onto Jordan, we see a totally different scenario. For four hundred years, Jordan was part of the Ottoman Empire. However, the Turks did not move wholesale into Jordan and did not impose their day to day mores on Jordanians. In the earlier centuries of Ottoman rule, almost complete local and internal independence was left to the feudal Emirs and local chiefs. Little was done by these chiefs or the central government in Istanbul to enhance the education of the populations of the provinces, let alone allow women better status or greater schooling opportunities. In the nineteenth century, and as a result of the increasing impact of western thought on the Ottoman Empire, the Turks introduced a system of secular jurisprudence throughout their Empire but again the personal status laws remained untouched. Because in the final analysis, the rulers and the ruled were all Muslims, there were no great areas of conflict, even when the Caliphate in Turkey lost its religious supremacy over Muslims.

Every corner of the Ottoman Empire suffered during its decline, including the area that is now Jordan. Growing frustration at the complete lack of infrastructure in terms of education and health, contributed to the rise of Arab nationalism at the beginning of the century. It cannot be said that the legal status of women was greatly affected by Turkish influence. Gastronomically and sartorially, however, Jordanians followed the Turkish lead, to the benefit of Jordanian cuisine, and leading to the adoption of western clothes by both men and women in most urbanized areas. This has prevailed until today, though political Islam has seen a resurgence of more traditional styles of dress. Following that, and under the British Mandate, little change took place in the general legal framework of the country. One did however see the advent of many missionary schools and convents which laid the early foundations for the exceptionally high standards of education Jordanian women enjoy today. In Indonesia the situation was more complicated. Although predominantly Muslim, Indonesian society included many aspects of pre-Islamic culture, such as matrilineal inheritance and a tolerance of non Muslim practices such as alcohol and opium. The opening up of sea routes, however, brought Haj, the pilgrimage, within the reach of many more people. A tradition evolved of young Indonesian men who went on Haj staying on for a couple of years in the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina to acquire a thorough theological education. Wahhabism, the very strict form of Islam that is today practiced in Saudi Arabia, was then gaining influence, and some of these young men took on board its teachings. On their return home they wanted to purge Indonesian society of what they perceived to be un- Islamic elements, which pitted them against the colonizing power.

Indonesian resistance to Dutch colonization had anyway always been primarily couched in Islamic terms, with the powerful Muslim Sultanates declaring an open Jihad against Dutch aggression. However, their efforts had not been successful and Dutch rule prevailed for almost two centuries. The impact of Muslim reformist thought in the 1930's combined with outrage at the Dutch attempts to curtail the influence of the religious judges and to amend Muslim matrimonial law. This sowed the early seeds of nationalism, resulting as it did in large scale protests against what was seen by both Hindu and Muslim Javanese as interference in religious freedoms.

In the early days of Dutch presence in the Netherland Indies, the priorities of the state had been overwhelmingly commercial. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Netherland Indies government had acted upon the advice of Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, a scholar of Arabic who had gone to Mecca to study and report on Indonesian pilgrims. His enlightened view, which would strike a chord in the heart of many a liberal Muslim government today, was to counter fanatic Muslim teachers who maintained independent Islamic schools by maintaining supportive relations with both 'established Islam' - the judges of the royal courts - and non Muslim local chiefs, whose source of authority was based on 'adat' or local custom. This approach, coupled with the assertions of a prominent lawyer, Conrad van Deventer, who maintained that the Colonial powers owed a huge financial debt to their colonies, resulted in the formation of what came to be known as the "Ethical Policy."

This policy benefited education in Indonesia. Previously there had been no public education system on the island, the elite studying along with the Dutch in modern Dutch medium schools, and the rest having to content themselves with small village level Islamic schools. But by 1940 there were over 18,000 state schools in the villages alone. At the same time, Raden Kartini, a Javanese princess who had benefited from a Dutch language education, led a movement for the modern education of all Indonesian women. As a result of her efforts a number of private schools for girls called the "Kartini" schools started being established in the country from as early as 1913. This, combined with the support of the Dutch for the more open-minded elements in Indonesian society, laid the foundations for the education of girls and women.

Today, there is an increasing number of girls in full time education, with over 45% between the ages of 19 - 24 still in some form of tertiary education. Despite trade unions being outlawed, many female workers have joined the campaign for workers rights and for greater democracy. This is not well received by the government which feels that women are sufficiently emancipated already. However, the current situation in Indonesia shows very clearly that this emancipation was only felt by a few privileged women, and it would seem, not by that many men either.

As these four cases illustrate, it is not possible to judge one Muslim country by another and talk about the Muslim World as a homogeneous entity. If that were not enough, even within the same country and the same 'sect', a Muslim woman can also be of a rural, tribal, feudal or urban background. She can be, and I quote "a highly qualified and self-confident professional, or a self effacing peasant; she can lead a cloistered life cut off from all decision making and information - in either an urban ghetto of respectability or in the wide expanse of nomadic regions; and occasionally she may even be a central figure of authority in government or business circles." That this is exclusively and directly connected to Islam is not true, but the fact is that Islam not only allows women the opportunities for education and contribution to society but encourages this and supports it fully. And although the creation of educational and other opportunities for women must in some measure be influenced by a country's economic situation, this is only part of the story.

What is without doubt the real moving force behind any serious attempt to improve the status quo of women in any country is the priority that the various leaders and governments give to the education of girls and women, and to their empowerment in society as a whole. It is notable, however, that whenever an attempt is made to limit Muslim women's participation in the educational or other processes of their country, the justification given is that it is so prescribed by Islam. This is absolutely not true. In most cases this retrogressive mind-set is connected with long ingrained social and cultural patterns rather than with anything to do with religion. A minimal study of both the pre-Islamic era, and of the terms and conditions, or rules and regulations, that are clearly stated in both the Quran and in the Sunna - that is to say, the sayings and practice of the Prophet Mohammed - would clearly show us where the truth lies. If the restrictions were religiously based, the various Muslim countries would in fact have a far more unified approach in this field. That there are such huge disparities is a clear indication that these stem from cultural differences, but also from political or social expediency for a particular country or society, rather than from any theological validity. Such is the case with one the most controversial topics today - female circumcision. This is a common practice in Africa, for Muslims, Christians and Animists alike, and is unknown in the non- African Muslim world. There is absolutely no sanction for it in the religion.

Finally, I come to the justification for the education of Muslim women. On this issue, the religion is unequivocal. Islam fully encourages the education and well-being of girls, and the Prophet took every opportunity to make a favorable comment regarding the status of women. Islam is a religion in which the quest for knowledge is imperative. In fact there is a Hadith of the Prophet Mohammed in which he states: "Searching for knowledge is the duty of every believer, male and female" and, on the quality of that education, he further said "Educate your children, for they are born for a time that is not yours." I am sure I do not have to remind this audience that the Holy Quran, which is considered to be the direct words of God, is written in Classical Arabic and the text is sacrosanct. The Arabic word for children used in this context is "auladakum" - your children, not "abnaakum" - which would imply boys alone.

Arabic is a very precise language. Had the injunction referred only to boys, it could and would have been very clearly stated. In other words, equality of opportunity between boys and girls is basic to the religion, and no more so than in matters of education, which completely demolishes the contention that somehow female education is un-Islamic. Islam believes that all children are entrusted to us by God and the relevant verse of the Quran again uses the word "auladakum."

The Prophet, himself the father of four daughters, absolutely abhorred the barbaric pre-Islamic Arab custom of burying girl babies alive and said: "Whoever hath a daughter, and doth not bury her alive, or scold her, or prefer his male children to her, may God bring him into Paradise," further emphasising this point by adding, "Whoever doeth good to girls, it will be a curtain for him from hellfire." The Prophet also said that anyone who has had the responsibility for the education of three girls and has done well by them, is surely guaranteed a place in heaven. A sentiment that I am sure is certainly echoed by those of us who have had to bring up daughters ! The fact that the first Muslim converts were women is a lasting testimony to how Islam challenged the previous demeaning status of women and elevated them to equal status with men. That women and girls are in no way regarded as inferior by Islam or treated as such by its Prophet is perfectly clear.

I should perhaps at this juncture digress and tell you a little about myself and my background, as this might help to qualify my attempt to talk about so wide and sensitive a topic. I am privileged to have been born into a Muslim family of the Indian sub-continent in which education was of paramount importance. We are of Arab descent, coming from what in the recent past and present would be considered the Hijaz, Azerbaijan, and Iraq. My mother's maternal ancestors were Persian aristocrats who originally came from Shiraz. All my forebears on both sides of my family were men and women, yes women, of books; poets, writers and academics.

My father's family settled in the princely state of Bhopal in Central India. Bhopal is extraordinary in having had three successive women rulers, beginning in the early nineteenth century right up to Sultan Jahan Begum who died in 1930. The Begums of Bhopal were educated in exactly the same manner as their male forebears, and not surprisingly, were instrumental in the setting up and patronage of several girls' schools and colleges in North India. Seven generations of association between our two families must have left an impression. Most of my paternal female ancestors were well educated at home, and my father's step- grandmother was a published poet.

My mother's paternal family are direct descendants of the 14th Century Sufi Shaikh Shahabuddin Suhrawardy. The Suhrawardy family were particularly known in the early years of this century as educational pioneers, and especially so for the education of women. My grandfather had a sister whom he adored - Khujista Akhter Banu, whom I am named for. She was an amazing woman for any time. Her father, my great grandfather, had started teaching her Urdu and Persian himself before he died. Her thirst for knowledge was such that after his death she persuaded her brothers to share their lessons with her, and teach her English as well. She became completely fluent in all of those languages, and as there was a paucity of good contemporary literature in Urdu translated many English novels and founded two girls' schools. Despite the lack of a formal education she was considered proficient enough in Persian to eventually be the examiner in that subject at the University of Calcutta, having in 1911 been the first woman to be awarded an Honorary Degree by the university.

Not surprisingly, with a sister like that, my grandfather was determined to give his only daughter exactly the same educational opportunities as her brother. My mother was sent to school and subsequently became the first Asian woman to obtain a doctorate from London University. Obviously this was a moment of enormous pride for her family. Sadly, her father was not alive to see her become one of the first two women Members of Parliament in the new state of Pakistan, and later its Ambassador to another Muslim country, Morocco. He would also have been proud that she was the very first foreign woman to ever address the US Congress. He would have been extremely gratified that his four great granddaughters are all university graduates, and that each one of them has continued working and contributing within her area of specialisation, along with marriage and motherhood. Which brings us to me.

Reared in the smug knowledge that educationally there were no limits and no boundaries, I took it for granted that I would follow my siblings' into university. After school and before taking up my place at Cambridge, I took a year off to live in Morocco. My father had died, and my mother had been posted to Rabat as Ambassador. The chance to live in an Arab country, and also to give my mother vital support when she was still quite vulnerable, meant delaying university for a year, and then another, leading into my marriage under the fond illusion - shattered by the realities of the Middle East - that sooner rather than later my husband and I would return to University, he to pursue his graduate studies and me to finally get a Bachelor's degree.

Thirty years later I still have good intentions - but four children and four grandchildren, as well as my duties and work, have put pale to these somewhat. However, there seems to be no escaping one's genes, and even though I did not actively seek them, educational projects somehow found their way to me. I have been involved in setting up and running a variety of schools, colleges and educational programs and activities in Jordan, in response to unfulfilled needs that I saw within the nation, and which I felt complemented the requirements and priorities for the country's development.

So much for my credentials, and back to the education of other women in the Muslim world. As I said at the beginning of my speech, the Muslim world encompasses a whole swathe of differing countries, from the secular Turkey of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, to an Afghanistan which finds itself in the thrall of the very retrogressive and unrepresentative Taliban. Generalizations are impossible to make. I have therefore chosen to analyze the situation in the context of individual countries in the Muslim world that have different UNDP Human Development ratings. The three I have chosen are the United Arab Emirates, which falls within the highest category; Jordan which is in the intermediate; and Pakistan which sadly finds itself in the lowest ranking. I should state at the very outset that these ratings should not be taken at face value, and will illustrate how they could give a less than accurate picture of the situation. Clearly, the main indicators used in assessment focus on material wealth and do not give recognition to achievements in the context of the odds against which they are made, which I find rather sad as it could encourage a certain facile superficiality of judgment Let me start with the UAE. Prior to the oil boom, women in this country basically stayed at home branching out, if at all, in the area of agriculture. Now, women have access to education and the female illiteracy rate has dropped to a creditable 11 %. There are women doctors, teachers and nurses, and even professional women soldiers. However, there has never been a woman in government or in parliament. In fact there appears to be some sort of block when it comes to women holding positions in which they have any decision making role. And of course, women do not have the vote. It is still unusual in the UAE for a woman to continue working after her marriage, and many women, if they work at all, will prefer to do so in an all female environment. All state schools and universities are single sex. Many women within the UAE still observe some form of segregation from men. Therefore, despite the educational opportunities, most often, professional jobs are filled by women from other Muslim countries, who do not face the same cultural restrictions. It is of note, particularly when one compares the situation to that in either Jordan or Pakistan, that polygamy is still very common at all levels of society, whereas, in the other two countries it is now definitely much more limited and on the decline.

In Jordan the picture is different. Women have access to all forms of education. Jordan has had compulsory education for both boys and girls since 1951 and the Educational Reform Program started in 1987 saw that the curriculum was revised not to contain gender stereotyping. All the state universities are co-educational. A quick look at the statistics in education in Jordan illustrates the positive benefits of such an enlightened policy. Enrollment within the compulsory cycle, that is to say, until 16 years of age, is now almost 100%. The female illiteracy rate now stands at around 8% having dropped markedly from 36 % in 1960. Not only are our school enrollment and literacy rates amongst the highest in the Middle East, but 49% of the enrollment of all Jordanian colleges and university students are women.

All aspects of life in Jordan are governed by civil laws that reflect the constitution of the Kingdom. These laws help women to attain a status that is in keeping with the essence of Islam and the aspirations of the leadership of the country. Jordanian women stand for elections and serve in both the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, hold responsible government positions and have served as ministers in various cabinets. They are to be found in every sphere of life, many of them working in the traditional areas of teaching and medicine, but many others are architects, engineers, lawyers, judges, doctors, airline pilots, and managers of businesses and agricultural projects. The government, which is the largest single employer, gives equal pay to women and men in equal positions and has no regulations that put women at a disadvantage with regard to career development and promotion to higher positions.

As you can see, women have some measure of control over decisions which affect them directly, both at the professional and the personal levels. However, as is unfortunately also the case in other countries, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, many women in Jordan do find difficulty in reaching the higher positions, and, in practice, have been passed over in favor of men, regardless of merit. A number of Jordanian women's NGOs, with the direct involvement of my sister-in-law, Princess Basma, are therefore working towards the revision of certain laws as well as the drafting of new ones that protect and enhance women's rights, particularly in the area of labor and personal status.

Violence against women, sadly, does exist and is decried, with steps being taken at all levels to protect women victims of domestic violence. Child abuse is also acknowledged as a sad fact of contemporary life, and shelters and support groups are growing in number. We are trying to break what is known as the culture of shame, and encourage victims of abuse to speak out without fear of stigma and repercussion. This is not to say that Jordan is an excessively violent or even a violent society. It happily is not, but I want to show that when people, and especially women, reach a certain level of education, it becomes that much easier to try to remedy those ills that unfortunately exist in all societies today. When there is a complete lack of basic amenities, the struggle for day to day life is unending, people's consciences tend to get rather calloused, and they develop compassion fatigue. It is through education, that ordinary people are given the tools with which to break the cycle of poverty. Thus liberated, they are in a position to look out further than their own backyards.

In Pakistan we see yet another story. If that country were to be judged simply by the levels of female illiteracy, maternal mortality rates and other indicators of the quality of life, the picture would no doubt be all tragic. However, despite it, Pakistan even today scores higher than both the U.A.E. and Jordan in the percentage of female administrators and managers, as well as in the crucial area of gender seats in Parliament. Leaving aside the hereditary premierships of all three countries of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, Pakistan still compares very favorably when one looks at the number of women in other levels of government. Not only have there been women parliamentarians in both the upper and lower houses for a long time, but there are and for many years have been women Ministers and Ambassadors, as well as civil servants.

It is well documented that from the very earliest days of the creation of the State of Pakistan, and even before then, Muslim women have taken an active role in all levels of public and professional life. In the Indian sub-continent, it is interesting to note that well over a century ago, that is to say, from the late 1860's onwards, many of the protagonists of the Indian Muslim reform movement advocated a return to what they saw as Islamic principles and injunctions regarding the education of women. They felt that much of the decay of the Muslim civilization in India was a direct result of the ignorance of its womenfolk, and that if women were educated as stipulated in Islam, many problems would be solved. Clearly, civilized, educated women tend to rear educated sons and daughters. The idea was constantly reiterated that as men were being given educational opportunities that were obviously expanding their horizons and opportunities, it was desirable that their womenfolk should have the necessary intellectual tools to be true partners to them, in all walks of life.

This was a recurring theme throughout the early part of this century and continued right up until independence from British rule. Mohammed Ali Jinnah and the other founders of Pakistan were emphatic that the nation they strove for had to be one in which women were given every encouragement to participate equally in the running of the state at all levels. One of Jinnah's most often quoted statements made at a public meeting in 1944 was, "You should take your women along with you as comrades in every sphere of life." These early reformers although most articulate and educated, were certainly not what one could consider antagonistic to Islam. In fact, the very opposite is true, and they would have never espoused a cause that could have been considered in direct confrontation with any Islamic values.

I believe Indian women, Muslim or not, were fortunate and unique in that their thrust for education and participation in civil society was encouraged and advanced by men. It is sad that financial constraints and political upheavals have prevented a much larger number of women from the Indian sub-continent from benefiting from the farsightedness of these early proponents and pioneers of women's education. However, there is no denying the fact that because of the foundations they laid, and the ground rules they set, coupled with the efforts of that small group of women who continued to fight for Muslim women's rights, all women in Pakistan do have the right to enfranchisement and education, and as Farida Shaheed rightly points out "numerical weakness cannot therefore be used to belittle or dismiss achievements as either insignificant or irrelevant." If the opportunities for women are limited, it is far more a limitation imposed by lack of funds affecting accessibility to education rather than any deep seated aversion or prejudice on part of most of the silent majority of Pakistanis.

The personal status of women was greatly improved as long ago as 1961 when the Family Law Amendments were made, putting conditions to protect the first wives and children of a marriage, and also the inheritance rights of children whose fathers predeceased their grandfathers. Unfortunately the government changed before these amendments could be further expanded, but, and despite many subsequent efforts by a vocal minority to cancel even what little had been achieved, they have prevailed. Long may this last !

One can therefore conclude that the only standard by which to judge the educational patterns for Muslim women in different Muslim societies is the established position of the religion itself in support of education for women. The validity and enormous benefits of even a minimal education for women, Muslim or not, are irrefutable, as is the positive stand Islam takes on education and the pursuit of knowledge in general, with emphasis on the education of women in particular. By virtue of the liberal attitude of the religion towards their education and participation in socioeconomic development, Muslim women have the right and opportunity to be modern women in the full sense, with control over their own lives and contributions to make to the life of their communities and nations.

Education and health are the two main tools with which women can make that contribution. We are all familiar with Ruby Mannikin's statement: "When you educate a man, you educate a person, but when you educate a woman you educate a family." It is only through education that women can be empowered to take advantage of new opportunities and to widen their horizons. They have to be given the opportunity to have a say in what directly affects their welfare and that of their particular community. It is surely no coincidence that recently, a Jordanian Muslim Sheikh told me he was proud to say that 'the concept of family spacing' which was a taboo a few years back is now discussed openly in the remote villages in Jordan. A clear benefit of education, and a much gentler way of bringing in change than imposition through draconian laws.

Even without access to adequate educational facilities, the important and vital role of women in urban poor societies, is recognized. It has not gone unnoticed that when a poor woman manages her household as an economic unit a higher portion of the income remains in the household, whilst generally only half of a man's income is spent on his family. This fact is recognized and acted upon by international NGOs who now actively target income generating projects at the micro level for women. Most of the time, women use their homes as their place of work and they also tend to have a commendable level of reliability when it comes to repaying financial loans, the clearest evidence of this being the experience of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. If so many women have achieved so much with so little, how much more could they achieve if they were encouraged and given the right opportunities to develop and prosper. As women's aspirations move on from merely ensuring basic survival needs, and as their role expands and the nature of their participation evolves, they automatically become more effective in the overall development of their societies.

I should like to end with a quotation from Horace Mann:.." in our times, no man is worthy of the honored name of statesman who does not include the highest practicable education of the people in all his plans of administration." which is entirely in keeping with the educational aspirations of Islam for Muslims, women and men alike. The challenge Muslim governments face today is how to live up to the requirements of their religion concerning women's rights, whilst acknowledging their particular historical, cultural and nationalistic biases and needs.

Previous Stories:
  Report on violence against women in Maghreb   (12/4/1998)
  Muslim theologians and women organizations debate women's rights and duties in Islam   (11/2/1998)
  Arab Child Day: They are the future and they are mistreated   (10/12/1998)

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