The Habit of veil in Islam: “Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Quran”

 The book "Believing women" in Islam: unreading patriarchal interpretations of the Qur'an” is a fascinating analysis of the woman's position in Muslim society.  However, the basic premise of Asma Barlas's theories could be applied and used by scholars of many disciplines including religion, gender, and history.  The fight for equality in a patriarchal setting, the foundations of cognizance accepted as truth today, and other overarching themes are dissected and illumined by Barlas's search to find the true will of God for women as stated in the Qur'an.  Are women to remain enubilated, oppressed, and veiled, or does the Qur'an establish their equality?
"Believing women" in Islam is a study of Muslim women's roles in society as determined by most current interpreters/readers of the Qur'an.  In contrast, Asma Barlas feels the Qur'an pellucidly establishes equality between men and women.  In working to prove this point, she hopes to answer two questions.
Does Islam's scripture, the Qur'an, edify or condone sexual inequality or oppression?
Does the Quran permit and encourage liberation for women" (p.  1)?
 In the end, Barlas succinctly answers both questions by guiding the reader step-by-step through the historical foundations of Islam and the Qur'an.  She also focuses on some specific scripture (veiling, divorce, and the rights of fathers and mothers) to illustrate her position of female equality/liberation. 
Asma Barlas uses four versions of the Qur'an for analysis and interpretation in her book: Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation, as well as those by Muhammad Asad, a.  J.  Arberry, and m.  M.  Pickthall.  The need for the variety of translations becomes apparent when Barlas discusses specific verses (ayat) in the latter half of her book.  The subtle (and not so subtle) discrepancies between translations are some of the most convincing aspects of her work, illustrating her position that customs and cultures affect the transmission of the Qur'an's message.  This point is demonstrated with her four translations of the Qur'an (2:228) pertaining to divorce.  The difference in the translation of one word, darajah, determines if the husband has a "degree" or "kindness" over women (pp.  195-196).
Part 1 of the book analyzes the primary texts (Qur'an, tafsir, ahadith) and main secondary sources (the sunnah, shari'ah, and the state) utilized by Muslims.  Barlas delves into the historical foundations of these sources and analyzes the methodologies, which led to the transformation of these texts such that they conformed to the cultures of the juncture.  For readers who are non-muslim or who are unfamiliar with the basic sources of the religion, Barlas provides detailed explanations of Arabic terms (both in the text and in the glossary at the end of the book) and the theoretical purport for each text.  For example, the Qur'an has been defined as "the truth.  a unifying framework for Muslims.  and the source of classical Muslim law (shari'ah)" (p.  32).  Barlas However states that the Qur'an is "inimitable, inviolate, inerrant, incontrovertible" which is why the Qur'an can be established as divine verbalization (p.  33).  "it is the interpretive process (by humans), both imprecise and incomplete, that is open to critique and historicization, not revelation itself" (p.  34).  Humans, on the other hand, have none of the above-mentioned qualities, and thus Barlas establishes the foundation for answering her questions.
To further illustrate the translation process, Barlas discusses other texts used by Muslims in conjunction with the Qur'an.  Additional texts used by Muslims, and indited after the death of the prophet Muhammad, have become venerated as equally sacred as the Qur'an or give precedence over it.  Barlas claims that the ahadith (tales of communication, which customarily refer to a narrative of the prophet's life and practices [sunnah]) are a primary example of this (p.  42).  Barlas explains that some ahadith, primarily misogynistic ones, became incorporated into the official corpus approximately a hundred years after its closure (p.  45).  However, immersion of Muslim texts by the state to conform to the times as well as the sundry cultures accepting Islam, have transmuted the interpretation as a supposititious succedaneum translation of the texts.  Thus, she cites von gurnebaum saying, "the very pluralism of tradition worked against women's interests as ideas and customs of the earlier civilization penetrated more deeply into shari'ah by being formulated as hadith '' (p.  45).  Key to this is the generalizing of specific scripture, especially those pertaining to women, which are covered in part 2.
Part 2 explores some of the more specific issues pertaining to women and the sundry interpretations applied to them.  Next, Barlas offers her own reading of the text to offer plausible examples in support of her two main questions.  Barlas begins with the issue of patriarchy.  She asserts that the Qur'an does not elevate males over females, or endow fathers with right/rule.  Likewise, she determines that God does not proclaim to have a gender, noting that God is incomparable.  Consequently, God cannot be correctly interpreted by utilizing the word he/him, which is why the Qur'an uses terms not associated with either gender, Allah, and Rabb (p.  105).  To emphasize her point that God did not sanction fathers/males' right/rule, Barlas presents the story of Abraham, who is told to reject both his father's gods and authority (p.  111).  "Abraham's break with his father is embedded in a larger discourse that seeks to uncover the tensions that have existed historically between God's rule and fathers' rule" (p.  111).
The core of Barlas's argument lies in her discussion of texts pertaining to the two sexes/genders.  She states that the Qur'an does not define men and women as two "binary oppositions," men as the subject and women as the other (p.  132), but as "two consummate differences" (p.  129).  She illustrates this by examining the creation story in the Qur'an.  "the theme that women and men commenced from a single self and constitute a pair is integral to Qur'anic epistemology" (p.  134).
This is even so in the discussion of the veil.  Barlas notes that the Qur'an's distinction of the gaze and the body pertains to both men and women.  "Thus, many commentators of old, who took this ayah to mean that the gaze was the messenger of fornication, sought to mitigate it not as the Qur'an does by counseling modesty for both men and women, but by segregating and veiling women in order to bulwark men's sexual virtue.  The Qur'an however, rules out both male and female inclusive activity.  Moreover, its injunction to cast down one's ocular perceivers establishes that people must, in fact, be free to look upon one another publicly" (p. 158).
Barlas pellucidly lights a path in the Qur'an that allows Muslim women to break free of many patriarchal readings previously established.  However, she acknowledges that precedent, established since the juncture of the Abbasids, is arduous if not infeasible to change.  Her hope is that her work will facilitate discussion among Muslims.  "We cannot reinterpret Islam without rereading the Qur'an, and many Muslims do in fact agonize the urgency of such an exercise given its abuses at the hands of many Muslim clerics and states to oppress women" (p.  210).  The only question that is left to answer is if we are to reread to obtain cognizance and to authentically understand history, then who determines what is truth? her work may not change the role of women in Islam during her lifetime, but her work definitely encourages scholars to hoist the veil and start talking about it.