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Zainab al-Ghazali

January 01, 1970

Zaynab al-Ghazali (Arabic: زينب الغزالي; 2 January 1917 – 3 August 2005) was an Egyptian Muslim activist. She was the founder of the Muslim Women's Association (Jamaa'at al-Sayyidaat al-Muslimaat, also known as the Muslim Ladies' Society).[2][3]

Zaynab Al-Ghazali
زينب الغزالي
Zainab al-Ghazali (to the left)
Born(1917-01-02)2 January 1917
Egypt
Died3 August 2005(2005-08-03) (aged 88)[1]
Egypt
OccupationFounder of the Muslim Women's Association (Jam'iyyat al-Sayyidaat al-Muslimaat)

The historian Eugene Rogan has called her "the pioneer of the Islamist women's movement" and also said she was "one of [Sayyid] Qutb's most influential disciples."[3]

Biography edit

Early life edit

Her father was educated at al-Azhar University, an independent religious teacher and cotton merchant.[4] He encouraged her to become an Islamic leader citing the example of Nusayba bint Ka'b al-Muzaniyya, a woman who fought alongside Prophet Muhammad in the Battle of Uhud.

For a short time during her teens, she joined the Egyptian Feminist Union[5][2][6] only to conclude that "Islam gave women rights in the family granted by no other society."[7] At the age of eighteen, she founded the Jama'at al-Sayyidat al-Muslimat (Muslim Women's Association),[6] which she claimed had a membership of three million throughout the country by the time it was dissolved by government order in 1964.

Allegiance to Hassan al-Banna edit

Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, invited al-Ghazali to merge her organisation with his, an invitation she refused as she wished to retain autonomy. However, she did eventually take an oath of personal loyalty to al-Banna (Mahmood 2005: 68). Even though her organisation did not formally affiliate with the Muslim Brotherhood,[2] al-Ghazali went on to play a significant role in the Brotherhood's attempted revival in 1964, after it was forcibly disbanded by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954.[7]

Theory edit

Eugene Rogan writes that al-Ghazali "devoted herself to the vanguard role envisaged by Qutb's manifesto—preparing Egyptian society to embrace Islamic law." This included "Islamic training of our youth, elders, women and children," among other activities. "In the long run, [her and her peers'] aim was nothing less than the overthrow of the Free Officers' regime and its replacement with a true Islamic state."[3]

Zeinab al-Ghazali promulgated a feminism that was inherently Islamic. She believed in a "notion of habituated learning through practical knowledge"[8] of Islam and the Qu'ran, and she felt that women's liberation, economic rights, and political rights could be achieved through a more intimate understanding of Islam.[9] al-Ghazali also believed that a woman's primary responsibility was within the home, but that she should also have the opportunity to participate in political life if she so chose.[9] al-Ghazali's Patriarchal Islamist stance allowed her to publicly disagree with several issues that "put her at odds with male Islamist leaders".[10]

Muslim Women's Association edit

Her weekly lectures to women at the Ibn Tulun Mosque drew a crowd of three thousand, which grew to five thousand during holy months of the year. Besides offering lessons for women, the association published a magazine, maintained an orphanage, offered assistance to poor families, and mediated family disputes.

Some scholars, like Leila Ahmed, Miriam Cooke, M. Qasim Zaman, and Roxanne Euben argue that al-Ghazali's own actions stand at a distance,[11] and even undercuts some of her professed beliefs.[12] To these scholars, among many, her career is one which resists conventional forms of domesticity, while her words, in interviews, publications, and letters define women largely as wives and mothers.[13] For example:

If that day comes [when] a clash is apparent between your personal interests and economic activities on the one hand, and my Islamic work on the other, and that I find my married life is standing in the way of Da'wah and the establishment of an Islamic state, then, each of us should go our own way. I cannot ask you today to share with me this struggle, but it is my right on you not to stop me from jihad in the way of Allah. Moreover, you should not ask me about my activities with other Mujahideen, and let trust be full between us. A full trust between a man and a woman, a woman who, at the age of 18, gave her full life to Allah and Da'wah. In the event of any clash between the marriage contract's interest and that of Da'wah, our marriage will end, but Da'wah will always remain rooted in me. (al Ghazali 2006)

In justifying her own exceptionality to her stated belief in a woman's rightful role, al-Ghazali described her own childlessness as a "blessing" that would not usually be seen as such, because it freed her to participate in public life (Hoffman 1988). Her second husband died while she was in prison, having divorced her after government threats to confiscate his property. Al-Ghazali's family were angered at this perceived disloyalty, but al-Ghazali herself remained loyal to him, writing in her memoir that she asked for his photograph to be reinstated in their home when she was told that it had been removed.

Life in prison and release edit

After the assassination of Hassan al-Banna in 1949, al-Ghazali was instrumental in regrouping the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1960s. Imprisoned for her activities in 1965, she was sentenced to twenty-five years of hard labor but was released under Anwar Sadat's Presidency in 1971.

During her imprisonment, Zainab al-Ghazali and members of the Muslim Brotherhood underwent inhumane torture. Al-Ghazali recounts being thrown into a locked cell with dogs to pressure her to confess an assassination attempt on President Nassir. "[S]he faced whipping, beatings, attacks with dogs, isolation, sleep deprivation, and regular death threats...."[3] During these periods of hardship, she is reported to have had visions of Muhammad. Some miracles were also experienced by her, as she got food, refuge and strength during those difficult times.[citation needed]

After her release from prison, al-Ghazali resumed teaching. In the period 1976–1978, she published articles in Al Dawa, which was restarted by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1976.[14] She was editor of a women's and children's section in Al Dawa, in which she encouraged women to become educated, but to be obedient to their husbands and stay at home while rearing their children. She wrote a book based on her experience in jail.[citation needed]

Support for Afghan mujahidin edit

While in her seventies, al-Ghazali visited Pakistan and openly lent her support to the Afghan mujahidin, such as through an interview she gave to al-Jihad, a popular magazine published by the Services Office.[3] In the interview, she was reported to have said: "The time I spent in prison is not equal to one moment in the field of jihad in Afghanistan...I ask God to give victory to the mujahidin and to forgive us our shortcomings in bringing justice to Afghanistan."[3] She has been characterized as "idealizing" the conflict there.[3]

Memoir edit

She describes her prison experience, which included torture, in a book entitled Ayyām min ḥayātī, published in English as Days from My Life[15] by Hindustan Publications in 1989 and as Return of the Pharaoh by the Islamic Foundation (UK) in 1994. (The "Pharaoh" referred to is President Nasser.) Al-Ghazali depicts herself as enduring torture with strength beyond that of most men, and she attests to both miracles and visions that strengthened her and enabled her to survive.[16] The Philosopher Sayed Hassan Akhlaq published an essay review about the book along with some critical points.[17]

Legacy edit

Zaynab al-Ghazali was also a writer, contributing regularly to major Islamic journals and magazines on Islamic and women's issues.

Although the Islamic movement throughout the Muslim world today has attracted a large number of young women, especially since the 1970s, Zaynab al-Ghazali stands out thus far as the only woman to distinguish herself as one of its major leaders.[7]

References edit

  1. ^ Campo, Juan Eduardo. Encyclopedia Of Islam( 2009). p. 76. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Kathleen, D. McCarthy (2001). Women, Philanthropy, and Civil Society. p. 237. ISBN 0253339189. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Rogan, Eugene L. (2009). The Arabs: a history. New York, NY: Basic Books. pp. 403–404, 427–428. ISBN 978-0-465-07100-5.
  4. ^ Campo, Juan Eduardo. Encyclopedia Of Islam( 2009). p. 262. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  5. ^ The Relationship Between Islamism and Women in Civil Society: A Look at Turkey and Egypt. 2015-03-01. p. 33. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  6. ^ a b Tucker, Elien J. (2000-06-01). Women and the Palestinian national movement: a comparative analysis. p. 17. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  7. ^ a b c Hoffman, Valerie J. (1999). Young, Serenity (ed.). Encyclopedia of women and world religion. 1: A - J, Index. New York: Macmillan. p. 367-368. ISBN 0-02-864859-5.
  8. ^ Mahmood, Saba (2001). "Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival". Cultural Anthropology. 16 (2): 202–236. doi:10.1525/can.2001.16.2.202. JSTOR 656537.
  9. ^ a b Ahmed, Leila (1992). Women and Gender in Islam. USA: Yale University Press. pp. 197–202. ISBN 0-300-04942-0.
  10. ^ Tetreault, Mary Ann (2001). "A State of Two Minds: State Cultures, Women, and Politics in Kuwait". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 33 (2): 203–220. doi:10.1017/S0020743801002021. JSTOR 259562. S2CID 154643462.
  11. ^ Miriam Cook “Zaynab al-Ghazālī: Saint or Subversive?” Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Vol. 34, Issue 1 (April 1994), 2.
  12. ^ Leila Ahmed Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1992),199.
  13. ^ Roxanne L. Euben, Muhammad Qasim Zaman (eds.) “Zaynab al-Ghazali” Princeton Readings in Islamist thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden. (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2009), 275
  14. ^ Kiki M. Santing (2020). Imagining the Perfect Society in Muslim Brotherhood Journals. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. p. 225. doi:10.1515/9783110636499. ISBN 9783110632958. S2CID 225274860.
  15. ^ Margot Badran (October 2013). Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences. p. 37. ISBN 9781780744476. from the original on 27 April 2024. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  16. ^ (in German) Gefängnisbericht einer Muslimschwester, extracts, in: Andreas Meier, ed.: Politische Strömungen im modernen Islam. Quellen und Kommentare. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, BpB, Bonn 1995 ISBN 3893312390; also Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 1995 ISBN 3872947249, p. 122 - 126
  17. ^ "Akhlaq's Reflections on Zainab al-Ghazali's "Return of the Pharaoh"". from the original on 2018-04-25. Retrieved 2018-04-24.

Further reading edit

  • al-Ghazali Return of the Pharaoh, The Islamic Foundation 2006
  • Hoffman, Valerie. "An Islamic Activist: Zaynab alGhazali." In Women and the Family in the Middle East, edited by Elizabeth W. Fernea. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985.
  • Mahmood, Saba, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, Princeton University Press 2005

External links edit

  •   Media related to Zainab al Ghazali at Wikimedia Commons

January 01, 1970
zainab, ghazali, zaynab, ghazali, arabic, زينب, الغزالي, january, 1917, august, 2005, egyptian, muslim, activist, founder, muslim, women, association, jamaa, sayyidaat, muslimaat, also, known, muslim, ladies, society, zaynab, ghazaliزينب, الغزالي, left, born, . Zaynab al Ghazali Arabic زينب الغزالي 2 January 1917 3 August 2005 was an Egyptian Muslim activist She was the founder of the Muslim Women s Association Jamaa at al Sayyidaat al Muslimaat also known as the Muslim Ladies Society 2 3 Zaynab Al Ghazaliزينب الغزاليZainab al Ghazali to the left Born 1917 01 02 2 January 1917EgyptDied3 August 2005 2005 08 03 aged 88 1 EgyptOccupationFounder of the Muslim Women s Association Jam iyyat al Sayyidaat al Muslimaat The historian Eugene Rogan has called her the pioneer of the Islamist women s movement and also said she was one of Sayyid Qutb s most influential disciples 3 Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early life 1 2 Allegiance to Hassan al Banna 1 3 Theory 1 4 Muslim Women s Association 1 5 Life in prison and release 1 6 Support for Afghan mujahidin 1 7 Memoir 1 8 Legacy 2 References 3 Further reading 4 External linksBiography editEarly life edit Her father was educated at al Azhar University an independent religious teacher and cotton merchant 4 He encouraged her to become an Islamic leader citing the example of Nusayba bint Ka b al Muzaniyya a woman who fought alongside Prophet Muhammad in the Battle of Uhud For a short time during her teens she joined the Egyptian Feminist Union 5 2 6 only to conclude that Islam gave women rights in the family granted by no other society 7 At the age of eighteen she founded the Jama at al Sayyidat al Muslimat Muslim Women s Association 6 which she claimed had a membership of three million throughout the country by the time it was dissolved by government order in 1964 Allegiance to Hassan al Banna edit Hassan al Banna the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood invited al Ghazali to merge her organisation with his an invitation she refused as she wished to retain autonomy However she did eventually take an oath of personal loyalty to al Banna Mahmood 2005 68 Even though her organisation did not formally affiliate with the Muslim Brotherhood 2 al Ghazali went on to play a significant role in the Brotherhood s attempted revival in 1964 after it was forcibly disbanded by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954 7 Theory edit Eugene Rogan writes that al Ghazali devoted herself to the vanguard role envisaged by Qutb s manifesto preparing Egyptian society to embrace Islamic law This included Islamic training of our youth elders women and children among other activities In the long run her and her peers aim was nothing less than the overthrow of the Free Officers regime and its replacement with a true Islamic state 3 Zeinab al Ghazali promulgated a feminism that was inherently Islamic She believed in a notion of habituated learning through practical knowledge 8 of Islam and the Qu ran and she felt that women s liberation economic rights and political rights could be achieved through a more intimate understanding of Islam 9 al Ghazali also believed that a woman s primary responsibility was within the home but that she should also have the opportunity to participate in political life if she so chose 9 al Ghazali s Patriarchal Islamist stance allowed her to publicly disagree with several issues that put her at odds with male Islamist leaders 10 Muslim Women s Association edit Her weekly lectures to women at the Ibn Tulun Mosque drew a crowd of three thousand which grew to five thousand during holy months of the year Besides offering lessons for women the association published a magazine maintained an orphanage offered assistance to poor families and mediated family disputes Some scholars like Leila Ahmed Miriam Cooke M Qasim Zaman and Roxanne Euben argue that al Ghazali s own actions stand at a distance 11 and even undercuts some of her professed beliefs 12 To these scholars among many her career is one which resists conventional forms of domesticity while her words in interviews publications and letters define women largely as wives and mothers 13 For example If that day comes when a clash is apparent between your personal interests and economic activities on the one hand and my Islamic work on the other and that I find my married life is standing in the way of Da wah and the establishment of an Islamic state then each of us should go our own way I cannot ask you today to share with me this struggle but it is my right on you not to stop me from jihad in the way of Allah Moreover you should not ask me about my activities with other Mujahideen and let trust be full between us A full trust between a man and a woman a woman who at the age of 18 gave her full life to Allah and Da wah In the event of any clash between the marriage contract s interest and that of Da wah our marriage will end but Da wah will always remain rooted in me al Ghazali 2006 In justifying her own exceptionality to her stated belief in a woman s rightful role al Ghazali described her own childlessness as a blessing that would not usually be seen as such because it freed her to participate in public life Hoffman 1988 Her second husband died while she was in prison having divorced her after government threats to confiscate his property Al Ghazali s family were angered at this perceived disloyalty but al Ghazali herself remained loyal to him writing in her memoir that she asked for his photograph to be reinstated in their home when she was told that it had been removed Life in prison and release edit After the assassination of Hassan al Banna in 1949 al Ghazali was instrumental in regrouping the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1960s Imprisoned for her activities in 1965 she was sentenced to twenty five years of hard labor but was released under Anwar Sadat s Presidency in 1971 During her imprisonment Zainab al Ghazali and members of the Muslim Brotherhood underwent inhumane torture Al Ghazali recounts being thrown into a locked cell with dogs to pressure her to confess an assassination attempt on President Nassir S he faced whipping beatings attacks with dogs isolation sleep deprivation and regular death threats 3 During these periods of hardship she is reported to have had visions of Muhammad Some miracles were also experienced by her as she got food refuge and strength during those difficult times citation needed After her release from prison al Ghazali resumed teaching In the period 1976 1978 she published articles in Al Dawa which was restarted by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1976 14 She was editor of a women s and children s section in Al Dawa in which she encouraged women to become educated but to be obedient to their husbands and stay at home while rearing their children She wrote a book based on her experience in jail citation needed Support for Afghan mujahidin edit While in her seventies al Ghazali visited Pakistan and openly lent her support to the Afghan mujahidin such as through an interview she gave to al Jihad a popular magazine published by the Services Office 3 In the interview she was reported to have said The time I spent in prison is not equal to one moment in the field of jihad in Afghanistan I ask God to give victory to the mujahidin and to forgive us our shortcomings in bringing justice to Afghanistan 3 She has been characterized as idealizing the conflict there 3 Memoir edit She describes her prison experience which included torture in a book entitled Ayyam min ḥayati published in English as Days from My Life 15 by Hindustan Publications in 1989 and as Return of the Pharaoh by the Islamic Foundation UK in 1994 The Pharaoh referred to is President Nasser Al Ghazali depicts herself as enduring torture with strength beyond that of most men and she attests to both miracles and visions that strengthened her and enabled her to survive 16 The Philosopher Sayed Hassan Akhlaq published an essay review about the book along with some critical points 17 Legacy edit Zaynab al Ghazali was also a writer contributing regularly to major Islamic journals and magazines on Islamic and women s issues Although the Islamic movement throughout the Muslim world today has attracted a large number of young women especially since the 1970s Zaynab al Ghazali stands out thus far as the only woman to distinguish herself as one of its major leaders 7 References edit Campo Juan Eduardo Encyclopedia Of Islam 2009 p 76 Retrieved 31 October 2019 a b c Kathleen D McCarthy 2001 Women Philanthropy and Civil Society p 237 ISBN 0253339189 Retrieved 31 October 2019 a b c d e f g Rogan Eugene L 2009 The Arabs a history New York NY Basic Books pp 403 404 427 428 ISBN 978 0 465 07100 5 Campo Juan Eduardo Encyclopedia Of Islam 2009 p 262 Retrieved 31 October 2019 The Relationship Between Islamism and Women in Civil Society A Look at Turkey and Egypt 2015 03 01 p 33 Retrieved 31 October 2019 a b Tucker Elien J 2000 06 01 Women and the Palestinian national movement a comparative analysis p 17 Retrieved 31 October 2019 a b c Hoffman Valerie J 1999 Young Serenity ed Encyclopedia of women and world religion 1 A J Index New York Macmillan p 367 368 ISBN 0 02 864859 5 Mahmood Saba 2001 Feminist Theory Embodiment and the Docile Agent Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival Cultural Anthropology 16 2 202 236 doi 10 1525 can 2001 16 2 202 JSTOR 656537 a b Ahmed Leila 1992 Women and Gender in Islam USA Yale University Press pp 197 202 ISBN 0 300 04942 0 Tetreault Mary Ann 2001 A State of Two Minds State Cultures Women and Politics in Kuwait International Journal of Middle East Studies 33 2 203 220 doi 10 1017 S0020743801002021 JSTOR 259562 S2CID 154643462 Miriam Cook Zaynab al Ghazali Saint or Subversive Die Welt des Islams New Series Vol 34 Issue 1 April 1994 2 Leila Ahmed Women and Gender in Islam Historical Roots of a Modern Debate New Haven Yale UP 1992 199 Roxanne L Euben Muhammad Qasim Zaman eds Zaynab al Ghazali Princeton Readings in Islamist thought Texts and Contexts from al Banna to Bin Laden Princeton Princeton UP 2009 275 Kiki M Santing 2020 Imagining the Perfect Society in Muslim Brotherhood Journals Berlin Boston De Gruyter p 225 doi 10 1515 9783110636499 ISBN 9783110632958 S2CID 225274860 Margot Badran October 2013 Feminism in Islam Secular and Religious Convergences p 37 ISBN 9781780744476 Archived from the original on 27 April 2024 Retrieved 31 October 2019 in German Gefangnisbericht einer Muslimschwester extracts in Andreas Meier ed Politische Stromungen im modernen Islam Quellen und Kommentare Bundeszentrale fur politische Bildung BpB Bonn 1995 ISBN 3893312390 also Peter Hammer Verlag Wuppertal 1995 ISBN 3872947249 p 122 126 Akhlaq s Reflections on Zainab al Ghazali s Return of the Pharaoh Archived from the original on 2018 04 25 Retrieved 2018 04 24 Further reading edital Ghazali Return of the Pharaoh The Islamic Foundation 2006 Hoffman Valerie An Islamic Activist Zaynab alGhazali In Women and the Family in the Middle East edited by Elizabeth W Fernea Austin University of Texas Press 1985 Mahmood Saba Politics of Piety The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject Princeton University Press 2005External links edit nbsp Media related to Zainab al Ghazali at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Zainab al Ghazali amp oldid 1226035958, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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