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3 - Symbols of Piety

Fatwas on Women in the 1980s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Madawi Al-Rasheed
Affiliation:
University of London
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Summary

My wife is an Islamic studies teacher and we have children. She is insisting that I get a maid to help with household chores. I said I will force her to quit her job rather than bring a maid without a mahram. Am I right?

Sheikh Abd al-Aziz Ibn Baz: Force her to quit her job. Don't bring a maid. It is better for her to stay at home with her children.

After the Mecca mosque crisis of 1979, both the state and the religious establishment felt the threat of internal Islamist forces. Juhaiman's seizure of the Mecca mosque was an important signal. His denunciation of the Saudi regime on political and moral grounds drew attention to underlying currents that questioned state development and its rationale. This chapter deals with how the collections of official fatwas on women and the compilation of religious opinions increasingly began to define the permissible and prohibited, particularly with regard to the position of women, their appearance in the public sphere, and marriage. This also became an urgent matter at a time when globalisation threatened the religious nation and undermined its imagined tradition, according to many of those debating the future of the country. The religious establishment and the state worked hand in hand to address the alleged ‘moral corruption’ of the nation by reclaiming their central role as moral guardians. While Juhaiman held the state and Al-Saud to be directly responsible for corruption, the state gave back the upper hand to the scholars in terms of decisions on matters related to women, their public presence, and marriage. Traditional and conservative religious opinions were revived, and new interpretations were constructed to create a strict moral order dependent on the conformity of women and their exclusion from the public sphere. As the public sphere started losing its distinctive ‘Islamic’ appearance, it was important to limit women's presence in a traditionally male-dominated space. The centrality of women for religious nationalism was revived in order to reflect the conformity of the nation to Islamic teachings and the piety of the state at a time when this was being questioned.

Type
Chapter
Information
A Most Masculine State
Gender, Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia
, pp. 108 - 133
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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References

Hegghammer, Thomas and Lacroix, Stephane, ‘Rejectionist Islamism in Saudi Arabia: The Story of Juhayman al-Utaibi Revisited’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 39, 1 (2007), pp. 103–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouline, Nabil, Les Clercs de l'islam: autoritéreligieuse et pouvoir politique en Arabie Saoudite, XVIII–XXI siècles, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, Proche Orient, 2011Google Scholar
Abdullah, Anwar, Khasais wa sifat al-mujtama al-wahhabi al-saudi [Characteristics of Saudi Wahhabi society], Paris: al-Sharq, 2005Google Scholar
al-Jurayssi, Khalid, Fatawi ulama al-balad al-haram [Fatwas of the Ulama of the Land of the Two Holy Mosques), Riyadh: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Wataniyya, 2007Google Scholar
al-Azeri, Khalid, ‘Change and Conflict in Contemporary Omani Society: The Case of Kafa'a in Marriage’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 37, 2 (2010), pp. 121–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamani, Maha, Polygamy and law in Contemporary Saudi Arabia, Reading: Ithaca Press, 2008, p. 72Google Scholar
Madawi Al-Rasheed, A History of Saudi Arabia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 2nd edn, 2010, p. 162Google Scholar

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  • Symbols of Piety
  • Madawi Al-Rasheed, University of London
  • Book: A Most Masculine State
  • Online publication: 05 February 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139015363.004
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  • Symbols of Piety
  • Madawi Al-Rasheed, University of London
  • Book: A Most Masculine State
  • Online publication: 05 February 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139015363.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Symbols of Piety
  • Madawi Al-Rasheed, University of London
  • Book: A Most Masculine State
  • Online publication: 05 February 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139015363.004
Available formats
×