Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

and religion will continue to adapt
Marriage
these social forces. Already, in just a few
to
the legal and social legitimacy and
years,
of marriage have been conferred to
benefits
partnerships in a number
non-heteronormative
countries, bringing about the possibility
of
satisfying relationships with strong family
of
to situations where this was
dynamics
legally or culturally impossible.
previously
some contexts religious arguments have
In
used in support of or against these
been
developments.
can we evaluate the diverse and sometimes
How
claims made about what religious
opposing
says about women or how women
knowledge
in religious practice? We can, of
participate
look at the claims-makers and critically
course,
their perspective, motivations and gaps.
assess
Ahmed, a professor at Harvard Divinity
Leila
suggests that we might also wish to
School,
the questions to which the claims are
consider
responding.
I get constantly called and asked to explain
…
Islam oppresses women; I have never yet
why
called and asked, ‘Why is it that Islam has
been
seven women prime ministers or heads of
produced
…?’ I don’t think it’s really entirely innocent.
state
think it’s about political power and how we want to
I
the second decade of the 20th century, a
In
of politicians across Europe targeted
number
wearing of a veil—in different forms,
the
hijab, niqab or burqa, among others—
called
Muslim women. Western news media
by
extensively covered the “liberation” of
also
and Iraqi women during the US war
Afghan
terrorism. Ahmed describes this as history
on
what was disturbing there was to see the replay of
…
the British Empire did in Egypt 100 years ago. …
what
I need to invoke here is the belief at the end of the
what
century that the veil symbolized the oppression
19th
Muslim women. It’s part of the mythology of that era
of
which whatever was being done in another country,
in
countries that they dominated, whether it was India
the
sub-Saharan Africa or the Muslim countries, however
or
women dressed there it was the wrong thing. In
the
Africa, they didn’t wear enough clothes;
sub-Saharan
didn’t dress the way European Victorian women
they
In the Middle East, they wore too many
dressed.
So the veil in the West … became the emblem
clothes.
how uncivilized Islam was … .
of
recounts that Lord Cromer, the British
Ahmed
in Egypt a century ago, had
administrator
about “telling people how Egyptian
gone
ought to be”, liberating Egyptian
society
from the veil so that their men would
women
“civilized”. At the same time, Cromer
become
the founder and President of the Society
was
to Women’s Suffrage, inEngland.
Opposed
didn’t think women ought to have the vote. He
He
Victorian society was perfect as it was, with a
thought
ruling over everything, and that is a society
patriarch
ought to be spread across the world. And in the
that
and veils have been, of course,
Headscarves
by women of different religions and in
used
parts of the world: by Zorastrans
different
Iran, among Christians across the Middle
in
and in various faiths across the Indian
East
Veils are a clear example of the
subcontinent.
of religious, gender and cultural
entanglement
and markers. The visible aspects of
identities
identity interact with politics in ways
religious
raise important TOK questions.
that
II. Perspectives
II. Perspectives
(Ahmed quoted in Tippett 2006)
represent Islam.
name of that, Muslim women had to unveil.
(Ahmed quoted in Tippett 2006b)
(Ahmed quoted in Tippett 2006)
repeating itself, stating:
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