In Yemen, women are still worth half as much as men in Yemen

This is a picture of Khadija Al-Salami, Yemen’s first woman film-maker, who has made some 20 documentaries for various TV stations in France and Yemen. She also published in 2003 an autobiographical book, The Tears of Sheba, and is Director of the Communications Centre at the Yemen embassy in Paris. In her 2005 film, A Stranger in her Own City, the protagonist is 13 year old Najmia. In the old town of Sanaa in Yemen, everybody knows her. Yet for Najmia, openly showing her curls in the sunlight is a living challenge to centuries of ancestral and Islamic traditions.
If daring young Najmia were not a fictional character she would have to reckon with the brutal fact that by law, her life is worth, literally in Riyals, half that of her brother's. In spite of the enviable achievements of Yemeni women, like Al-Salami in industries that are still male-dominated, last week Yemen debated the worth of women as compared to men.
A symposium was held on May 27 at the Taj Sheba Hotel in Sana’a, entitled “Women’s rights in the mandate and blood money.” As one religious scholar, quoted in the article on the symposium below, says, "there was not any Hadith or verse in the Holy Quran that claims that the blood money for a woman should be half of a man’s”.
Yemen Observer: http://www.yobserver.com/
By: Thuria Ghaleb
Jun 2, 2007 - 6:07:58 AM
Spiritually, Islam makes no distinction between men and women. Both have a soul, both were created for the same purpose in life, both have a duty to fulfill their religious obligations, both will be judged by the All-Mighty, and both will be rewarded or punished according to their individual actions, according to the Quran. Yet men and women are not treated as equals when it comes to blood money. This money is the amount paid to the family of a murder victim by the perpetrator. Historically, women have been worth only half as much as men.
To discuss this inequality, a symposium was held on May 27 at the Taj Sheba Hotel in Sana’a, titled “Women’s rights in the mandate and blood money.” The symposium was financed by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Yemen, Women Journalists without Chains and Political Development Forum. “This symposium aims to hear the different presentations of various people on an important issue related to women. Moreover, this symposium also aims to strengthten the conversation among educated people and scholars. We hope holding such discussions from time to time,” said Felix Eikenberg, the resident representative of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Yemen.
The Quran does not specify an actual rate for al-Diyat, or blood money. However, the companions and followers of the Prophet Mohammed, many scholars of all Islamic doctrines, the narrators of the Prophet’s Hadiths, and the exegetists of the Quran have unanimously agreed for some 14 centuries that the blood money for a woman should be half that for a man. “So, when all such religious people agree on such a decision about the blood money for women, I cannot contradict them,” said Aref al-Sabri, a religious scholar and a parliamentary member.
“Some people say that the blood money for a woman is half that of a man’s, so a woman’s blood is cheaper than a man’s in Islam. Such speech really makes all of us, including males and females, mean and worthless creatures. They think that al-Diyat is the price and value of this precious blood. No one of us would be satisfied to have his life summed up by some riyals.”
Muslims accept that the main purpose behind the creation of jinn and mankind is that they should worship Allah, struggle against the forces of Satan and live their lives according to Allah’s commandments in order to achieve eternal bliss in Paradise, he said.
But Muslims also accept that men and women are equals. Whenever the Quran mentions those fortunate beings who will enter the Gardens of Bliss because of their piety and good deeds, it mentions men and women together. “And whoever does righteous good deeds, male or female, and is a (true) believer (Muslim), such will enter Paradise and not the least injustice, even to the size of a Naqira (speck on the back of a date stone), will be done to them,” the Quran says.
In the pre-Islamic era, in the Arab societies, women were deprived of the most basic human rights required for human existence. The practice of female infanticide was widely practiced among some of the Arab tribes. The first and foremost contribution that Islam made to elevating the social status of Arab women was to give them the right to live. Islam forbade the inhuman practice of infanticide and was highly critical of the attitudes allowing parents to reject their female children. Islam viewed the practice as the crime of murder.
The Quran and the Hadiths both emphasize that women should be treated with respect, justice and kindness. For example, one Hadith states “Fear God and respect women.”
Another states, “The best person among you is the one who has the best attitude toward women.” However, according to the principle of “Benefits according to responsibility,” the blood money of a woman is half that of a man. It is a small compensation for the financial sufferings of the family of the deceased. Men are usually the breadwinners and maintainers of their families, so the financial sufferings are greater if the man is killed, but if the murder victim was a woman who was the sole breadwinner for her family, then the judge has the authority to increase her blood money. “I respect the decisions reached by our old religious scholars,” said Asmaa al-Qershi, a religious researcher and a member of the Islah party’s Shura Council.
“They take their decisions and viewpoints from reliable texts and narrations, but such things were suitable for their era. “So such a thing does not mean that when these scholars passed away, we should follow them. The time is renewed and the Islamic law is flexible and fit for every place and time. So equaling the blood money for both male and female is based on collecting and reviewing the narrations of the Holy Quran and Hadiths. There was not any Hadith or verse in the Holy Quran that claims that the blood money for a woman should be half of a man’s,” said al-Qershi.
“When we ask to equal the blood money for both woman and man, we do not follow some foreign agendas or run after the foreign cultures or cast doubt on our old religious scholars, but we try to reach to was is right. So I call upon all scholars today to adopt this issue and not to be afraid of anything.” Islam has given women the rights to work, to own property and to have wealth. Women can seek employment and work in professions such as medical care, education, civil and judicial professions, to name a few. These rights remain the same before and after marriage. In Islamic history, there were no official restrictions placed on women’s full participation in the economic, political and social spheres of their society.
For example, Khadija, the Prophet’s first wife, was one of the most important merchants of the time, and the Prophet himself was her employee. Aiysha, one of the Prophet’s other wives, was one of his most important advisers and consultants. In early Islamic history, women not only participated in various aspects of their society’s public sphere, they also had the right to be elected to political offices. For example, Omar the second Khalif appointed a woman to oversee the affairs of the marketplace. The women also participated in wars and fought in the battles.
They were not shut in behind iron bars or considered worthless creatures deprived of souls. During the early years of Islam, women were never appointed as Caliph, governor or judge. The Prophet was survived by many of his wives and daughters, but they were never the rulers of any part of the vast Islamic state. “I observed that there is a severe criticism directed to our jurisprudential inheritance, as if it was a factor that caused the underdevelopment and stagnancy for the Islamic countries. France took this inheritance as a source for its personal status law.
The Islam religion brought by the Prophet Mohammed 14 centuries ago is the same one today, so what happened?” said Abdul-Malek al-Taj, the deputy chief of the sponsorship department at the al-Iman University. “During 14 centuries, there was not any female who demanded to be president or Caliph or any such thing. So what are the factors that push her to demand these things? I think that there are some foreign organizations seeking to present Islam as a unjust religion and the female Muslims as an aggrieved people in Islamic society.”
The Prophet clearly said that, “The people who hand their rule over to a woman, will not be successful (or prosperous),” said al-Taj. “Female Muslims in the Prophet Mohammed’s era always asked for and demanded their rights if they just felt that there were some rights rightfully due to them, but that were withheld. However, they never asked the Prophet for [political power], because they knew well that this was not one of their rights,” said al-Taj.
Plenty of others disagreed with him, arguing that women could play a vital role in the ruling of a country, and there is no reason a woman could not, for example, be president. “We cannot improve this society unless the woman plays her role in the political process,” said Amaal Hajar, a researcher in the Islamic jurisprudence.
“So the woman’s political participation is not just one of her rights, but this is her duty. She will make a great mistake if she does not do this duty. The society should demand from the woman to participate in the political life. It will lose a lot of things if the woman does not participate in the political operation.”