In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
Sex segregation is one of the aspects of Islamic culture that is least understood in the modern West. I was reading in a newspaper article that an Islamic group in U.K was banned for hosting a gender segregated event. Let us leave politics aside: Why are men and women segregated in mosques, in social and religious gatherings? What does sex segregation mean to Muslims? In order to answer these questions, I will first have to clarify a few points:
Firstly: Separation between the sexes is nothing new.
Sex segragation is not an Islamic innovation. It was – and continues to be – the norm in almost every great human civilisation since the times of antiquity. In a traditional Hindu gathering, men and women sit in different places: men socialise with men and women with women, unless they are close relatives. In many Sikh temples, men sit on the one side and women on the other side; both groups facing the sacred scripture of Sikhism which is positioned on an altar. In most Jewish synagogues – the ones unaffected by modernism – there is a curtain called mechitza which separates men and women. The same is true about many orthodox Christian congregations. Up to the present day, many Catholic or Christian schools are still segregated by gender.
Of course, since Islam is the last revealed religion – which was ordained for the last cycle of human history – the rules regarding sex segregation are stricter in Islam. Traditionally, these rules were observed by Muslims and particularly in the cities. But generally, sex segregation is not something new. It is not something that Muslims invented for the first time in human history. In fact, it is the free mixing between men and women in the Western cities that is an innovation: a departure from the pre-established norm, – a bid’ah – if we were to use this often misused word.
As we all know, one problem with the modern West is that the Western civilisation constantly judges other cultures based on its current and transient norms. Cultures that constitute ‘the rest of the world’ are often expected to conform to Western norms, otherwise they are labelled as illiterate, backward, narrow-minded, extremist, medieval, ‘people who have not gone through the Enlightenment’ (an Enlightenment which was really Endarkenment, from the spiritual perspective). Even though Christianity has become much weaker in Europe, the West has not lost its evangelical and crusading spirit. The only difference is that instead of spreading the message of Christ – peace be upon him -, they now consider it their duty to spread the message of modernism. Anyway, our first point: Segregation is not an Islamic invention.
Secondly: For many Westerners, the word ‘segregation’ has negative connotations. This word often reminds them of the apartheid in South Africa or of the separation of whites and non-whites in the United States. In fact, some Westerners have even described the Islamic sex segregation as a type of ‘sexual apartheid’. Once and for all, we have never had such experiences in Islam. South Africa is not a Muslim country. The Messenger of Allah – peace be upon him – said:
There is no superiority except through virtue
Only Allah knows how shocking this hadith is to the modern world. For Westerners today, it is material wealth that is the criterion of superiority. If someone has a higher level of income, he or she is superior. When the West speaks of ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ countries, it does not mean spiritual development. It means material advancement; which for them is the only thing that counts. For us, virtue – and nothing else – is the criterion of superiority.
As Muslims, we do not think that the Pharaoh – who opposed Prophet Moses, peace be upon him – was more intelligent than his wife Asiya. We do not think that Abu Lahab – who was an Arab from the clan of Quraish – was superior to Salman, a Persian. We do not consider Bilal, a dark-skinned Ethiopian, to be any less venerable than the other companions of the Prophet. A Chinese is not superior to an African, unless he is more virtuous. A man is not superior to a woman, unless he is more righteous. Gender, race, colour of the skin, ethnicity, wealth and power are not the criteria of superiority in Islam. Only virtue is the criterion of superiority.
Therefore, those who describe the Islamic gender segregation as a sexual apartheid do not really understand what Islam is all about. Of course, unequal segregation must be condemned. Extremists who bar Muslim women from mosques or from universities are really accepting the West’s false claim that sex segregation is no different from sexual apartheid and that therefore free-mixing is the only alternative. But if there is equal space for men and women, what is unjust or degrading about sex segregation?.
In my kitchen, I am doing it all the time: I put teabags in one container and coffee in another container. I do not think that tea is better than coffee. I do not think that coffee is better than tea. I love tea and coffee equally – but I also understand that coffee is not tea and that tea is not coffee. I do not think that I am being unjust to tea-bags or that I am discriminating against coffee beans. I apologize if this is not an appropriate analogy, but I cannot think of a better example at the moment.
In any case, sex segregation in Islam does not mean that either sex is inferior or superior, unless one attaches this meaning to it. But why sex segregation? This is a very good question, answering to which requires another post – insha’ Allah.
Beauty of Modesty 