Women and Islam: Can Subaltern Really Speak?

In many cultures of the world, women are victims of socio-cultural suppression. In their struggle for women‟s freedom, feminists have argued that the plight of women in modern society cannot be attributed to natural or biological factors. Feminists are convinced that women are not inferior to men, and are advocating for autonomy and self-actualization for women in a male dominated society. Base on Gayatri Spivak’s Can Subaltern Speak?, combine with my Islamic Study on Woman, this thesis analyzes how society tries to maintain its control over minorities, here taking the case of women, secondly how one can help them get their get voice, and will look into the representation of women in Islamic history. 

Starting with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak who is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at the Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. In her work "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Spivak discusses the lack of an account of the Sati practice, leading her to reflect on whether the subaltern can even speak. Spivak writes about the process, the focus on the Eurocentric Subject.

The term Subaltern is combination of two words first being Sub means under and secondly being Alter meaning other, which put together means being under someone's thumb and at same time being discriminated for being other and not a part of mainstream clan.

For centuries we have seen the hierarchy practiced in our houses, it always flows in a pattern were in the men of the house are given 1st preference over the women:   
The problem here is not the boys or men in house receiving the first preference, but the problem over here is women not getting enough chance to voice out their opinions and for making them believe that their opinions really does not matters. Once these women begin to believe this, they really don't realize that what is happening with them is wrong, and they themselves start criticizing the people who are fighting for their rights.
Many times women are made to be live that they need men to look after them, as these men are responsible for them, and will do things which are better for them. In this way women are being civilised by men.

This process of civilising women starts in a slow course; where in first they are made to be live that they aren't smart enough to live this harsh world, hence need to go by the rules and traditions set by the society. Secondly by manipulating them to compromise with their identity or personality in any given stage of their life. 

Being a citizen of Goa, (which compare to other states in Indian is much more liberal, in things like caste, race, religion, gender, sexuality etc.) I was shocked when I came across the tradition followed by some Hindu families; where the bride is ask to change her name to the one given by her husband. That is, if a girl's name is Neha, on getting married to Ajay she is ask to change her name to Ankita. This customer symbolises a beginning of new life for the girl and also asks her to leave her past life behind and to start a new journey with her husband. The problem over her is, the husband doesn't change his name or anything related to his Identity or his style of living.

This culture hegemony is enforced by wrongly educating the messes. Many times it is done in our country in the name of religion and Indian culture. Some of such norms are:
1. Girl should not study.

2. They should not earn or work.

3. They must not help public gathering or speak loud.
Even though this concept does not have any religious backing to support it, it is still given importance to maintain the power or control in single person's hand. In most marital abuse cases, the wife tends to not take any legal action even after suffering lots of mental and physical touches is usually because society desires her to act in a certain manner and secondly as she lacks any means of financial support. 

With regards to above mention norms, Islam has a completely different outlook for women. It provides women with all her rights, right from studying to being an active member in politics of the country. To support this claim, I would like to use the example of important women from Islamic history, first being Aishah bint Abu Bakr (R.A), who is regarded as a Greatest Scholar of her age. Aisha had an important role in early Islamic history, both during Muhammad's life and after his death. She contributed to the spread of Muhammad's message and served the Muslim community for 44 years after his death. She is also known for narrating 2210 hadiths, not just on matters related to Muhammad's private life, but also on topics such as inheritance, pilgrimage, and eschatology. Her intellect and knowledge in various subjects, including poetry and medicine, were highly praised by early luminaries such as al-Zuhri and her student Urwa ibn al-Zubayr. So from this example of Aishah (R.A), one can see how our norm against girls getting their education and being public figure is gone to trash. 

Secondly we’ll take the example of, Khadijah bint Khuwaylid who was the first wife and first follower of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.  Khadijah was the daughter of Khuwaylid ibn Asad, a leader of Quraysh tribe in Mecca, and a successful businesswoman in her own right, who had been married twice and widowed before meeting Muhammad. With this example one can proclaim that our second norm against woman owing a property and not simply choosing to be house wife is proofed to be bogus.

Lastly I would like to mention Fatimah bint Muhammad and who is known as Sayyids (Female Leader). Fatimah is a vital character in the religion of Islam. She played a big political role and also took part in War.  “She fought like a courageous little tigress to defend her father and protect him. She would stand in front of her father (Prophet Muhammad)  to shield him from the attacks of devilish men like Abu Jahl, 'Utbah and Shaybah.” From this example one can see how even during 7th century women were part of so call “manly” acts like war.

In addition to this Islam all give rights to people to choose their life partner, where even ones cannot interfere. Secondly girl don’t have to give any dowry, rather the boy give which is called “Mehr”, which acts as a insurance amount and only the girl has control over it.  Thirdly the girl doesn’t change her name on getting married, and is continued to be known by her father’s name like Aishah bint Abu Bakr ,which on translating means Aishah daughter of Abu Bakr. Along with the name the daughter inheritances her part in her father’s property and also has rights over her husband’s property.   

Coming back to our question, Can Subaltern Speak?” To which my answer is, yes subaltern can speak provided there are made to feel safe and equal. Secondly when they are provided with correct education, thirdly when people around them come together to help them get their voice out and lastly when they themselves feel confident enough about their personality and identity.  From what I have discussed above, we can say that as long as we have leaders who are hungry for power till that time discrimination against minorities will continue. To maintain this control over masses they have always use you cultural hegemony, convincing believe to believe them in the name of religion and culture. The only way to overcome this hegemonic evils, we should start educating ourselves and the people around us with a genuine information from authentic sources.