Dr Wan Azizah Ismail a 'seat-warmer'?

COMMENT | One of the important and crucial issues that is hotly debated among some Muslim scholars is connected with the position of Islam on the female headship of the state.

Some Muslim scholars based on their own interpretations of some Islamic texts, (a few verses of the Quran and a few prophetic traditions, the hadith), conclude that Islam does not allow the headship of state to a woman. The Quranic verse generally quoted in this connection is the following:

"Men are in charge of women, because what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend (for maintenance) from their wealth. (4:34)"

Generally, scholars who disagree with the headship of woman interpret the term "qawwam", as occurred in the above verse, in terms of the superiority of men over women in all social institutions and assert that men alone are eligible to be the heads of families and states, not women.

However, some other scholars assert that the above verse stands in context for the family; not the society and state. They contend that the above verse does not speak about the superiority of men over women but only talks about the financial responsibility of men for financial maintenance and protection of women because they are generally physically stronger than women.

I also agree with them and would add that the above verse sends the message on the complementing functions of men and women, based on some gender differences between them.

Men are exempted from child-bearing and childbirth because they are physically different from women. In the same way, women are exempted from taking financial responsibility as obligatory because they are physically constituted differently from men. However, it does not mean that women are forbidden from sharing financial responsibility with men because there is a difference between ‘obligation’ and ‘option’...