Men and women are both representatives of God in the Quran, disputing the patriarchal undertones found in translations done historically by men when creating Islamic laws.

“He created you from the same self,” said Asma Barlas, a professor within the politics department at Ithaca College. “There’s no hierarchy of being in the Quran.”

Barlas discussed her research concerning women studies in the Islamic culture by giving a feminist look at the Quran and disputing the scripture’s violence and unequal treatment of women on Feb. 26. Barlas has written a book on the matter called “‘Believing Women’ in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Quran.”

“When I read the Quran, I came to the conclusion that there are ways in which we can read it, as not only not patriarchal text, but anti-patriarchal,” Barlas said.

One finding Barlas came upon in her study of the Quran was that there was not a link between sex and gender nor any gender symbolism. Women were not to be seen as “stooges” as many perceive them to be, but instead an equal representative of God with men and each other’s guide.

Historically, laws created in Islamic culture have ignored what verses have actually meant when it comes to discriminating against women, Barlas said.

“The thing is that what you see today in many Muslim societies, the discrimination against women – the idea that women are inferior to men, they’re secondary to men, that men have a degree above women – these come from particular readings of the Quran, but they’re also very pre-Islamic, many of them,” Barlas said. “It seems like Muslims adapted and adopted Islam to suit their own needs as they wanted to.”

Her reasoning for the adaptation to the scripture was that patriarchy has been around longer than Islam and male privilege can be found anywhere, including the translations of the Quran.

It has not been until recently that women have begun translating the Quran, and realized that the reading of the scripture is not linear. By changing one word, the verse can take on a new meeting.

A popular verse for Muslim misogynists is “men are the guardians of women and are given a right to strike their disobedient wives.” Barlas reiterated the argument from the women before her that the word “beat” has multiple meanings in Arabic, and is used in different ways throughout the Quran, such as “to separate,” “to cite one to the authorities” and “to set an example.”

“Language has more than one meaning. No language is fixed, and no language is transparent, which is why interpretation becomes a very important part of reading any text,” Barlas said.

Barlas’ work has been taking the translation of the Quran and approaching the scripture differently with an understanding of who God is, looking at the relationship between who he is perceived to be and what he is actually saying.

Another part of Barlas’ work has been to apply the definition of patriarchy to the Quran. Past Western feminists have dismissed Islam as a patriarchal religion, but Barlas said when she began writing her books in the 1990s, no one had applied the definition of patriarchy to the text.

The definition Barlas used included the traditional rule by the father and husband, the religious aspects of conceptualizing God as a male and the privilege men get because of their biology.

With these definitions in mind, Barlas could not find anything in the Quran that supported the patriarchal claims because God is not seen as a father in the Islamic religion.

Husbands believe they are rulers of their wives and see themselves as gods on Earth, but Barlas argues that the Quran and God does not give them authoritative power.

“The Quran is very clear that the kind of authority that men claim over others, whether women or anybody else, that kind of totalizing authority borders on shirk, which would be the delegation of God’s absolute sovereignty,” Barlas said.

During Barlas’ talks on the subject of the Quran’s text and women within the Islamic culture, men have been hostile toward her.

“We don’t all live by our scriptures. Nobody does,” Barlas said. “Muslims are no different.”

A goal of Oswego State’s Muslim Student Association is to create dialogue between those who follow the religion and those who have other beliefs within Oswego, said Salman Kabir, the club’s events coordinator.

The treatment of Islamic women is a heated topic, and is still of relevance, Kabir said. This was the reasoning behind having Barlas come and talk on campus.

Sara Mousad, an Oswego State student who is also Muslim, said Barlas’ talk gave her an insight on things she had not known.

“All these things that are all piled up that form our place in society has been misunderstood,” Mousad said. “What’s the actual interpretation of it in the whole scripture and Islam and how societies and culture can dismantle something as big as religion and used in their benefit.”

Kyle Hurley | The Oswegonian