London, March 09: A lecture was held Friday in London celebrating the life and work of a prominent Tunisian Islamic scholar who was known for championing women’s rights in 1930s.
The religious views of Taher Haddad (1899-1935), especially in his famous book “Our Women in Sharia and Society” (1930), were seen as having a major impact on modern Tunisia’s stance towards women’s rights.
His book, dubbed by some as an ‘Islamic feminist’ theory, relies on religious sources and arguments to make the case for women.
The lecture, entitled “Taher Haddad: the Precursor of Women’s Rights in Tunisia,” was organised by the Tunisian Embassy in London just days before the celebrations of International Women’s Day on Monday.
During her speech, the Ambassador of Tunisia to London, Mrs. Hamida Mrabet Labidi, hailed her country’s legal reforms in favour of gender equality and women’s rights, which she stressed are “in no way imposed from outside our Arabic Islamic reality.”
She added that “Tunisian reformist thinking which advocates the emancipation of women” was not confined to the modern schools of thought in Tunisia, but had included “prominent figures of the Zaytouna Islamic institution as well.”
Labidi echoed the position of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who insists that Tunisia’s reforms are in harmony with the country’s Arab and Islamic identity and heritage.
Dr. Husni and HE Mrs. Labidi
The lecture was presented by Dr. Daniel Lawrence Newman, Professor of Arabic at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at University of Durham; and Dr. Ronak Husni, Senior Lecturer in Arabic at the School of Management and Languages at Heriot-Watt University.
“It would probably be true to say that [Haddad] is a precursor to women’s right’s the world over, not just Tunisia,” said Newman.
“His views have had a dramatic impact on his native country and had to a large extent shaped its current social fabric,” he added.
The lecture was mediated Dr. Makram Khoury-Machool, senior lecturer in media studies at Cambridge University.
“One of Haddad’s most fundamental arguments in this book was that the appalling state of women, not only in Tunisian society but Muslim society as a whole, is not due to Islam, which is a dynamic religion but rather to totalist and rigid interpretations,” explained Husni.
“He spoke of the spirit of the rules rather than the strict application,” and urged scholars “to read the Koran verses in their historical context and adapt them for modern life,” she added.
—Agencies