| Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice The Complete Layman’s Guide to the Koran Chapter 10 A Divine Bias Women and the Koran I For Allah life in the here-and-now and in the here-after is not very complicated. Everything is black or white or more accurately, everything is pleasure or pain with fire providing most of the pain and sex most of the pleasure. Allah’s description of the pain unbelievers can expect, as mentioned previously, is both graphic and crude. Not so with the pleasure that loyal believers can anticipate, both in the here-and-now and when they join Allah in Paradise. Sex – When Resistance is Futile When it comes to pleasure, Allah’s description of what pleasures believers, mainly men, can expect, is more subdued and circumspect. His description of the pleasures believing men can expect in heaven is filled with the pornographic undertones of a Harlequin novel, with the exception that in the Koranic love stories it is the men whose repressed sexual yearnings are satisfied with the eventual conquest of the objects of their affection (if not their contempt). In Allah’s uncomplicated Paradise, women are simply the Koranic God’s means of rewarding Muslim men for believing in Him, for their loyalty. In heaven, as it is on earth, women exist to serve men. For them, serving men is its own reward. When Allah talks about sex, whether it is about sex between husband and wife or extra-marital sex (a form of sex that is only available to the male partner) it is almost exclusively about sex as being a man’s reward for being faithful to Allah. When you find women and sex mentioned in the same verse you will usually find Allah explaining how women are naturally drawn to men, that wanting to have sex with men is what they yearn for and why they must be restrained from their natural tendencies to want to seduce every man in sight and bring chaos to the orderly world of the Koran. In the Koran, it is the women, married and unmarried, who are almost always the sexual aggressors. From the story of Joseph in Egypt who spurns the advances of the wife of his benefactor; to maid-servants, females slaves and post and pre-pubescent girls who lust after the naked male body. A woman can also be expected to lie about a sexual assault, for example, falsely accusing a man of attempted rape when in reality she was the aggressor. 12:25 They raced to the door, and she ripped his shirt from behind. When they met her husband at the door, she said: “What is the penalty of one who intended evil for your wife except imprisonment or severe punishment?” Exceptionally, Allah, when recounting this encounter, acknowledges that men can, on rare occasions, be the aggressors and how you can tell. 12:26 He (Joseph) said: “She sought to seduce me.” And a member of her household bore witness: “If his shirt was torn from the front, then she is telling the truth and he is a liar. 12:27 “But if his shirt is torn from behind, then she lies and he is one of the truthful.” While admitting that men can, on occasion, be forceful in the pursuit of intimacy, Allah makes another generalization about women, that they are skilled in the art of deception. Notice the plural form of woman, “you women“, in verse 12:28. 12:28 When he (the husband) saw that his shirt was torn from behind, he said: “This is part of your guile, you women. Your guile is indeed very great. It is less clear in verse 12:29 whether Allah considers women, in general, as being sinners. The tone of the husband in admonishing his wife and the fact that he doesn’t refer to her by name or her relationship to him e.g. “you, my wife”, but as a member of a group would suggest a certain contempt for her sex; a contempt that a sinner might elicit from a god. 12:29 “Joseph, overlook this matter; and you woman, ask forgiveness for your sin. You are indeed one of the sinners.” When it comes to women and their sexual allure Allah doesn’t give men much credit either. For Allah, the sight of a single strand of a woman’s hair can cause a man to experience a Pavlovian-like reaction, an uncontrollable urge to hump the owner of the stray hair then and there. Men, no matter what their marital status, must resist the advances of maid-servants, slaves and pre-pubescent girls (girls who have yet to begin menstruating, what most us would call children) at least three times. If after being denied three times, the maid-servant, the slave or the pre-pubescent girl still insist on having a piece of you, Allah has decreed that resistance would be futile and permission is given for the man to have sex or indulge in sexual touching with the supplicant. Fakhry, in a footnote, argues that “approach each other” in the following verse means that maid-servants, slaves and pre-pubescent girls are allowed “to attend to you.” Since in the case of maid-servants and slaves that is part of their function, my interpretation would be that the man is allowed to have sex with them including sex with pre-pubescent girls. Whether its full-blown intercourse, or just sexual touching is another matter. Also, this is one of the few, if not the only time, that Fakhry translates what your “right hands possess” as slaves and not slave-girls, which could be significant. 24:58 O believers, let those your right hands possess (slaves and maid-servants) and those who have not reached the age of puberty ask your leave three times: (to attend to you or approach you) before the dawn prayer, when you put off your clothes at noon and after the evening prayer. These are three occasions of nudity for you; after which you are or they are not at fault, if you approach each other. That is how Allah makes clear His signs to you. Allah is All-Knowing, Wise. A man could be naked in front of his slave-girls, maids or pre-pubescent girls if the cause of his nakedness was because he was getting ready for prayer. What about around the house? Yes, if only his wives or slave-girls are present. Consider the following verses on some of the qualities found in a believer. 23:1 The believers have prospered; 23:2 Those who are submissive in their prayers, 23:3 And those who turn away from idle talk, 23:4 And those who give the alms. 23:5 And those who guard their private parts, 23:6 Except from their wives and what their right hands possess (slave-girls). [For these] they are not blameworthy.[37] 23:7 Whoever seeks anything beyond that – those are the transgressors. While Allah created a religion that promises men just about all the sex they can handle in this world and even more sex in the after-life, His Messenger is still a bit of a prude when it comes to some reproduction practices and nudity. Gheorghiu tells the story of how when the Prophet Muhammad first arrived in Medina and discovered that date bearing palms were artificially pollinated he was scandalized and ordered the practice stopped. He re-instituted the practice the next year after date production plummeted but insisted it be done when he wasn’t around[38]. Women, like men, have been endowed by their creator with freewill[39], so how does a god ensure that men will get all the sex they desire in this world without taking away a woman’s right to choose? What God giveth God can take away and Allah, in a god-like way, leaves instructions with His Messenger when it comes to women and sex that make it difficult, if not impossible for women to deny men their sexual favours (see It Is God’s Will – Women and The Koran III). Why would God have to do this if, as I claim, Allah believed women want to have sex all the time? Could Allah have been wrong in His assessment of women and instead of admitting that women were more complicated than He first imagined, piled on a whole, complicated set of rules that would ensure that His creation behaved the way He intended. If we turn to the Koranic story of the creation of the first couple, the first man actually, Eve is barely mentioned, and not by name. In fact, when it comes to women and girls, the only female that Allah mentions by name in the entire Koran is Mary, mother of the significant but lesser Prophet Jesus, and then mainly to emphasize that she was not the mother of a god. God admits to putting some thought into Adam’s creation, a creation He is extremely proud of and rightly so. Eve, however, appears to be an afterthought. She sort of appears out of the blue. Adam gets most of the attention anywhere the couple is mentioned in the Koran including the following verses where we first meet the first couple. In these verses, the proud Creator does not ask Satan to prostrate himself before the happy twosome, only before Adam. The only reference to Eve is in the second verse and even then Allah does not mention her by name, just as the wife of Adam. 2:34 And when We said to the angels; “Prostrate yourselves before Adam”, they all prostrated themselves except Iblis (Satan), who refused, out of pride and was one of the disbelievers. 2:35 Then we said: “O Adam, dwell in Paradise, you and your wife, and eat from it as much as you wish and wherever you wish, but do not approach this tree (meaning to not eat from it) or you will be unjust. Allah not only cast the first couple out of Paradise but on at least two occasions admits to having made them enemies of one another. 2:36 But Satan caused them to fall down from it and be turned out of the bliss they had been in. And We said: “Go down [from Paradise to earth] being enemies one to the other. And you will have in the earth an abode and sustenance for a while.” 20:123 He (Allah) said: “Go down from it both of you, as enemies of one another; but should guidance from Me come to you, he who follows My Guidance will not go astray of suffer. It is also not clear if Allah ever forgave Eve for eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. If He did not, this would explain a great deal. 20:120 But the Devil whispered to him, saying “O Adam, shall I show you the Tree of Immortality and a kingdom which will never perish?” 20:121 And so they both (Adam and Eve) ate from it; whereupon their shameful parts were revealed to them and they started fastening upon themselves leaves of Paradise. Adam thus disobeyed his Lord and so went astray. 20:122 Then, his Lord favoured him, and so he relented towards him, and guided him. ------ 2:37 Then Adam received words from his Lord, Who forgave him. He is indeed the All-Forgiving, the Merciful. Could a male god[40] who shuns female companionship and is obviously enamored with the male half of humankind be expected to know anything significant about the other half? Would any woman feel comfortable with such a god telling her what to do, what to wear, what men expect of her? Would most women fear that such a god would harbour the same prejudices and insecurities as normal men when it comes to dealing with her sex? Would a god that understood women leave instructions that will make it difficult, if not impossible, for any believing woman to deny her husband her body under almost any circumstances? Would a god that understood women leave the impression that they crave sex all the time, and will have sex with any man, anywhere, any time? If women are just one big, yearning sexual machine, then Allah is indeed All-Knowing. If they are more than that, then Allah is all wet and the God of the Koran doesn’t know women at all and His advice to women is suspect. Being preoccupied with sex and knowing anything about sex are two different things. Just ask the Pope. Sex for Allah, as mentioned previously, is a means to an end. It is a way of gaining and rewarding the loyalty of men. Having come to the conclusion that men aspire to no higher ideals than to fornicate to their hearts content, He promises them sex in spades in this world and even more in the next if they will worship Him and only Him. Women’s loyalty, on the other hand, will be assured by making men their overlords and in the process provide loyal, believing men with plenty of earth-bound sex while awaiting even more abundant sex in heaven. Why Believing Men Are Always Right ---- [37] This verse has been interpreted as making masturbation a sin. [38] Virgil Gheorghiu, cf. Muslim, 43 : 139-141; Ibn Hanbal, I, 162. La vie de Mahomet, p.247. [39] The concept of freewill or freedom to make your own choices is very narrowly defined in Islam. In practical terms, for believers, it means surrendering yourself to God or rejecting him. Once you have surrendered your “will” to God your freewill is effectively extinguished. A verse to that effect: 31:22 Whoever surrenders his will to Allah while doing the right, has surely grasped the firmest handle. Unto Allah is the ultimate issue of all affairs. [40] Some Islamic scholars have argued that Allah is a sexless being and has no gender. The use of the pronoun ”He” when referring to Allah in the third person being mandated by the fact that Arabic, the language chosen by God to deliver His final message, has no word for “it”.
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