Sa'diyya Shaikh's "Tafsir of Praxis"

Shaikh, Sa’diyya. “A Tafsir of Praxis: Gender, Marital Violence, and Resistance in South African Muslim Community,” in Violence against Women in Contemporary World Religion: Roots and Cures, eds. Daniel C. Maguire and Sa’diyya Shaikh. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2007.   

Sa'diyya Shaikh obtained her PhD from Temple University on Marriage, Sexuality and Gender. Her research and teaching interests focus on Islamic Studies – primarily on Sufism, Islamic feminism, and Islamic law, among other sub-topics. Her publications include her studies on issues pertinent to Muslim women and gender violence, feminist approaches to hadith and Quranic exegesis, and theoretical reflections on Islam and feminism. Shaikh is currently involved in research project that focuses on sexuality, marriage, HIV/Aids, and reproductive choices of South African Muslim women.

In the article “A Tafsir of Praxis,” Shaikh proposes an additional perspective that needs to be developed within contemporary thought of feminist exegesis of the Quran. This perspective, she argues, reflects on the real life experiences of Muslim women. Shaikh considers the different ways in which Muslim women in contemporary South Africa have experienced violence, focusing on their interpretations, contestations, and redefinitions of the dominant understanding of Islam. She argues in support of her subjects’ understanding of the Quran, contending that Quranic exegesis needs to be re-evaluated and re-defined such that these women’s understanding of Islam based on their experiences should count as a mode of exegesis. Focusing on verse 4:34 of the Quran, often used to buttress violence against women, Shaikh also provides a literature review of the verse from classical male perspectives to contemporary feminist ones, thus demonstrating the fact that all interpretations are done in particular contexts and in compliance with the social standards of the time in which they are done. All but one of the women she interviewed for her study opposed their husband’s violence in both religious and ethical terms, and all stated that God would never approve of the violence they suffered. As such, Shaikh maintains that women should be allowed to contribute to interpretations of the Quran based on their experiences.