Understanding Islamic View On Female Sexuality 

Islamic female sexuality, like the female sexuality of Hebrew women, can have sever impacts on the way they worship and what they are traditionally allowed to do.  For example, many mosques do not allow women to come in if they are experiencing their menses.  This is because women traditionally did not have the protection for their clothing and environment that they needed while they were on their courses.  Another reason it that Islamic women, like women all over the world, were seen as subservient to men and in need of being controlled by them.

It is being recognized that both these views need to be changed.  And indeed, they are slowly changing.  In the developed world, women now have access to many means of protecting their environment and their clothing from the products of menstruation. This means it is no longer necessary for women who are experiencing their courses to be ostracized or confined to a specific area of the house, as was traditional not only in Islamic households but in Christian and Hebrew households as well.

Along with this necessity came a view of women as shameful beings that were lesser than men and who were more strongly implicated in the areas of physicality and sexuality than were men. It seems to be a logical consequence of the confinement suffered by women as a result of menstruation—if a woman needed to be confined during certain times of the month, then obviously she must be inferior to someone who did not need such confinement.  Also, being bound, as it were, to the physical world by menstruation and childbearing, it was thought that it was more difficult for women to become “spiritual beings”.

The reasoning for this went:

• Women are excluded from contact with men during their monthly courses.
  • Menstruation was seen as a temporary illness and given the same consideration as would be given during any other illness, including a release from the necessity of fasting, prayers, and other rituals.
  • Women who are menstruating are seen as ritually unclean. Since she cannot be properly cleansed until after the bleeding stops, she is not in the proper state to enter the mosque or recite the Qur’an.
• Since women are also excluded from entering the mosque or reciting the Qur’an in a formal setting, this is seen as a defect in her religion. Since her religion (or her religious observance) is defective, this means that she can never achieve the same level of spirituality as is available to a man.

The weakness in this reasoning is the undisputed view that men and women are equal in their duties and expectations as servants of God. To say that one is only capable of a certain amount of faith because of hindrances in observing the various rituals and observances in a religion negates all the other aspects of experience, faithfulness, and actions that cannot be quantified.  It says that God rewards only for deeds and not intentions, instead of in the accepted manner of rewarding both deeds and intentions.  However, men who are insecure or fearful of women for whatever reason will bring forth this argument as “reason” for subjugating females.

With all this being said, and with the fact that (some) Muslim communities endorse and practice female genital mutilation,  one would thing that the average Muslim woman is shy, virginal, and not receptive to sexual advances by her husband.  One would be wrong.  The rational behind female genital mutilation is that women are not able to control themselves.  This is not so, and if you actually take the other parts of the Qur’an seriously, is not permitted by Muslim law.

Now, one would think of the typical Islamic female as being shy, retiring, and unable or unwilling to respond to the advances of her husband. One would be wrong.  Many Islamic believers believe that in the bedroom between husband and wife, as long as both parties are agreeable, anything goes except anal penetration. However, one of the traditions kept by most Islamic couples is to draw a veil of complete privacy over practices in the bedroom. So if a woman and her husband are having trouble in that area of their relationship, this practice can keep them from receiving the help that they need.

The Islamic bill of rights spells out in detail the rights and responsibilities of a married woman, including the right not to be slandered.  All the rights in the article are included in Shaira law, and some, such as the woman’s right to make independent decisions about her body, were surprising.  However, the main point of the articles I read was that Islamic women are like women all over: horney and waiting for a good man who knows, respects, and likes women.

Understanding Islamic Female Sexuality