http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000022606

http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000022606

Posted by Venu K.M

"In her preface to the English translation of The Veil and the Male Elite
(1991), Mernissi affirms that when she finished writing the book she
had no doubts of ‘one thing’: “if women's rights are a problem for some
modern Muslim men, it is neither because of the Koran nor the Prophet,
nor the Islamic tradition, but simply because those rights conflict with
the interests of a male elite.”[12] A stronger confirmation follows:

“We
Muslim women can walk into the modern world with pride, knowing that
the quest for dignity, democracy, and human rights, for full
participation in the political and social affairs of our country, stems
from no imported Western values, but is a true part of the Muslim
tradition.”[13]

She accuses those Muslims who Westernize
liberation and egalitarian claims for the sake of opposing them, or
externalizing them, or for the sake of modernizing the tradition from
without, she accuses them of ignorance of the tradition and their past. 
In The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam (1987; 1991) she writes:

“Any
man who believes that a Muslim woman who fights for her dignity and
right to citizenship excludes herself necessarily from the umma and is a
brainwashed victim of Western propaganda is a man who misunderstands
his own religious heritage, his own cultural identity. The vast and
inspiring records of Muslim history so brilliantly completed for us by
scholars such as Ibn Hisham, Ibn Hajar, Ibn Sa´ad, and Tabari, speak to
the contrary. We Muslim women can walk into the modern world with pride,
knowing that the quest for dignity, democracy, and human rights, for
full participation in the political and social affairs of our country,
stems from no imported Western values, but is a true part of the Muslim
tradition. Of this I am certain, after reading the works of those
scholars mentioned above and many others. They give me evidence to feel
proud of my Muslim past, and to feel justified in valuing the best gifts
of modern civilization: human rights and the satisfaction of full
citizenship.”[14]