Each year International Women’s Day (IWD) is largely celebrated on 8 March, to acknowledge the work and achievements of women, and to bring a sense of female consciousness and pride. Recently, more Muslims, especially young women, have been supporting this event. Muslim women, just like other women around the world, suffer from various issues, such as social, marital and economic injustices. The historic struggle of women to be recognised as an integral part in society, increased the validity of IWD and similar projects. This struggle made women passionate for equality in every aspect of life, and made them aspire to learn about women’s resistance globally, and so, IWD provided such an opportunity. But what exactly does IWD stand for and what is its history? Is it compatible with the Islamic way of life?
As Muslims who believe in the hereafter and will thus be accountable for all our actions, it is important that we are cautious of ideologies that promise to solve our complicated issues without understanding their motives deeply, and assessing their compatibility with Islamic principles. For example, an ideology that believes that there is nothing beyond the material will reject certain morals or values which a God-centered philosophy rests upon such as the Day of Judgement and God’s ability to intervene in our lives. Distinguishing which ideology is the truth is among the many, and arguably most important, tests that we will go through in this life.
So, before implementing any idea, it is important to question it and criticize it, and make sure not to be driven by its glittering emblems. We must make sure that it goes in line with Islamic values, as Allah the one who created us, is the only one who knows what’s best for us. Also, even if a new ideology has been accepted by many people, we should be careful since the number of supporters of an idea is not always a sign of its perfection. Allah says in the Quran: “And if you obey most of those upon the earth, they will mislead you from the way of Allah” 6:116
“وَإِن تُطِعْ أَكْثَرَ مَن فِي الْأَرْضِ يُضِلُّوكَ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ” الأنعام 116
A brief history of the IWD:
In order to understand the basic intentions behind this event, it is important to understand its beginnings[1]. At first glance, it looks like an opportunity to empower women. However, if you look at the history of IWD you will find that the story is more complicated than this. According to Temma Kaplan, an American historian and women’s studies professor, many Europeans hold the belief that the start of IWD was in 1857 when a spontaneous demonstration by female textile factory workers was held in New York on March 8, 1857. They were protesting low wages, the twelve-hour workday, and increasing workloads, and their demonstration was allegedly brutally suppressed by the police. In 1907, on the fiftieth anniversary of that demonstration, International Women’s Day was established with a rally in their memory. Kaplan asserts that “neither event seems to have taken place”. She notes that according to Kandel and Picq, the garment workers’ demonstration of 1857 was a legend born in 1955 “to detach International Women’s Day from its Soviet history in order to give it a more international origin”.
So what’s the true story behind the establishment of IWD? Firstly, it began in the twentieth century rather than the nineteenth century. In 1908, the Socialist Party of America organized demonstrations and held a mass meeting on women suffrage (the right to vote), which led to holding the first Women’s Day a year later on February 23, 1909. The American socialists then declared the last Sunday in February as National Woman’s Day. A year later, in 1910, the International Women’s Socialist Conference was held, suggesting 8 March to become an ‘International Women’s Day’. So, it started as a national, socialist, American day but it was transformed later to become global.
The second IWD was held in Europe, on March 18, 1911, to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Paris Commune, which is a radical socialist and revolutionary government that ruled Paris from 18 March to 28 May 1871. This event was supposedly held to announce the need for women’s rights and suffrage, but the socialists vastly outnumbered the suffragists and thus this side dominated the event rather than being about women’s rights. Socialist women marched in Vienna carrying banners and red flags commemorating the martyrs of the Paris Commune. In the last Sunday of February 1913, Russian women, led by feminist Alexandra Kollontai, had begun celebrating the day American-style, by marching on that day. During the First World War, IWD adapted and became an opportunity for women to call for support for the right to feed their families, to stop the war and enforce other demands. For example, socialist Jewish women in New York forced municipal officials to establish price controls on kosher butchers in order to make it affordable.
On March 8 1917, Russian women were granted the right to vote. As a result, Austrian women who were inspired by the Russians, celebrated International Woman’s Day on the same day, but a year later in 1918. Hence, March 8 is not related to the textile workers strike in 1857 (as it was later claimed to be), but is based on the Russian events and the Paris socialist Commune. This indicates that IWD’s principle motive was political, not humanitarian. Further, the year 1857 being the source of IWD, is fabricated – it was actually chosen as a tribute to Clara Zetkin, who was born that year. Zetkin was a strong opponent to feminism, but after the First World War she became a Communist, and with the help of Lenin, she established International Women’s Day as a Communist holiday in 1922. After 1945, the IWD became a Communist holiday in many places. Kaplan remarks: “One way late-nineteenth-century socialists and anarchists attempted to establish secular communal traditions was through holidays”. The IWD remained a communist holiday until 1967. In 1975, this event was adopted by the United Nations, and it remains until the present.
Assessing the event
Based on the history of IWD, we find that its foundation involved myths and was not a deliberate initiative to empower women. It embraced political connections, particularly socialism and communism. But you may ask – what’s wrong with socialism? To answer this question, we must first understand what socialism is. Socialism is a political and economic theory of social organisation which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the society as a whole[2]. The socialist political movement includes political philosophies that originated in the eighteenth century out of concern for the social problems that were associated with capitalism. In the twentieth century, socialism emerged as the most influential secular movement. In other words, the socialist movement is a secular movement that was developed to challenge capitalism. It encourages people to be free from religious obligations, which makes it incompatible with Islamic values. It is based on a materialistic ideology which means that it does not believe in the unseen (such as God and His power to create and interfere with our lives) and states that all things are the result of material interactions. It has thus misdiagnosed the cause of social ills by assuming that private ownership, and not the lack of morals and God-consciousness, is the reason for the inequalities and tragedies in the world. (for a more in depth discussion on the differences between the social schools of thought, click here).
IWD started with a local context, related to American women, and to European women who had specific struggles at that time. Despite them celebrating this event for more than a century, little has changed and many women there are still suffering. This is because the ideas that IWD was based on only provided partial solutions to womens’ struggle. And so, no matter how long people continue to celebrate these kinds of events, if the core of the issue is not diagnosed, nothing will change.
Further, at present, IWD has become strongly associated with feminism which has been equated to female empowerment. However, upon further scrutiny, it becomes clear that feminism is not just about women’s empowerment, but is based on many philosophical ideas which do not align with a God-centered life. Ironically, feminists seek to ‘empower’ women by encouraging them to imitate men through bodily strength and relinquishing their softer, feminine characteristics. To them, seeing a woman take up boxing or become a soldier, for example, is the epitome of empowerment. However at the same time, they advocate for men to be soft, gentle and feminine, while they interpret a man boxing as ‘toxic masculinity’. Females become more masculine and males become more feminine. Thus, it is not about the action or characteristic a person has, as long as it is something which is stereotypically of the other gender, leading to androgyny. This is not surprising since they claim that gender itself is a social construct and thus seek to eliminate it altogether. They claim to empower women but what they are actually doing is destroying what it means to be a woman.
So, it is clear that IWD has unstable and confused objectives and is far more complex than simply being about women. With all its shortages, I can’t see why Muslims implement and celebrate it. It is good to learn from the experience of others and take lessons, yet we should maintain our own identity. It is imperative that we are cautious and aware and do not follow things blindly. We cannot afford to be simple-minded.
In relation to the mistreatment of Muslim women, undoubtedly it is unrelated to Islam, it is rather caused by the misbehavior of Muslim men who do not understand Islam, as Islam has remained a theoretical system rather than a practical scheme in most Muslim societies. If you investigate Islamic laws you will realise that one of the most important values of Islam is the appreciation of women. Islam gave women their rights and raised their status, after the hardship and suffering they endured during Jahiliyya. Islam emphasises that women and men are equal from a humanitarian perspective, and the only thing that makes a person better than the other, is piety. It empowered and protected women and gave them their rights, many of which Western women only very recently achieved such as the right to vote.
The Quran contains a special chapter called al-Nisa’ (the women), in addition to many verses in other chapters, which assert the important role of women and identify their rights. During Hajj, people follow the footsteps of a woman; Hajer, and this woman was the only woman that was buried close to the Ka’ba. In addition, the Prophet of Islam’s whole progeny came from his daughter, Fatema. Allah told his Prophet in Surat al-Kawthar that this girl has been endowed to him and brought goodness and luck. Unlike other men who were used to bury their daughters alive, Prophet Muhammed was keen to show his strong love to his daughter. It was even narrated that he said: “The best of you is the best to his wife”. This means that any man who mistreats his wife, no matter if he is the most esteemed scholar or in the highest position of authority, is worth little in the eyes of Allah, no matter how important he thinks he is. Thus the criteria for measuring piety became the treatment of women.
To conclude, International Women’s Day began as a socialist initiative and was more a political tool than an attempt at giving women their rights. We can see that despite celebrating this event for many years, not much has changed in regards to the status of women who still face oppression. This is because the societal illness was misdiagnosed. Humanity will never achieve a moral society, where everyone has their rights, if it denies God and continues to operate under a materialistic paradigm. Hence, adopting true Islamic principles is the one and only way of ensuring empowerment and freedom to all, since it is only in submitting to God and not our self and desires, can we ever be truly free.
However, it is important to acknowledge that the faith of many Muslims today and in the past has been superficial, and few people in Islamic history understood Islam and implemented its teachings, especially issues related to women. As a result, women continued to suffer. Unfortunately, this situation provided an excuse for people who don’t have enough knowledge about Islam, to accuse it of mistreating women. Some simple Muslims would accept this, so they would implement ideas such as gender equality and feminism, hoping to solve their problems. My advice to you, dear Muslim sister, if you want to be free of hardship and if you want to get all your rights, learn true Islamic principles and laws deeply and implement them, and don’t get pulled towards baseless statements.
By Dr. Iman Al-Attar
