The Aga Khan Award for Architecture has included and integrated skilful women in the field of art and architecture since its inception in 1977. Yet, this is the first time that a formal session has been reserved to reflect on women's place, role, and contributions to the built environment in Muslim societies. This seminar, on Contemporary Expressions of Islam in Buildings, seems to be the right place to start this kind of reflection and to follow the tradition of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture of learning from the past, reassessing the present, and suggesting alternatives for a better tomorrow, for a better world.
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture seminars have addressed at length the importance of the role of architects in development. Mohammed Arkoun suggested in the fourth Aga Khan Award for Architecture seminar that the architect acts as a mediator between philosophical ideas and their physical projection in construction. Therefore it is appropriate to consider briefly ways in which contemporary expressions of Islam in buildings may reflect the role and status of Muslim women. Their role and status, like everything else, has evolved over time. This evolution, with its ups and downs, has not always been for the better and has had much more to do with changing social, economic, and political conditions than with intrinsically religious or theological issues.1
Remembering these realities might help us at the outset of this deliberation. To do that, it is constructive to consider two sets of separate issues: gender inequality present in all cultures to varying degrees and in various manifestations; and the specific condition of women in Muslim societies today.
Whether in Germany or Egypt, Poland or Iran, the United States or India, illustrations of gender inequality are found in legal and socio-economic rights, in perception and language, as well as invisibility or power. They are also manifested through social and economic indicators evident in practically every society.2
In less-developed countries and in less-developed areas in general, gender inequality is closely allied with poverty,3 a vulnerability to economic hardship,4 and/or a lack of education. To the extent that women are also the custodians of the young, this gender inequality translates into very high levels of child malnutrition, morbidity, and mortality.5 It is therefore important to underline that many of the statements on gender inequality that follow are broadly applicable to most countries of the Third World without regard to their being predominantly Muslim or otherwise.
- 1. It might be instructive here to consider a parallel that can be made between the evolution of the role of the mosque in Muslim society and that of women in Muslim society, from the simple early times to the complex and variegated present. In the beginning the mosque was not only a space for prayer; it was also the place where all important matters for the community were discussed and decided. It was a space that integrated the spiritual and the temporal. Likewise, early Islam redefined the role of women as the centre of the family, one who integrates and nurtures. The role and place of the mosque have varied from time to time and from one place to another. The form, structure, and overall appearance of the mosque have reflected a similar evolution and variation. In a similar manner, the role and place of Muslim women have varied from place to place and over time. In the case of mosque function and appearance and in the case of women's role and place, positive and negative changes have occurred over time, the result of prevailing and changing political, social, and economic conditions, not of changes in religious doctrine or something intrinsically Islamic. Keeping in mind that societal changes have affected even the mosque, that most important of buildings in Muslim society, the role of women as the integrating and nurturing forces of the family and as co-architects of Muslim society has been equally affected - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. These ideas are currently being developed in research being carried out by Afaf Mahfouz and to be published in 1992.
- 2. See inter alia Paul Collier, Women in Development: Defining the Issues, WPS 129 (Washington D.C.: The World Bank, 1988).
- 3. See The World Bank, World Development Report, 1990, WDR 90 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
- 4. See Paul Collier, Women and Structural Adjustment (Oxford: Oxford University, February 1989), mimeo.
- 5. UNICEF's work provides ample evidence of that. See UNICEF, The State of the World's Children: 1989 (New York United Nations Children's Fund, 1989).