Gender Justice and Islam: For Male Two and For Female One

By Zilka Spahić Šiljak

Zilka Spahić Šiljak holds a PhD in gender studies, an MA in human rights and a BA in religious
studies. Her scope of work includes addressing cutting edge issues involving human rights,
politics, religion, education and peace building with more than fifteen years of experience in
academic teaching, and work in governmental and non-governmental sectors. From 2006 to
2011 she ran the Religious Studies Program of the University of Sarajevo. After that she was
a fellow at Harvard University and Stanford University in the USA. Currently she is a guest
lecturer at the Roehampton University in London and the Faculty of Philosophy, University of
Zenica. She also runs the Transcultural Psychosocial Educational Foundation (TPO) in
Sarajevo, which focuses on gender equality, intercultural and interreligious education and
peacebuilding. Among her publications of relevance to OPREE are Bosnian Labyrinth:
Culture, Gender and Leadership (2019), Shining Humanity: Life Stories of Women in BiH
(2014) and Contesting Female, Feminist and Muslim Identities: Post-socialist Contexts in
Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo (2012). She is also an advisory editor of OPREE.

Naming the baby is one of the beautiful traditions practiced by many Muslims, and in
some regions, like the Balkans, it is known as ‘aqiqah, although ‘aqiqah is only one part of it
–sacrificing an animal for the newborn. This ritual is usually performed on the seventh day
after birth, but sometime due to illness or other inconveniences the family can arrange for it to
occur later. Naming the baby existed in pre-Islamic cultures as well as in the Jewish tradition.
Muslims continue to practice it with some adjustments.

On this occasion, family and friends gather to share the happiness and blessings and to
welcome the newborn. The ritual consists of several components, including cutting the baby’s
hair, or just piece of it; an equivalent weight in silver is given to charity. Adhan (a call to prayer)
is said in the baby’s ear and the baby is called with her or his name three times. Some verses
from the Qur’an are recited and the ritual is finished with du’a (supplication). In addition, the
family sacrifices a qurban (‘aqiqah), usually a sheep, and the meat is shared with neighbors,
family, and those in need.

A discrepancy occurs when families sacrifice two sheep for a male newborn and one
for a female newborn. When asked why they do this, the answer is something along the lines
1 This text was originally written in Bosnian and published in the magazine Preporod, Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, December 1st, 2020.
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of, “it has always been done this way, and there are some hadith traditions of the Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) that confirms this practice.”
Since the child is a gift from God, regardless of whether it is male or female, and if
Almighty Allah treats all human beings equally and does not prefer some groups or individuals
over others based on their gender, but only based on their deeds and degrees (darajah) they
deserved or are given by God, why is having a female child is less appreciated than having a
male child in Muslim families? If Muslim parents today were asked whether they love male
children more than female, the majority might probably say that they love all of their children
equally. However, their actions do not reflect this answer and there are many examples that
can serve as evidence. I will discuss here only those examples pertaining the ‘aqiqah for the
naming the baby.

A few years ago, I participated in a baby naming ritual in Sarajevo. I asked the young
parents if they loved their newborn male baby more than their two-year-old daughter. They
looked at me in shock, answering almost in unison, “How can you ask us this? We love both
of our children equally.” I continued my inquiry, asking why did they then sacrifice two sheep
for the boy, whereas two years ago when their daughter was born, they had sacrificed only one.
They looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and said,
“Our grandmother told us that
was a custom, and honestly we have not thought much about it.”
Certainly, the grandmother was referring to the tradition, which is considered in the
mainstream teachings of Islam to be rooted in a hadith (canonized oral tradition) from the
Prophet Muhammad: “Slaughter two comparable sheep for a male newborn and one sheep for
a female.” (Sunen by Abu Davud). The same hadith collection, however, reports that the
Prophet sacrificed one sheep for Hassan and one for Hussain, his grandsons. Referring to this
practice, Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik held the same opinion with the explanation that,
in the first Muslim community in Medina, ‘aqiqah was practiced equally for a boy and a girl,
one sheep each, and that a prominent Prophet’s companion Ibn ‘Umar, known for his strict
adherence to the Prophet’s example, did the same.

Unfortunately, the practice of the Prophet Muhammad was not as compelling an
argument for Muslims as the narration about two sheep for boys and one for girls. This
narration was in compliance with the tribal mindset and customs which prioritized males over
females.

The question we have to ask today as believing Muslims is this: how is it that, in the
21st century, Muslims would rather use a hadith that prefers boys over girls than the actual
practice of the Prophet Muhammad? If the Prophet treated his children equally, and showed
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public affection for his daughter Fatima with the specific gesture of standing up to welcome
her every time she came to visit, and if he constantly warned believers to take care of their
daughters, how have Muslims ended up cultivating this naming tradition that sends a clear
message to daughters that they are not as equally valued as sons?
There are many reasons for this, and one should search for them in the prevailing
influence of culture and customary law, both in tribal pre-Islamic cultures and other traditions
Muslims encountered through centuries that were patriarchal, sexist, and very often misogynist.
One should also take into account the context of the 7th century Arabian Peninsula and
the people who embraced Islam but were not willing to give up their pre-Islamic customs.
Prophet Muhammad showed understanding and sensibility towards new converts, but he set
the standards with his own practice. He did this with slavery, for example; although many
practiced it, he did not want to have slaves, discouraged his daughter Fatima from owning one,
and encouraged believers to free slaves.
When one examines how many centuries Muslims have followed certain customs that
are neither Islamic nor in the spirit of Islam, it is easier to understand why the statement made
by Prophet Muhammad in one moment, that two sheep should be sacrificed for a boy and one
for a girl, seems to supersede his actions. But what matters is what he has done and how he led
by example.

Although the message of the Qur’an brought about revolutionary changes in 7th
century, with its ethical values of humane conduct, justice, mercy, and individual
responsibility, and though its universalism transcended class, racial, and gender differences,
throughout the ensuing centuries it grew stiffened and petrified in the chains of patriarchy and
authoritarian spirit, so that its revolutionary potential is barely visible in the present-day.
Instead of making the message of Islam revolutionary today, utilizing its potential to
continuously adapt to the development of civilization, Muslims often repeat well-ingrained
lessons from the past presenting Islam as a solution to all of humankind’s existential questions
and granting women their full rights, but at the same time they are not able to give an example
of any present day Muslim society in which the key principles of Islam, for example justice
that encompasses social justice, including the rights of minority groups and women, are lived
and practiced.

Due to the uncritical and blind following of faith, many Muslims are not able to see the
flagrant examples of human rights violations and discrimination that are committed in the name
of God and Tradition, as in the case of the naming ritual. Their inability to reckon with it is
likely due in part to the fact that this kind of discrimination does not affect men, who still hold
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monopoly over interpretation of God’s message and its transmission and teaching. If they
themselves experienced discrimination based on their gender, if they experienced the same
treatment as women and from a young age constantly received the message that they are less
valuable, perhaps they would be more sympathetic.

One cannot overlook, however, that when men are discriminated on ethnic or religious
grounds, they know how to articulate their exclusion and inequality. Male insensibility to
discrimination against women may be due to the fact that these forms of discrimination have
been unquestioningly normalized for such a long time, with barely anyone questioning
practices of exclusion and marginalization of women, to the point where many men as well as
women became desensitized towards these kinds of injustices.
Nevertheless, if one claims to believe in God and believes that justice is the key
principle of Islam, it is inevitable to ask how Muslim followers can still promote certain
traditions that are neither revolutionary nor in the spirit of Islam but are instead discriminating
and humiliating.

Tradition is important, but tradition needs to be sieved and separated from the biases
that have grown around it, which suffocate the spirit of God’s word and its potential for growth
and change. It can be applied in the lives of believers in accordance with the times in which
they live, rather than according to practices from centuries long past. It is unacceptable and
even offensive in 21st century to promote baby naming rituals that favor boys over girls through
the practice of sacrificing two sheep for the former and one for the latter.

Try to imagine at least for a moment, how would boys feel if the situation was reversed,
and the two qurban (sheep) were made for the girls instead? These kinds of traditions that are
not in line with the key principles of Islam and in the spirit of the time in which we live today
distance many young women but also men from their faith and culture of Islam. Patriarchy is
not only harmful to women; it also has harmful consequences for the men.

In conclusion, it is unjust and offensive to practice a tradition that sends a message to
women that they are less valued than men. It is time to put in practice the standards set by the
Prophet Muhammad, even if we are 1422 years too late.