Perspective Of Conservative Salafism: An All-Encompassing Rejection Of Westernization

5.3 The Woman from the Perspective of Conservative Salafism: An All-Encompassing Rejection of “Westernization”
The Conservative Salafist perspective on women and women’s issues is grounded in quite solid foundations. Sheikh al-Albani established the parameters of this particular issue by first setting a solid base that, primarily, excluded the woman from the public realm. He specifically defined her place and her work as being confined to the framework of managing her household and to child rearing, within the context of the strategy of “purification and education”. And, although he affirmed that men and women were equal in creation, he determined that, “The righteous place for the women is to be confined to her house, based on God’s words:
Indeed, the Traditional-Conservative
Salafist worldview is marked by a Manichaean146 dualism in the way in which it perceives the clash of values between civilizations.
In this worldview, the essence of Islam is marked by purity and absolute goodness; whereas, the essence of the contemporary, modern world is no more than a ruin founded upon hypocrisy, corruption and fraud. Accordingly, for the Traditional Salafists, there was no way that the woman should have a presence or be involved in this modern world of politics.
The Traditional Salafist awareness and understanding of their environment and their socio-economic reality, and their understanding of the religion of Islam, itself, generated a view in which, essentially, women were considered inferior. With that, Traditional Salafists worked to employ the woman as an instrument within the framework of their strategy of “purification and education”. In the past few years, though, slight developments have taken place when it comes to the role of the woman in the da’wa of Traditional Salafism. For example, a women’s committee has been established under the umbrella of the Imam
You all have left this aspect of the matter aside; and purport to commence with setting the foundations upon which the Islamic government will be established… Does the path towards achieving that end begin with declaring a revolution against these leaders, who you believe are kuffar?
It seems that this is what they believe … and, with all this belief
– and it is a mistaken belief – they still cannot do anything! What is the manhaj proposed? What is the path? There is no doubt that the path is that which the Prophet (May Peace Be Upon Him) recited, and reminded His Sahaba of in every sermon, ‘The best guidance is the guidance of Mohammad (May Peace Be Upon
Him)’. Therefore, it is the duty of every Muslim, and especially those amongst the Muslims who are concerned with the restoration of
Islamic rule, to begin where the Prophet (May Peace Be Upon
Him) began; and, that is what we cherish and that is what have harbored in two true words ‘purification and education’.
Thus, it is essential that we begin with educating people in Islam, the way the Prophet (May Peace Be Upon Him) began. But, we do not limit ourselves to education alone, because there are