BY Dr. Sherif Abdel Azeem

According to the Bible, a man must fulfill any vows he might make to God. He must not break his word. On the other hand, a woman's vow is not necessarily binding on her. It has to be approved by her father, if she is living in his house, or by her husband, if she is married. If a father/husband does not endorse his daughter's/wife's vows, all pledges made by her become null and void:

"But if her father forbids her when he hears about it, none of her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand ....Her husband may confirm or nullify any vow she makes or any sworn pledge to deny herself" (Num. 30:2-15)

Why is it that a woman's word is not binding per se ? The answer is simple: because she is owned by her father, before marriage, or by her husband after marriage. The father's control over his daughter was absolute to the extent that, should he wish, he could sell her! It is indicated in the writings of the Rabbis that: "The man may sell his daughter, but the woman may not sell her daughter; the man may betroth his daughter, but the woman may not betroth her daughter." 17 The Rabbinic literature also indicates that marriage represents the transfer of control from the father to the husband: "betrothal, making a woman the sacrosanct possession--the inviolable property-- of the husband..." Obviously, if the woman is considered to be the property of someone else, she cannot make any pledges that her owner does not approve of.

It is of interest to note that this Biblical instruction concerning women's vows has had negative repercussions on Judaeo-Christian women till early in this century. A married woman in the Western world had no legal status. No act of hers was of any legal value. Her husband could repudiate any contract, bargain, or deal she had made. Women in the West (the largest heir of the Judaeo-Christian legacy) were held unable to make a binding contract because they were practically owned by someone else. Western women had suffered for almost two thousand years because of the Biblical attitude towards women's position vis-à-vis their fathers and husbands. 18

In Islam, the vow of every Muslim, male or female, is binding on him/her. No one has the power to repudiate the pledges of anyone else. Failure to keep a solemn oath, made by a man or a woman, has to be expiated as indicated in the Quran:

"He [God] will call you to account for your deliberate oaths: for expiation, feed ten indigent persons, on a scale of the average for the food of your families; Or clothe them; or give a slave his freedom. If that is beyond your means, fast for three days. That is the expiation for the oaths you have sworn. But keep your oaths" (5:89).

Companions of the Prophet Muhammad, men and women, used to present their oath of allegiance to him personally. Women, as well as men, would independently come to him and pledge their oaths:

"O Prophet, When believing women come to you to make a covenant with you that they will not associate in worship anything with God, nor steal, nor fornicate, nor kill their own children, nor slander anyone, nor disobey you in any just matter, then make a covenant with them and pray to God for the forgiveness of their sins. Indeed God is Forgiving and most Merciful" (60:12).

A man could not swear the oath on behalf of his daughter or his wife. Nor could a man repudiate the oath made by any of his female relatives.

 

NOTES

 

1. The Globe and Mail, Oct. 4,1994.

 

2. Leonard J. Swidler, Women in Judaism: the Status of Women in Formative Judaism (Metuchen, N.J: Scarecrow Press, 1976) p. 115.

 

3. Thena Kendath, "Memories of an Orthodox youth" in Susannah Heschel, ed. On being a Jewish Feminist (New York: Schocken Books, 1983), pp. 96-97.

 

4. Swidler, op. cit., pp. 80-81.

 

5. Rosemary R. Ruether, "Christianity", in Arvind Sharma, ed., Women in World Religions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987) p. 209.

 

6. For all the sayings of the prominent Saints, see Karen Armstrong, The Gospel According to Woman (London: Elm Tree Books, 1986) pp. 52-62. See also Nancy van Vuuren, The Subversion of Women as Practiced by Churches, Witch-Hunters, and Other Sexists (Philadelphia: Westminister Press) pp. 28-30.

 

7. Swidler, op. cit., p. 140.

 

8. Denise L. Carmody, "Judaism", in Arvind Sharma, ed., op. cit., p. 197.

 

9. Swidler, op. cit., p. 137.

 

10. Ibid., p. 138.

 

11. Sally Priesand, Judaism and the New Woman (New York: Behrman House, Inc., 1975) p. 24.

 

12. Swidler, op. cit., p. 115.

 

13. Lesley Hazleton, Israeli Women The Reality Behind the Myths (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977) p. 41.

 

14. Gage, op. cit. p. 142.

 

15. Jeffrey H. Togay, "Adultery," Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. II, col. 313. Also, see Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1990) pp. 170-177.

 

16. Hazleton, op. cit., pp. 41-42.

 

17. Swidler, op. cit., p. 141.

 

18. Matilda J. Gage, Woman, Church, and State (New York: Truth Seeker Company, 1893) p. 141.

 

19. Louis M. Epstein, The Jewish Marriage Contract (New York: Arno Press, 1973) p. 149.

 

20. Swidler, op. cit., p. 142.

 

21. Epstein, op. cit., pp. 164-165.

 

22. Ibid., pp. 112-113. See also Priesand, op. cit., p. 15.

 

23. James A. Brundage, Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987) p. 88.

 

24. Ibid., p. 480.

 

25. R. Thompson, Women in Stuart England and America (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974) p. 162.

 

26. Mary Murray, The Law of the Father (London: Routledge, 1995) p. 67.

 

27. Gage, op. cit., p. 143.

 

28. For example, see Jeffrey Lang, Struggling to Surrender, (Beltsville, MD: Amana Publications, 1994) p. 167.

 

29. Elsayyed Sabiq, Fiqh al Sunnah (Cairo: Darul Fatah lile'lam Al-Arabi, 11th edition, 1994), vol. 2, pp. 218-229.

 

30. Abdel-Haleem Abu Shuqqa, Tahreer al Mar'aa fi Asr al Risala (Kuwait: Dar al Qalam, 1990) pp. 109-112.

 

31. Leila Badawi, "Islam", in Jean Holm and John Bowker, ed., Women in Religion (London: Pinter Publishers, 1994) p. 102.

 

32. Amir H. Siddiqi, Studies in Islamic History (Karachi: Jamiyatul Falah Publications, 3rd edition, 1967) p. 138.

 

33. Epstein, op. cit., p. 196.

 

34. Swidler, op. cit., pp. 162-163.

 

35. The Toronto Star, Apr. 8, 1995.

 

36. Sabiq, op. cit., pp. 318-329. See also Muhammad al Ghazali, Qadaya al Mar'aa bin al Taqaleed al Rakida wal Wafida (Cairo: Dar al Shorooq, 4th edition, 1992) pp. 178-180.

 

37. Ibid., pp. 313-318.

 

38. David W. Amram, The Jewish Law of Divorce According to Bible and Talmud ( Philadelphia: Edward Stern & CO., Inc., 1896) pp. 125-126.

 

39. Epstein, op. cit., p. 219.

 

40. Ibid, pp 156-157.

 

41. Muhammad Abu Zahra, Usbu al Fiqh al Islami (Cairo: al Majlis al A'la li Ri'ayat al Funun, 1963) p. 66.

 

42. Epstein, op. cit., p. 122.

 

43. Armstrong, op. cit., p. 8.

 

44. Epstein, op. cit., p. 175.

 

45. Ibid., p. 121.

 

46. Gage, op. cit., p. 142.

 

47. B. Aisha Lemu and Fatima Heeren, Woman in Islam (London: Islamic Foundation, 1978) p. 23.

 

48. Hazleton, op. cit., pp. 45-46.

 

49. Ibid., p. 47.

 

50. Ibid., p. 49.

 

51. Swidler, op. cit., pp. 144-148.

 

52. Hazleton, op. cit., pp 44-45.

 

53. Eugene Hillman, Polygamy Reconsidered: African Plural Marriage and the Christian Churches (New York: Orbis Books, 1975) p. 140.

 

54. Ibid., p. 17.

 

55. Ibid., pp. 88-93.

 

56. Ibid., pp. 92-97.

 

57. Philip L. Kilbride, Plural Marriage For Our Times (Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey, 1994) pp. 108-109.

 

58. The Weekly Review, Aug. 1, 1987.

 

59. Kilbride, op. cit., p. 126.

 

60. John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate Matters: A history of Sexuality in America (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1988) p. 87.

 

61. Ute Frevert, Women in German History: from Bourgeois Emancipation to Sexual Liberation (New York: Berg Publishers, 1988) pp. 263-264.

 

62. Ibid., pp. 257-258.

 

63. Sabiq, op. cit., p. 191.

 

64. Hillman, op. cit., p. 12.

 

65. Nathan Hare and Julie Hare, ed., Crisis in Black Sexual Politics (San Francisco: Black Think Tank, 1989) p. 25.

 

66. Ibid., p. 26.

 

67. Kilbride, op. cit., p. 94.

 

68. Ibid., p. 95.

 

69. Ibid.

 

70. Ibid., pp. 95-99.

 

71. Ibid., p. 118.

 

72. Lang, op. cit., p. 172.

 

73. Kilbride, op. cit., pp. 72-73.

 

74. Sabiq, op. cit., pp. 187-188.

 

75. Abdul Rahman Doi, Woman in Shari'ah (London: Ta-Ha Publishers, 1994) p. 76.

 

76. Menachem M. Brayer, The Jewish Woman in Rabbinic Literature: A Psychosocial Perspective (Hoboken, N.J: Ktav Publishing House, 1986) p. 239.

 

77. Ibid., pp. 316-317. Also see Swidler, op. cit., pp. 121-123.

 

78. Ibid., p. 139.

 

79. Susan W. Schneider, Jewish and Female (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984) p. 237.

 

80. Ibid., pp. 238-239.

 

81. Alexandra Wright, "Judaism", in Holm and Bowker, ed., op. cit., pp. 128-129

 

82. Clara M. Henning, "Cannon Law and the Battle of the Sexes" in Rosemary R. Ruether, ed., Religion and Sexism: Images of Woman in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974) p. 272.

 

83. Donald B. Kraybill, The riddle of the Amish Culture (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989) p. 56.

 

84. Khalil Gibran, Thoughts and Meditations (New York: Bantam Books, 1960) p. 28.

 

85. The Times, Nov. 18, 1993.