Women's Islamism has a life of its own!

The West often perceives Muslim women's participation in the Islamist (political Islam) and jihadist context as a forced participation, a victim subordinated to the ideas, ideologies and convictions of men, a weak submissive who follows her husband, brother, father to engage in political battle in the name of Islam or to wage holy war (jihad), a perception that is far removed from reality. In the context of Islam, both women and men move according to a role, and an assigned jurisprudential role, assigned to each of them by the Shari'a itself, the fulfilment of which guarantees them glory and the attainment of paradise and eternal life.

Far from being a victim and a subordinate, the Muslim woman in the aforementioned context has a participatory role, with a life of her own, which moves accordingly to a role very well determined in the light of the Shari'a, whose importance does not lag behind that of the man.

Zainab Al-Ghazali, is the quintessential example of the living participatory role with its own life and initiative in contemporary female Islam and is the most famous female figure in the history of Islam.

Zainab Al-Ghazali was born on 2 January 1919 in a small village in Egypt. She had a religious upbringing as her father, "Muhammad Al-Ghazali Al-Jubaili", one of the scholars of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, instilled in her qualities that remained with her throughout her life. One of them is her duty to defend the Messenger of God and his message (Islam).

Zainab loved her father, unlike religious men he taught her to be free with her own judgement and ability to choose - a fact that enabled her to stand up to her older brother when he objected to her continuing her studies.

When he was ten years old his father died, so he moved with his mother and siblings to live in Cairo. She struggled to complete her education despite her older brother's objection, which created in her a state of defiance towards the patriarchal Arab society, joining the Women's Union, which was led by Huda Shaarawy, and became one of the prominent members of the union, and was one of the most vocal advocates of women's liberation.

But an accident (fire) in which she almost lost her life changed her life, and as she explains it, when Allah saved her, she decided to leave the Women's Union and establish a Muslim women's association.

"Zainab Al-Ghazali" at the age of eighteen founded the "Muslim Women's Association" in 1937 A.D. and obtained a ministerial permit to establish fifteen mosques in which, in a short time, she had trained dozens of women preachers, holding 119 meetings per year to preach and spread the Islamic Dawa (Islamic message).

Zainab Al-Ghazali referred to the essence of her association and its objectives in her memoirs: "The Muslim Women's Association was founded in 1936 A.D. with the real objective of spreading the Dawa (the Islamic message) and working to restore an Islamic state for the Islamic ummah to rule the divine of Allah and empower itself in the land. No secular ruler has the right of custody of Muslims. The Muslim Women's Association, its message is to call to Islam and recruit men and women young and old to believe in its message and establish its state, ruling with the Shari'a that God has revealed.

Zainab was a Muslim woman who perceived the Islamic message with its Islamist dimension and understood that her role in this battle as a woman is not to take up arms or invade the men's camp but to educate and transmit the Islamic message with its true dimension (Islamist / Jihadist) and to make men and women aware of it and thus take the step to fight to restore the Islamic state of old (from the time of the Prophet of Islam).

Such is the role of women in the Islamist context in this case achieved in the person of Zaynab Al-Ghazali that Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the group, suggested that she join his association with the Brotherhood and head the Muslim Sisters Department in the group.

Zainab herself says in her famous memoir: "My connection with the Muslim Brotherhood dates back to 1937 A.D. ..... Almost six months after founding my association "Muslim Women, I had my first meeting with Mr. Hassan Al-Banna. It was after a lecture I gave at the House of the Muslim Brotherhood,..... he was on the threshold at the time and approached me ..... Hassan Al-Banna was looking to form a section for Muslim sisters, for his group (the Muslim Brotherhood) and after an introduction he made to me about the need to unite the ranks he invited me to head the Muslim Sisters Department. And this means integrating the new born at a price, my association "Muslim Women" and making it part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement," she said.

Zaynab Al-Ghazali rejected the idea of forming the organisation around a great leader. Therefore, far from feeling subordinate to one man or Islamist leader, she maintained her independence but maintained coordination between herself and the Brotherhood.

She commented on her refusal to join: "The meetings were repeated on more occasions where he insisted on his offer and I stuck to my opinion. It was clear to me that I can give more to the Islamist cause by keeping my association separate and offering to cooperate with Al-Banna and his group.

Zainab Al-Ghazali continues: "At our last meeting, I tried to alleviate their anger by making a vow. That my association, the Muslim women, should be one of the pillars of the Muslim Brotherhood, as long as it remains independent, because in this way, in my opinion, I can offer a lot of benefit to the Dawa.

Thus Zainab continued, moving on, following her own criteria and convictions.

Zainab says: "Events unfolded quickly, the disaster of 1948 happened, and the decision was taken by the Egyptian government to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhood group, confiscate their money, lock up their people and arrest thousands of people. For the first time, I found myself eager to review all of Professor Al-Banna's opinions and his insistence on integrating my group into his.  The morning after the dissolution of the Brotherhood, I was in my office at the Muslim Women's Association in the same room where I had my last meeting with Al-Banna, I found myself sitting at my desk and placing my head in my hand and crying so hard, I felt that Hasan Al-Banna was right, that we all intend to fight to make jihad and thus give back to the Islamic Ummah its victory.

I felt that Hassan Al-Banna was stronger than me, more outspoken in spreading and declaring the truth. This courage and boldness is the robe that every Muslim should wear. Al-Banna wore it and asked for it and I decided that the time has come for me to give him my oath of allegiance and follow him.

Thus Zainab decides of her own free will and great reflection to follow Hassan Al-Banna. Zainab says: "I met Al-Banna and said to him as we were climbing the stairs: I give you my Baya (I swear allegiance to you) to work for the establishment of the state of Islam, ready to give my life for the cause" and Al-Banna replied: I accept your oath of allegiance".

Thus Zainab al-Ghazali swore allegiance to Hassan al-Banna in late 1948, and became a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hassan al-Banna assigned her an important role in mediating between the Brotherhood and the Wafd. leader, Mustafa al-Nahhas, then Prime Minister of Egypt.

After Hassan al-Banna's death, Zainab continued to fight for her Islamist cause, adjusting her role as a Muslim woman to prepare generations able to grasp and answer the call of jihad: Zainab says: ".... We meet with the youth of the Brotherhood and study books of jurisprudence, Sunnah, hadith and interpretation.

(...) The purpose of the study is to create solid foundations in the Muslim youth, with the intention of restoring the glory of Islam and the establishment of its nation on earth.

After a long study, we decided to reorganise the Muslim Brotherhood to work and persevere in gathering as many as we can of the nation's youth who are lost in society.

We decided that this work would take thirteen years. Then we evaluate, and if we find that the youth who are prepared according to the principles of Islam, their percentage is less than 25%. We renew the period of education for another thirteen years, and then we repeat a second, third and fourth evaluation until the percentage reaches 75% of the total population . Then we call for jihad and the establishment of an Islamic state".

This is Zainab an example of female Islamism committed to its role in the Islamist and jihadist battle.

Zainab Al-Ghazali married twice in her life; the first was in 1942, to a Sufi sheikh. The marriage lasted only two years, due to her objection to his activity and then she married a second time to a prominent businessman, Muhammad Salem Salem, who died in 1966, and did not marry after him until her death in 2005, in Cairo, at the age of 88. Her funeral took place on 4 August 2005, at the Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque in the Nasr City neighbourhood of East Cairo.