Leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance
Movement, Hamas, a branch of the Muslim
Brotherhood established in 1988 in Palestine, con-
curred with Qara∂àwì’s reasoning. But the Hamas
spiritual leader, Shaykh A™mad Yàsìn, said that
women need not be deployed so long as there are
men volunteering for such attacks. Sayyid Qu†b’s
thoughts on the subject of jihad are echoed in the
charter of Hamas. Article 12 of its charter declares
that jihad against the enemy is an individual obli-
gation of every Muslim man and woman when the
enemy invades the land of the Muslims. In this
situation, a woman can fight even without her hus-
band’s permission. Jihad, which the charter dis-
cusses in nationalist terms as being necessary to the
solution of the Palestinian problem, is expansively
defined in Article 30: “Jihadis not confined to car-
rying arms and clashing with the enemy. The good
word, the excellent article, the useful book, sup-
port, and aid – all that, too, is Jihadfor the sake of
Allah, as long as the intentions are sincere to make
Allah’s banner paramount.” A woman’s role in the
war of liberation is described as being no less than
that of men, but is focused on her reproductive and
domestic capabilities as a “manufacturer of men.”
Women are seen to play a major role in guiding
future generations by educating children so they
will be prepared for jihad (Mishal and Sela 2000,
182–95).
After women started carrying out suicide attacks,
the general response in Palestine was to say that it
was no surprise, as women have always been part
of the resistance against occupation, and continue
to be gravely oppressed, just as men are. This
directly contradicts those Western sources that
claim that these women have been exploited, and
their female fragility taken advantage of. It also
belies the Orientalist explanation of suicide
bombers which, disregarding political motivation
and sociohistorical context, holds that Middle
Eastern men are seduced to commit such acts, lured
by the promise of 70 doe-eyed virgins in heaven.
lebanon
Women have been active participants in other
resistance movements, including Amal and Hiz-
ballah (established in 1982), both Shì≠ìgroups
fighting in the Lebanese civil war (1975–91) and
against the Israeli occupation of Lebanon. In 1985,
a young woman drove a car full of explosives into
an Israeli checkpoint in Lebanon, killing two sol-
diers. Attitudes toward women’s participation sim-
ilar to those found in Palestine and Egypt were
voiced by Mùsàal-Íadr, founder of Amal, who said
that women complemented men’s role in the strug-
east asia, southeast asia, and australia 321gle, and equaled them in heroism, nobility, and
glory. Women’s primary responsibility was in the
domestic sphere, nurturing children, supporting
men, and preparing them for jihad, but they could
be called to fight if the political situation required
it (Shehadeh 1999). Contemporary women’s jihad
among Shì≠ìMuslims has been parsed into three
major forms: resistance jihad of those participating
in the Islamic Resistance, the personal jihad of self-
improvement and building self-confidence, and
gender jihad, which involves struggling for equity
between women and men (Deeb 2003).Bibliography
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Fla. 1999, 145–66.Lori A. AllenEast Asia, Southeast Asia, and AustraliaThis entry deals with modern interpretations and
expressions of jihad (literally meaning “struggle”)
and the role of Muslim women in jihad in East Asia,
Southeast Asia, and Australia. Muslim women
have been passionate defenders of religion in mul-
tiple ways, but most of them have placed less
emphasis on armed struggle against the infidels
than on the intellectual and moral struggle against
backwardness, poverty, and social injustice. Al-
though Muslim women agree on the universal
applicability of jihad and on the high position of
women in Islam, they interpret and apply jihad