This chapter explored the analytical methodologies and the research design employed to gather and analyse data in order to meet the research aims of analysing the discursive representations of Muslim women’s sexual agency in online fatwas.
Through a purposeful sampling approach, six fatwas were selected for analysis. Two were answered by Desai himself and two were similar petitions answered by his students. In addition, two petitions, which were the only ones in the sample generated by the same petitioner, were included to provide insights into the deconstruction step of fatwa analysis.
Data was sourced from the website through a process of micro-archiving and produced through a content analysis of the fatwas and a textual analysis of selected fatwas. The production and analysis of data utilized both legal interpretive analytical frameworks grounded in classical Islamic methodology and an FPDA approach. The former strategy locates the work within a traditional methodological lineage, while the latter has a transformative agenda, making space for competing, multiple and different voices and accounts as well as subordinate ones. The intention was to extract discourses, locate knowledge and power, and plot social relationships and multiple subject positions in order to add insights to the aims of the research study.
CHAPTER FIVE: SEXUAL RIGHTS: MALE SEXUAL NEED AND FEMALE DUTY
After applying the analytical tools to the fatwas, and with the first objective of this study in mind, namely to identify the discursive construction of sexual agency in the fatwas, my analysis began by identifying discourses in the data gathered, for which I was to re-read the fatwas and my raw data notes many times. It was through subsequent re-readings that categories finally emerged from the data. I remained cognizant of the notion of “authorial fictionalizing”, so that I did not impose discourses on the data (Baxter 2003).
Bearing in mind that “…discourses are always connected to other discourses which were produced earlier, as well as to those that are produced synchronically or subsequently”, branded as the “the intertexuality of a text”, four main discourses (some with sub-categories) of women’s sexual agency in the context of their sexual reproductive health rights were identified, both individually and intertexually (Fairclough and Wodak 1997: 276). These were identified as discourses of sexual rights (formulated as male sexual need and female sexual satisfaction), a discourse of mutuality, and a discourse of health and wellbeing. In the fatwas the discourse of sexual rights is gendered, so that for husbands the discourse was constructed as one of male sexual need and female sexual responsibility to fulfil that need, and for wives it was constructed as female sexual satisfaction and a male obligation to fulfil. Both these discourses also intersect with the remaining two discourses of mutuality and health and well-being as will be seen.
Though the chapter includes a number of other fatwas, the analysis focuses on a fatwa that best portrays the discourse of male sexual need. The remaining discourses are addressed in subsequent chapters.
5.1 “If a Husband Ask to his Wife for Sex, and if she Refused”
The insistence of men’s sexual needs and wives responsibility to fulfil them has competed for prominence in modern intra-Muslim discourses on sex, with the recognition of female sexual needs (Ali 2006: 9).
The discourse that prioritises male sexual need and its inter-textual links with the other discourses identified in this study is best illustrated in fatwa C67 published on October 2009 (seeAppendix 1). In this section I will only deal with the first enquiry in the petition. The second one will be dealt with in chapter eight.
Questions
1- “ if a husband ask to his wife for sex, and if she refused oftenly. with reasons that she is not in mood, and after this, if husband indulge in some other immoral and sinful activities, then what would be position of both in front of ALLAH?
2- if a muslim, dont want to live , due to extra stress ,pain, and unhappines in his life, can he commit suicide ? is there any possibility that ALLAH forgive his sin, as he is aksing to ALLAH to resolve his problems but ALLAH didnt.
Answer 1
When a husband and wife make nikaah Allah Ta’ala grants certain rights and privileges to one over the other. It is the duty of the man to provide shelter for the woman and to take care of her needs. Similarly, it is necessary for the woman to obey her husband at all times and to respect his authority over her.
Rasulullah has mentioned
“If I had to command anyone to make Sajdah (prostrate) to another person, I would of instructed the woman to make Sajdah to her husband”
Rasulullah also mentioned
When a man calls his wife to bed and she refuses, he then spends the night upset and angry with her, the angels curse her till the morning.”
If a woman has a valid reason for not responding positively to her husband, she should discuss this with him.
If there is no valid reason for not responding to him, she should rather obey him and save herself from the curses of the angels. However, if she does not offer herself to her husband, it
67 Askimam.org. 2011. Fatwa # 18350, 2009. Available from:
< http://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/18350>. [Accessed 15 October 2015]
does not give him the right to abuse his chastity and to involve himself in any illicit relations.
If he commits any evil or immoral act, he will be responsible for his own actions and answerable for it on the day of Qiyaamah….
And Allah knows best Wassalaamu `alaykum Ml. Rayhaan Docrat, Student Darul Iftaa Checked and Approved by:
Mufti Ebrahim Desai
Darul Iftaa, Madrassah In'aamiyyah