Women and bicycling in Islam: Difference between revisions

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Bicycling in Islam is a topic of heated discussion in both Sunni and Shia Islam, primarily regarding the practice by Muslim women. Scholars primarily have concerns surrounding modesty (not revealing the body) and mobility (social control).

Religious scholars primary concerns is that bicycling, especially in public spaces, would lead to increased sexual promiscuity.^[1] This belief extends from a reading of the Quran which requires women to protect their chastity, this reading originally prohibited horseback riding and extended to cycling.^[2]

This had resulted Saudi Arabia bans the use of bicycles by women except in restricted recreational areas.^[3] To address modesty concerns, a proposed Iranian version of a women's bicycle would have a "boxy contraption that hides a woman's lower body."^[4] In Iran, it is currently forbidden for women to ride bicycles out of concerns for modesty, and advocates of women cyclists have been attacked by vigilantes.^[5]

Critics condemn bicycle bans and the proposed Iranian version as tools of oppression.^[6]^[7] Traditions record that Muhammad encouraged parents to teach their children swimming, riding and archery.^[8]^[9] There is a commonly shared hadith that recounts a race between Muhammad and his wife, Aisha.^[10] Persian miniatures show Muslim women jointly playing polo with men in the same field.^[11]

History

Cycling was likely first introduced to the Islamic world by Western travelers such as William Sachtelben in the early 1890's.^[12] According to Alon Raab. professor of Religious Studies at UC Davis, opposition to cycling in the Ottoman Empire was quick to form from conservatives and religious fundamentalists who frequently criticized bicycles as the Devil’s Chariot.^[13] Orthodox scholars claimed that that cycling would harm reproductive organs, embolden sexual permissiveness and lead to the destruction of the family.^[13] Raab additionally notes that their unmentioned objective was to restrain women in their homes and to restrict non supervised contact among men and women.^[13] Raab says that many Muslim religioums authorities castigated women cycling as bid’ah (any technical innovation deemed heretical).^[13] Raab remarks that in some places women cycling was not only criticized in media and laws, but in some places female cyclists faced physical assaults. Raab continues to say that, in spite of opposition from conservative camp, early 20th century women in the Ottoman Empire persevered to adopt cycling for varied purposes with new sense of freedom.^[13] Feminist activists' struggles for liberation, like Fatma Aliye Topuz, were helped by the bicycle.^[13]

As per 1977 book 'Women in the Arab World' written by Egyptian feminist Dr. Nawal El Saadawi, Arab culture used to place undue importance on female virginity, any girl's tearing away of hymen due to sports activities like cycling or horse riding had to face very negative consequences in her family life and social stature.^[14]

Current attitudes and legal status

In Yemen, many remain hostile to the ideal of women cyclists, remarking that "women riding bicycles is far worse than the current war."^[15]

In Saudi Arabia, women are banned from cycling for transportation purposes, cycling may only be done as recreation, and remains under various religious restrictions.^[16]

In Iran, cycling in public spaces is currently banned under a fatwa since 2016, however there is widespread resistance to this order amongst Iranian women. ^[17]

Bibliography

White, Nóra. 'Cycling as Resistance: Women living under Islamic Authoritarianism', Vol. 5 No. 1 (2021-12-06): Trinity Women & Gender Minorities Review V Link PDF
Lily Song, Mariel Kirschen and John Taylor. Gender and cycling in Solo, Indonesia. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography Volume 40, Issue 1 p. 140-157 (13 July 2018) https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12257
Hossain Mohiuddin, Shaila Jamal, Md Musfiqur Rahman Bhuiya, To bike or not to bike: Exploring cycling for commuting and non-commuting in Bangladesh, Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Volume 14, 2022, ISSN 2590-1982, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2022.100614
Raab Alon, Women cycling in the Middle East url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003142041-52/wheels-fire-alon-raab work=Routledge Companion to Cycling doi=10.4324/9781003142041-52/wheels-fire-alon-raab

References

^ Mehrabi, Ehsan (22 October 2020). "مخالفت با دوچرخه سواری زنان در ایران؛ "دختر تهرانی مثل دختر چینی نیست"". BBC News Persian (in Farsi). Retrieved 9 February 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
^ Backer, Larry Catá (2007). Harmonizing Law in an Era of Globalization Convergence, Divergence, and Resistance. Carolina Academic Press. p. 285. ISBN 978-0-89089-585-6.
^ Quan, Kristene (3 April 2013). "Saudi Women Can Now Ride Bicycles in Public (Kind of)". Time. New York. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
^ Slackman, Michael (9 September 2007). "Molding the Ideal Islamic Citizen". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
^ Theodoulou, Michael (24 October 2010). "Women Cyclists Face Jail, Warns Iranian Police Chief". The National. Abu Dhabi. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
^ Milani, Farzaneh (28 June 2007). "'Islamic Bicycle' Can't Slow Iranian Women". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on 24 February 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
^ Lloyd, Sophie (25 October 2016). "A Woman's Right to Bike". Ms. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
^ Al-Hassani, Salim (Spring 2012). "A 1000 Years Amnesia: Sports in Muslim Heritage". MuslimHeritage.com. Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
^ "Teach your children swimming, archery and horse riding". Hadith Answers. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
^ Kipnis, Hillary; Caudwell, Jayne (2015). "The Boxers of Kabul: Women, Boxing and Islam". In Channon, Alex (ed.). Global Perspectives on Women in Combat Sports: Women Warriors around the World. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 45. ISBN 9781137439369.
^ Al-Hassani, Salim (Spring 2012). "A 1000 Years Amnesia: Sports in Muslim Heritage". MuslimHeritage.com. Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
^ Allen, Thomas Gaskell; Sachtleben, William Lewis (1894). Across Asia on a Bicycle. p. 14. ISBN 978-1587420207.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Raab, Alon (31 October 2022), "Wheels of Fire", Routledge Companion to Cycling (1 ed.), London: Routledge, pp. 396–398, doi:10.4324/9781003142041-52, ISBN 978-1-003-14204-1, retrieved 7 February 2023, ".. Fatma Aliye Topuz's struggle for liberation was aided by the bicycle, a vehicle that became for her, and for many other women across the Ottoman Middle East, a path of personal and social transformation. Bicycles were an important part of the emerging feminist movement in the region.The first cyclists in the region were western travellers, starting in the 1880s, including several women, notably globe-trotting American Annie Londonderry in 1894–95. Bicycles elicited curiosity and a desire by many to participate. .. As cost went down, .. Cyclists soon appeared in other large regional urban centers and in eastern Mediterranean port cities with diverse populations, vibrant economic and cultural exchanges, with many citizens adopting European practices, including mixed gender sociability, conditions conducive to the introduction of bicycles.As in other lands, opposition to cycling was quick to appear, mostly from conservative elements and religious fundamentalists who often labeled it the Devil's Chariot. Several Muslim religious authorities designated it as bid'ah (any technological innovation deemed heretical) with bans on cycling in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In other places most of the attacks – expressed in the press but also in laws and physical assaults on riders – were directed at women cyclists. Claims that cycling harms reproductive organs, encourages sexual permissiveness and the destruction of the family were common. Unstated was the desire to confine women to their homes and to prevent unsupervised meetings between men and women. Still, women cyclists persisted. Across the empire bicycles became prevalent in studio photography, a symbol of middle-class respectability and openness to modern ideas. By travelling unchaperoned to school, work, exercise and sometimes assignations with their beloved, the bicycle offered Ottoman women cyclists a new sense of freedom of mobility that extended to other areas of life. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of the Republic of Turkey were a boon to women's greater participation in public life and greater visibility in public space. The latter included a dramatic increase in the number of women cycling, encouraged by the inclusion of physical education classes in schools and more positive portrayals of female riders in the press, literature and films.
^ Saʻdāwī, Nawāl. (2007). The very fine membrane called 'honour' (New ed ed.). London: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-84277-874-6. OCLC 81453459. .. No girl can suffer a worst fate than she whom nature has forgotten to provide with a hymen, or whose hymen is so delicate that it is torn away and lost by repeated riding on a bicycle or a horse, or by masturbation, or one of those minor accidents that happen so often in childhood .. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); |work= ignored (help)
^ "Yemen: Women get on their bikes for their rights". Oxfam International. 25 May 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
^ "Saudi Arabian Women Get Their First-Ever Bike Race". Bicycling. 23 April 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
^ Cockburn, Paige (21 September 2016). "Iranian women hit the pedals to protest against fatwa banning female cycling". ABC News Australia. Retrieved 9 February 2023.

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[1] Mehrabi, Ehsan (22 October 2020). "مخالفت با دوچرخه سواری زنان در ایران؛ "دختر تهرانی مثل دختر چینی نیست"". BBC News Persian (in Farsi). Retrieved 9 February 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

[2] Backer, Larry Catá (2007). Harmonizing Law in an Era of Globalization Convergence, Divergence, and Resistance. Carolina Academic Press. p. 285. ISBN 978-0-89089-585-6.

[3] Quan, Kristene (3 April 2013). "Saudi Women Can Now Ride Bicycles in Public (Kind of)". Time. New York. Retrieved 2 June 2020.

[4] Slackman, Michael (9 September 2007). "Molding the Ideal Islamic Citizen". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2020.

[5] Theodoulou, Michael (24 October 2010). "Women Cyclists Face Jail, Warns Iranian Police Chief". The National. Abu Dhabi. Retrieved 8 March 2014.

[6] Milani, Farzaneh (28 June 2007). "'Islamic Bicycle' Can't Slow Iranian Women". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on 24 February 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.

[7] Lloyd, Sophie (25 October 2016). "A Woman's Right to Bike". Ms. Retrieved 2 June 2020.

[MuslimHeritage-8] Al-Hassani, Salim (Spring 2012). "A 1000 Years Amnesia: Sports in Muslim Heritage". MuslimHeritage.com. Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation. Retrieved 30 June 2015.

[9] "Teach your children swimming, archery and horse riding". Hadith Answers. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.

[10] Kipnis, Hillary; Caudwell, Jayne (2015). "The Boxers of Kabul: Women, Boxing and Islam". In Channon, Alex (ed.). Global Perspectives on Women in Combat Sports: Women Warriors around the World. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 45. ISBN 9781137439369.

[MuslimHeritage2-11] Al-Hassani, Salim (Spring 2012). "A 1000 Years Amnesia: Sports in Muslim Heritage". MuslimHeritage.com. Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation. Retrieved 30 June 2015.

[12] Allen, Thomas Gaskell; Sachtleben, William Lewis (1894). Across Asia on a Bicycle. p. 14. ISBN 978-1587420207.

[:0-13] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Raab, Alon (31 October 2022), "Wheels of Fire", Routledge Companion to Cycling (1 ed.), London: Routledge, pp. 396–398, doi:10.4324/9781003142041-52, ISBN 978-1-003-14204-1, retrieved 7 February 2023, ".. Fatma Aliye Topuz's struggle for liberation was aided by the bicycle, a vehicle that became for her, and for many other women across the Ottoman Middle East, a path of personal and social transformation. Bicycles were an important part of the emerging feminist movement in the region.The first cyclists in the region were western travellers, starting in the 1880s, including several women, notably globe-trotting American Annie Londonderry in 1894–95. Bicycles elicited curiosity and a desire by many to participate. .. As cost went down, .. Cyclists soon appeared in other large regional urban centers and in eastern Mediterranean port cities with diverse populations, vibrant economic and cultural exchanges, with many citizens adopting European practices, including mixed gender sociability, conditions conducive to the introduction of bicycles.As in other lands, opposition to cycling was quick to appear, mostly from conservative elements and religious fundamentalists who often labeled it the Devil's Chariot. Several Muslim religious authorities designated it as bid'ah (any technological innovation deemed heretical) with bans on cycling in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In other places most of the attacks – expressed in the press but also in laws and physical assaults on riders – were directed at women cyclists. Claims that cycling harms reproductive organs, encourages sexual permissiveness and the destruction of the family were common. Unstated was the desire to confine women to their homes and to prevent unsupervised meetings between men and women. Still, women cyclists persisted. Across the empire bicycles became prevalent in studio photography, a symbol of middle-class respectability and openness to modern ideas. By travelling unchaperoned to school, work, exercise and sometimes assignations with their beloved, the bicycle offered Ottoman women cyclists a new sense of freedom of mobility that extended to other areas of life. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the birth of the Republic of Turkey were a boon to women's greater participation in public life and greater visibility in public space. The latter included a dramatic increase in the number of women cycling, encouraged by the inclusion of physical education classes in schools and more positive portrayals of female riders in the press, literature and films.

[14] Saʻdāwī, Nawāl. (2007). The very fine membrane called 'honour' (New ed ed.). London: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-84277-874-6. OCLC 81453459. .. No girl can suffer a worst fate than she whom nature has forgotten to provide with a hymen, or whose hymen is so delicate that it is torn away and lost by repeated riding on a bicycle or a horse, or by masturbation, or one of those minor accidents that happen so often in childhood .. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); |work= ignored (help)

[15] "Yemen: Women get on their bikes for their rights". Oxfam International. 25 May 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2023.

[16] "Saudi Arabian Women Get Their First-Ever Bike Race". Bicycling. 23 April 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2023.

[17] Cockburn, Paige (21 September 2016). "Iranian women hit the pedals to protest against fatwa banning female cycling". ABC News Australia. Retrieved 9 February 2023.

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 This had resulted [[Women%27s_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia#Mobility|Saudi Arabia bans the use of bicycles by women]] except in restricted recreational areas.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://world.time.com/2013/04/03/saudi-women-can-now-ride-bicycles-in-public-kind-of/|title=Saudi Women Can Now Ride Bicycles in Public (Kind of)|date=3 April 2013|work=Time|location=New York|last=Quan |first=Kristene |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref> To address modesty concerns, a proposed Iranian version of a women's bicycle would have a "boxy contraption that hides a woman's lower body."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/weekinreview/09slackman.html|title=Molding the Ideal Islamic Citizen|date=9 September 2007|last=Slackman|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Slackman|newspaper=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613114721/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/weekinreview/09slackman.html|archive-date=13 June 2015|access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref> In Iran, it is currently forbidden for women to ride bicycles out of concerns for modesty, and advocates of women cyclists have been attacked by [[vigilante]]s.<ref>{{cite news |last=Theodoulou |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Theodoulou |date=24 October 2010 |title=Women Cyclists Face Jail, Warns Iranian Police Chief |work=The National |location=Abu Dhabi |url=http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/women-cyclists-face-jail-warns-iranian-police-chief |accessdate=8 March 2014}}</ref>
-Critics condemn bicycle bans and the proposed Iranian version as tools of [[oppression]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Milani |first=Farzaneh |author-link=Farzaneh Milani |date=28 June 2007 |title='Islamic Bicycle' Can't Slow Iranian Women |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-06-28-iranian-bicycle-women_N.htm |newspaper=USA Today |location=McLean, Virginia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224121257/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-06-28-iranian-bicycle-women_N.htm |archive-date=24 February 2020 |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Lloyd |first=Sophie |date=25 October 2016 |title=A Woman's Right to Bike |url=http://msmagazine.com/blog/2016/10/25/womans-right-bike-iranian-women-rebelling-cycle-ban/ |work=Ms. |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref>
+Critics condemn bicycle bans and the proposed Iranian version as tools of [[oppression]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Milani |first=Farzaneh |author-link=Farzaneh Milani |date=28 June 2007 |title='Islamic Bicycle' Can't Slow Iranian Women |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-06-28-iranian-bicycle-women_N.htm |newspaper=USA Today |location=McLean, Virginia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224121257/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-06-28-iranian-bicycle-women_N.htm |archive-date=24 February 2020 |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Lloyd |first=Sophie |date=25 October 2016 |title=A Woman's Right to Bike |url=http://msmagazine.com/blog/2016/10/25/womans-right-bike-iranian-women-rebelling-cycle-ban/ |work=Ms. |access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref> Traditions record that Muhammad encouraged parents to teach their children swimming, riding and archery.<ref name="MuslimHeritage">{{Cite web |last=Al-Hassani |first=Salim |date=Spring 2012 |title=A 1000 Years Amnesia: Sports in Muslim Heritage |url=http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/1000-years-amnesia-sports-muslim-heritage |accessdate=30 June 2015 |website=MuslimHeritage.com |publisher=Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-03-07 |title=Teach your children swimming, archery and horse riding |language=en-US |newspaper=Hadith Answers |url=http://hadithanswers.com/teach-your-children-swimming-archery-and-horse-riding/ |access-date=2016-11-24}}</ref> There is a commonly shared ''[[hadith]]'' that recounts a race between Muhammad and his wife, Aisha.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kipnis |first=Hillary |title=Global Perspectives on Women in Combat Sports: Women Warriors around the World |last2=Caudwell |first2=Jayne |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=9781137439369 |editor-last=Channon |editor-first=Alex |pages=45 |chapter=The Boxers of Kabul: Women, Boxing and Islam}}</ref> Persian miniatures show Muslim women jointly playing polo with men in the same field.<ref name="MuslimHeritage2">{{Cite web |last=Al-Hassani |first=Salim |date=Spring 2012 |title=A 1000 Years Amnesia: Sports in Muslim Heritage |url=http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/1000-years-amnesia-sports-muslim-heritage |accessdate=30 June 2015 |website=MuslimHeritage.com |publisher=Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation}}</ref>
 == History ==

Revision as of 12:12, 10 February 2023

History

Current attitudes and legal status

See also

Bibliography

References