Gender in Rabi’a

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Gender in Rabi’a Assignment: Provide an analysis of gender in Rabi’a. How does Rabi’a use gendered imagery and terminology in descriptions of her piety? Does Rabi’a simply restate cultural norms about the “weakness” of women, or does she challenge these norms? In what ways? (Gender can be defined as the culturally produced distinctions between masculinity and femininity, as well as the power relations or imbalances between masculinity and femininity in a particular cultural context). Rabi’a is a curious figure in Islamic literature. At the same time she assumes a passive role with regard to her ascetism, she also shows brashness at times that contradicts this role. She is deeply pious eschewing all aspects of the material world that does not directly relate to serving the almighty deity. She defends the deity to the point of even rebuking men for their ego. Yet, she uses the imagery of a weak woman at times, but this can be thought of as either a weak/old woman or rather the extreme modesty and understanding of a master teacher who can fully comprehend the vast unknown (Sells, 152). Rabi’a starts off in a poor family that befalls many tragedies and eventually causes her to be sold into slavery. When one day she falls and breaks her hand under the yoke of servitude, she says in a classically subservient role, “I am a stranger without mother or father, I am a captive and my hand is broken. None of this saddens me. All I need is for you to be pleased with me, to know whether you are pleased with me or not. “ (Sells, 156). This is very similar to a passive wife and an abusive husband. She only wants to know if he is pleased with her or not. Similarly, when confronted in the desert with the death of her donkey, she exclaimed, ”Do Kings treat a weak woman in this manner? You called me to Your house, then in the middle of the way, You
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