Reasoning The Sharīʿa and Constructing a Proper Muslim Woman: Reflections on the Issue of Chinese Muslim Women's Haircut in Republican China

Abstract

Abstract:The major Muslim group in China, the Hui, discussed the issue of haircut for Muslim women in their own newspapers and magazines in the 1930s. Authors of those publications include ordinary male and female Hui Muslims, Islamic clerics, and Muslim students from the new Islamic educational institutions. Based on various sources of Islamic jurisprudence (Sharīʿa), the participants put forward varying opinions on the issue. In this article, I have investigated the debate on the Hui women's haircut by assessing how the debate started and developed, and what it meant for a Hui Muslim woman to cut or not to cut her hair in relation to the Sharīʿa in the sociopolitical context of Republican China. I argue that different narratives tried to construct a proper Muslim woman, and furthermore, I also assess how Muslims in China during the Republican period defined their own identities of being Chinese and Muslim via debating on the "authentic" interpretation of the Sharīʿa. Finally, I point out that liberation of Chinese Muslim women is impossible unless there is comprehensive participation of them in the debate.摘要:在一九叁〇年代，作爲中國穆斯林主體的囘族在其創辦的各類報紙及雜志上討論了關於穆斯林女性剪髮的議題。參與這一討論的作者包括普通男女穆斯林，伊斯蘭神職人員，以及來自新式伊斯蘭教育機構的穆斯林學生們。基於多種伊斯蘭教法（沙里亞）法源，這些參與者們對該議題提出了不同的看法。本文就圍繞囘族婦女剪髮而產生的討論進行了研究，對其發生和發展進行了評價，并由此説明在民國時期特定的社會政治語境中，剪或者不剪髮對囘族穆斯林女性而言在教法上到底意味著什麽。我主張，首先，在這場辯論中各方不同的敘事都旨在建構一個合格的穆斯林女性。此外，我進一步研究了，民國時期的中國穆斯林是如何通過對所謂沙里亞"真正"含義的論辯來定義其作爲「中國人」與作爲「穆斯林」的身份認同的。最後，本文指出，如果沒有穆斯林女性自身在該討論中的全面參與，就不可能有穆斯林女性的解放。