Cape Town – A well-known Cape Town Imam has come under fire for derogatory and sexist language used in videos made public, which have since been widely shared on social media since their release on Friday.
In one video, which has sparked widespread public disapproval, resident Imam at Masjidus-Sabr in Parkwood, Dawood Sampson, announced his upcoming nuptials and second marriage, taking place next Friday.
The Imam was criticised over the language used and disrespectfully referring to women as “hens”. In another video promoting his upcoming marriage classes, the Imam said: “A wife is cute when she is mute”.
This led to the creation of an online petition urging the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) to address toxic masculinity at the hands of Muslim leaders.
In a statement released on Saturday, the MJC said it had reached out to Dawood and requested he make an apology and withdraw the statements.
Women’s Legal Centre director Sehaam Samaai said it was time to take on misogynistic behaviour and that the incident provided an opportune time for the Islamic clergy to step up women-centred educational programs.
“Men working in mosques should have studied the Qur’an and the Sunnah, so they should be best equipped to deal with concepts such as misogyny, sexism and patriarchy. However, as stated earlier, we live in a patriarchal society where culture and tradition often obfuscates the duty of a man in terms of the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah.”
Samaai said reform within Islamic institutions was needed.
“One place to start would be more representation of women at Ulema bodies, mosque committees and Islamic education centres.”
Chairperson of the Islamic Unity Convention Women’s Forum Magboeba Davids said Sampson had brought into disrepute the well-defined purpose of polygamy and perpetuated long-standing postures of misogyny in the Muslim community.
“In another video, which he made and wilfully distributed, he says women are best when they are mute. The community of Parkwood, where he serves, struggles with gender-based violence – as is the experience of mothers and daughters all over this country. It is therefore received with deep revulsion that this religious leader would perpetrate such vile speech. It is particularly worrying that he runs a school for young Islamic girls and also gives lessons in marriage. This is the type of behaviour which requires us to collectively take a stand against it.”
Women of Waqf co-founder Shameelah Khan asked: “How are we living in 2020 and still being confronted with violent, misogynistic language from the very leaders who should be protecting us from it and speaking out against it?”
Khan said collaboration between men and women, with more women occupying positions within Islamic structures, would be a beginning to ‘unlearning’, and that reform was not separate from healing.
In his apology video, Sampson said: “It was never my intention to offend. It was regrettably misconstrued to undermine and be disrespectful to our women. Sometimes it is not good to say things in jest.”
Cape Argus