Page - 125 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1

125 | www.limina-graz.eu hande Birkalan-Gedik | muslim | martyr | masculine the 9th century, a woman is considered a martyr if she dies while she is pregnant, while giving birth to her child or while she nurses a baby. Tabe- rani also recognizes the absence of female martyrs in Islam and argues that being obedient to a husband is equal to “jihad”9, the holy war. As such, in Islam and in reference to a battle or war, the martyr is mostly conceptual- ized within masculinist frameworks. An exception to this understanding can be found in the earlier days of Islam, when Yasir and his wife Sumeyye binti Habbat were martyred after repeatedly being tortured by Abu Djehil. Sumeyye binti Habbat, who was killed in 615, is the first female martyr in Islam. Therefore, Sumeyye binti Habbat is the closest possible female fig- ure to the female saints in Christianity who were killed in the name of re- ligion. On the other hand, the idea of women as female martyrs in war suggests a subversion of the heterosexual norms in Islam. Women are usually as- sociated with giving life (birth), not with death. In examining the absence of female martyrs in Afghanistan, Matthew Dearing identified three rea- sons for this: A permissive social and geographic environment in Afghani- stan gives insurgents freedom of mobility and the capacity for resistance, leading to less need for female suicide bombers. Secondly, he argues that a fiercely conservative culture restricts female participation in Afghan soci- ety and within insurgent organizations. Finally, the pronounced absence of a female culture of martyrdom excludes women from participation in insurgent actions and narratives (Dearing 2010). Similarly, Cook’s analysis of women fighting in Islam underlines that traditional authorities in Is- lam did not see women fighting except in the most extraordinary circum- stances, yet did not expressively forbid it. Cook looks at the classical reli- gious and legal literature to contextualize the arguments being made for women participating in the jihad in modern times. Yet, one cannot speak of a female hero in a similar way. Instead, roles avail- able to women are limited to being mothers of martyrs; not so much mar- tyrs themselves, as one can see, for example, in the Christian tradition, On the other hand, the idea of women as female martyrs in war suggests a subversion of the heterosexual norms in Islam. 9 http://www.dinimizislam.com/ detay.asp?Aid=2586 [accessed on 12  December 2018]. While the AKP tried to expand martyrdom on women, they are still stuck with familial discourses.