An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love

Marie Carmichael Stopes‟ identity as the pioneer of family planning may come as a shock to many Muslims who regard contraceptive practices as forbidden. Her most influential book Married Love (1918) may cause a double fold negative impression among them as it is both a manual of sexual intercourse a...

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Main Author:	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English English English
Published:	2017
Subjects:	BP1075 Sex role HQ1101 Women. Feminism HQ1088 Men HQ12 Sexual life HQ450 Erotica HQ503 The family. Marriage. Home PR English literature
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/1/An%20Islamic%20reading%20of%20Marie%20Stopes%E2%80%99%20Married%20Love.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/4/paper_An%20Islamic%20reading%20of%20Marie%20Stopes%E2%80%99%20Married%20Love.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/29/57611_tentative.pdf

id	iium-57611
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-576112017-07-20T08:39:11Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/ An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love Hasan, Md. Mahmudul BP1075 Sex role HQ1101 Women. Feminism HQ1088 Men HQ12 Sexual life HQ450 Erotica HQ503 The family. Marriage. Home PR English literature Marie Carmichael Stopes‟ identity as the pioneer of family planning may come as a shock to many Muslims who regard contraceptive practices as forbidden. Her most influential book Married Love (1918) may cause a double fold negative impression among them as it is both a manual of sexual intercourse and a treatise of birth-control campaign. It puts equal importance on women‟s sexuality and erotic desire – a topic not widely discussed among Muslims in general. Stopes defied cultural conventions and gender norms by talking about sexual relations in a lurid form. She sought to help women “nearly normal” and “either married or about to be married” but “mired in ignorance … in pain and confusion” by way of informing them about female sexual health and orgasmic rights. As she states: “In my first marriage I paid such a terrible price for sex-ignorance that I feel that knowledge gained at such a cost should be placed at the service of humanity.” The book proved highly useful as it provides women with discreet advice about sexual conduct. It “was the most widely read manual of how to practise and achieve companionate marriage” for women to enjoy conjugal life and withstand men‟s sexual abuse. Despite that, upon publication in 1918, its reception among both the Church and the medical establishment in Britain was not very warm or enthusiastic. In today‟s Western society however, information on contraception as well as narratives of sexual experiences and attitudes has made its way into public consciousness. Conversely, even though Islam considers sex in marital relationship as an act of worship and encourages people to marry and not to lead celibate lives, many Muslim societies may regard Married Love as scandalous. Given this theoretical background and the need for a clear distinction between the normative teachings of Islam and the gender norms prevalent in Muslim societies, my paper will see whether or not the content of Married Love goes against Islamic teachings. It will especially look at Stopes‟ concepts of women‟s sexuality and family planning from an Islamic perspective. 2017-07-11 Conference or Workshop Item NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/1/An%20Islamic%20reading%20of%20Marie%20Stopes%E2%80%99%20Married%20Love.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/4/paper_An%20Islamic%20reading%20of%20Marie%20Stopes%E2%80%99%20Married%20Love.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/29/57611_tentative.pdf Hasan, Md. Mahmudul (2017) An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love. In: The International Centre for Victorian Women Writers (ICVWW): From Brontë to Bloomsbury Fourth International Conference: Reassessing Women’s Writing of the 1900s and 1910s, 10th-11th July 2017, Canterbury, United Kingdom. (Unpublished) https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-and-humanities/school-of-humanities/docs/conference-programme-2017.pdf
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English English English
topic	BP1075 Sex role HQ1101 Women. Feminism HQ1088 Men HQ12 Sexual life HQ450 Erotica HQ503 The family. Marriage. Home PR English literature
spellingShingle	BP1075 Sex role HQ1101 Women. Feminism HQ1088 Men HQ12 Sexual life HQ450 Erotica HQ503 The family. Marriage. Home PR English literature Hasan, Md. Mahmudul An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love
description	Marie Carmichael Stopes‟ identity as the pioneer of family planning may come as a shock to many Muslims who regard contraceptive practices as forbidden. Her most influential book Married Love (1918) may cause a double fold negative impression among them as it is both a manual of sexual intercourse and a treatise of birth-control campaign. It puts equal importance on women‟s sexuality and erotic desire – a topic not widely discussed among Muslims in general. Stopes defied cultural conventions and gender norms by talking about sexual relations in a lurid form. She sought to help women “nearly normal” and “either married or about to be married” but “mired in ignorance … in pain and confusion” by way of informing them about female sexual health and orgasmic rights. As she states: “In my first marriage I paid such a terrible price for sex-ignorance that I feel that knowledge gained at such a cost should be placed at the service of humanity.” The book proved highly useful as it provides women with discreet advice about sexual conduct. It “was the most widely read manual of how to practise and achieve companionate marriage” for women to enjoy conjugal life and withstand men‟s sexual abuse. Despite that, upon publication in 1918, its reception among both the Church and the medical establishment in Britain was not very warm or enthusiastic. In today‟s Western society however, information on contraception as well as narratives of sexual experiences and attitudes has made its way into public consciousness. Conversely, even though Islam considers sex in marital relationship as an act of worship and encourages people to marry and not to lead celibate lives, many Muslim societies may regard Married Love as scandalous. Given this theoretical background and the need for a clear distinction between the normative teachings of Islam and the gender norms prevalent in Muslim societies, my paper will see whether or not the content of Married Love goes against Islamic teachings. It will especially look at Stopes‟ concepts of women‟s sexuality and family planning from an Islamic perspective.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_facet	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_sort	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
title	An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love
title_short	An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love
title_full	An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love
title_fullStr	An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love
title_full_unstemmed	An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love
title_sort	islamic reading of marie stopes’ married love
publishDate	2017
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/1/An%20Islamic%20reading%20of%20Marie%20Stopes%E2%80%99%20Married%20Love.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/4/paper_An%20Islamic%20reading%20of%20Marie%20Stopes%E2%80%99%20Married%20Love.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/57611/29/57611_tentative.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T21:21:27Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T21:21:27Z
_version_	1777411909197234176

An Islamic reading of Marie Stopes’ married love

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