Untitled Essay, Research Paper
The Record Set Straight: Women in Islam have rights
By Noha Ragab
What do women and Islam have in common? Besides the stereotyped images that
each suffers from individually, the status of women in Islam is one of the
most extremely misunderstood and incorrectly portrayed things in western
society. We can investigate why this is so later. First, a brief introduction
to the actual status of women in Islam is in order.
Before discussing issues pertinent to the social status of women, consider
the original creation of the woman as portrayed by the Quoran (the Islamic
holy book) which does not subscribe to the view that Eve was created from
the crooked rib of Adam and thus is of inferior status: “O humankind, be
conscious of your Sustainer who has created you out of one living entity,
and out of it created its mate, and out of the two spread abroad a multitude
of men and women.” Instead, the verse of the Quoran shows that there is no
superiority for one sex over the other. This sets the tone for the status
of women in Islam.
The concept of gender equality in Islam is stressed by the non-superiority
of either sex over the other. It came at a time when it was necessary to
elevate the demeaned status of women and grant them rights equal to those
of men. The equality of women in Islam is evident by the unprecedented legal
rights given to them under a monotheistic religion as defined in the Quoran.
As one of many examples, consider the rights of women in marriage and divorce.
Both men and women have equal rights to contract a marriage as well as to
dissolve it. The precondition of marriage is merely the mutual agreement
by both parties. And unlike Christianity, a woman in Islam can divorce her
husband at any time if she feels that she has been dealt with unjustly or
even if she is just unhappy with her spouse since marriage is based upon
mutual responsibilities toward each other. Islam has also ensured the woman’s
right to remarry pending a three month refrainment period.
As for social rights, Islam has always recognized the prominent role that
women play in society. They are given the freedom to pursue any profession
including political positions. Both in the past and present day, women in
Islamic societies have reached political heights unparalleled in the most
“advanced” western nations. Even in the earliest day of Islam, Aysha, the
daughter of the prophet, lead an army of 30,000 soldiers. Currently, women
lead two Islamic countries: Benazir Bhutto has served as the prime minister
of Pakistan since 1988 and has been a strong and remarkable leader. Turkey
is also headed by a Muslim woman, Tansu Ciller, who was elected the prime
minister in 1993. Here in the U.S., we still have never had a female president
and the outlook doesn’t look too good either.
Those are just a few of the facts. Why then is Islam portrayed as a religion
that oppresses women and puts them in a position inferior to men? Part of
that is certainly due to the stereotyped image of how Islamic women are portrayed
in western media as an extension of Islam-bashing. A prominent example is
the movie “Not Without My Daughter” in which scores of false and fictitious
depictions were made of women in an Islamic country. It is also true, however,
that in many so called “Islamic” countries, women are not treated according
to their God-given rights. But this is not the fault of Islamic ideology
but rather the misapplication or sometimes the outright denial of the ideology
in these societies.
Much of the practices and laws in “Islamic” countries have deviated from
or are totally unrelated to the origins of Islam. Instead many of these practices
are based on cultural or traditional customs which have been injected into
these societies. For example, in Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive
by law. This rule, in a country which is supposed to derive its law from
Islamic legislation, is completely an invention of the Saudi monarchy. This
horrific rule as well as a host of others are residues of old pre-Islamic
tribal traditions where women were not entitled to the same rights as men.
As another example, in some “Islamic” countries, many civil laws remain those
that were imposed upon them during European colonization. Much of the civil
law that legislates personal and family matters in Egypt, for example, is
directly based on old French law. As a result, an Egyptian man can divorce
his wife much more easily than the reverse. Consequently, women often have
to suffer long and expensive court procedures and have to prove that they
were mistreated by their husbands before being granted a divorce. Often times,
laws in Middle Eastern countries, which are legislated and enforced by men,
only take bits and pieces of Islamic law and combine them