Women’s Rights in Islam

February 18, 2009 by BT

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Women’s Rights in Islam
By Babar Taimoor

‘Women’s rights in Islam’ is an extremely controversial issue. On the one hand there are Western academics, intellectuals and scholars who project the view, especially in the mass media, that Islamic law is exploitative towards women and gives them an inferior or secondary status as compared to men. They claim that Islamic law is discriminatory, inhumane and degrading and that it restricts the freedom of women which is automatically guaranteed in Western societies functioning under liberal constitutions. Islamic law should be should be updated and liberalized so that women in Islamic societies can enjoy the same freedom and equal rights as enjoyed by men and women in the West.

On the other hand, Muslim scholars and intellectuals, both men and women, assert that the rights of women, as laid out in the Quran fourteen hundred years ago, give men and women an equal and fair basis for interaction in all aspects of life. They claim that Islamic law protects the honor and dignity of women, is universally applicable in all human societies and is valid for all time to come. It gives both men and women an equal status and is not discriminatory at all. If anything, Islam gives women complete independence and freedom in their economic, social, personal, political and other realms of life. Their counter charge is that Western talk of women’s liberation and equality “is actually a disguised form of exploitation of her body, deprivation of her honor and degradation of her soul.”

The purpose of this paper is not to prove one point of view to be correct as opposed to the other. Instead it is a study from the perspective of intercultural communication. What are the factors contributing to the lack of understanding between the two cultures regarding each other’s view of women’s rights? What is the difference in “equal rights for women” as defined by the Islamic civilization as compared to the Western civilization? More specifically, I will examine the authentic sources of Islamic law and present the Islamic point of view regarding the status and rights of women. What are the rights given to women under the Shariah? Are these rights discriminatory? Do they relegate Muslim women to an inferior position as compared to Muslim men? What is the underlying philosophy, which forms the basis of women’s rights in Islam and how is it different from Western philosophy regarding the rights of women? These are some of the questions that I seek to address in this paper.

Approach – A hindrance to Intercultural understanding:

Today, approximately one-fifth of the world’s population is made up of Muslims, who are spread out across the globe in different countries. Unfortunately, a lot of the analysis on the rights of women in Islam is focused on the practices and gender relations as observed in different Muslim societies. This is a flawed approach, as empirical research on the condition of Muslim women can at best only show how women currently exist in different Islamic societies and cultures; and not how they should exist. It is more often the case that what is practiced is at considerable deviance from what has been prescribed. So the researcher usually ends up with a distorted picture of the status given to women in Islam. Saying that Muslim societies in present day Egypt, Saudi Arabia or India treat their women as secondary citizens is one thing. But, saying that Islamic law prescribes this is an altogether different claim.

The correct approach towards understanding the rights given to Muslim women is to examine the authentic sources of Islam – the Quran and the Sunnah. Muslims consider the Quran to be the uncontestable and final word of Allah (Allah), as revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the 7th century AD. It is a complete code of life and provides guidance on every issue and situation one can possibly encounter in life. The Quran is unalterable because Allah himself says in the Quran that he will protect it for all time to come. Sunnah or the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), consist of three things – the sayings of the Prophet, the actions of the Prophet and those things which the Prophet did not object to when they happened in his presence – that is he gave tacit approval for them. For the purpose of this paper, I will limit my analysis to the main source of Islam – the holy Quran. Because of the huge size and complexity of the topic, it is impossible to analyze all relevant aspects and issues or even one source of information in complete detail. Hence, my approach will be to focus specifically on the main source and to analyze selected verses from it to throw light on some of the more controversial aspects of the status given to women by Islam.

Methodology - A hindrance to intercultural understanding:

There are two main types of verses in the Quran -- contextual and normative verses. The Quran was revealed in a particular socio-cultural environment. So, even though it was meant as guidance for all humanity, to be effective, its message had to be of direct, practical relevance in the lives of the people to whom it was revealed. Therefore, a number of its verses are contextual in nature and are meant for the Arab society and culture as it existed in the Prophet’s time.

Unlike the contextual verses, which deal with how things ‘were’ in Arab society, the normative verses deal with how things ‘should’ be. These illustrate the true Islamic values and ideals and what Muslims should strive towards. Normative verses are transcendental in the sense they are meant for all societies and for all times to come. The crucial point is that while contextual verses can only be understood when studied by looking at the conditions in which they were revealed, normative verses are universal and can be studied and understood independently.

For example, protection of women’s chastity is a normative concept. It is a universal value, which holds as much weight today as it did hundreds of years ago. But the practice of Purdah (or veiling) is a contextual means of achieving the norm in a particular sociological setting. Purdah is not the only means of protecting a women’s chastity, but it was an effective means of doing so in the middle-ages. Today, as societies have progress and cultural practices have changed, a woman can remain unveiled and still maintain her modesty. In doing so she upholds the inviolable, normative injunction of the Quran, but re-evaluates and adapts the contextual means of doings so in new and changed circumstances.

In order to understand the status given to women by Islam, we will give primary importance to the study of those verses in the Quran which make normative pronouncements and not contextual ones. When dealing with contextual verses, we will have to understand them in the context of the Arab society in which they were revealed and the status given to women in the cultural practices of that time. Lack of understanding of the distinction between these two types of verses and the correct methodological approach required to study them is a major factor for lack of understanding of the true message of Islam with respect to the rights of women, both inside the Muslim world and outside it.

Read "Women’s Rights in Islam Part 2"

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