Islamic Women

Essay by 1The DistanceB, December 1996

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Muslim society over the centuries has treated women as

second class citizens. It's been this way since the beginning of

time. Women are treated in this manor for a number of reasons,

but all leading back to the Quran. Women are considered inferior to

men, are treated unfairly in marriage, and even are oppressed

legally, but all are approved of in the Quran. It describes in detail

the way that a women is to be treated and the way a women

should treat her husband.

The Quran expresses the equality of the sexes in the

following. 'And their Lord answereth them, `I will not suffer the

work of him among you that worketh, whether of male or female, to

be lost. the one of you is the issue of the other.'(Q 3:195) So while

the Qur`an holds the works of men and women in equal regard and

acknowledges that they are completely interdependent to their very

existence, They are not regarded as having equal worth as people.

The fact that men are a step above the women and superior to

them is evident in the following verses. 'And it is for the women to

act as they (the husbands) act by them, in all fairness; but the men

are a step above them.'(Q 2:228) 'Men have authority over women

because Allah has made the one superior to the other.'(Q4:34)

Women are thought of as being lower in intellect and spirituals in

comparison to men. In the Quran it states, 'And of His signs is that

He created for you, of yourselves, spouses, that you may repose in

them.'(Q 30'21) This causes many Muslims to look at women as

creations like the animals and plants and other useful things created

by Allah. Muslims believe that women are lacking many of the...