does not have very much to offer women, except for a life of misery,
oppression and slavery. However, if one bothers to look closely at
Islam then it has an abundance to offer men and women alike.
There is little doubt that many Muslim women are subject to abuse and
subjugation - without making sweeping generalizations, many women in
some so called Muslim lands are denied the rights given to them
byIslam - rights to which theyare entitled as human beings and as
women. However we must separateMuslims from Islam; we must separate
theory from practice. In Islam this separation is possible - Islamic
legislation has given women unprecedented status, evenif Muslims did
not always live up to these amazing standards.
Let us take a quick look at some of the rights of women in Islam,
comparing them with some of the legislation relating to women in
Britain:
Education
Considered by many these days as a basic human right, in Islam both
men and women are duty bound to seek education for the Prophet
Muhammad said: "The search for knowledge is a duty on every Muslim."
(Bukhari) So, while there were no places at British Universities until
the late 1870s (Ox. Ill. His. Brit. p493), there have been records of
Islamic Universities with women students throughout the history of
Islam: Nafisah was an early 8th century hadith scholar and the great
jurist Shafi participated in her circle at Al-Fustat. Shaika Shuhuda
another 8th century scholar was a lecturer at Baghdad University - the
Oxford and Cambridge of its time. Nazhun was a 12th century scholar
and ofcourse we cannot forget Ayesha, the wife of the Prophet who in
the 7th century was one of the greatest relaters of hadith.
So, whilst Muslim women were attending universitiesand were lecturers
and scholars in the 8th century, 80% of London Women and 100% of East
Anglican women were illiterate in 1640 - figures taken from A. Fraser
page 129 and D. Cressy page 178.
Political Participation
Women in the UK managedto gain the right to vote in 1918, but that was
only forwomen over thirty. They did not manage to gain fullvoting
rights equal with men until 1928. These gains were not achieved easily
though - to gain the vote the Suffragettes marched, rallied, chained
themselves to railings, went on hunger strike and eventually one of
them jumped in front of the Royal Horse on Derby Day. Muslims women
however each had the right to give or not to give their allegiance
from the beginning - and this right was given them without them having
to march, rally, not eat or jump in front of a horse.
Property
Up until 1801 British women did not have the right to own anything -
noteven themselves. For up until this time a husband had the right to
sell his wife. In Sweden in 1984 a man was entitled to half his wife's
earnings. Islam though has allowed women to own their own property
from the outset. Everything a woman earns belongs to her. She is not a
chattel to be bought and sold, but rather an individual human being,
responsible to no one for her income except for God. A married woman
may remind her husband:"What's his is theirs, what'shers is her own!"
It would be easy to go on with a list of the rights of women in Islam
- but how does Islam really benefit women?
Islam has given women the right to be themselves!They are equal before
God - on the Day of Judgment they will be answerable as individuals
and cannot say"my husband told me to doit", "my, father, brother,
uncle - led me astray". Nor will they be treated unfairly because they
are women - women have souls in Islam - and there has never been any
debate about that in Islamic history unlike in Christianity!
Islam offers to women, as it does to men, a belief in God, and this
upholds everything. Belief in the Creator gives life a wholeness, and
a balance, for it means that we do notlook at everything in the short
term - the intrinsic whole is this world and theHereafter. This belief
in God, this taqwa - God consciousness - thus shapes everything in
Islam.
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