Women in Islam

The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by both Islamic texts and the history and culture of the Muslim world. Muslims claim that the Quran states that men and women are equal, but states in 4:34 that "Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great." Although the Quran does say this, Islamic clerics argue that the superiority of men is interpreted in terms of strength by the context – men maintain women. This verse however refers to a relationship between a husband and wife, not as a society in whole. Examples of female warriors in the armies of Prophet Muhammad are often cited by Muslims to show that women were treated well.

Sharia (Islamic law) provides for complementarianism, differences between women's and men's roles, rights, and obligations. Islamic clerics have argued that neither the Quran nor Hadith mention women have to be housewives. In majority Muslim countries women exercise varying degrees of rights with regards to marriage, divorce, civil rights, legal status, dress code, and education based on different interpretations. Scholars and other commentators vary as to whether they are just and whether they are a correct interpretation of religious imperatives.

Sources of influence

See also: Female figures in the Quran and Muhammad's wives

The Islamic Prophet Muhammad was in a precarious position as he began to spread his teachings to his disciples. As a man with no male descendants, in a natalist and patriarchal culture, his proclaimed identity as the messenger of God and temporal head of a new religion was viewed as an affront by many who attached authority to a man with a proliferation of wives and children, and in particular, a male heir to ensure the descendants of his authority. Nonetheless, Islam spread to become the dominant religion in the Arab regions of the Middle East, as well as Maghreb in Northern Africa, the Anatolian region such as Turkey, and into South Asia as far as Pakistan, India, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The patriarchal character of pre-Islamic Arabic culture influenced not only the content of the Quran and related doctrine, it persists today in the interpretation and application of Islamic dogma. Theological scholarship and practices vary widely according to the country, region, or sectarian beliefs where an Islamic community is located. The largest groups of Muslim women are in: Indonesia (over 100 million), Bangladesh (over 75 million), Pakistan (over 85 million), India (over 80 million), Egypt (nearly 40 million), Nigeria (nearly 40 million), Turkey (over 35 million) and Iran (over 35 million). These countries total more than 60% of the world's Muslims; there are more than 750 million Muslim women worldwide, including sizeable minorities in several countries of Africa and Europe, and in China.

Islamic doctrine is the product of Quranic guidelines, as understood by Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), as well as of the interpretations derived from the traditions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad (hadith), that were agreed upon by majority of Sunni Muslim scholars as authentic beyond doubt based on the science of hadith.

Early costumes of Arab women.

The Sunni Muslims are the largest Islamic sect, comprising approximately 80% of the world's Muslims. The Sunni sect includes many theological schools and doctrines interpreting the Quran. To Sunni Muslims, the hadith constitutes an important source of legislation. The fiqh is the basis of jurisprudence, or legal practise, developed by Muslim jurists during the centuries following the creation of Islam, and largely influenced by the hadith. These interpretations and their application were shaped by the historical context of the Muslim world at the time they were written. Many of the earliest writings were from a time of tribal warfare which could have been inappropriate for the 21st century, but most remain appropriate to how a Muslim following the sunnah should behave.

The Marxist writer, Valentine M. Moghadam, argues that the position of women is mostly influenced by the extent of urbanization, industrialization, proletarization and political ploys of the state managers rather than culture or intrinsic properties of Islam; Islam, per Moghadam, is neither more nor less patriarchal than other world religions, especially Hinduism, Christianity and Judaism. "The dowry, previously regarded as a bride-price paid to the father, became a nuptial gift retained by the wife as part of her personal property."

Under Islamic law, marriage was no longer viewed as a "status" but rather as a "contract", in which the woman's consent was imperative. "Women were given inheritance rights in a patriarchal society that had previously restricted inheritance to male relatives/ family members." Annemarie Schimmel states that "compared to the pre-Islamic position of women, Islamic legislation meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at least according to the letter of the law, to administer the wealth she has brought into the family or has earned by her own work."

William Montgomery Watt states that Muhammad, in the historical context of his time, can be seen as a figure who promoted women’s rights and improved things considerably. Watt explains: "At the time Islam began, the conditions of women were terrible – they were considered a sign of weakness, they were buried alive, they had no right to own property, were supposed to be the property of the man, and if the man died everything went to his sons." Muhammad, however, by, "instituting rights of property ownership, inheritance,marriage,education and divorce, gave women certain basic safeguards."

During his life Muhammad married eleven or thirteen women depending upon the differing accounts of who were his wives. In Arabian culture, marriage was generally contracted in accordance with the larger needs of the tribe and was based on the need to form alliances within the tribe and with other tribes. Virginity at the time of marriage was emphasized as a tribal honor. Watt states that all of Muhammad's marriages had the political aspect of strengthening friendly relationships and were based on the Arabian custom. Esposito points out that some of Muhammad's marriages were aimed at providing a livelihood for widows. Francis Edwards Peters says that it is hard to make generalizations about Muhammad's marriages: many of them were political and some compassionate.

Muhammad and Women

Muhammad called women as "deficient in intelligence and religion", compared them to dogs and donkeys and called them the "most harmful affliction". He had ordered the beheading of the poetess 'Asma' bint Marwan for criticizing him through her poetry and the elderly leader Umm Qirfa to be brutally torn apart by camels and had her head paraded in the streets of Medina. It has been said in his biographies that he was against women being leaders.

Narrated Abu Bakra: During the battle of Al-Jamal, Allah benefited me with a Word (I heard from the Prophet). When the Prophet heard the news that the people of the Persia had made the daughter of Khosrau their Queen (ruler), he said, "Never will succeed such a nation as makes a woman their ruler."

— Bukhari Vol. 9, Book 88, Number 219

Quran on Women

There are verses in the Quran which seem to suggest that men are above women and should beat them. An example is:

Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.^{[Quran 4:34]}

It upholds sex with women "possessed by the right hand" (captured slaves) as lawful once they have been given "their required due". It also says that the testimony of one man is equal to the testimony of two women.

Gender roles

Main article: Gender roles in Islam

The Quran expresses two main views on the role of women. It both stresses the equality of women and men before God in terms of their religious duties (i.e. belief in God and his messenger, praying, fasting, paying zakat (charity), making hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca/ Medina)) and places them "under" the care of men (i.e. men are financially responsible for their wives). In one place it states: "Men are the maintainers and protectors of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women)." The Quran explains that men and women are equal in creation and in the afterlife, but not identical. Surah an-Nisa' 4:1 states that men and women are created from a single soul (nafs wahidah). One person does not come before the other, one is not superior to the other, and one is not the derivative of the other. A woman is not created for the purpose of a man. Rather, they are both created for the mutual benefit of each other.^{[Quran 30:21]}

Female education

See also: Madrasah § Female_education

Pakistani school girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Historically, women played an important role in the foundation of many Islamic educational institutions, such as Fatima al-Fihri's founding of the University of Al Karaouine in 859 CE. This continued through to the Ayyubid dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries, when 160 mosques and madrasahs were established in Damascus, 26 of which were funded by women through the Waqf (charitable trust or trust law) system. Half of all the royal patrons for these institutions were also women.

According to the Sunni scholar Ibn Asakir in the 12th century, there were various opportunities for female education in what is known as the medieval Islamic world. He writes that women could study, earn ijazahs (academic degrees), and qualify as scholars (ulamā’) and teachers. This was especially the case for learned and scholarly families, who wanted to ensure the highest possible education for both their sons and daughters. Ibn Asakir had himself studied under 80 different female teachers in his time. In nineteenth-century West Africa, Nana Asma’u was a leading Islamic scholar, poet, teacher and an exceptionally prolific Muslim female writer who wrote more than 60 works. Female education in the Islamic world was inspired by Muhammad's wives: Khadijah, a successful businesswoman, and Aisha, a renowned hadith scholar and military leader. The education allowed was often restricted to religious instruction. According to a hadith attributed to Muhammad, he praised the women of Medina because of their desire for religious knowledge:

How splendid were the women of the ansar; shame did not prevent them from becoming learned in the faith.

While it was not common for women to enroll as students in formal classes, it was common for women to attend informal lectures and study sessions at mosques, madrassas and other public places. For example, the attendance of women at the Fatimid "sessions of wisdom" (majālis al-ḥikma) was noted by various historians including Ibn al-Tuwayr and al-Muṣabbiḥī. Similarly, although unusual in 15th-century Iran, both women and men were in attendance at the intellectual gatherings of the Ismailis where women were addressed directly by the Imam.

While women accounted for no more than one percent of Islamic scholars prior to the 12th century, there was a large increase of female scholars after this. In the 15th century, Al-Sakhawi devotes an entire volume of his 12-volume biographical dictionary Daw al-lami to female scholars, giving information on 1,075 of them.

Recently there have been several female Muslim scholars including Sebeca Zahra Hussain who is a prominent female scholar from the Sunni sect.

Female employment

See also: Islamic economics in the world

The labor force in the Caliphate were employed from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, while both men and women were involved in diverse occupations and economic activities. Women were employed in a wide range of commercial activities and diverse occupations in the primary sector (as farmers, for example), secondary sector (as construction workers, dyers, spinners, etc.) and tertiary sector (as investors, doctors, nurses, presidents of guilds, brokers, peddlers, lenders, scholars, etc.). Muslim women also held a monopoly over certain branches of the textile industry, the largest and most specialized and market-oriented industry at the time, in occupations such as spinning, dyeing, and embroidery. In comparison, female property rights and wage labour were relatively uncommon in Europe until the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In the 12th century, the famous Islamic philosopher and qadi (judge) Ibn Rushd, known to the West as Averroes, claimed that women were equal to men in all respects and possessed equal capacities to shine in peace and in war, citing examples of female warriors among the Arabs, Greeks and Africans to support his case. In early Muslim history, examples of notable female Muslims who fought during the Muslim conquests and Fitna (civil wars) as soldiers or generals included Nusaybah Bint k’ab Al Maziniyyah a.k.a. Umm Amarah, Aisha, Kahula and Wafeira.

A unique feature of medieval Muslim hospitals was the role of female staff, who were rarely employed in hospitals elsewhere in the world. Medieval Muslim hospitals commonly employed female nurses. Muslim hospitals were also the first to employ female physicians, the most famous being two female physicians from the Banu Zuhr family who served the Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur in the 12th century. This was necessary due to the segregation between male and female patients in Islamic hospitals. Later in the 15th century, female surgeons were illustrated for the first time in Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu's Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery).

Employment patterns today

See also: Female Labor Force Participation Rate in Majority Muslim Countries

Afghan women at a textile factory in Kabul.

Patterns of women's employment vary throughout the Muslim world: as of 2005, 16% of Pakistani women were "economically active" (either employed, or unemployed but available to furnish labor), whereas 52% of Indonesian women were.

Women are allowed to work in Islam, subject to certain conditions, such as if a woman is in financial need and her employment does not cause her to neglect her important role as a mother and wife. It has been claimed that it is the responsibility of the Muslim community to organize work for women, so that she can do so in a Muslim cultural atmosphere, where her rights (as set out in the Quran) are respected. Islamic law however, permits women to work in Islamic conditions.

• The work should not require the man or the woman to violate Islamic law (e.g., serving alcohol), and be mindful of the woman's safety.
• If the work requires the woman to leave her home, she must maintain her 'modesty' just as with men.

Due to cultural and not religious beliefs, in some cases, when women have the right to work and are educated, women's job opportunities may in practice be unequal to those of men. In Egypt for example, women have limited opportunities to work in the private sector because women are still expected to put their role in the family first, which causes men to be seen as more reliable in the long term.

An indicator of the attitude of the Quran to women in the workplace is indicated by the quotes used to justify women working. These are the examples of two female shepherds Quran 28:23, and Khadijah (prophet Muhammad's wife), who was an eminent businesswoman. Khadijah is called up as a role model for females in the Quran.

Legal matters

Female officers of the Afghan National Police (ANP)

Most Muslim countries follow their own constitutions when it comes to legal matters. In some countries and certain cases, however, the status of women's testimony in Islam is disputed. Some Islamic jurists have held that certain types of testimony by women may not be accepted. In other cases, the testimony of two women can equal that of one man (although the Quran says two women and two male are needed but if a male cannot find another male he may carry this testimony out himself). Reasons at the time the verse was revealed have been put forward including: women's temperament, women's lack of interest in legal matters, and also the need to spare women from the "burden of testifying". In other areas, women's testimony may be accepted on an equal basis with men's. The verse itself however relates to finances only.

Controversial tribal customs such as diyyat or blood money remain an integral part of Islamic jurisprudence. By implementation this also discriminates against women. Diyya existed in Arabia since pre-Islamic times. While the practice of diyya was affirmed by Muhammed, Islam does not prescribe any specific amount for diyyat nor does it require discrimination between men and women. The Quran has left open to debate, its quantity, nature, and other related affairs to be defined by social custom and tradition. However in practice, the killing of a woman will generally invoke a lesser diyyat than the killing of a man. Commentators on the status of women in Islam have often focused on disparities in diyyat, the fines paid by killers to victims' next of kin after either intentional or unintentional homicide, between men and women.

Financial matters

Historically, many scholars maintain that women in Muslim societies had more property rights than in many other parts of the world. However, as the world has modernised, women's rights in many Muslim dominated countries are comparatively restricted. As Valentine M. Moghadam argues, "much of the economic modernization [of women] was based on income from oil, and some came from foreign investment and capital inflows. Economic development alters the status of women in different ways across nations and classes."

Women's rights in the Quran are based around the marriage contract. A woman, according to Islamic tradition, does not have to give her pre-marriage possessions to her husband and receives a mahr (dowery) which she is allowed to keep. Furthermore, any earnings that a woman receives through employment or business is hers to keep and need not be contributed towards family expenses. This is because the financial responsibility for reasonable housing, food and other household expenses for the family, including the spouse, falls entirely on the husband. In traditional Islamic law, a woman is also not responsible for the upkeep of the home and may demand payment for any work she does in the domestic sphere.

Main article: Islamic inheritance jurisprudence § Women and inheritance

In Islam, women are entitled to the right of inheritance, Quran 4:7. In general, Islam allows females half the inheritance share available to males who have the same degree of relation to the deceased. Quran 4:11. This difference derives from men's obligations/right to financially support their families.

The Quran contains specific and detailed guidance regarding the division of inherited wealth, such as Surah Baqarah, chapter 2 verse 180, chapter 2 verse 240; Surah Nisa, chapter 4 verse 7–9, chapter 4 verse 19, chapter 4 verse 33; and Surah Maidah, chapter 5 verse 106–108. Three verses in the Quran describe the share of close relatives, Surah Nisah chapter 4 verses 11, 12 and 176. However, many Islamic majority countries have allowed inherently unfair (towards women) inheritance laws and/or customs to dominate.

Criminal matters

See also: Zina (Arabic)

According to the sunnah, a woman should not be punished for having been coerced into having sex . This attitude towards rape is discussed in the following hadith:

During the time of Muhammad, punishment was inflicted on the rapist on the solitary evidence of the woman who was raped by him. Wa'il ibn Hujr reports of an incident when a woman was raped. Later, when some people came by, she identified and accused the man of raping her. They seized him and brought him to Allah's messenger, who said to the woman, "Go away, for Allâh has forgiven you," but of the man who had raped her, he said, "Stone him to death." (Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud). According to a Sunni hadith, the punishment for committing rape is death, there is no blame attached to the victim.

According to Al-Mawardi, an 11th-century specialist in Islamic jurisprudence (sharia), if either the victim or a witness kills the perpetrator of rape during the crime, in order to prevent furthering the violence of the act, the killing is permissible and is exempt from the laws of murder and killing.

However right now it is far from uncommon for a woman who raises claims of rape to be not only denied justice, but to be charged as a criminal herself for committing fornication or adultery.

Marriage

A wedding procession makes its way through the traffic in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

A riverside simple Muslim wedding in India.

In contrast to the Western world where divorce was relatively uncommon until modern times, and in contrast to the low rates of divorce in the modern Middle East, divorce was a more common occurrence in certain states of the late medieval Muslim world. In the Mamluk Sultanate and Ottoman Empire, the rate of divorce was higher than it is today in the modern Middle East. The Quran is explicit in addressing zawaj al-hall, or a disrupted marriage, where a man intends to remarry a former wife after divorcing her for three times; (2:230) indicates that for the third marriage to be lawful for the former husband, the former wife must have been remarried during the intervening time to a second man since the renunciation of the previous marriage. The intention behind this Quran passage was to end abuses of the right to marital renunciation dating from ancient customs.

In medieval Egypt, Al-Sakhawi recorded the marital history of 500 women, the largest sample of married women in the Middle Ages, and found that at least a third of all women in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria married more than once, with many marrying three or more times. According to Al-Sakhawi, as many as three out of ten marriages in 15th century Cairo ended in divorce. In the early 20th century, some villages in western Java and the Malay peninsula had divorce rates as high as 70%.

Marrying

See also: Islamic marital jurisprudence and Polygyny in Islam

Marriage customs vary in Muslim dominated countries. Cultural customs are sometimes implemented under the cover of Islam. However Islamic law allows limited polygyny under certain conditions.

According to Islamic law (sharia), marriage cannot be forced.

Islamic jurists have traditionally held that Muslim women may only enter into marriage with Muslim men, Evidence for this is verse 60:10 which speaks of Muslim women not being lawful for disbelieving (non-Muslim) men, and verse 2:221 which speaks of Muslim women not being lawful for polytheistic men. Another piece of evidence is a woman at the time of the Prophet Ramla bint Abi Sufyan whose husband converted to Christianity, which made the marriage void. On the other hand, the Quran allows Muslim men to marry women of the People of the Book (Jews and Christians), but they must be chaste. However many scholars see it as "Makrooh" (disliked). Notable scholar Bilal Philips has said the verse that permits Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women is not valid anymore today due to several reasons including its misunderstood interpretation. One explanation for marriage restrictions is that they are pursuant to the principle that Muslims may not place themselves in a position inferior to that of the followers of other religions.

The Caliph Umar, whom Muslims consider one of the 'rightly guided', openly banned interfaith marriage to non-Muslim women saying "If everyone were to make use of this provision who would marry Muslim girls?"

Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior scholar from Toronto, has voiced his disapproval of interfaith marriage, citing the Caliph Umar's statement.

Marriage within some predominantly Muslim countries still retains practises from pre-Islamic times. Endogamy, virilocality and polygyny are common in some Islamic countries. Everywhere, however, polygamy is outlawed or restricted by new family codes, for example the Moudawwana in Morocco. Polygamy is permitted under restricted conditions, but it is not widespread. However, it is strongly discouraged in the Quran, which says, 'do justice to them all, but you won't be able to, so don't fall for one totally while ignoring other wife(wives)'. This also must be taken in historical context, as this was actually a restriction on the number of wives men of the Arabian tribes can take. Sometimes Pre-Islamic men could have up to eight wives. Women are not allowed to engage in polyandry, whereas men are allowed to engage in polygyny.

A marriage of pleasure, where a man pays a sum of money to a woman or her family in exchange for a temporary spousal relationship, is an ancient practise that has been revived in Iran in recent years. Its practitioners cite sharia law as permitting the practise. Women's rights groups have condemned it as a form of legalized prostitution.

Behaviour within marriage

File:Iftar in Patterson New Jersey.jpg

American-Muslims

Main articles: Rights and obligations of spouses in Islam and Islam and domestic violence

The Quran considers the love between men and women to be a Sign of God.^{[Quran 30:21]} Husbands are asked to be kind to their wives and wives are asked to be kind to their husbands. This said, the Quran also permits men to lightly tap or push and even beat her.^{[Quran 4:34]}

Sexuality

Main article: Islamic sexual jurisprudence

Some hold that Islam enjoins sexual pleasure within marriage; see Asra Nomani's polemic "Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in the Bedroom". Some examples of this influence are set out below.

Also (prohibited are) women already married, except those whom your right hands possess: Thus hath Allah ordained (Prohibitions) against you: Except for these, all others are lawful, provided ye seek (them in marriage) with gifts from your property,- desiring chastity, not lust, seeing that ye derive benefit from them, give them their dowers (at least) as prescribed; but if, after a dower is prescribed, agree Mutually (to vary it), there is no blame on you, and Allah is All-knowing, All-wise. (Quran 4:24)

The Believers must (eventually) win through—those who humble themselves in their prayers; who avoid vain talk; who are active in deeds of charity; who abstain from sex; except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess—for (in their case) they are free from blame. (Quran 23:1–6)

Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee . . . (Quran 33:50—O)

Not so those devoted to Prayer—those who remain steadfast to their prayer; and those in whose wealth is a recognized right for the (needy) who asks and him who is prevented (for some reason from asking); and those who hold to the truth of the Day of Judgement; and those who fear the displeasure of their Lord—for their Lord’s displeasure is the opposite of Peace and Tranquillity—and those who guard their chastity, except with their wives and the (captives) whom their right hands possess—for (then) they are not to be blamed. (Quran 70:22–30)

A high value is placed on female chastity (not to be confused with celibacy). To protect women from accusations of unchaste behaviour, the scripture lays down severe punishments towards those who make false allegations about a woman's chastity. However, in some societies, an accusation is rarely questioned and the woman who is accused rarely has a chance to defend herself in a fair and just manner.

Female genital mutilation has been erroneously associated with Islam. In fact it is practiced predominantly in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia where in certain areas it has acquired a religious dimension due to the justification that the practise is used to ensure female chastity. A UNICEF study of fourteen African countries found no correlation between religion and prevalence of female genital mutilation. In Mauritania, where "health campaigners estimate that more than 70 percent of Mauritanian girls undergo the partial or total removal of their external genitalia for non-medical reasons", 34 Islamic scholars signed a fatwa banning the practice in January 2010. Their aim was to prevent people from citing religion as a justification for genital mutilation. The authors cited the work of Islamic legal expert Ibn al-Hajj as support for their assertion that "[s]uch practices were not present in the Maghreb countries over the past centuries". FGM is "not an instinctive habit, according to the Malkis; therefore, it was abandoned in northern and western regions of the country," added the authors.

Egypt's National Council for Women (NCW) has appealed to the Islamist-dominated parliament not to approve two controversial laws on the minimum age of marriage and allowing a husband to have sex with his dead wife within six hours of her death according to a report in an Egyptian newspaper. The appeal came in a message sent by Dr. Mervat al-Talawi, head of the NCW, to the Egyptian People's Assembly Speaker, Dr. Saad al-Katatni, addressing the woes of Egyptian women, especially after the popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. She was referring to two laws: one that would legalize the marriage of girls starting from the age of 14 and the other that permits a husband to have sex with his dead wife within the six hours following her death. According to Egyptian columnist Amro Abdul Samea in al-Ahram, Talawi's message included an appeal to parliament to avoid the controversial legislation that rid women of their rights of getting education and employment, under alleged religious interpretations.

Birth control

Islam, as the pre-Islamic Arabic culture before it, is natalist, and promotes the birth of as many children as a Muslim couple can produce. However, under certain circumstances, it is permissible according to Islamic doctrine to limit (tahdid an-nasl) or at least control ('azl) reproduction, without suffering the fate of a penalty for the gesture. Limiting the number of children is recommended when a family lacks the resources to provide for them. In practice, abortion is banned in all the countries where Islam is the state religion, except for Tunisia.

Divorce

Main article: Divorce (Islamic)

In Islam, in some circumstances, a woman can initiate a divorce. According to Sharia Law, a woman can file a case in the courts for a divorce in a process called khula, meaning "release from". However, under most Islamic schools of jurisprudence, both partners must unanimously agree to the divorce in order for it to be granted. To prevent irrational decisions and for the sake of the family's stability, Islam enjoins that both parties observe a waiting period (of roughly three months) before the divorce is finalized.

Sharia Law states that divorce has to be confirmed on three separate occasions and not, as is commonly believed, simply three times at once. The first two instances the woman and the man are still in legal marriage. The third occasion of pronouncing divorce in the presence of the woman, the man is no longer legally the husband and therefore has to leave the house. The purpose of this procedure of divorce in Islam is to encourage reconciliation where possible. Even after divorce, the woman should wait three monthly cycles during which her husband remains responsible for her and her children's welfare and maintenance. He is not permitted to drive her out of the house. This process may leave the woman destitute should her family not take her back or the ex-husband fail to support her and possibly his children.

After the third pronouncement they are not allowed to get back together as husband and wife, unless first the wife is divorced in another lawful and fully consummated marriage. This rule was made to discourage men from easily using the verbal declaration of divorce by knowing that after the third time there will be no way to return to the wife and thus encourage men's tolerance and patience.

Usually, assuming her husband demands a divorce, the divorced wife keeps her mahr (dowry), both the original gift and any supplementary property specified in the marriage contract. She is also given child support until the age of weaning, at which point the child's custody will be settled by the couple or by the courts.

In actual practice and outside of Islamic judicial theory, a woman’s right to divorce is often extremely limited compared with that of men in the Middle East. While men can divorce their wives easily, women face many legal and financial obstacles. In practice in most of the Muslim world today divorce can be quite involved as there may be separate secular procedures to follow as well.

In some instances, a Sharia court may pronounce a marriage dissolved as a punitive measure against a woman who they have deemed to be haram, or sinful. In a 2005 case in India, a Muslim woman named Imrana turned to a Sharia court to complain of being raped by her father-in-law, Ali Mohammed, and her marriage was dissolved by the court on these grounds. Although India is a secular country, Muslim communities in rural India generally make use of the Sharia judicial system rather than the secular one. The Sharia verdict was upheld by the Indian Muslim seminary Darul ul Uloom Madrasa, which issued a fetwah in support of it. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, consisting of 41 Muslim scholars, also upheld the verdict. In this instance, Imrana refused to accept the verdict of the Sharia court. Her case was heard in a secular court, which resulted in Ali Mohammed receiving an eight-year sentence and a fine.

This contentious area of religious practice and tradition is being increasingly challenged by those promoting more liberal interpretations of Islam.

Movement and travel

Indonesian women in Hong Kong

Although no limitation or prohibition against women's travelling alone is mentioned in the Quran, there is a debate in some Islamic sects, especially Salafis, regarding whether women may travel without a mahram (unmarriageable relative). Some scholars state that a woman may not travel by herself on a journey that takes longer than three days (equivalent to 48 miles in medieval Islam). According to the European Council for Fatwa and Research, this prohibition arose from fears for women's safety when travel was more dangerous. Some scholars relax this prohibition for journeys likely to be safe, such as travel with a trustworthy group of men or men and women, or travel via a modern train or plane when the woman will be met upon arrival.

Sheikh Ayed Al-Qarni, a Saudi Islamic scholar, has said that neither the Quran nor the sunnah prohibits women from driving and that it is better for a woman to drive herself than to be driven by a stranger without a legal escort. He also stated, however, that he "personally will not allow [his] wife or daughters or sisters to drive." In most Muslim countries women are allowed to drive. However, they are forbidden to drive in Saudi Arabia per a 1990 fatwa (religious ruling); Saudi Arabia is currently the only Muslim country that bans women from driving. John Esposito, professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, has argued that these restrictions originate from cultural customs and not Islam.

Dress code

Main articles: Hijab and Hijab by country

A map showing dress code types in Islamic countries, 2008.

Hijab is the Quranic requirement that Muslims, both male and female, dress and behave modestly. The most important Quranic verse relating to hijab is sura 24:31, which says, "And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not to display their adornment except that which ordinarily appears thereof and to draw their headcovers over their chests and not to display their adornment except to their [maharim]..."

There are regional and sectarian variations of the veil associated with hijab. Depending upon local views regarding female modesty, they may or may not cover the face or the eyes, or the entire body. These variations include:

• Hijab: A scarf covering the hair.
• Chador: A cloak covering the head and body, but leaving the face uncovered; worn by many women in Iran when outside the home.
• Shayla: A long rectangular scarf, pinned or tucked at the shoulder, leaving the face uncovered; worn by many women in the Persian Gulf region.
• Khimar: A long rectangular scarf, covering the head, neck and shoulders, but leaving the face uncovered.
• Burka: Covers the entire head and body, including the eyes; the wearer sees through a cloth mesh eye veil sewn into the burka.
• Al-Amira: A two-piece veil that includes a close-fitting cap and a tube-shaped scarf covering the head and neck, but leaving the face uncovered.
• Niqab: A veil that leaves the eye clear (although it may be worn with an eye veil), and worn with a headscarf.

The hijab, and the veil in particular, have often been viewed by many as a sign of oppression of Muslim women. The wearing of the hijab has become controversial in countries where Muslims are a minority, and where majority secular opinions regard the hijab as violating women's freedom, especially in Europe amid increasing immigration of Muslims. The 2006 United Kingdom debate over veils and the 2004 French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools are two notable examples. However, it is argued that if it is acceptable for a Christian Nun to cover her head and body for religious reasons, then why is it not for a Muslim woman? In France, the law banning the wearing of a face veil in public is being enforced. Sentencing includes a 150 euro fine and a citizenship course. Two women were detained in April 2011 when the law came into force.

In some countries where Muslims are a minority, there is much less public opposition to the practise, although concerns about it are discussed. Canadian media, for example, have covered controversies where concerns have been raised over the veil being a possible security risk, as in cases where Muslim women have refused to remove their niqab or burka veil for voter identification at polls. In 2007, the federal government of Canada introduced a bill to ban face coverings for voter identification, but this bill was dropped as not required:

it was pointed out that thousands of Canadians have no photo ID. Requiring them to show their faces would be meaningless without photo identification against which to verify their identities. The Elections Act gives voters three ways to prove their identification in order to cast a ballot: provide a government photo ID; provide two pieces of approved ID, at least one of which must state their address (but neither of which must contain a photo); or have another voter registered in the same district vouch for them.

Women in religious life

Further information: Gender segregation in Islam and Women's mosques

Women's prayer hall at the Khadija Mosque in Berlin, Germany.

In Islam, there is no difference between men and women's relationship to God; they receive identical rewards and punishments for their conduct.

According to a saying attributed to Muhammad, women are allowed to go to mosques. However, as Islam spread, it became unusual for women to worship in mosques because of fears of unchastity caused by interaction between sexes; this condition persisted until the late 1960s. Since then, women have become increasingly involved in the mosque, though men and women generally worship separately. (Muslims explain this by citing the need to avoid distraction during prayer prostrations that raise the buttocks while the forehead touches the ground.) Separation between sexes ranges from men and women on opposite sides of an aisle, to men in front of women (as was the case in the time of Muhammad), to women in second-floor balconies or separate rooms accessible by a door for women only.

In Islam's earlier history, female religious scholars were relatively common. Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a Sunni religious scholar, has compiled biographies of 8,000 female jurists, and orientalist Ignaz Goldziher earlier estimated that 15 percent of medieval hadith scholars were women. After the 16th century, however, female scholars became fewer, and today – while female activists and writers are relatively common – there has not been a significant female jurist in over 200 years. Opportunities for women's religious education exist, but cultural barriers often keep women from pursuing such a vocation.

Women's right to become imams, however, is disputed by many. A fundamental role of an imam (religious leader) in a mosque is to lead the salah (congregational prayers). Generally, women are not allowed to lead mixed prayers. However, some argue that Muhammad gave permission to Ume Warqa to lead a mixed prayer at the mosque of Dar.

Hui women are self-aware of their relative freedom as Chinese women in contrast to the status of Arab women in countries like Saudi Arabia where Arab women are restricted and forced to wear encompassing clothing. Hui women point out these restrictions as "low status", and feel better to be Chinese than to be Arab, claiming that it is Chinese women's advanced knowledge of the Quran which enables them to have equality between men and women.

Sufi female mystics

Sufi Islam teaches the doctrine of tariqa, meaning following a spiritual path in daily living habits. To support followers of this concept, separate institutions for men (ta'ifa, hizb, rabita) and women (khanqa, rabita, derga) were created. Initiates to these groups pursued a progression of seven stages of spiritual discipline, called makamat (stations) or ahwal (spiritual states).

Rabiah al-Basri (d. 801) is an important figure in Islamic Mysticism called Sufism. She upheld the doctrine of "disinterested love of God".

Current female religious scholars

There are a number of prominent female Islamic scholars. They generally focus on questioning gender-based interpretations of the Quran, the traditions of the Prophet and early Islamic history. Some notable Muslim women scholars are: Azizah al-Hibri, Amina Wadud-Muhsin, Fatima Mernissi, Riffat Hassan, Laila Ahmad, Farhat Hashmi, Aisha Abdul-Rahman, and Merryl Wyn Davies.

Women and politics

Benazir Bhutto became the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state. She was assassinated while campaigning for the Pakistani general election of 2008.

Shirin Ebadi, Iranian women's rights activist

See also: Female political leaders in Islam and in Muslim-majority countries and Timeline of first women's suffrage in majority-Muslim countries

Many classical Islamic scholars, such as al-Tabari, supported female leadership. In early Islamic history, women including Aisha, Ume Warqa, and Samra Binte Wahaib took part in political activities. Abdurrahman ibn `Awf consulted with women in their rooms when he was charged of choosing `Uthman or Ali as the third caliphate after the death of Umar. The Caliph Umar appointed Samra Bint Nuhayk Al-Asadiyya as a market inspector in Mecca and Ash-Shifa bint Abdullah as an administrator in Medina. Ash-Shifa would later on become the head of Health and Safety in Basra, Iraq. Other historical Muslim female leaders include Razia Sultana, who ruled the Sultanate of Delhi from 1236 to 1239, and Shajarat ad-Durr, who ruled Egypt from 1250 to 1257.

In 1988 Pakistan became the first Muslim Majority state with a female Prime Minister. In the past several decades, a number of countries in which Muslims are a majority, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Kyrgyzstan have been led by women. Nearly one-third of the Parliament of Egypt consists of women. In 2004, an Afghan woman (Massouda Jalal) ran for presidency. Females also have a significant representation in the Afghan Parliament. A number of Afghan women are also ministers, governors and business owners. Azra Jafari became the first Afghan mayor.

According to Sheikh Zoubir Bouchikhi, Imam of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston’s Southeast Mosque, nothing in Islam specifically allows or disallows voting by women. Until recently most Muslim nations were non-democratic, but most today allow their citizens to have some level of voting and control over their government. The disparate times at which women’s suffrage was granted in Muslim-majority countries is indicative of the varied traditions and values present within the Muslim world. Azerbaijan has had women's suffrage since 1918.

Saudi women have been allowed to vote in some elections.

Modern debate on the status of women in Islam

Within the Muslim community, conservatives and Islamic feminists have used Islamic doctrine as the basis for discussion of women's rights, drawing on the Quran, the hadith, and the lives of prominent women in the early period of Muslim history as evidence. Where conservatives have seen evidence that existing gender asymmetries are divinely ordained, feminists have seen more egalitarian ideals in early Islam. Still others have argued that this discourse is essentialist and ahistorical, and have urged that Islamic doctrine not be the only framework within which discussion occurs.

Conservatives and the Islamic movement

Main articles: Islamic revival and Islamism

Conservatives reject the assertion that different laws prescribed for men and women imply that men are more valuable than women. Ali ibn Musa Al-reza reasoned that at the time of marriage a man has to pay something to his prospective bride, and that men are responsible for both their wives' and their own expenses but women have no such responsibility.

The nebulous revivalist movement termed Islamism is one of the most dynamic movements within Islam in the 20th and 21st centuries. The experience of women in Islamist states has been varied. Women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan faced treatment condemned by the international community. Women were forced to wear the burqa in public, not allowed to work, not allowed to be educated after the age of eight, and faced public flogging and execution for violations of the Taliban's laws. The position of women in Iran, which has been a theocracy since its 1979 revolution, is more complex. Iranian Islamists are ideologically in favour of allowing female legislators in Iran's parliament and 60% of university students are women.

Liberal Islam, Islamic feminism, and other progressive criticism

File:Raden Adjeng Kartini.jpg

The Indonesian National Heroine Kartini, with the help of her husband, encouraged the education of girls in colonial Indonesia.

Liberal Muslims have urged that ijtihad, a form of critical thinking, be used to develop a more progressive form of Islam with respect to the status of women. In addition, Islamic feminists have advocated for women's rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework. Although rooted in Islam, pioneers of Islamic feminism have also used secular and western feminist discourses and have sought to include Islamic feminism in the larger global feminist movement. Islamic feminists seek to highlight the teachings of equality in Islam to question patriarchal interpretations of Islamic teachings. Others point out the incredible amount of flexibility of shariah law, which can offer greater protections for women if the political will to do is present.

After the September 11, 2001, attacks, international attention was focused on the condition of women in the Muslim world. Critics asserted that women are not treated as equal members of Muslim societies and criticized Muslim societies for condoning this treatment. Some critics have gone so far as to make allegations of gender apartheid due to women's status. Phyllis Chesler has alleged that Western academics, especially feminists, have ignored the plight of Muslim women in order to be considered "politically correct". However, one survey has found that most Muslim women do not see themselves as oppressed.

The Indonesian Islamic professor Nasaruddin Umar is at the forefront of a reform movement from within Islam that aims at giving women equal status. Among his works is a book The Qur'an for Women, which provides a new feminist interpretation.

Some Muslim women exposed to the growth in civil rights accessible to secular or non-Muslim women have protested to strengthen their own rights within Islamic communities. One example is Malaysia, where 60% of the population is Muslim, and where there are separate parallel legal systems for secular law and sharia law. In 2006, Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Malaysia's former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, published an editorial in the Malaysia Star newspaper to denounce what she termed "a growing form of apartheid" for Malaysia's Muslim women:

Non-Muslim Malaysian women have benefited from more progressive laws over the years while the opposite has happened for Muslim women.

She pointed out that polygamy was illegal in Malaysia for non-Muslims but not for Muslims, and that child custody arrangements for Muslims were biased towards fathers as opposed to the shared-custody arrangements of non-Muslim parents. Women's groups in Malaysia began campaigning in the 1990s to have female sharia judges appointed to the sharia legal system in the country, and in 2010 two female judges were appointed.

Famous and notable women in Islam

• Kholoud Al-Faqih, judge
• Fatima al-Fihri, founded University of al-Karaouine
• Rufaida Al-Aslamia, first nurse
• Dr. Zainab Alwani, professor
• Anousheh Ansari, first Muslim woman in space
• Nana Asma’u, poet, teacher and scholar
• Aminah Assilmi, journalist
• Ashifa bint Abdullah, market inspector
• Amra bint Abdurrahman, scholar, jurist and Hadith specialist
• Hind bint Abi Umayya, well educated in Islamic Law
• Aisha bint Abu Bakr, Islamic scholar
• Shuhadah bint Ahmad al-Ibrii, scholar and jurist
• Khawlah bint al-Azwar, mastered swordsmanship and poetry
• Queen Zubaidah bint Ja`far, many contributions
• Hammanah bint Jahsh, nurse
• Nusaybah bint Ka'ab, soldier and teacher
• Kartini, women's rights activist
• Merve Kavakçı, politics and professor
• Sumayyah bint Khayyat, first martyr in Islam
• Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, business woman and first convert to Islam after Muhammad
• Fatimah bint Muhammad, social activist
• Aisha bint Muhammad ibn Abdel Hadi, Hadith specialist and teacher of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
• Aisha bint Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqass, jurist, scholar and teacher of Imam Malik
• Hafsa bint Umar, Hafiz
• Umm Waraqa, Islamic scholar and Imam for women
• Dr. Magda Amer, biochemist
• Lauren Booth, journalist and broadcaster
• Umm Darda, scholar and teacher of Caliph Abdul Malik ibn Marwan
• Myriam Francois-Cerrah, journalist
• Janaan Hashim, professor
• Turhan Hatice, regent
• Safiyya bint Huyayy, politics
• Maryam Ijliya Al-Astrolabiya, astronomer
• Samira Ibrahim Islam, professor
• Nur Jahan, empress of India
• Sarah Joseph, writer and broadcaster
• Tawakkol Karman, human rights activist and Noble Peace Prize
• Dayfa Khatun, regent
• Lisa Killinger, professor
• Umm Kulthum bint Abi Bakr, Hadith specialist
• Mumtaz Mahal, empress of India
• Ingrid Mattson, professor
• Ibtihaj Muhammad, fencer
• Sayyida Nafisa, teacher in Islamic jurisprudence and teacher of Imam Shafi'i
• Yvonne Ridley, journalist
• Roxelana, politics
• Sameena Shah, computer scientist
• Dr. Bina Shaheen Siddiqui, medicine and agriculture
• Kosem Sultan, politics
• Mariam Sultana, astrophysics
• Soraya Syed, calligrapher
• Malala Yousafzai, education and women's rights activist

See also

• Umm Qirfa
• 'Asma' bint Marwan
• Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
• Female figures in the Quran
• Female political leaders in Islam and in Muslim-majority countries
• Islamic feminism
• Muhammad's wives
• Namus
• Sex segregation and Islam
• Timeline of first women's suffrage in majority-Muslim countries
• Women in Arab societies

References

• El Fadl, Khaled Abou. "The Death Penalty, Mercy, and Islam: A Call for Retrospection." In Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning (Erik C. Owens, John David Carlson, and Eric P. Elshtain, eds.). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (2004), ISBN 0-8028-2172-3.
• Friedmann, Yohanan (2003). Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521026994.
• Glassé, Cyril. The New Encyclopedia of Islam (2002), AltaMira Press, ISBN 0-7591-0189-2.
• Yvonne Haddad and John Esposito. Islam, Gender, and Social Change, Published 1998. Oxford University Press, US. ISBN 0-19-511357-8.
• Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Kathleen M. Moore, and Jane I Smith. Muslim Women in America: The Challenge of Islamic Identity Today. Oxford University Press (2006): ISBN 0-19-517783-5.
• Hessini, L., 1994, Wearing the Hijab in Contemporary Morocco: Choice and Identity, in Göçek, F. M. & Balaghi, S., Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East: Tradition, Identity & Power, New York, Columbia University Press
• Suad Joseph and Afsaneh Najmabadi. Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures BRILL (2005), ISBN 90-04-12818-2
• Javed Ahmed Ghamidi. Mizan. Al-Mawrid (2001–present).
• Levy, Reuben (1969). The Social Structure of Islam. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

Scripture

• Translations of the Qur’an, Chapter 4: Women

Books

• Roded, Ruth (1994). Women in Islamic biographical collections: from Ibn Saʻd to Who's who. Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 9781555874421.
• Bernadette Andrea, Women and Islam in Early Modern English Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2008 Amazon.com: Women and Islam in Early Modern English Literature (9780521867641): Bernadette Andrea: Books
• Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical roots of a modern debate, Yale University Press, 1992
• Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, London, HarperCollins/Routledge, 2001
• Alya Baffoun, Women and Social Change in the Muslim Arab World, In Women in Islam. Pergamon Press, 1982.
• Nonie Darwish, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law, Thomas Nelson, 2008. ISBN 9781595551610
• John Esposito and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Islam, Gender, and Social Change, Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-511357-8
• Gavin Hambly, Women in the Medieval Islamic World, Palgrave Macmillan, 1999, ISBN 0-312-22451-6
• Suad Joseph, ed. Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Leiden: Brill, Vol 1–4, 2003–2007.

External links

• Oxford Islamic Studies Online – numerous entries dealing with the role of women in Islamic societies.
• www.IslamsWomen.com Muslim Woman Status, Rights, Hijab, Marriage, and More – Official Website.
• The Rights And Duties of Women In Islam
• Women and Islam A set of essays discussing women in Islam, including polygamy, inheritance, marriage to non-Muslims, birth control, and Islamic dress. Also highlighting Quranic and Biblical references concerning women.
• Women in Muslim History: Traditional Perspectives and New Strategies
• My Mother and My Religion: Mothers in Islam
• WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EAST: PROGRESS OR REGRESS? Middle East Review of International Affairs, Volume 10, No. 2, Article 2 – June 2006
• The Status of Women in Islam by Dr. Jamal Badawi
• Women in Islam vs. Women in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
• Women in Islam
• The Noble Women Scholars of Hadeeth
• Division of Inheritance in Islam