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Girl Reciting the Qur'ān (Kuran Okuyan Kız), an 1880 painting by the Ottoman polymath Osman Hamdi Bey, whose works often showed women engaged in educational activities.
The experiences of
Muslim women (
Arabic:
مسلمات
Muslimāt, singular مسلمة
Muslima) vary widely between and within different societies.
At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that
affects their lives to a varying degree and gives them a common identity
that may serve to bridge the wide cultural, social, and economic
differences between them.
Among the influences which have played an important role in
defining the social, spiritual and cosmological status of women in the
course of
Islamic history are Islam's sacred text, the
Qur'an; the
Ḥadīths, which are traditions relating to the deeds and aphorisms of Islam's
Prophet Muḥammad; ijmā', which is a consensus, expressed or tacit, on a question of law;
qiyās, the principle by which the laws of the Qur'an and the Sunnah or
Prophetic custom are applied to situations not explicitly covered by
these two sources of legislation;
and fatwas, non-binding published opinions or decisions regarding
religious doctrine or points of law. Additional influences include
pre-Islamic cultural traditions; secular laws, which are fully accepted
in Islam so long as they do not directly contradict Islamic precepts; religious authorities, including government-controlled agencies such as the
Indonesian Ulema Council and Turkey's
Diyanet; and spiritual teachers, which are particularly prominent in Islamic mysticism or
Sufism.
Many of the latter – including perhaps most famously, Ibn al-'Arabī –
have themselves produced texts that have elucidated the metaphysical
symbolism of the feminine principle in Islam.
There is considerable variation as to how the above sources are
interpreted by Orthodox Muslims, both Sunni and Shi'a – approximately
90% of the world's Muslim population – and ideological fundamentalists,
most notably those subscribing to Wahhabism or
Salafism, who comprise roughly 9% of the total.
In particular, Wahhabis and Salafists tend to reject mysticism and
theology outright; this has profound implications for the way that women
are perceived within these ideological sects. Conversely, within Islamic Orthodoxy, both the established theological schools and Sufism are at least somewhat influential.
Sources of influence
There are four
sources of influence
under Islam for Muslim women. The first two, the Quran and Hadiths, are
considered primary sources, while the other two are secondary and
derived sources that differ between various Muslim sects and
schools of Islamic jurisprudence. The secondary sources of influence include
ijma,
qiyas and, in forms such as
fatwa,
ijtihad.
Primary
A fragment of
Sūrat an-Nisāʼ –
a chapter of Islam's sacred text entitled 'Women' – featuring the
Persian, Arabic and Kufic scripts. Islam views men and women as equal
before God, and the Qur'an underlines that man and woman were "created
of a single soul" (
4:1,
39:6 and elsewhere).
Women in Islam are provided a number of guidelines under
Quran and
hadiths, as understood by
fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) as well as of the interpretations derived from the hadith that were agreed upon by majority of
Sunni scholars as authentic beyond doubt based on
hadith studies.
These interpretations and their application were shaped by the
historical context of the Muslim world at the time they were written.
During his life, Muhammad married
nine or eleven 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
emphasised as a tribal honour.
William Montgomery Watt
states that all of Muhammad's marriages had the political aspect of
strengthening friendly relationships and were based on the Arabian
custom.
An-Nisa
Women or
Sūrat an-Nisāʼ is the fourth chapter of the Quran. The title of the
sura derives from the numerous references to women throughout the chapter, including verses 3-4 and 127-130.
Secondary
The
above primary sources of influence on women of Islam do not deal with
every conceivable situation over time. This led to the development of
jurisprudence and religious schools with Islamic scholars that referred
to resources such as identifying authentic documents, internal
discussions and establishing a consensus to find the correct religiously
approved course of action for Muslims. These formed the secondary sources of influence for women. Among them are
ijma,
qiya,
ijtihad and others depending on sect and the school of Islamic law. Included in secondary sources are
fatwas,
which are often widely distributed, orally or in writing by Muslim
clerics, to the masses, in local language and describe behavior, roles
and rights of women that conforms with religious requirements. Fatwas
are theoretically non-binding, but seriously considered and have often
been practiced by most Muslim believers. The secondary sources typically
fall into five types of influence: the declared role or behavior for
Muslims, both women and men, is considered obligatory, commendable,
permissible, despised or prohibited. There is considerable controversy,
change over time, and conflict between the secondary sources.
Gender roles
A
fifteenth-century Persian miniature depiciting the Battle of the Camel,
a decisive encounter between the troops of the fourth caliph
'Alī, and an opposing army rallied by Muḥammad's wife, Āʿisha.
In the aftermath of Alī's victory, Āʿisha withdrew from politics.
Traditionalists have used this episode to argue that women should not
play an active political role, while modernists have held up Āʿisha's
legacy in arguing for gender equity in the Islamic tradition.
Gender roles in Islam are simultaneously coloured by two Qur'anic
precepts: (i) spiritual equality between women and men; and (ii) the
idea that women are meant to exemplify femininity, and men masculinity.
Spiritual equality between women and men is detailed in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb (33:35):
Verily, men who surrender unto God,
and women who surrender, and men who believe and women who believe, and
men who obey and women who obey, and men who speak the truth and women
who speak the truth...and men who give alms and women who give alms, and
men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard their modesty and
women who guard (their modesty), and men who remember God much and women
who remember – God hath prepared for them forgiveness and a vast
reward.
Islam's basic view of women and men postulates a complementarity of
functions: like everything else in the universe, humanity has been
created in a pair (Sūrat al-Dhāriyāt,
51:49) – neither can be complete without the other.
In Islamic cosmological thinking, the universe is perceived as an
equilibrium built on harmonious polar relationships between the pairs
that make up all things. Moreover, all outward phenomena are reflections of inward noumena and ultimately of God.
The emphasis which Islam places upon the feminine/masculine
polarity (and therefore complementarity) results in a separation of
social functions.
In general, a woman's sphere of operation is the home in which she is
the dominant figure – and a man's corresponding sphere is the outside
world.
However, this separation is not, in practice, as rigid as it appears.
There are many examples – both in the early history of Islam and in the
contemporary world – of Muslim women who have played prominent roles in
public life, including being
sultanas,
queens,
elected heads of state and
wealthy businesswomen.
Moreover, it is important to recognise that in Islam, home and family
are firmly situated at the centre of life in this world and of society: a
man's work cannot take precedence over the private realm.
The Quran dedicates numerous verses to Muslim women, their role, duties and rights, in addition to
Sura 4 with 176 verses named "An-Nisa" ("Women").
Islam differentiates the gender role of women who believe in Islam and those who do not. The Muslim male's right to own slave women, seized during military campaigns and
jihad against non-believing
pagans and
infidels from Southern Europe to Africa to India to Central Asia, was considered natural. Slave women could be sold without their consent, expected to provide
concubinage,
required permission from their owner to marry; and children born to
them were automatically considered Muslim under Islamic law if the
father was a Muslim.
Female education
The
University of al-Qarawiyyin (Université Al Quaraouiyine) in the Moroccan city of Fes was founded as a madrasa-mosque complex by a Muslim woman –
Fatima al-Fihri,
the educated daughter of a wealthy merchant – in 859. According to
UNESCO, it is the oldest university in the world which is still
operational. It was incorporated into Morocco's modern state university system in 1963.
The classical position
Both
the Qur'an – Islam's sacred text – and the spoken or acted example of
Muḥammad (sunnah) advocate the rights of women and men equally to seek
knowledge.
The Qur'an commands all Muslims to exert effort in the pursuit of
knowledge, irrespective of their biological sex: it constantly
encourages Muslims to read, think, contemplate and learn from the signs
of God in nature.
Moreover, Muḥammad encouraged education for both males and females: he
declared that seeking knowledge was a religious duty binding upon every
Muslim man and woman.
Like her male counterpart, each woman is under a moral and religious
obligation to seek knowledge, develop her intellect, broaden her
outlook, cultivate her talents and then utilise her potential to the
benefit of her soul and her society.
The interest of Muḥammad in female education was manifest in the fact that he himself used to teach women along with men.
Muḥammad's teachings were widely sought by both sexes, and accordingly
at the time of his death it was reported that there were many female
scholars of Islam.
Additionally, the wives of Muḥammad – particularly Aisha – also taught
both women and men; many of Muḥammad's companions and followers learned
the Qur'an, ḥadīth and Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) from Aisha.
Notably, there was no restriction placed on the type of knowledge
acquired: a woman was free to choose any field of knowledge that
interested her.
Because Islam recognises that women are in principle wives and mothers,
the acquisition of knowledge in fields which are complementary to these
social roles was specially emphasised.
History of women's education
James E. Lindsay said that Islam encouraged religious education of Muslim women. According to a hadith in
Saḥih Muslim variously attributed to
'Ā'isha and
Muhammad, the women of the
ansar were praiseworthy because shame did not prevent them from asking detailed questions about Islamic law.
While it was not common for women to enroll as students in formal
religious schools, it was common for women to attend informal lectures
and study sessions at mosques,
madrasas and other public places. For example, the attendance of women at the
Fatimid Caliphate's "sessions of wisdom" (
majālis al-ḥikma) was noted by various historians, including Ibn al-Tuwayr,
al-Muṣabbiḥī and
Imam. Historically, some Muslim women played an important role in the foundation of many religious educational institutions, such as
Fatima al-Fihri's founding of the
University of al-Karaouine in 859 CE.
According to the 12th-century Sunni scholar
Ibn 'Asakir, there were various opportunities for
female education in what is known as the
Islamic Golden Age. He writes that women could study, earn
ijazahs (religious degrees) and qualify as
ulama and Islamic teachers.
Similarly,
al-Sakhawi devotes one of the twelve volumes of his
biographical dictionary Daw al-Lami to female religious scholars between 700 and 1800 CE, giving information on 1,075 of them. Women of prominent urban families were commonly educated in private settings and many of them received and later issued
ijazas in hadith studies, calligraphy and poetry recitation.
Working women learned religious texts and practical skills primarily
from each other, though they also received some instruction together
with men in mosques and private homes.
During the colonial era, until the early 20th century, there was a
gender struggle among Muslims in the British empire; educating women
was viewed as a prelude to social chaos, a threat to the moral order,
and man's world was viewed as a source of Muslim identity.
Muslim women in British India, nevertheless, pressed for their rights
independent of men; by the 1930s, 2.5 million girls had entered schools
of which 0.5 million were Muslims.
Current situation
Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan is one of the Islamic world's most high-profile educational campaigners. Her
foundation – established in 2013 – is developing a number of education programmes, including online learning platform Edraak.org.
Elementary schoolgirls from
OIC
member state Albania pictured during Code Week 2017 in Burrel, near
Tirana. Between 2009 and 2015, Albania saw consistent and substantial
improvements in all three
PISA subjects.
- Literacy
In a 2013 statement, the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation
noted that restricted access to education is among the challenges faced
by girls and women in the developing world, including OIC member
states.
UNICEF notes that out of 24 nations with less than 60% female primary
enrollment rates, 17 were Islamic nations; more than half the adult
population is illiterate in several Islamic countries, and the
proportion reaches 70% among Muslim women.
UNESCO estimates that the literacy rate among adult women was about 50%
or less in a number of Muslim-majority countries, including Morocco,
Yemen, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Niger, Mali, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
and Chad. Egypt had a women literacy rate of 64% in 2010, Iraq of 71% and Indonesia of 90%.
While literacy has been improving in Saudi Arabia since the 1970s, the
overall female literacy rate in 2005 was 50%, compared to male literacy
of 72%.
- Gender and participation in education
Some scholars contend that Islamic nations have the world's highest gender gap in education. The 2012
World Economic Forum
annual gender gap study finds the 17 out of 18 worst performing
nations, out of a total of 135 nations, are the following members of
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC):
Algeria,
Jordan,
Lebanon,
Nepal,
Turkey,
Oman,
Egypt,
Iran,
Mali,
Morocco,
Côte d'Ivoire,
Saudi Arabia,
Syria,
Chad,
Pakistan and
Yemen.
A
scene from a female-majority class at the Psychology Department of
Uludağ University in Bursa, Turkey. In Turkey, 47.5% of staff at the top
five universities are female, a higher proportion than for their
equivalents in the United States (35.9%), Denmark (31%) and Japan
(12.7%).
In contrast, UNESCO notes that at 37% the share of female researchers in Arab states compares well with other regions.
In Turkey, the proportion of female university researchers is slightly
higher (36%) than the average for the 27-member European Union as of
2012 (33%). In Iran, women account for over 60% of university students. Similarly, in Malaysia, Algeria, and in Saudi Arabia,
the majority of university students have been female in recent years,
while in 2016 Emirati women constituted 76.8% of people enrolled at
universities in the United Arab Emirates. At the University of Jordan, which is Jordan's largest and oldest university, 65% of students were female in 2013.
In a number of OIC member states, the ratio of women to men in
tertiary education is exceptionally high. Qatar leads the world in this
respect, having 6.66 females in higher education for every male as of
2015.
Other Muslim-majority states with notably more women university
students than men include Kuwait, where 41% of females attend university
compared with 18% of males; Bahrain, where the ratio of women to men in tertiary education is 2.18:1; Brunei Darussalam, where 33% of women enroll at university vis à vis 18% of men; Tunisia, which has a women to men ratio of 1.62 in higher education; and Kyrgyzstan, where the equivalent ratio is 1.61.
Additionally, in Kazakhstan, there were 115 female students for every
100 male students in tertiary education in 1999; according to the World
Bank, this ratio had increased to 144:100 by 2008.
However, in the United States, a recent study done by the
Institute for Social Policy and Understanding found that Muslim American
women (73%) are more likely than Muslim American men (57%) to achieve
higher education (post-high school education or higher).
Female employment
Some scholars refer to verse 28:23 in the Quran and to
Khadijah,
Muhammad's first wife, a merchant before and after converting to Islam,
as indications that Muslim women may undertake employment outside their
homes.
And when he came to the water of
Madyan, he found on it a group of men watering, and he found besides
them two women keeping back (their flocks). He said: What is the matter
with you? They said: We cannot water until the shepherds take away
(their sheep) from the water, and our father is a very old man.
Traditional interpretations of Islam require a woman to have her
husband's permission to leave the house and take up employment., though scholars such as
Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa and
Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Ebrahim Jannaati have said that women do not require a husband's permission to leave the house and work.
History
During medieval times, the
labor force in
Spanish Caliphate
included women in diverse occupations and economic activities such as
farming, construction workers, textile workers, managing slave girls,
collecting taxes from prostitutes, as well as presidents of
guilds,
creditors, religious scholars.
In the 12th century,
Ibn Rushd,
claimed that women were equal to men in all respects and possessed
equal capacities to shine, citing examples of female warriors among the
Arabs,
Greeks and Africans to support his case. In the early
history of Islam, examples of notable female Muslims who fought during the
Muslim conquests and
Fitna (civil wars) as soldiers or generals included
Nusaybah bint Ka'ab a.k.a. Umm Amarah, Aisha,
Kahula and Wafeira.
Medieval
bimarestan or hospitals included female staff as female nurses. Muslim hospitals were also the first to employ female physicians, such as
Banu Zuhr family who served the
Almohad caliph ruler
Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in the 12th century. This was necessary due to the
segregation of male and female patients in Islamic hospitals. Later in the 15th century, female
surgeons were employed at
Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu's
Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery).
Three female
Garuda Indonesia employees (centre) pictured at the
ITB Berlin tourism trade fair. The proportion of senior business roles held by women in Indonesia is 46%, the highest in
ASEAN and well above the level of countries such as Brazil (19%), Germany (18%), India (17%) and Japan (7%).
The model, singer and actress
Djamilya Abdullaeva – who shot to prominence after appearing on the hit
KBS
show Misuda – is one of a number of Uzbek women who have forged
successful careers in South Korea's globally exported pop culture
industry.
Modern era
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. According to a 2012 World Economic Forum report and other recent reports,
Islamic nations in the Middle East and North Africa region are
increasing their creation of economic and employment opportunities for
women; compared, however, to every other region in the world, the Middle
East and North African region ranks lowest on economic participation,
employment opportunity and the political empowerment of women. Ten
countries with the lowest women labour force participation in the
world – Jordan, Oman, Morocco, Iran, Turkey, Algeria, Yemen, Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan and Syria – are Islamic countries, as are the four
countries that have no female
parliamentarians.
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,
such as the work not requiring the woman to violate Islamic law (e.g.,
serving alcohol), and that she maintain her modesty while she performs
any work outside her home.
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.
In Saudi Arabia, it was illegal for Saudi women to drive until June
2018; it is still illegal for them to serve in military and other
professions with men. It is becoming more common for Saudi Arabian women to procure driving licences from other
Gulf Cooperation Council states such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
According to the International Business Report (2014) published
by global accounting network Grant Thornton, Indonesia – which is the
world's largest Muslim country by population – has ≥40% of senior
business management positions occupied by women, a greater proportion
than the United States (22%) and Denmark (14%). Prominent female business executives in the Islamic world include
Güler Sabancı, the CEO of the industrial and financial conglomerate
Sabancı Holding; Ümit Boyner, a non-executive director at Boyner Holding who was the chairwoman of
TÜSİAD, the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association, from 2010 to 2013; Bernadette Ruth Irawati Setiady, the CEO of PT Kalbe Farma Tbk., the largest pharmaceutical company in the ASEAN trade bloc; Atiek Nur Wahyuni, the director of Trans TV, a major free-to-air television station in Indonesia; and Elissa Freiha, a founding partner of the UAE-based investment platform WOMENA.
In the United States, the Institute for Social Policy and
Understanding found that, “Instead of hiding, Muslim women responded to a
Trump win with greater giving.” Nearly 30% of Muslim women vs. 19% of
Muslim men have increased their donations to an organization associated
with their faith community since the 2016 US presidential election,
demonstrating a level of financial independence and influence.
Financial and legal matters
Use, by country, of
Sharia for legal matters relating to women:
Sharia plays no role in the judicial system
Sharia applies to Muslims in personal status issues only
Sharia is also used in criminal law
Regional variations in the application of sharia
According to all schools of Islamic law, the injunctions of the
sharī'ah of Islam apply to all Muslims, male and female, who have
reached the age of maturity – and only to them. All Muslims are in principle equal before the law.
The Qur'an especially emphasises that its injunctions concern both men
and women in several verses where both are addressed clearly and in a
distinct manner, such as in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb at
33:35 ('Verily, men who surrender unto God, and women who surrender...').
Most Muslim majority countries, and some Muslim minority
countries, follow a mixed legal system, with positive laws and state
courts, as well as
sharia-based religious laws and religious courts.
Those countries that use Sharia for legal matters involving women,
adopt it mostly for personal law; however, a few Islamic countries such
as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen also have
sharia-based criminal laws.
According to Jan Michiel Otto, "[a]nthropological research shows
that people in local communities often do not distinguish clearly
whether and to what extent their norms and practices are based on local
tradition, tribal custom, or religion." In some areas, tribal practices such as
vani,
Ba'ad and
"honor" killing remain an integral part of the customary legal processes involving Muslim women.
In turn, article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code, which reduces
sentences for killing female relatives over adultery, and is commonly
believed to be derived from Islamic law, was in fact borrowed from
French criminal law during the Ottoman era.
Other than applicable laws to Muslim women, there is gender-based
variation in the process of testimony and acceptable forms of evidence
in legal matters.
Some Islamic jurists have held that certain types of testimony by women
may not be accepted. In other cases, the testimony of two women equals
that of one man.
Financial and legal agency: The classical position
According
to verse 4:32 of Islam's sacred text, both men and women have an
independent economic position: 'For men is a portion of what they earn,
and for women is a portion of what they earn. Ask God for His grace. God
has knowledge of all things.' Women therefore are at liberty to buy, sell, mortgage, lease, borrow or lend, and sign contracts and legal documents. Additionally, women can donate money, act as trustees and set up a business or company. These rights cannot be altered, irrespective of marital status. When a woman is married, she legally has total control over the dower – the
mahr
or bridal gift, usually financial in nature, while the groom pays to
the bride upon marriage – and retains this control in the event of
divorce.
Qur'anic principles, especially the teaching of
zakāh or
purification of wealth, encourage women to own, invest, save and
distribute their earnings and savings according to their discretion.
] These also acknowledge and enforce the right of women to participate in various economic activities.
In contrast to many other cultures, a woman in Islam has always
been entitled as per sharī'ah law to keep her family name and not take
her husband's name.
Therefore, a Muslim woman has traditionally always been known by the
name of her family as an indication of her individuality and her own
legal identity: there is no historically practiced process of changing
the names of women be they married, divorced or widowed.
With the spread of western-style state bureaucracies across the Islamic
world from the nineteenth century onwards, this latter convention has
come under increasing pressure, and it is now commonplace for Muslim
women to change their names upon marriage.
Property rights
A
Kazakh wedding ceremony in a mosque
Quran states:
"For men is a share from what the
parents and near relatives leave, and for women is a share from what the
parents and near relative leave from less from it or more, a legal
share."
(Al-Quran 4:7)
Bernard Lewis
says that classical Islamic civilization granted free Muslim women
relatively more property rights than women in the West, even as it
sanctified three basic inequalities between master and slave, man and
woman, believer and unbeliever. Even in cases where property rights were granted in the West, they were very limited and covered only upper class women.
Over time, while women's rights have improved elsewhere, those in many
Muslim-dominated countries have remained comparatively restricted.
Women's property rights in the Quran are from parents and near
relatives. A woman, according to Islamic tradition, does not have to
give her pre-marriage possessions to her husband and receive a
mahr (dower) which she then owns.
Furthermore, any earnings that a woman receives through employment or
business, after marriage, is hers to keep and need not contribute
towards family expenses. This is because, once the marriage is
consummated, in exchange for
tamkin (sexual submission), a woman is entitled to
nafaqa –
namely, 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.
Property rights enabled some Muslim women to possess substantial
assets and fund charitable endowments. In mid-sixteenth century
Istanbul, 36.8% of charitable endowments (awqāf) were founded by women. In eighteenth century Cairo, 126 out of 496 charitable foundations (25.4%) were endowed by women. Between 1770 and 1840, 241 out of 468 or 51% of charitable endowments in Aleppo were founded by women.
The Qur'an grants inheritance rights to wife, daughter, and sisters of the deceased.
However, women's inheritance rights to her father's property are
unequal to her male siblings, and varies based on number of sisters,
stepsisters, stepbrothers, if mother is surviving, and other claimants.
The rules of inheritance are specified by a number of Qur'an verses,
including
Surah "Baqarah" (chapter 2) verses 180 and 240;
Surah "Nisa(h)" (chapter 4) verses 7–11, 19 and 33; and
Surah "Maidah" (chapter 5), verses 106–108. Three verses in
Surah
"Nisah" (chapter 4), verses 11, 12 and 176, describe the share of close
relatives. The religious inheritance laws for women in Islam are
different from inheritance laws for non-Muslim women under common laws.
Economic equity
The
Islamic teaching of going out of one's way to treat women equitably in
financial dealings is exemplified by a story featuring
Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā
(700-767) – the founder of the Ḥanafī School of Law, who in his earlier
life was a textile merchant in a garrison town – and a woman who came
to his store offering to sell Abū Ḥanīfa a silk garment. The author and
investment banker Harris Irfan narrates the story as follows:
“The lady offered to sell the garment to Abu Hanifa for 100
dirhams but Abu Hanifa would not buy it. 'It is worth more than a
hundred', he told the surprised woman. 'How much?' he asked her again.
She offered to sell it for 200 dirhams and he turned her down. Then she
asked for 300, then 400, at which point the exasperated woman scolded
him. 'You are mocking me', she declared, and prepared to walk away from
the deal to try her luck elsewhere. So they summoned another merchant
and he solemnly valued the garment at 500 dirhams. Rather than profit
from the woman's ignorance, Abu Hanifa had opted to settle for a fair
trade, a principle he would abide by all his life – that the greedy
should be regulated from taking advantage of the vulnerable.”
Sexual crimes and sins
Zina
- Traditional jurisprudence
Zina is an
Islamic legal term referring to unlawful sexual intercourse. According to
traditional jurisprudence, zina can include adultery (of married parties), fornication (of unmarried parties),
prostitution,
bestiality, and according to some scholars, rape. The
Quran
disapproved of the promiscuity prevailing in Arabia at the time, and
several verses refer to unlawful sexual intercourse, including one that
prescribes the punishment of 100 lashes for fornicators. Zina thus belong to the class of
hadd (pl.
hudud) crimes which have Quranically specified punishments.
Although stoning for zina is not mentioned in the Quran, all schools of traditional jurisprudence agreed on the basis of
hadith that it is to be punished by stoning if the offender is
muhsan
(adult, free, Muslim, and having been married), with some extending
this punishment to certain other cases and milder punishment prescribed
in other scenarios. The offenders must have acted of their own free will.
According to traditional jurisprudence, zina must be proved by
testimony of four adult, pious male eyewitnesses to the actual act of
penetration, or a confession repeated four times and not retracted
later.
Any Muslim who accuses another Muslim of zina but fails to produce the
required witnesses commits the crime of false accusation (qadhf, القذف). Some contend that this
sharia requirement of four eyewitnesses severely limits a man's ability to prove
zina charges against women, a crime often committed without eyewitnesses. The
Maliki
legal school also allows an unmarried woman's pregnancy to be used as
evidence, but the punishment can be averted by a number of legal
"semblances" (
shubuhat), such as existence of an invalid marriage contract. These requirements made zina virtually impossible to prove in practice.
- History
Aside from "a few rare and isolated" instances from the pre-modern
era and several recent cases, there is no historical record of stoning
for zina being legally carried out. Zina became a more pressing issue in modern times, as
Islamist movements and governments employed polemics against public immorality.
After sharia-based criminal laws were widely replaced by
European-inspired statutes in the modern era, in recent decades several
countries passed legal reforms that incorporated elements of hudud laws
into their legal codes. Iran witnessed several highly publicized stonings for zina in the aftermath the
Islamic revolution. In Nigeria local courts have passed several stoning sentences, all of which were overturned on appeal or left unenforced. While the harsher punishments of the
Hudood Ordinances have never been applied in Pakistan,
in 2005 Human Rights Watch reported that over 200,000 zina cases
against women were underway at various levels in Pakistan's legal
system.
Qadhf and Li’an
In
'lian', when the husband accuses the wife of adultery, both have to
swear five times each to support their case (24:6-9). When the wife
swears five times, her evidence is upheld and given priority over his
and she is not punished.
And those who accuse chaste women
and never bring four witnesses, flog them eighty strips and never admit
their testimony forever; indeed they themselves are impure. Except those
who repent after this and amend themselvess; then God is forgiving and
merciful. And those who accuse their wives and do not have four
witnesses then witness of each one of them is four oaths by God that he
is of truthfuls. And fifth that curse of God be on him if he is of
liars. And it can save her from punishment if she oaths by God four
times that he is of liars. And fifth time that wrath of God be on her if
he is of truthfuls.
Rape
- Traditional jurisprudence
Rape is considered a serious sexual crime in Islam, and can be
defined in Islamic law as: "Forcible illegal sexual intercourse by a man
with a woman who is not legally married to him, without her free will
and consent". Sharī'ah law makes a distinction between adultery and rape and applies different rules. According to Professor
Oliver Leaman,
the required testimony of four male witnesses having seen the actual
penetration applies to illicit sexual relations (i.e. adultery and
fornication), not to rape. The requirements for proof of rape are less stringent:
Rape charges can be brought and a case proven based on
the sole testimony of the victim, providing that circumstantial evidence
supports the allegations. It is these strict criteria of proof which
lead to the frequent observation that where injustice against women does
occur, it is not because of Islamic law. It happens either due to
misinterpretation of the intricacies of the Sharia laws governing these
matters, or cultural traditions; or due to corruption and blatant
disregard of the law, or indeed some combination of these phenomena.
In the case of rape, the adult male perpetrator (i.e. rapist) of such
an act is to receive the ḥadd zinā, but the non-consenting or invalidly
consenting female (i.e. rape victim) is to be regarded as innocent of
zinā and relieved of the ḥadd punishment.
- Modern criminal laws
Rape laws in a number of Muslim-majority countries have been a
subject of controversy. In some of these countries, such as Morocco, the
penal code is neither based on Islamic law nor significantly influenced
by it, while in other cases, such as Pakistan's
Hudood Ordinances, the code incorporates elements of Islamic law.
In Afghanistan, Dubai, Morocco and Pakistan, some women who made
accusations of rape have been charged with fornication or adultery. This law was amended in Pakistan in 2006.
In several countries, including
Morocco ( - 2014), Jordan ( - 2017), Lebanon, Algeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan,
rapists have been allowed to avoid criminal prosecution if they
married their victim. There is a disagreement whether this practice is sanctioned by Islam or part of local custom.
Witness of woman
In Qur'an, surah 2:182 equates two women as substitute for one man, in matters requiring witnesses.
O ye who believe! When ye contract
debt with each other for a fixed period of time, reduce them to writing.
Let a scribe write down faithfully as between the parties: let not the
scribe refuse to write: as Allah has taught him, so let him write. Let
him who incurs the liability dictate, but let him fear His Lord Allah,
and not diminish aught of what he owes. If they party liable is mentally
deficient, or weak, or unable himself to dictate, let his guardian
dictate faithfully, and get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if
there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for
witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her.
The witnesses should not refuse when they are called on (For evidence).
Disdain not to reduce to writing (your contract) for a future period,
whether it be small or big: it is juster in the sight of Allah, More
suitable as evidence, and more convenient to prevent doubts among
yourselves but if it be a transaction which ye carry out on the spot
among yourselves, there is no blame on you if ye reduce it not to
writing.
Narrated Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri:
The prophet said,"Isn't the witness of a woman equal to half of
that of a man?" The women said, "Yes". He said, " This is deficiency of
her mind".
(Sahih Bukhari: Book of Witnesses: Chapter witness of women: Hadith no. 2658)
In Islamic law, testimony (
shahada) is defined as attestation
of knowledge with regard to a right of a second party against a third.
It exists alongside other forms of evidence, such as the oath,
confession, and circumstantial evidence.
In classical Shari'a criminal law men and women are treated differently with regard to evidence and
bloodmoney. The testimony of a man has twice the strength of that of a woman. However, with regard to
hadd offences and retaliation, the testimonies of female witnesses are not admitted at all.
A number of Muslim-majority countries, particularly in the Arab world,
presently treat a woman's testimony as half of a man's in certain cases,
mainly in family disputes adjudicated based on Islamic law.
Classical commentators commonly explained the unequal treatment
of testimony by asserting that women's nature made them more prone to
error than men. Muslim modernists have followed the Egyptian reformer
Muhammad Abduh
in viewing the relevant scriptural passages as conditioned on the
different gender roles and life experiences that prevailed at the time
rather than women's innately inferior mental capacities, making the rule
not generally applicable in all times and places.
Domestic violence
Acceptance of domestic violence by women in some Islamic countries, according to UNICEF (2013).
Men have authority over women by
[right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend
[for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly
obedient, guarding in [the husband's] absence what Allah would have them
guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance – [first] advise
them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike
them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them.
Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand. If you fear a breach between
them then appoint an arbiter from his folks and an arbiter from her
folks; if they desire reconciliation God will affect between them;
indeed God is All-knowing All-aware (Al-Quran, An-Nisa, 34-35)
The word "strike" in this verse which is understood as "beating" or
"hitting" in English – w'aḍribūhunna – is derived from the Arabic root
word ḍaraba, which has over fifty derivations and definitions, including
"to separate', "to oscillate" and "to play music". Even within the Qur'an itself, the most common use
of this word is not with the definition "to beat", but as verb phrases
which provide a number of other meanings, including several which are
more plausible within the context of 4:34, such as "to leave [your wife
in the event of disloyalty]", and "to draw them lovingly towards you
[following temporarily not sleeping with them in protest at their
disloyal behaviour]".
Sharī'ah law addresses domestic violence through the concept of
darar or harm that encompasses several types of abuse against a spouse,
including physical abuse. The laws concerning darar state that if a
woman is being harmed in her marriage, she can have it annulled:
physically assaulting a wife violates the marriage contract and is
grounds for immediate divorce.
Sharī'ah court records from the Ottoman period illustrate the
ability of women to seek justice when subject to physical abuse: as a
notable 1687 case from Aleppo demonstrates, courts gave out penalties
such as corporal punishment to abusive husbands.
A sixteenth-century fatwa issued by the Şeyhülislam (
Shaykh al-Islam,
the highest religious authority in the jurisdiction) of the Ottoman
Empire stated that in the event of a judge becoming aware of serious
spousal abuse, he has the legal authority to prevent the husband hurting
his wife "by whatever means possible", including ordering their
separation (at the request of the wife).
In recent years, numerous prominent scholars in the tradition of
Orthodox Islam have issued fatwas (legal opinions) against domestic
violence. These include the Shī'ite scholar Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah,
who promulgated a fatwa on the occasion of the International Day for the
Elimination of Violence Against Women in 2007, which states that Islam
forbids men from exercising any form of violence against women; Shakyh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, the Chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, who co-authored
The Prohibition of Domestic Violence in Islam (2011) with Dr. Homayra Ziad;
and Cemalnur Sargut, the president of the Turkish Women's Cultural
Association (TÜRKKAD), who has stated that men who engage in domestic
violence "in a sense commit polytheism (
shirk)": "Such people never go on a diet to curb the desires of their ego...[Conversely] In his
Mathnawi Rumi says love for women is because of witnessing Allah as reflected in the mirror of their being. According to
tasawwuf, woman is the light of Allah's beauty shed onto this earth. Again in [the]
Mathanawi
Rumi says a man who is wise and fine-spirited is understanding and
compassionate towards a woman, and never wants to hurt or injure her."
Some scholars claim Islamic law, such as verse 4:34 of Quran, allows and encourages domestic violence against women, when a husband suspects
nushuz (disobedience, disloyalty, rebellion, ill conduct) in his wife.Other scholars claim wife beating, for
nashizah, is not consistent with modern perspectives of Quran.
Some conservative translations suggest Muslim husbands are permitted to use
light force on their wives, and others claim permissibility to strike, hit, chastise, or beat. The relationship between Islam and domestic violence is disputed by some Islamic scholars.
The Lebanese educator and journalist 'Abd al-Qadir al-Maghribi
argued that perpetrating acts of domestic violence goes against
Muḥammad's own example and injunction. In his 1928 essay,
Muḥammad and Woman,
al-Maghribi said: "He [Muḥammad] prohibited a man from beating his wife
and noted that beating was not appropriate for the marital relationship
between them".
Muḥammad underlined the moral and logical inconsistency in beating
one's wife during the day and then praising her at night as a prelude to
conjugal relations. The Austrian scholar and translator of the Qur'an
Muhammad Asad
(Leopold Weiss) said: It is evident from many authentic traditions that
the Prophet himself intensely detested the idea of beating one's
wife...According to another tradition, he forbade the beating of any
woman with the words, "Never beat God's handmaidens."'
In practice, the legal doctrine of many Islamic nations, in
deference to Sharia law, have refused to include, consider or prosecute
cases of domestic violence, limiting legal protections available to
Muslim women.
In 2010, for example, the highest court of United Arab Emirates
(Federal Supreme Court) considered a lower court's ruling, and upheld a
husband's right to "chastise" his wife and children with physical
violence. Article 53 of the United Arab Emirates' penal code
acknowledges the right of a "chastisement by a husband to his wife and
the chastisement of minor children" so long as the assault does not
exceed the limits prescribed by Sharia.
In Lebanon, as many as three-quarters of all Lebanese women have
suffered physical abuse at the hands of husbands or male relatives at
some point in their lives. In Afghanistan, over 85% of women report domestic violence;
other nations with very high rates of domestic violence and limited
legal rights include Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Iran, Yemen and
Saudi Arabia.
In some Islamic countries such as Turkey, where legal protections
against domestic violence have been enacted, serial domestic violence by
husband and other male members of her family is mostly ignored by
witnesses and accepted by women without her getting legal help,
according to a Government of Turkey report.
Turkey was the first country in Europe to ratify (on 14 March 2012) the Council of Europe
Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, which is known as the Istanbul Convention because it was first opened for signature in Turkey's largest city (on 11 May 2011).
Three other European countries with a significant (≥c.20%) Muslim
population – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro – have also
ratified the convention, while Macedonia is a signatory to the document. The aim of the convention is to create a Europe free from violence against women and domestic violence. On 10 December 2014, the Serbian-Turkish pop star
Emina Jahović released a video clip entitled
Ne plašim se ("I'm not scared") to help raise awareness of domestic violence in the Balkans.
Ne plašim se
highlighted the link between alcohol consumption and domestic abuse.
The film's release date was timed to coincide with the United Nations'
Human Rights Day.
In the United States, a recent 2017 study done by the Institute
for Social Policy and Understanding found that, “Domestic violence
occurs in the Muslim community as often as it does in Christian and non-
affiliated communities, but Muslim victims are more likely to involve
faith leaders.”.
Data from the study demonstrates that among American Muslims 13% of
those surveyed said they knew someone in their faith community who was a
victim of domestic violence, a number similar to that of Catholics
(15%), Protestants (17%), of non-affiliated (14%), and even the general
public (15%). Among Americans Muslims who knew of a domestic violence incident in the
past year, the percentage of them who said the crime was reported to
law enforcement (50%) is comparable to other groups and the general
public as well. American Muslim respondents reported that a faith leader
was informed of the domestic violence about half the time, a
significantly higher rate than any other faith group surveyed in the
poll.
Love
Among
classical Muslim authors, the notion of love was developed along three
conceptual lines, conceived in an ascending hierarchical order: natural
love, intellectual love and divine love.
Romantic love
The
Taj Mahal near Agra in India was commissioned by the Moghul
Emperor Shah Jahan (1628-1658) in memory of his wife
Mumtaz Mahal, and completed in 1648. It is studded with numerous inscriptions, almost all of which are from the Qur'an. Scholars have suggested that the Taj Mahal complex is a representation of paradise.
In traditional Islamic societies, love between men and women was widely celebrated,
and both the popular and classical literature of the Muslim world is
replete with works on this theme. Throughout Islamic history,
intellectuals, theologians and mystics have extensively discussed the
nature and characteristics of romantic love ('
ishq). In its most common intellectual interpretation of the
Islamic Golden Age,
ishq
refers to an irresistible desire to obtain possession of the beloved,
expressing a deficiency that the lover must remedy in order to reach
perfection.
Like the perfections of the soul and the body, love thus admits of
hierarchical degrees, but its underlying reality is the aspiration to
the beauty which God manifested in the world when he created Adam in his
own image.
The Arab love story of
Lāyla and Majnūn was arguably more widely known amongst Muslims than that of Romeo and Juliet in (Northern) Europe, while
Jāmī's retelling of the story of
Yusuf (Joseph) and Zulaykhā — based upon the narrative of
Surat Yusuf in the Qur'an — is a seminal text in the Persian, Urdu and Bengali literary canons. The growth of affection (
mawadda) into passionate love (
ishq) received its most probing and realistic analysis in
The Ring of the Dove by the Andalusian scholar
Ibn Hazm. The theme of romantic love continues to be developed in the modern and even postmodern fiction from the Islamic world:
The Black Book (1990) by the Nobel Prize winner
Orhan Pamuk is a nominal detective story with extensive meditations on mysticism and obsessive love, while another Turkish writer,
Elif Şafak, intertwines romantic love and Sufism in her 2010 book
The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi.
In Islamic mysticism or Sufism, romantic love is viewed as a
metaphysical metaphor for the love of God. However, the importance of
love extends beyond the metaphorical:
ibnʿArabī,
who is widely recognised as the 'greatest of spiritual masters [of
Sufism]', posited that for a man, sex with a woman is the occasion for
experiencing God's 'greatest self-disclosure' (the position is similar
vice versa):
The most intense and perfect contemplation of God is through women, and the most intense union is the conjugal act.'
This emphasis on the sublimity of the conjugal act holds true for
both this world and the next: the fact that Islam considers sexual
relationships one of the ultimate pleasures of paradise is well-known;
moreover, there is no suggestion that this is for the sake of producing
children.
Accordingly, (and in common with civilisations such as the Chinese,
Indian and Japanese), the Islamic world has historically generated
significant works of erotic literature and technique, and many centuries
before such a genre became culturally acceptable in the West: Richard
Burton's substantially ersatz 1886 translation of
The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight,
a fifteenth-century sex manual authored by Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad
al-Nafzawi, was labelled as being 'for private circulation only' owing
to the puritanical mores and corresponding censorship laws of Victorian
England.
Love of women
Particularly
within the context of religion – a domain which is often associated
with sexual asceticism – Muḥammad is notable for emphasising the
importance of loving women. According to a famous ḥadīth, Muḥammad
stated: "Three things of this world of yours were made lovable to me:
women, perfume – and the coolness of my eye was placed in the ritual
prayer".
This is enormously significant because in the Islamic faith, Muḥammad
is by definition the most perfect human being and the most perfect male:
his love for women shows that the perfection of the human state is
connected with love for other human beings, not simply with love for
God. More specifically, it illustrates that male perfection lies in women and, by implication, female perfection in men.
Consequently, the love Muḥammad had for women is obligatory on all men,
since he is the model of perfection that must be emulated.
There is a Hadith quoting,
"There is nothing better for two who love each other than marriage."
Prominent figures in Islamic mysticism have elaborated on this theme.
Ibn 'Arabī
reflected on the above ḥadīth as follows: "….he [Muḥammad] mentioned
women [as one of three things from God's world made lovable to him]. Do
you think that which would take him far from his Lord was made lovable
to him? Of course not. That which would bring him near to his Lord was
made lovable to him.
"He who knows the measure of women and their mystery will not
renounce love for them. On the contrary, one of the perfections of the
gnostic is love for them, for this is a prophetic heritage and a divine
love. For the Prophet said, '[women] were made lovable to me.' Hence he
ascribed his love for them only to God. Ponder this chapter – you will
see wonders!"
Ibn 'Arabī held that witnessing God in the female human form is
the most perfect mode of witnessing: if the Prophet Muḥammad was made to
love women, it is because women reflect God.
Rūmī
came to a similar conclusion: "She [woman] is the radiance of God, she
is not your beloved. She is the Creator – you could say that she is not
created."
According to
Gai Eaton, there are several other ḥadīths on the same theme which underline Muḥammad's teaching on the importance of loving women:
- "You should cherish your woman from the perfume of her hair to the tips of her toes."
- "The best of you is the one who is best to his wife."
- "The whole world is to be enjoyed, but the best thing in the world is a good woman."
Another well-known ḥadīth explicitly states that loving conduct
towards one's wife is synonymous with advanced religious understanding:
- “The most perfect in faith amongst believers is he who is best in manner and kindest to his wife.”
Beauty
Both the
concept and the reality of beauty are of exceptional importance in the
Islamic religion: beauty (iḥsān, also translated as “virtue”,
“excellence” and “making beautiful”) is the third element of the
canonical definition of Islam after belief (īmān) and practice (islām). At
53:31, the Qur'an emphasises the importance of avoiding ugly actions, while at
10:26 it states: “Those who do what is beautiful will receive the most beautiful and increase [or more than this].”
Female beauty
Female
beauty is a central theme in Islam, which regards it as “the most
direct visible manifestation of God's beauty, gentleness, mercy and
forgiveness”. This theme is developed most famously in Islamic mysticism or Sufism. In her work
The Mystical Dimensions of Islam,
Annemarie Schimmel records the position of
Ibn ʿArabī
– who is generally regarded as the greatest Sufi – on “perceiving the
divine through the medium of female beauty and seeing the female as the
true revelation of God's mercy and creativity” as follows:
“The closing chapter of the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, that on the Prophet
Muhammad, centers around the famous tradition according to which the
Prophet was given a love for perfumes and women and joy in prayer. Thus,
Ibn 'Arabī could defend the idea that 'love of women belongs to the
perfection of the gnostics, for it is inherited from the Prophet and is a
divine love' (R 480). Woman reveals, for Ibn Arabī, the secret of the
compassionate God. The grammatical fact that the word dhāt, 'essence',
is feminine offers Ibn Arabī different methods to discover this feminine
element in God.”
Marriage
A
bridal procession accompanied by live music in Lombok, Indonesia.
According to the National Statistical Bureau of Indonesia, the mean age
of marriage for women was 22.3 years in 2010, an increase on the 1970
average of 19 years; the corresponding figures for men were 25.7 years
and 23 years respectively.
Metaphysical and cosmological significance of marriage
The metaphysical and cosmological significance of marriage within Islam – particularly within
Sufism
or Islamic mysticism – is difficult to overstate. The relationship and
interplay between male and female is viewed as nothing less than that
between heaven (represented by the husband) and earth (symbolised by the
wife).
Because of her beauty and virtue, the earth is eminently lovable:
heaven marries her not simply out of duty, but for pleasure and joy.
Marriage and sexual intercourse are not merely human phenomena, but the
universal power of productivity found within every level of existence:
sex within marriage is the supreme instance of witnessing God in the
full splendour of His self-disclosure.
Legal framework
Marriage is the central institution of family life and society, and therefore the central institution of Islam. On a technical level, it is accomplished through a contract which is confirmed by the bride's reception of a dowry or
mahr, and by the witnessing of the bride's consent to the marriage. A woman has the freedom to propose to a man of her liking, either orally or in writing.
Muḥammad himself was the subject of a spoken marriage proposal from a
Muslim lady which was worded "I present myself to you", although
ultimately Muḥammad solemnized her marriage to another man.
Within the marriage contract itself, the bride has the right to stipulate her own conditions.
These conditions usually pertain to such issues as marriage terms (e.g.
that her husband may not take another wife), and divorce terms (e.g.
that she may dissolve the union at her own initiative if she deems it
necessary).
In addition, dowries – one on marriage, and another deferred in case of
divorce – must be specified and written down; they should also be of
substance. The dowry is the exclusive property of the wife and should not be given away, neither to her family nor her relatives. According to the Qur'an (at
4:2), the wife may freely choose to give part of their dowry to the husband. Fiqh doctrine says a woman's property, held exclusively in her name cannot be appropriated by her husband, brother or father. For many centuries, this stood in stark contrast with the more limited property rights of women in (Christian) Europe.
Accordingly, Muslim women in contemporary America are sometimes shocked
to find that, even though they were careful to list their assets as
separate, these can be considered joint assets after marriage.
Marriage ceremony and celebrations
When agreement to the marriage has been expressed and witnessed, those present recite the
fātiḥah prayer (the opening chapter of the Qur'an). Normally, marriages are not contracted in mosques but in private homes or at the offices of a judge (
qāḍi).
The format and content of the ceremony (if there is one) is often
defined by national or tribal customs, as are the celebrations (
'urs) that accompany it.
In some parts of the Islamic world these may include processions in
which the bride gift is put on display; receptions where the bride is
seen adorned in elaborate costumes and jewellery; and ceremonial
installation of the bride in the new house to which she may be carried
in a litter (a type of carriage).
The groom may ride through the streets on a horse, followed by his
friends and well-wishers, and there is always a feast called the
walīmah.
Historical commonality of divorce
In
contrast to the Western and Orient world where divorce was relatively
uncommon until modern times, divorce was a more common occurrence in
certain parts of the late medieval
Muslim world. In the
Mamluk Sultanate and
Ottoman Empire, the rate of divorce was high.
The work of the scholar and historian Al-Sakhawi (1428-1497) on the
lives of women show that the marriage pattern of Egyptian and Syrian
urban society in the fifteenth century was greatly influenced by easy
divorce, and practically untouched by polygamy.
Earlier Egyptian documents from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries
also showed a similar but more extreme pattern: in a sample of 273
women, 118 (45%) married a second or third time.
Edward Lane's careful observation of urban Egypt in the early
nineteenth century suggests that the same regime of frequent divorce and
rare polygamy was still applicable in these last days of traditional
society. In the early 20th century, some villages in western
Java and the
Malay peninsula had divorce rates as high as 70%.
Polygamy
Marriage customs vary in Muslim dominated countries. Islamic law allows
polygamy where a Muslim man can be married to four wives at the same time, under restricted conditions, but it is not widespread. As the
Sharia demands that polygamous men treat all wives equally, classical Islamic scholars opined that it is preferable to avoid
polygamy altogether, so one does not even come near the chance of committing the forbidden deed of dealing unjustly between the wives. Most modern Muslims view the practice of polygamy as allowed, but unusual and not recommended. In some countries, polygamy is restricted by new family codes, for example the
Moudawwana in Morocco.
Some countries allow Muslim men to enter into additional temporary
marriages, beyond the four allowed marriages, such as the practice of
sigheh marriages in Iran, and
Nikah Mut'ah elsewhere in some Middle East countries.
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
found and considered legal among Shia sect of Islam, for example in
Iran after 1979. Temporary marriages are forbidden among Sunni sect of
Islam.
Among Shia, the number of temporary marriages can be unlimited, for a
duration that is less than an hour to few months, recognized with an
official temporary marriage certificate, and divorce is unnecessary
because the temporary marriage automatically expires on the date and
time specified on the certificate. Payment to the woman by the man is mandatory, in every temporary marriage and considered as
mahr. Its practitioners cite
sharia law as permitting the practise. Women's rights groups have condemned it as a form of legalized prostitution.
Polyandry
Polyandry,
the practice of a woman having more than one husband (even temporarily,
after payment of a sum of money to the man or the man's family), by
contrast, is not permitted.
Endogamy
Consanguineous endogamous marriages are common for women in Islam. Over 250 million women of Islamic faith are in endogamous consanguineous marriages, typically with
first cousin marriages.
Over 65% of all marriages in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are endogamous
and consanguineous arranged marriages; more than 40% of all marriages
are endogamous and consanguineous in Mauritania, Libya, Sudan, Iraq,
Iran, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Kuwait, UAE and Oman.
The Prophet Muḥammad quite deliberately did not recommend cousin-marriage as his
sunnah
or path to be followed; out of his thirteen wives, only one – the
seventh, Zaynab bint Jaish, a divorceé said by historians to have been
very beautiful – was his cousin.
The rest of his wives came from diverse social and even religious
backgrounds, with Safiyya bint Huyayy and Raihana bint Shamum being of
Jewish origin.
Despite this, endogamy is common in some Muslim-majority countries. The observed endogamy is primarily
consanguineous marriages, where the bride and the groom share a biological grandparent or other near ancestor.
The most common observed marriages are first cousin marriages, followed
by second cousin marriages. Consanguineous endogamous marriages are
most common for women in Muslim communities in the Middle East, North
Africa and Islamic Central Asia.
About 1 in 3 of all marriages in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan are
first cousin marriages; while overall consanguineous endogamous
marriages exceed 65 to 80% in various Islamic populations of the Middle
East, North Africa and Islamic Central Asia.
Forbidden marriages
Do
not marry women your fathers married to except that has passed; Indeed
it was lewdness, disobedience and bad way. Prohibited to you are your
mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your paternal aunts, your
maternal aunts, brother's daughters, sister's daughters, your
suckling-mothers, your sisters from suckling, mothers of your women,
your stepdaughters in your guardianship from your women you have entered
into them but if you have not entered into them then there is no blame
on you, women of your sons from your loins and that you add two sisters
(in a wedlock) except that has passed; surely God is All-forgiving and
all-merciful.
Some marriages are forbidden between Muslim women and Muslim men, according to sharia. In the Quran,
Surah An-Nisa gives a list of forbidden marriages.
[Quran 4:22]
Examples include marrying one's stepson, biological son, biological
father, biological brother, biological sibling's son, biological uncle,
milk son or milk brother she has nursed, husband of her biological
daughter, and a stepfather who has had sexual relations with her
biological mother and father-in-law. There are disputes between
Hanafis,
Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanabalis schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence
on whether and which such marriages are irregular but not void if
already in place (
fasid), and which are void (
batil) marriages.
Age of marriage
Child
marriage, which was once a globally accepted phenomenon, has come to be
discouraged in most countries, but it persists to some extent in most
parts of the Muslim world. Islam is one of several major faiths whose teachings have been used to justify marriage of girls.
The age of
marriage in Islam for women varies with country. Traditionally, Islam has permitted marriage of girls below the age of 10, because
Sharia considers practices of
Muhammad as a basis for Islamic law. According to
Sahih Bukhari and
Sahih Muslim, the two Sunni
hadiths, Muhammed married
Aisha,
his third wife when she was 6, and consummated the marriage when she
reached the age of 9 or 10. (This version of events is rejected by
Shia Muslims.)
Narrated 'Aisha: that the Prophet
married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage
when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine
years (i.e., till his passing away).
Some Islamic scholars suggest that it is not the calendar age that
matters, rather it is the biological age of the girl that determines
when she can be married under Islamic law. According to these Islamic
scholars, marriageable age in Islam is when a girl has reached
sexual maturity,
as determined by her nearest male guardian; this age can be, claim
these Islamic scholars, less than 10 years, or 12, or another age
depending on each girl.
Some clerics and conservative elements of Muslim communities in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria and elsewhere have insisted that it is their Islamic right to marry girls below age 15.
Interfaith marriages and Muslim women
According
to sharī'ah law, it is legal for a Muslim man to marry a Christian or
Jewish woman, or a woman of any of the divinely-revealed religions. A female does not have to convert from Christianity or Judaism to Islam in order to marry a Muslim male. While sharī'ah law does not allow a Muslim woman to marry outside her religion,
a significant number of non-Muslim men have entered into the Islamic
faith in order to satisfy this aspect of the religious law where it is
in force. With deepening globalisation, it has become more common for Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men who remain outside Islam. These marriages meet with varying degrees of social approval, depending on the milieu.
However, conversions of non-Muslim men to Islam for the purpose of
marriage are still numerous, in part because the procedure for
converting to Islam is relatively expeditious.
Behaviour and rights within marriage
Islamic law and practice recognize gender disparity, in part, by
assigning separate rights and obligations to a woman in married life. A
woman's space is in the
private sphere of the home, and a man's is in the
public sphere. Women must primarily fulfill marital and maternal responsibilities, whereas men are financial and administrative stewards of their families. According to
Sayyid Qutb,
the Qur'an "gives the man the right of guardianship or superiority over
the family structure in order to prevent dissension and friction
between the spouses. The equity of this system lies in the fact that God
both favoured the man with the necessary qualities and skills for the
'guardianship' and also charged him with the duty to provide for the
structure's upkeep."
The Quran considers the love between men and women to be a
Sign of God.
[Quran 30:21] This said, the Quran also permits men to first admonish, then lightly tap or push and even beat her, if he suspects
nushuz (disobedience, disloyalty, rebellion, ill conduct) in his wife.
[Quran 4:34]
In Islam, there is no
coverture,
an idea central in European, American as well as in non-Islamic Asian
common law, and the legal basis for the principle of marital property.
An Islamic marriage is a contract between a man and a woman. A Muslim
man and woman do not merge their legal identity upon marriage, and do
not have rights over any shared marital property. The assets of the man
before the marriage, and earned by him after the marriage, remain his
during marriage and in case of a divorce.
A divorce under Islamic law does not require redistribution of
property. Rather, each spouse walks away from the marriage with his or
her individual property. Divorcing Muslim women who did not work outside
their home after marriage do not have a claim on the collective wealth
of the couple under Islamic law, except for deferred
mahr – an amount of money or property the man agrees to pay her before the woman signs the marriage contract.
Quran states
And for you is half of what your
wives leave if they have no child. But if they have a child, for you is
one fourth of what they leave, after any bequest they [may have] made or
debt. And for the wives is one fourth if you leave no child. But if you
leave a child, then for them is an eighth of what you leave, after any
bequest you [may have] made or debt. And if a man or woman leaves
neither ascendants nor descendants but has a brother or a sister, then
for each one of them is a sixth. But if they are more than two, they
share a third, after any bequest which was made or debt, as long as
there is no detriment [caused]. [This is] an ordinance from Allah, and
Allah is Knowing and Forbearing.
(Al-Quran 4:12)
In case of husband's death, a portion of his property is inherited by
his wives according to a combination of sharia laws. If the man did not
leave any children, his wives receive a quarter of the property and the
remaining three quarters is shared by the blood relatives of the
husband (for example, parents, siblings).
If he had children from any of his wives, his wives receive an eighth
of the property and the rest is for his surviving children and parents.
The wives share as inheritance a part of movable property of her late
husband, but they do not share anything from immovable property such as land, real estate, farm or such value. A woman's deferred
mahr and the dead husband's outstanding debts are paid before any inheritance is applied.
Sharia mandates that inheritance include male relatives of the dead
person, that a daughter receive half the inheritance as a son, and a
widow receives less than her daughters.
Sexuality
General parameters
In
contrast to Christianity – where sex is sanctified through marriage –
in the Islamic conception, sexuality in and of itself is sacred and a
blessing; as per Ibn 'Arabī's formulation, sex is a sublime act which can draw its practitioners closer to God.
Marriage in Islam is a contract drawn up according to the Sharī'ah to
legitimise sexual relations and protect the rights of both partners.
However, in common with Christianity and Judaism, sexual activity
outside of marriage is perceived as a serious sin in the eyes of God.
Sexual satisfaction and frequency of intercourse
Female
sexual satisfaction is given significant prominence in the Islamic
faith and its classical literature. As recorded by the British Muslim
writer Ruqayyah Waris Maqsood in her book
The Muslim Marriage Guide:
“the early Muslims regarded sexual prowess and the ability to satisfy a
woman as being an essential part of manhood. The niece of [
‘Ā’ishah bint Abī Bakr], a scholarly and beautiful woman called
A'isha bint Talha,
once married the pious Umar ibn Ubaydilah. On their wedding night he
made love to her no fewer than seven times, so that when morning came,
she told him: 'You are a perfect Muslim in every way, even in this!'”
In this context, the Muslim caliph Umar ibn Al-Khattab (584-644)
believed that a married woman had the right to sex at least once every
four days, while according to the hadith scholar, jurist and mystic Abu
Talib al-Makki (d.996), “if [a husband] knows that [his wife] needs
more, he is obliged to comply”.
Foreplay
The
Prophet Muḥammad underlined the importance of foreplay and emotional intimacy in sexual relations, as the following hadith illustrates:
“[The Prophet Muḥammad said]'Not one of you should fall upon his
wife like an animal; but let there first be a messenger between you.'
'And what is that messenger?' they asked, and [the Prophet Muḥammad] replied: 'Kisses and words.'
Islamic luminaries expanded on this theme. The philosopher, mystic and jurist
Al-Ghazālī (c.1058-1111) stated that “Sex should begin with gentle words and kissing”, while the Indian scholar
al-Zabīdī (1732-1790) added to this exhortation in his commentary on Al-Ghazālī's magnum opus,
The Revival of the Religious Sciences (
Iḥiyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn):
“This should include not only the cheeks and lips; and then he should
caress the breasts and nipples, and every part of her body.”
Simultaneous orgasms
Classical
Islamic scholars have written extensively about the art and
desirability of husband and wife attaining simultaneous orgasms;
Al-Ghazali gives the following counsel in his key work,
The Revival of the Religious Sciences (
Iḥiyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn):
“When he has come to his orgasm (
inzal), he should wait
for his wife until she comes to her orgasm likewise; for her climax may
well come slowly. If he arouses her desire, and then sits back from her,
this will hurt her, and any disparity in their orgasms will certainly
produce a sense of estrangement. A simultaneous orgasm will be the most
delightful for her, especially since her husband will be distracted by
his own orgasm from her, and she will not therefore be afflicted by
shyness.”
According to Quran and
Sahih Muslim, two primary sources of Sharia, Islam permits only vaginal sex.
(…) "If he likes he may (have intercourse) being on the back or in front of her, but it should be through one opening (vagina)."
There is disagreement among Islamic scholars on proper interpretation
of Islamic law on permissible sex between a husband and wife, with
claims that non-vaginal sex within a marriage is disapproved but not
forbidden. Anal intercourse and sex during menstruation are prohibited, as is violence and force against a partner's will.
However, these are the only restrictions; as the Qur'an says at 2:223
(Sūratu l-Baqarah): 'Your women are your fields; go to your women as you
wish'.
After sex, as well as menstruation, Islam requires men and women to do
ghusl
(major ritual washing with water, ablutions), and in some Islamic
communities xoslay (prayers seeking forgiveness and purification), as
sex and menstruation are considered some of the causes that makes men
and women religiously impure (
najis). Some Islamic jurists suggest touching and foreplay, without any penetration, may qualify
wudu (minor ritual washing) as sufficient form of religiously required ablution.
Muslim men and women must also abstain from sex during a ritual fast,
and during all times while on a pilgrimage to Mecca, as sexual act,
touching of sexual parts and emission of sexual bodily fluids are
considered ritually dirty.
Sexual intercourse is not allowed to a Muslim woman during
menstruation,
postpartum period, during fasting and certain religious activities, disability and in
iddah after divorce or widowhood. Homosexual relations and same sex marriages are forbidden to women in Islam.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is acceptable in Islam; but ovum donation
along with sperm donation, embryo donation are prohibited by Islam. These marriages meet with varying degrees of social approval, depending on the milieu. Some debated
fatwas from Shia sect of Islam, however, allow third party participation.
Islam requires both husband and wife/wives to meet their conjugal
duties. Religious qadis (judges) have admonished the man or women who
fail to meet these duties.
A high value is placed on female
chastity and exhibitionism is prohibited.
Female genital mutilation
A poster for a campaign against
female genital mutilation
('FGM') in Christian-majority Uganda. In the African states of
Tanzania, Nigeria and Niger, FGM is more prevalent amongst Christians
than Muslims.
The classical position
There
is no mention of female circumcision – let alone other forms of female
genital mutilation – in the Qur'an. Furthermore, Muḥammad did not
subject any of his daughters to this practice, which is itself of real
significance as it does not form part of his spoken or acted example. Moreover, the origins of female circumcision are not Islamic: it is first thought to have been practiced in ancient Egypt.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the practice may be an old
African puberty rite that was passed on to Egypt by cultural diffusion.
Notwithstanding these facts, there is a belief amongst some
Muslims – particularly though not entirely exclusively in (sub-Saharan)
Africa – that female circumcision (specifically the cutting of the
prepuce or hood of the clitoris) is religiously vindicated by the
existence of a handful of ḥadīths which apparently recommend it.
However, these ḥadīths are generally regarded as inauthentic,
unreliable and weak, and therefore as having no legislative foundation
and/or practical application.
Notable Islamic perspectives on FGM
In
answering the question of how "Islamic" female circumcision is, Haifaa
A. Jawad – an academic specialising in Islamic thought and the author of
The Rights of Women in Islam: An Authentic Approach – has
concluded that "the practice has no Islamic foundation whatsoever. It is
nothing more than an ancient custom which has been falsely assimilated
to the Islamic tradition, and with the passage of time it has been
presented and accepted (in some Muslim countries) as an Islamic
injunction."
Jawad notes that the argument which states that there is an indirect
correlation between Islam and female circumcision fails to explain why
female circumcision is not practiced in much of the Islamic world, and
conversely is practiced in Latin American countries such as Brazil,
Mexico and Peru.
The French intellectual, journalist and translator Renée Saurel
observed that female circumcision and FGM more generally directly
contradict Islam's sacred text: "The Koran, contrary to Christianity and
Judaism, permits and recommends that the woman be given physical and
psychological pleasure, pleasure found by both partners during the act
of love. Forcibly split, torn, and severed tissues are neither conducive
to sensuality nor to the blessed feeling given and shared when
participating in the quest for pleasure and the escape from pain."
The Egyptian feminist
Nawal El-Saadawi
reasons that the creation of the clitoris per se is a direct Islamic
argument against female circumcision: "If religion comes from God, how
can it order man to cut off an organ created by Him as long as that
organ is not diseased or deformed? God does not create the organs of the
body haphazardly without a plan. It is not possible that He should have
created the clitoris in woman's body only in order that it be cut off
at an early stage in life. This is a contradiction into which neither
true religion nor the Creator could possibly fall. If God has created
the clitoris as a sexually sensitive organ, whose sole function seems to
be the procurement of sexual pleasure for women, it follows that He
also considers such pleasure for women as normal and legitimate, and
therefore as an integral part of mental health."
Sheikh Abbas el Hocine Bencheikh,
a diplomat and Rector of the L'institut Musulman at the Grande Mosquée
de Paris, pointed to the total lack of Islamic theological justification
for female circumcision: "If circumcision for the man (though not
compulsory) has an aesthetic and hygienic purpose, there is no existing
religious Islamic text of value to be considered in favour of female
excision, as proven by the fact that this practice is totally
non-existent in most of the Islamic countries."
Mahmud Shaltut,
the former Sheikh of Al-Azhar in Cairo – one of the most important
religious offices in Sunni Islam – also stated that female circumcision
has no theological basis: "Islamic legislation provides a general
principle, namely that should meticulous and careful examination of
certain issues prove that it is definitely harmful or immoral, then it
should be legitimately stopped to put an end to this damage or
immorality. Therefore, since the harm of excision has been established,
excision of the clitoris of females is not a mandatory obligation, nor
is it a Sunnah."
Initiatives to end FGM in the OIC
In
the twenty-first century, a number of high-ranking religious offices
within the OIC have urged the cessation of all forms of FGM:
- A 2006 international conference convened by Egypt's Dar al ifta –
an influential body which issues legal opinions on Islamic law and
jurisprudence – concluded "that the [female genital] mutilation
presently practised in some parts of Egypt, Africa and elsewhere
represents a deplorable custom which finds no justification in the
authoritative sources of Islam, the Qur'an and the practice of the
Prophet Muḥammad...all measures must be taken to put a halt to this
unacceptable tradition."
- A November 2006 conference at Al-Azhar University in Cairo held
under the auspices of the Grand Mufti of Egypt passed a resolution –
with the same legal weight as fatwa – that FGM was to be considered a
punishable offence, because it constitutes "an act of aggression and a
crime against humanity".
- In 2007 the Cairo-based Al-Azhar Supreme Council of Islamic
Research, an entity belonging to what is generally regarded as one of
the most significant theological universities in the OIC, ruled that
female genital mutilation has no basis in Islamic law.
- In 2012, Professor Dr. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu
– the then Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
– urged countries to abolish female genital mutilation (FGM), saying
the practice was against Islam and human rights: "This practice is a
ritual that has survived over centuries and must be stopped as Islam
does not support it."
- In 2016, the OIC Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations reaffirmed its determination to eliminate FGM/C by 2030, in accordance with a global target set by the UN in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Recorded prevalence of FGM in the OIC
According
to UNICEF (2014), twenty-six of the twenty-nine countries in which
female genital mutilation is classified as 'concentrated' are in
sub-Saharan Africa: there is no recorded prevalence in any non-African
OIC member state outside Yemen (19% prevalence) and Iraq (8%).
Contraception
From very early times various methods of contraception have been practiced in Islam,
and Muslim jurists of the two major sects of Islam, Sunni and Shia,
generally agree that contraception and family planning are not forbidden
by Sharia; the use of contraceptive devices is permitted if the marital
partners agree. All the Islamic schools of law from the tenth to the nineteenth century gave contraception their serious consideration.
They dealt principally with coitus interruptus, the most common method,
and unanimously agreed that it was licit provided the free wife gave
her permission, because she had rights to children and to sexual
fulfilment which withdrawal was believed to diminish.
From the writings of the jurists it emerges that other methods of birth
control – mostly intravaginal tampons – were also used by premodern
women and the commonest view was that these should only be employed if
the husband also agreed.
Given the era and the fact that both Christian and Jewish
tradition outlawed contraception, the attitude of Muslims towards birth
control has been characterised as being remarkably pragmatic; they also
possessed a sophisticated knowledge of possible birth control methods.
Medieval doctors like Ibn Sina (Avicenna) regarded birth control as a
normal part of medicine, and devoted chapters to contraception and
abortion in their textbooks (although it should be noted that the
permissibility of abortion within Islamic thought varies according to a
number of factors; Islam views the family as sacred and children as a
gift from God).
According to medieval Muslims, birth control was employed to avoid a
large number of dependants; to safeguard property; to guarantee the
education of a child; to protect a woman from the risks of childbirth,
especially if she was young or ill; or simply to preserve her health and
beauty.
Female infanticide
When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned – For what crime she was killed;
In some Islamic populations, sex-selective female infanticide is of
concern because of abnormally high boy to girl ratios at birth. In Islamic
Azerbaijan,
for example, the birth sex ratio was in the 105 to 108 range, before
the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. After the collapse,
the birth sex ratios in Azerbaijan has sharply climbed to over 115 and
remained high for the last 20 years. The persistently observed 115 boys for every 100 girls born suggests
sex-selective abortion of females in Azerbaijan in the last 20 years. Other Muslim-majority countries with high birth sex ratio, implying female sex-selective abortion, include
Albania (112) and
Pakistan (111).
Divorce
In Islam, a woman may only divorce her husband under certain
conditions. These are many and include neglect, not being supported
financially, the husband's impotence, apostasy, madness, dangerous
illness or some other defect in the marriage. Divorce by mutual consent has only to be agreed upon by both parties to become effective. If a Muslim woman wishes to divorce her husband she has two options under
Sharia law: seek a
tafriq, or seek a
khul. A
tafriq is a divorce for certain allowable reasons. This divorce is granted by a
qadi, a religious judge, in cases where the
qadi accepts her claims of abuse or abandonment. If a tafriq is denied by the
qadi, she cannot divorce. If a tafriq is granted, the marriage is dissolved and the husband is obligated to pay her the deferred
mahr in their marriage contract. The second method, by far more common in wife-initiated divorces,
khul
is a divorce without cause, by mutual consent. This divorce requires a
husband's consent and it must be supported by consideration that passes
from the wife to the husband. Often, this consideration almost always
consists of the wife relinquishing her claim to the deferred mahr. 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.
In contrast to the comparatively limited methods of divorce
available to a woman, Islam allows a Muslim husband to unilaterally
divorce his wife, as
talaq, with no requirement to show cause;
however, in practice there is variance by country as to whether there
are any additional legal processes when a husband divorces his wife by
this method. For example, the Tunisian Law of Personal Status (1957)
makes repudiation by a husband invalid until it has been ratified by a
court, and provides for further financial compensation to the wife.
Similar laws have been enacted elsewhere, both within an interpretive
framework of traditional sharī'ah law, and through the operation of
civil codes not based upon the sharī'ah. However, upon talaq, the husband must pay the wife her deferred mahr.
Some Muslim-majority countries mandate additional financial
contributions to be made to the wife on top of the mahr: for example,
the Syrian Law of Personal Status (1953) makes the payment of
maintenance to the wife by the husband obligatory for one year after the
divorce, which is thus a legal recourse of the wife against the
husband. The husband is free to marry again immediately after a divorce, but the woman must observe
iddah, that is wait for 3 lunar months
before she can remarry after divorce, to establish paternity, in case
she discovers she is pregnant. In case of death of her husband, the
iddah period is 4 lunar months and 10 days before she can start conjugal relations with another Muslim man.
Obligations during divorce
A key verse relating to obligation of women during divorce is 2:228:
Divorced women remain in waiting
for three periods, and it is not lawful for them to conceal what Allah
has created in their wombs if they believe in Allah and the Last Day.
And their husbands have more right to take them back in this [period] if
they want reconciliation. And due to the wives is similar to what is
expected of them, according to what is reasonable. But the men have a
degree over them [in responsibility and authority]. And Allah is Exalted
in Might and Wise.
(Al-Quran 2:228)
This verse not only explains the divorce rights of women in Islam, it sets out
iddah
to prevent illegal custody of divorcing husband's child by a woman,
specifies that each gender has divorce rights, and that men are a degree
above women.
Family
With the
coming of the Quranic revelation, the family replaced the tribe as the
basic unit of Arab society, and today the family is still the primary
means of social organisation in the Islamic world.
As in many other traditional societies, the family in Muslim-majority
countries is not restricted to the nuclear model solely consisting of
parents and children, but is instead typically made up of a larger
extended family network which includes grandparents, uncles, aunts,
in-laws and cousins.
Pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding
Pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding are processes for which women are rewarded by God:
“A woman questioned the Prophet [Muḥammad]: 'Men go to war and
have a great reward for that, so what do women have.' He answered: 'When
a woman is pregnant, she has the reward of someone who spends the whole
night praying and the whole day fasting; when the contractions strike
her, no one knows how much reward God gives her for having to go through
this, and when she delivers her child, then for every suck it draws
from her, she receives the reward for keeping a soul alive.'”
The Prophet Muḥammad also stated that if a women dies in
childbirth, she is counted as a martyr; the reward for martyrdom is
Paradise.
Motherhood
A famous hadith of the Prophet Muḥammad states that “Heaven lies under the feet of mothers”,
and accordingly – and like all traditional systems – Islam has honoured
the work of homemaker and mother as being of the highest value. While there is nothing in Islamic teachings that precludes women from working and receiving wages, as per Seyyed Hossein Nasr's
The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity,
“Islamic society has never thought that working in an office is of a
higher order of importance than bringing up one's children”.
Movement and travel
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 77 kilometres or 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.
1990-2017 Saudi driving ban
A 1990 fatwa commissioned by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of the Interior formally enacted a ban on women driving. This prohibition was unique to Saudi Arabia and became a source of international ridicule. On 26 September 2017, a royal decree personally signed by
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud – the King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia – directed the Ministry of the Interior to reverse the ban. The decree noted that “the original Islamic ruling in regards to women driving is to allow it”,
and that those who opposed this view did so on the basis of “excuses
that are baseless and have no predominance of thought (sic)”. Full implementation of the decree was scheduled for June 2018.
In an interview with The Atlantic, Hala Al-Dosari – a Saudi
scholar at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study –
posited that the driving ban was not religious or even cultural, but
political;
she also noted the absurdity of banning females driving when women in
the era of the Prophet Muḥammad (570-632) were riding their camels
without it being an issue.
The author and academic Haifaa Jawad underlined that the royal decree
was “not some bold initiative to present a new religious interpretation
of the issue. Theologically speaking, the ban has no basis in the Quran
or Hadith, and should never have been issued in the first place.”
Additionally, some analysts have contended that the US$3.5bn
investment in the car-sharing app Uber by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's
Public Investment Fund – together with other projected economic gains – was instrumental in the reversal of the ban on women driving.
Cleanliness and travel restrictions
A Muslim woman may not move in a mosque, or perform
salat,
while she is menstruating or during postpartum period, because bodily
fluids are considered ritually impure in Islam. Some Muslim scholars
suggest that the woman should stay in her house, or near her house,
during this state.
Some Islamic jurists claim that this is an incorrect interpretation of
sharia, and suggest the Islamic intent was about hygiene, not about
religious ritual cleanliness.
Dress code
Early costumes of
Arab women.
Modesty is a religious prescription in Islam: the Qur'an commands
both men and women to dress modestly and not display their bodies, and
Muḥammad asserted that modesty is a central character trait in Islam.
In the specific context of women, the Qur'an at
24:31 speaks of covering women's "ornaments" from strangers outside the family.
This latter verse of the Qur'an represents the institution of a new
public modesty: when the pre-Islamic Arabs went to battle, Arab women
seeing the men off to war would bare their breasts to encourage them to
fight; or they would do so at the battle itself, as in the case of the
Meccan women led by Hind at the Battle of Uḥud.
This type of behaviour is commonly seen by Islamic scholars and the
broader Muslim public alike as emblematic of a state of spiritual
ignorance (
al-Jāhiliyyah).
All the orthodox schools of sharī'ah law prescribe covering the
body in public: specifically, to the neck, the ankles, and below the
elbow. However, it should be noted that none of the traditional legal systems actually stipulate that women must wear a veil: it is only the wives of Muḥammad who are instructed to wear this article of clothing (
33:59).
On the basis of the injunction to be modest, various forms of
dress were developed in different parts of the Islamic world, but some
forms of dress were carryovers from earlier, pre-Islamic Near Eastern
societies: the practice of women covering their hair was the norm in the
earlier communities of Jews and Christians.
The iconography of the Virgin Mary in Christian art always shows her
with her hair covered, and this convention was followed into the modern
era by both Georgian and Armenian Christians, in addition to
Oriental Jewish women; Catholic women would not go to church without covering their heads until well into the twentieth century.
The covering of the hair was taken by women to be a natural part of
life as a sign of modesty and especially as a sign of respect before
God.
In the twenty-first century, there continues to be tremendous
variance in how Muslim women dress, not least because the Islamic world
is so geographically and culturally diverse. Laws passed in states (such
as laïcist
Turkey and
Tunisia)
with twentieth century Westernisation campaigns – which mandated that
women wear "modern", western-style clothing – have been relaxed in
recent years; similarly, the end of communism in
Albania and the Yugoslav republics also meant an end to highly restrictive secular apparel legislation.
As a result, it is now legal for women in these countries to wear
clothes suggesting a (post-)modern Islamic identity – such as the
headscarf colloquially known as the ḥijāb – in public, though not
necessarily in all public institutions or offices of state.
Conversely, in a handful of states – notably Iran and Saudi
Arabia – with modernist fundamentalist regimes, dress codes stipulating
that women wear exclusively "religious" garments (as opposed to
"secular" ones) in public which became mandatory in the latter part of
the twentieth century are still in force.
However, these countries are both theologically and culturally atypical
within the Islamic world: Iran is the world's only shī'a revolutionary
state, while Saudi Arabia is one of only a handful of Wahhabi countries;
in none of the others do the same restrictions on women's clothing in
public apply. The overwhelming majority of Muslim-majority countries do
not have laws mandating the public wearing of either secular or
religious apparel, and the full spectrum of female clothing – from
bikinis to face veils – can be seen in countries such as Albania,
Lebanon and Morocco.
In a 2018 study done by the Institute for Social Policy and
Understanding, Muslim American women were, “the most likely” when
compared to other domestic religious communities to, “wear “a visible
symbol that makes their faith identity known to others.”"
Of the Muslim women surveyed by ISPU, 46% say they wear a visible
symbol to mark their faith in public all the time” (this includes the
hijab), 19% some of the time, and 35% none of the time. The study did
not find there to be any significant age or race difference.
In today's modern context, the question of why muslim women wear
the hijab is met with a variety of responses by Muslim American women,
including the most popular, “piety and to please God” (54%), “so others
know they are Muslim” (21%), and “for modesty” (12%). Only 1% said they
wore it, “because a family member or spouse required it”.
Clothing materials
Silk
According
to all schools of Islamic law, only women are permitted to wear pure
silken garments next to the skin, although the schools of law differ
about almost every other detail concerning silk (such as the
permissibility of men wearing silk mixed with other fibres). In Islamic tradition, silk is strongly associated with Heaven.
The Qur'an speaks in several places of the sumptuous fabrics to be
enjoyed by the virtuous in Paradise: their garments will be made of silk
(
22:23 and
35:33), and they will recline on carpets lined with rich brocade (
55:54).
Gold
Similarly, sharī'ah law posits that only women may wear gold ornaments, such as jewellery.
The intention behind this distinction is to help men maintain a state
of sobriety, reserve, concentration, and spiritual poverty (the
"perfections of the centre"). Conversely, women, who symbolise unfolding, infinitude and manifestation, are not bound by the same constraints.
Public versus private appearance
Clothing such as
ḥijābs,
chādors, and
burqas are typically worn in public only. In private, it is common for women to wear
Western-style clothing. Global fashion retail chains including
Zara and
Victoria's Secret have branches in
OIC member states like
Saudi Arabia.
Religious objections to the modern ḥijāb
From the 1920s to the 1970s, the use of what is often referred to as
the "veil" – this term could mean anything from a face veil to a shawl
loosely draped over the head – declined until only a minority of Muslim
women outside the conservative societies of the Arabian peninsula still
used it.
However, in recent decades there has been an increase in the number of
Muslim women wearing new types of head coverings which are known by the
generic appellation "ḥijāb".
This development has been criticised on religious grounds from a number of angles:
1.
Lack of scriptural validity. The Sorbonne-educated Franco-Bosnian academic
Jasna Šamić
has posited that the term "ḥijāb" does not have any connection with the
noun or concept of "headscarf": "The expression hijab in the Koran
means 'the veil hiding God'. In other words one can never see and get to
know God, because our intellect is too weak [to fully comprehend Him]." Other analysts have pointed out that the Qu'rānic verse most cited in defence of the ḥijāb (Sūrat al-Aḥzāb,
33:59)
does not mention this article of clothing at all; instead, it
references a "long, overflowing gown" which was the traditional dress at
the time of this revelation.
2.
Lack of historical authenticity. Similarly, it has been noted that the ḥijāb as worn today is historically alien to the Islamic world. This is illustrated by an incident involving
Gamal Abdel Nasser.
During his rule as the 2nd President of Egypt (1956-1970), Nasser was
given a list of demands by the Supreme Leader of the [Muslim]
Brotherhood as part of a process of political reconciliation. This list
included "imposing ḥijāb on Muslim women": "The audience members didn't
understand what the word 'ḥijāb' meant. When Nasser explained that the
Brotherhood wanted Egyptian women to wear a headscarf, the audience
members burst out laughing."
3.
Superficiality. The rise of the ḥijāb in the late
twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has been criticised as
"reverse objectification", whereby women are primarily judged by what
they wear as opposed to their broader conduct as human beings, despite
their ostensibly modest dress. The Singaporean writer Sya Taha has
expressed this as follows: "In any commercial magazine targeted at
Muslim women, compare the number of pages dedicated to hijab styling or
makeup with sport, art, music, humanitarian work or science...In
contrast, Muslim women that do not wear hijab are often framed as though
they must justify and reconcile how they can identify as Muslim women."
4.
Consumerism.
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed,
the author and Vice President of brand consultancy Ogilvy Noor, has
warned that the rise of contemporary Islamic fashion as exemplified by
the ḥijāb risks being overwhelmed by the '"consumerism and
objectification" of the mainstream fashion industry: "Muslim fashion is
teetering between asserting a Muslim woman's right to be beautiful and
well-turned out, and buying more stuff than you need, and being judged
by your clothes – both of which are the opposite of Islamic values."
5.
Commercialism and Exploitation. Finally, the concern
that the ḥijāb is being promoted for commercial rather than religious
reasons is a live one. For example, the promoter of "
World Hijab Day"
– an event which began in 2013, and which encourages non-Muslim women
to try out ḥijābs – is a Bangladeshi-American owner of a headscarf
company, which typifies the prevalent
conflict of interest issues. Similarly, the popularisation of the
tudung
ḥijāb in Malaysia has been characterised as an exercise in "cashing in"
on a trend that is part of a multibillion-dollar industry.
Additionally, the fact many of these ḥijāb garments are made by
poorly-paid (often Muslim) women in developing countries contravenes the
Qu'rānic precepts of consuming without abuse (
2:60) or oppressing others (
20:81).
Effect of globalisation on Muslim women's couture
Two Malaysian women wearing contrasting styles of clothing: the (post-)modern
hijab on the one hand (left), and a variant of the traditional Islamic
kebaya blouse-shirt combination on the other. The kebaya is derived from the Arabic
abaya (meaning “clothing”) and is the national female dress of Indonesia, although it is worn throughout most of the ASEAN region.
Deepening globalisation has resulted in a number of developments
pertaining to clothing customs in Muslim-majority countries. Firstly,
retail outlets for Western fashion labels are now commonly found in OIC
member states: to give but one example, Calvin Klein has stores from the
Citypark shopping mall in Tirana, Albania to the
Plaza Indonesia
mall in Jakarta. Secondly, fashion labels specialising in modest attire
(particularly but not exclusively the hijab or headscarf worn by some
Muslim women) have sprung up in a number of OIC states and observer
countries.
Thirdly, in addition to the many already existing fashion schools
in Islamic world, branches of international fashion schools have opened
across the OIC: most notably, the Paris-based
École supérieure des arts et techniques de la mode or
ESMOD has branch campuses in Beirut (established in 1999), Damascus (1995), Dubai (2006), Istanbul (2010), Kuala Lumpur (2012), Jakarta (1996), Sousse (1989) and Tunis (1989). Fourthly, numerous fashion weeks have been inaugurated in many Muslim-majority countries.
Fifthly, the fashion media sector within the Muslim world for
both Western and Islamic fashion has grown tremendously from the 1990s
onwards. Local editions of magazines from Marie Claire to Cosmopolitan
are now published in a wide range of OIC member states, including
Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia, while fashion
magazines specifically targeted at more overtly religious demographics
are flourishing: the Turkish title Âlâ is reportedly outselling both
Vogue and Elle within its home market, while Aquila Style has a purported total circulation of 30,000 in three
ASEAN states.
The 2014–15 Thomson Reuters State of the Global Islamic Economy Report forecasts that expenditure on clothing in OIC member states will reach US $484 billion by 2019.
Shrines and mosques
From
the earliest centuries of Islam, Muslims have visited shrines and
mosques to pray, meditate, ask forgiveness, seek cures for ailments, and
seek grace – a blessing or spiritual influence (
barakah) sent down by God. Some of these structures are named after women.
The Virgin Mary
The
Meryemana or wishing wall at the
House of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus, Turkey. Pilgrims' most frequent wishes include those for good health, peace and happiness. This devotional site is one of many that is sacred to both Christians and Muslims.
The Virgin Mary ('Maryam' in Arabic) has a particularly exalted
position within the Islamic tradition, extolled as she is for being the
mother of Jesus, whom Muslims revere as a prophet. Maryam is the only woman mentioned by name in Islam's sacred text; an entire chapter or sūra of the Qur'an – the nineteenth,
Sūrat Maryam – bears her name.
Accordingly, the Virgin Mary is synonymous with numerous holy sites in the Islamic faith:
- The House of the Virgin Mary near Selçuk, Turkey. This is a shrine frequented by both Christians and Muslims. It is known as Panaya Kapulu
("the Doorway to the Virgin") in Turkish. Pilgrims drink water from a
spring under her house which is believed to have healing properties.
Perhaps the shrine's most distinctive feature is the Mereyemana
or wishing wall on which visitors attach their written wishes; because
the House of the Virgin Mary is increasingly famous internationally,
these messages are composed in English, Italian, Japanese, Chinese,
French and Spanish, as well as Turkish.
A giant statue of the Virgin Mary – similar in dimensions to that of
Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro – is planned to be erected in the
vicinity of the shrine.
- The Virgin Mary Monastery in the province of Giresun, Turkey. This
is one of the oldest monasteries in the area and has been active since
the fourth century A.D.
- The Virgin Mary Mosque in Tartous, Syria. This was officially
inaugurated in June 2015 as a symbol of peace and religious tolerance.
Antoine Deeb – the representative of the Tartous and Lattakia
Patriarchate – stated that naming the mosque after the Virgin Mary
'shows that Islam and Christianity share the messages of peace and
love.'
- The Virgin Mary Mosque in Melbourne, Australia.
- Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This site is associated with a
number of Marian apparitions forecast by a Muslim mystic by the name of
Hasan Shushud that were reported in the late twentieth century by local
Catholics.
- The Chapel of Santa Cruz at Oran, Algeria. The chapel's tower contains a large statue of the Virgin Mary, which is styled as Notre Dame du Salut de Santa Cruz. The historian James McDougall notes in his acclaimed A History of Algeria
(2017) that to this day, the women of Oran "still climb up to the
church the [French] settlers built...in 1959, at Santa Cruz, to light
candles to lalla Maryam, the Virgin whose statue still looks benignly over their city from the mountaintop."
Hala Sultan
Hala Sultan Tekke,
Larnaca, Cyprus. This ancient site is revered because it contains the
burial place of Muḥammad's paternal aunt Hala Sultan (Umm Haram in
Arabic), although other scholars believe that she was in fact Muḥammad's
wet nurse.
According to legend, Hala Sultan died after falling off her mule
and breaking her neck during the first Arab incursions into Cyprus
around 647 A.D. The same night, a divine power supposedly placed three
giant stones where she lay. In 1760, Hala Sultan's grave was discovered
by Sheikh Hasan; he began spreading the word about her healing powers,
and a tomb was built there.
The complex – comprising a mosque, mausoleum, minaret, cemetery and
living quarters for men and women – was constructed in its present form
while the island was still under Ottoman rule, and completed in around
1816.
According to the archaeologist Tuncer Bağışkan, during the
Ottoman period in Cyprus, Ottoman-flagged ships used to fly their flags
at half-mast when off the shores of Larnaca, and salute Hala Sultan with
cannon shots.
This tekke is also notable for being the burial place of the grandmother of the late King Hussein of Jordan.
Sayeda Zainab
The
granddaughter of Muḥammad is the patron saint of Cairo, the Arab
world's largest city and a regional cultural hub. She also has the
following mosques named for her:
- The Sayeda Zainab mosque in Cairo, Egypt. The original structure was built in 1549; the modern mosque dates back to 1884. In 1898, the square in front of the mosque also took her name. The mosque was expanded in 1942 and renovated in 1999 following an earthquake seven years earlier.
There is an annual feast dedicated to Sayeda Zainab which celebrates
her birth; the celebration features ecstatic mystical whirling inside
the shrine, while outside there are fairground attractions such as
merry-go-round rides.
Historically, the coffee shops around the square and the mosque were
places where some of Egypt's most notable writers and journalists met
and exchanged ideas. There is a notable silver shrine inside the mosque. According to Sunni Muslim tradition, this mosque houses the tomb of Sayeda Zainab.
- The Sayeda Zainab Mosque
in the city of Sayeda Zainab, a southern suburb of Damascus, Syria.
According to Shia Muslim tradition, it is in fact this mosque which
contains the tomb of Muḥammad's granddaughter. It has been a destination
of mass pilgrimage for Muslims since the 1980s. The dome is
gold-leafed.
Fātimah al-Ma'sūmah
Fātimah al-Ma'sūmah was the sister of the eighth Imam and the daughter of the seventh Imam in 'Twelver' Shī'ism. Her
shrine – located in Qom, a city which is one of the most important Shī'ah centres of theology. During the
Safavid dynasty,
the women of this family were very active in embellishing the Shrine of
Fatima Masumeh. In times of war, Safavid royal women found refuge in
Qom, and likely compared their situation to that of Fatima Masumeh.
Rabi'āh al-'Adawiyyah
One of the most famous saints in Islam, Rabi'āh al-'Adawiyyah ('Rabi'āh') extolled the way of
maḥabbah ('divine love') and
uns
('Intimacy with God'). Her mystical sayings are noted for their pith
and clarity; some have become proverbs throughout the Islamic world. The
famous mosque
in Cairo, Egypt which is named in Rabi'āh's honour is notable for being
the burial site of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. The mosque
was badly damaged during the 2013 post-military coup unrest in Egypt. It has since been rebuilt.
Ruqayyah bint Ali
Ruqayyah bint Ali was the daughter-in-law of Muḥammad's cousin and son-in-law 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Legend has it that the
Bibi Pak Daman
(lit. 'the chaste lady') mausoleum – located in Lahore, Pakistan –
named after her contains not just her grave but those of five other
ladies from Muḥammad's household. These females were amongst the most
important women who brought Islam to South Asia. It is said that these
ladies came here after the event of the
battle of Karbala on the 10th day of the month of
Muharram
in 61 AH (October 10, CE 680). Bibi Pak Daman, which means the "chaste
lady", is the collective name of the six ladies believed to interred at
this mausoleum, though it is also (mistakenly) popularly used to refer
to the personage of Ruqayyah bint Ali alone. They were among the women
who brought Islam to
South Asia, preaching and engaging in missionary activity in the environs of Lahore. It is said that
Data Ganj Bakhsh, considered a great Sufi saint of the
South Asia, was himself a devotee of the Bibi Pak Daman shrine and received holy knowledge from this auspicious shrine.
Religious life
According to a saying attributed to Muhammad in the hadith Sahih Bukhari, women are allowed to go to mosques.
However, as Islam spread, Muslim authorities stressed the fears of
unchastity from interaction between sexes outside their home, including
the mosque. By pre-modern period it was unusual for women to pray at a
mosque.
By the late 1960s, women in urban areas of the Middle East increasingly
began praying in the mosque, but 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. Women in the state of ritual impurity, such as menstruation, are forbidden from entering the prayer hall of the mosque.
Today, Muslim women do indeed attend mosques. In fact, in the
United States, a recent study by the Institute for Social Policy and
Understanding found that American Muslim women attend the mosque at
extremely similar rates (35%) to those of American Muslim men (45%).
ISPU also found that 87% of Muslim American women say that they “see
their faith identity as a source of happiness in their life.”
Female religious scholars were relatively common from early Islamic history throughout the 16th century.
Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a Sunni religious scholar, has listed 8,000 female jurists, and orientalist
Ignaz Goldziher estimates 15 percent of medieval hadith scholars were women. Women, during early history of Islam, primarily obtained their knowledge through community study groups,
ribat retreats and during
hajj when the usual restrictions imposed on female education were more lenient. After the 16th century, however, female scholars became fewer.
In the modern era, 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
salat
(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 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 Muhammad and early Islamic history. Some notable Muslim women scholars are:
Azizah al-Hibri,
Amina Wadud,
Fatima Mernissi,
Riffat Hassan, Laila Ahmad, Amatul Rahman Omar,
Farhat Hashmi,
Aisha Abdul-Rahman, and
Merryl Wyn Davies.
Politics
A collage of Muslim women voters in the
2010s from different countries
Khaleda Zia as Bangladesh's first lady during the
Ziaur Rahman period (1977-1981). Bangladesh has been ruled by Zia and another female politician –
Sheikh Hasina – ever since the restoration of democracy in 1991, a unique record in the contemporary world.
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
Shajarat ad-Durr, who ruled
Egypt from 1250 to 1257,
Razia Sultana, who ruled the
Sultanate of Delhi from 1236 to 1239, and
Taj ul-Alam, who ruled
Aceh Sultanate from 1641 to 1675.
This historical record contrasts markedly with that of
(predominantly Taoist and Buddhist) Chinese-majority nations, where
there were no women rulers in the period between the reign of the fierce
empress
Wu Zetian at the turn of the eighth century (690-705), and the inauguration of
Tsai Ing-wen as President of the Republic of China in 2016.
Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah,
an Islamic institute that advises Egypt's ministry of justice, had said
women can both be rulers and judges in an Islamic state.
Female heads of state in Muslim-majority countries during the modern era
In the modern era,
Pakistan became the first Muslim-majority state with an elected female head of government (1988). Currently
Bangladesh is the country that has had females as
head of government continuously the longest starting with
Khaleda Zia in 1991.
In the past several decades, a number of countries in which Muslims are a majority, including
Indonesia (President
Megawati Sukarnoputri, 2001), Kosovo (President
Atifete Jahjaga, 2011), Pakistan,
Bangladesh (prime ministers
Begum Khaleda Zia (1991-1996, 2001-2009) and
Sheikh Hasina (1996-2001, 2009–Present), Leader of the Opposition
Rowshan Ershad, Speaker of the House
Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury (2013–present) and Deputy Leader of the House
Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury (2009–present)),
Turkey (Prime Minister
Tansu Çiller, 1993), and
Kyrgyzstan (President
Roza Otunbayeva, 2010) have been led by women; Mauritius, which has a significant Muslim minority, elected a female Muslim (
Ameenah Gurib) as president in 2015.
At one stage in the 1990s, over 300 million Muslims – at that time,
between one-third and a quarter of the world's entire Islamic population
– were simultaneously ruled by women when elected heads of state Tansu
Çiller (the 22nd Prime Minister of Turkey), Khaleda Zia (the 9th Prime
Minister of Bangladesh) and Benazir Bhutto (the 11th Prime Minister of
Pakistan) led their respective countries.
Female legislators in Muslim-majority countries in the 21st century
As
well as elected heads of state, a number of other elected female
politicians have attained exceptional levels of notability within the
OIC in the twenty-first century. These include
Louisa Hanoune,
the head of Algeria's Workers' Party and the first woman to be a
presidential candidate in an Arab country (2004; Hanoune also ran for
the same post in 2009 and 2014);
Susi Pudjiastuti,
Indonesia's Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (2014-2019) who
is also a successful seafood and transportation entrepreneur who has
been profiled in the Financial Times; and
Meral Akşener,
a veteran Turkish conservative nationalist politician who is seen as a
possible future challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Several Muslim-majority nations have passed laws to incorporate
more women in their parliaments and political processes. For example,
Indonesia passed a law in 2013 that required political parties to field
at least 30% women candidates in elections or pay a financial penalty, a
law which was later amended to stipulate that at least one in three
candidates on every party's electoral list must be female and parties
which do not fulfill this criterion will be barred from contesting the
election; Tunisia's mandated electoral lists composed of 50% women in both the 2011 and 2014 legislative elections; and in 2012, Algeria set a minimum parliamentary female membership requirement of 30%. Following the May 2012 legislative elections, women constitute 31.6% of Algerian MPs. In Senegal, 50% of local and national electoral lists have to be female as of 2012. Kosovo has had a female quota for its assembly as far back as 2001, when it was
de jure part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; the Muslim-majority (95.6%) Balkan republic guarantees women 30% of parliamentary seats as of 2016.
In 2012, among all regions of the world, the Gulf Arab region had
the lowest overall percentage of women in parliament, and no women in
the parliaments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. However, since 2012 Saudi women have been allowed to vote in some elections.
The Shura Council of Saudi Arabia now includes female members after a
January 2013 decree by the Saudi King that created reserved
parliamentary seats for women. Kuwait granted its women the right to vote in the first half of the 1980s; this right was later rescinded, and then reintroduced in 2005. Additionally, the United Arab Emirates has allocated 30% of its top government posts to women; as of February 2016, females accounted for 27.5% of the UAE's cabinet.
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. However, some Muslim countries gave women suffrage in the
early 20th century. For example,
Azerbaijan extended voting rights to women in 1918,
two years before it became part of Soviet Union. Females in Turkey
similarly gained the right to vote in municipal and parliamentary
elections in 1930 and 1934 respectively.
Muslim Women and Islamophobia
In
the United States, Islamophobia, coupled with a recent 2016
presidential election which heightened anti-muslim sentiment has
particularly impacted on Muslim American women. In their 2018 American
Muslim Poll, the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding reported,
“though roughly half of women of all backgrounds, including Muslim
women, report experiencing some frequency of gender-based discrimination
in the past year, Muslim women’s more frequent complaints are racial
(75%) and religious (69%) discrimination.” Most Muslim women (72%) and Muslim men (76%) reject the notion that “most Muslims in America discriminate against women.”
Further data collected by the Institute for Social Policy and
Understanding has found that “Muslim women are more likely than Muslim
men to report experiencing religious discrimination in the last year
(68% vs. 55%)”.
ISPU also found that most American Muslim women (68%) agree that most
people associate negative stereotypes with their faith identity. Among
these, more than half (52%) “strongly agree” that being Muslim is
correlated with negative stereotypes.
Data shows that American Muslim women are actually more likely than
Muslim men to fear for their safety from white supremacist groups (47%
vs. 31%) and nearly one in five (19%) Muslim women say they have stress
and anxiety enough to believe they need the help of a mental health
professional as a result of the 2016 presidential elections, compared
with only 9% of American Muslim men.
Despite this deficit in security and greater likelihood for experienced
religious-based discrimination, Muslim women are no more likely than
Muslim men to change their appearance to be less identifiable as a
Muslim (16% vs. 15%).
Additionally, despite many feeling stigmatized, a large majority of
Muslim American women (87%) say they are proud to be identified as a
member of their faith community.
Judge
Ina Rama, who as
Prosecutor General (2007-2012) of OIC member state Albania was the highest judicial authority in the country's criminal legal system.
Sport
In the Islamic conception, every human being has a responsibility
towards oneself. Since human life is sacred and initially created by
divine rather than human agency, people are responsible for trying to
keep their bodies and souls healthy, and not causing themselves
spiritual or physical harm. Consequently, sport has obvious attractions in Islam: traditions record
that Muḥammad raced with his wife 'Ā'ishah, and that he encouraged
parents to teach their children swimming, riding and archery. Persian miniatures show Muslim women jointly playing polo with men in the same field.
In the twenty-first century, some Muslim sociologists even argue that
it should be obligatory for Muslim females to participate in sport of
some kind.
In modern times, Muslim women have achieved some significant success
in athletic arenas. In the second decade of the twenty-first century,
women's club volleyball has come to be dominated by teams from OIC
member state Turkey, which have
won six out of eight editions of the
Women's CEV Champions League from 2010-2011 through to 2017-2018. The
Turkish women's national volleyball team has also experienced ascendancy in the twenty-first century, winning the gold medal at the inaugural European Games in 2015.
The
FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship
has been claimed by clubs from OIC member states Azerbaijan and Turkey
six times out of eleven total editions, with Turkey's five gold medals
beating Brazil (three golds) into second place.
Turkish clubs have also become a force in women's basketball,
with at least one Turkish side having been present in the final four of
the
EuroLeague Women since the 2011-12 season; in 2014, Galatasaray became the first Turkish team to win Europe's elite club tournament. The
EuroCup Women has seen a similar trend; in 2016-17, all four EuroCup Women semi-finalists were from Turkey.
The
Iran women's national futsal team are two-time champions of Asia, having won both editions to date of the AFC Women's Futsal Championship (
Malaysia 2015,
Thailand 2018) by beating Japan in the respective finals.
Additionally, in the 2010s Egypt has become the preeminent nation in
women's squash, with the country boasting four out of the top five
players in the
PSA World Rankings for May 2018, including World No. 1
Nour El Sherbini;
moreover, Egypt's women's national team are the current world
champions, adding the 2016 WSF World Team Squash Championships to their
2008 and 2012 titles.
Mehriban Aliyeva
(foreground) – the First Lady and First Vice-President of Azerbaijan –
at a medal presentation ceremony during the 4th Islamic Solidarity
Games, held in Baku. This edition of the event attracted a diverse range
of local and global corporate sponsors.
Notable female tennis players from the OIC and its observer and applicant states include
Dinara Safina,
who achieved the coveted world number one ranking in 2009 and (with
Marat Safin) is one half of the only brother-sister pair to both attain
No. 1 rankings;
Sania Mirza,
the first-ever UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia, who was
India's best female singles player for ten years straight (2003-2013);
and Indonesian
Yayuk Basuki,
who won four Asian Games gold medals in the 1980s and 1990s. Women's
football has significantly increased its profile within the OIC bloc in
the twenty-first century. A number of Muslim female footballers have
been or are presently prominent players for various UEFA national teams
in Western Europe, including
Fatmire Alushi,
Louisa Nécib, and
Kosovare Asllani.
At the same time, many Muslim women experience significant
barriers to sports participation. These barriers include bans on the
Islamic headscarf, commonly known as the hijab, cultural and familial
barriers, and the lack of appropriate sports programs and facilities.
Many Muslim female athletes have overcome these obstacles and used
sports to empower themselves and others, such as through education,
health and wellbeing, and a push for women's rights.
Islamic Solidarity Games
The
Islamic Solidarity Games is a large multi-sport event held every four years in which all qualifying athletes from
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member countries can compete, regardless of their religious affiliation. The female International Athlete Ambassadors for
Baku 2017 – the most recent edition of the games – included Tunisian Olympic medallist wrestler
Marwa Amri; taekwondo icons
Elaine Teo (Malaysia) and Taleen Al Humaidi (Jordan); and the Palestinian swimmer
Mary Al-Atrash.
The next edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games (2021) is scheduled to take place in Istanbul.
Comparison with other religions
From
its inception, Islam has had contact and coexistence with other major
world faiths, and this phenomenon intensified as the religion
transcended its Arabian origins to spread over a wide geographical area:
from the Adriatic region, where Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox
Christianity took root, to the Hinduism- and Buddhism-dominated land
masses of India and South-East Asia, Muslim populations have both
influenced and been influenced by the pre-existing spiritual traditions
that they encountered. Prominent examples of these processes include the
syncretist philosophy of
dīn-i-ilāhī ("religion of God"), an amalgam of several religions devised by Emperor
Akbar (1542-1605) that was practiced at the
Mughul Court in India;
the crypto-Christianity of Kosovo, a belief system that created a
tradition of joint Catholic-Muslim households which persisted into the
twentieth century; and
Pancasila,
the official foundational philosophy of the modern Indonesian state
which draws on indigenous beliefs, as well as Hindu, Christian and
Islamic traditions.
In the twenty-first century, a number of new factors have
facilitated the comparison of spiritual traditions – and the place of
women within them – to an unprecedented level. These include: (i) a
fresh wave of technological globalisation, which has obliterated
communicational borders; (ii) the advent of cheap mass international air
travel, which has hugely increased people's exposure to other cultures;
and (iii) the internationalisation of higher education, whereby
students and scholars alike are spending ever-increasing amounts of time
in countries with different religious demographic compositions to their
own.
Notwithstanding these developments, comparing the position of
women in Islam with that of women in other faith traditions is
complicated by the following determinants:
- Geographical and cultural breadth. Given that the Muslim
world encompasses states as diverse as Albania, Mali and Kazakhstan,
diverse interpretations of texts such as the Qur'an are inevitable,
although there are also large areas of concordance between the orthodox
schools of Islamic thought, both Sunni and Shi'a. The prevalence of
cultural customs which are sometimes ascribed to Islam but which have at
best a tenuous scriptural basis (and that in fact may be diametrically
opposed to the teachings of the religion) is another element which needs
to be recognised.
- Scholarly differences. When analysing both Islam in general
and the topic of women in Islam in particular, the views of scholars and
commentators are profoundly shaped by certain cultural lenses. Those
coming from a Western background, such as the Switzerland-born writer Charles le Gai Eaton,
tend to compare and contrast Islam with Christianity; Eaton concluded
that Islam, with certain important qualifications, was "essentially
patriarchal". Conversely, those coming from an East Asian background
tend to emphasise similarities between Islam and religions such as
Taoism, which stress complementarity between the sexes: according to the
Japanese scholar Sachiko Murata, it was mandatory for her to use the I Ching as a means of "[conceptualising] Islamic teachings on the feminine principle without doing violence to the original texts."
- Political distortions. The historical strength of various
Muslim-led polities – which, unlike other comparable non-Western
entities such as China and Japan, were adjacent to "Christian" Europe
and/or perceived to be in competition with Western powers – meant that
the question of women in Islam has not always been approached
objectively by those professing expertise in the subject. This can be
viewed as part of the "Orientalist" academic discourse (as defined by Edward Said)
that creates a rigid East-West dichotomy in which dynamic and positive
values are ascribed to Western civilisation; by contrast, "Oriental"
societies (including but certainly not limited to Islamic ones) are
depicted as being "stationary" and in need of "modernising" through
imperial administrations.
Eve's role in the Fall
In contrast with the biblical account of
the Fall,
in Islamic tradition Eve (Ḥawwā) did not tempt Adam (Ādam) to eat the
forbidden fruit; instead, they were tempted together by the Devil. This
means that Eve was not the cause of Adam's expulsion from paradise: he
was also responsible, and therefore both men and women are faced equally
with its consequences. This has a number of important implications for
the Islamic understanding of womanhood and women's roles in both
religious and social life. For one, in Islam, women are not seen as a source of evil as a result of the Fall.
Moreover, the Biblical statement that Eve was created from Adam's
rib (the famous 'third rib') finds no echo in the Qur'anic account:
both male and female were created 'from one soul' (
Sūrah 4:1). Similarly, the concept that (as per
Genesis 3:16) the pains of childbirth are a punishment for Eve's sin is alien to the Qur'an.
The Virgin Mary
The
Virgin Mary (Maryām) is considered by the Qur'an to hold the most exalted spiritual position amongst women. A chapter of the Qur'an (
Sūrat Maryam,
the nineteenth sura) is named after her, and she is the only woman
mentioned by name in Islam's sacred scripture; Maryām is mentioned more
times in the Qur'an than in the New Testament. Furthermore, the miraculous birth of Christ from a virgin mother is recognised in the Qur'an.
Polygamy
In the Western world, polygamy has long been associated with Islam; the idea of Islam as – to quote
Professor Akbar S. Ahmed – some sort of 'man's paradise', with every man possessing at least four wives, remains a powerful one.
However, polygamy is far from unique to Islam; in fact, in
traditionally multi-confessional India, polygamy is actually more
widespread amongst other religious communities: the 1961 census found
that the incidence of polygamy was the least amongst Muslims (5.7%),
with Hindus (5.8%), Jains (6.7%), Buddhists (7.9%) and Adivasis (15.25%)
all more likely have at least two wives.
Similarly, India's third National Family Health Survey (2006) found
that a number of socioeconomic reasons were more likely to explain the
prevalence of polygamy than the religion of the parties involved. This
survey also found that a polygamous Hindu was likely to have (as a
statistical average) 1.77 wives; a Christian, 2.35; a Muslim, 2.55; and a
Buddhist, 3.41.
Sexuality
Like many other major world religions,
Islam views extramarital sex as a great sin in the eyes of God;
however, its general approach to sexuality is profoundly distinct to
that of Christianity. There exists a marked contrast between the
teachings of St Thomas Aquinas – who stated that marriage becomes “more
holy
sine carnale commixione” (i.e. when sexual desire is absent)
– and IbnʿArabī's conclusion that “The most intense and perfect
contemplation of God is through women, and the most intense union [with
God] is the conjugal act”.
In
Islam and the Destiny of Man, the Swiss-born diplomat
Charles le Gai Eaton elaborates on the respective sexuality perspectives
of the world's two most popular faiths:
“Islam disapproves of casual promiscuity as does Christianity;
but the Muslim takes it for granted that when a man sees a beautiful
woman he will desire physical union with her, and that when a woman sees
a man who appeals to her she will be drawn to him, and this mutual
desire is seen as flowing directly from the nature of things as willed
by God. It is in itself an unqualified good, however much it may need to
be hedged about with restrictions.”
Notable women in Islam
Saints, scholars, and spiritual teachers
Women
have played an integral part in the development and spiritual life of
Islam since the inception of Islamic civilisation in the seventh century
AD.
Khadijah, a businesswoman who became Muhammad's employer and first wife, was also the first Muslim.
There have been a large number of female saints throughout the Islamic
world spanning the highest social classes (a famous example being
Princess Jahānārā, the daughter of the Moghul emperor Shāh Jahān) and
the lowest (such as Lallā Mīmūna in Morocco); some of them, such as Rābi'a of Basra (who is cited reverentially in
Muḥammad al-Ghazālī's classic
The Revival of Religious Sciences)
and Fāṭima of Cordoba (who deeply influenced the young Ibn 'Arabī) have
been pivotal to the conceptualisation of Islamic mysticism.
Today, some notable personalities of the Islamic world include
the Turkish Sufi teacher Cemalnur Sargut – a disciple of the novelist
and mystic
Samiha Ayverdi (1905–1993), Amatul Rahman Omar, the first woman to translate the Qur'an into English, and Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi, the guide of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order.
Female converts to Islam
The former Miss Belgrade Ivana Sert (née Smiljković) on the set of fashion reality television show İşte Benim Stilim (Voila! Here is my style). Sert stated her intention to convert to Islam in 2014, and started to perform the ritual Islamic prayers in 2016.
Notable recent female converts to Islam include the German former
MTV VJ and author
Kristiane Backer, American singer and cultural icon Janet Jackson, Malaysian model
Felixia Yeap, Malaysian VJ Marion Caunter, Czech model Markéta Kořínková, the Belgian model and former Miss Belgium candidate Lindsey van Gele, the German model Anna-Maria Ferchichi (née Lagerblom); and Lithuanian model-turned-actress Karolina 'Kerry' Demirci; the Serbian model and fashion designer
Ivana Sert stated her intention to become a Muslim in 2014 after she read the Quran in English. Notable recent women born in a Muslim family who became atheist or converted to another religion include Dutch feminist
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bangladeshi writer
Taslima Nasrin, Indian actress
Nakhat Khan and Iranian-American women's right activist
Parvin Darabi. The Turkish actress, author and model (Miss Turkey 2001)
Tuğçe Kazaz converted from Islam to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 2005, and then converted back to Islam in 2008.
Women make up a disproportionately large or rising share of
converts to Islam in numerous Western countries. According to
researchers based at Swansea University, of the approximately 100,000
people who entered the Muslim faith in the United Kingdom between 2001
and 2011, 75% were women. In the United States, more Hispanic women convert to Islam than Hispanic men; the share of overall female converts to Islam in the US rose from 32% in 2000 to 41% in 2011. Young females constitute an estimated 80% of converts to Islam in Lithuania.
According to Susanne Leuenberger of the Institute of Advanced Study in
the Humanities and the Social Sciences at the University of Bern,
females make up around 60-70% of conversions to Islam in Europe.
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
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
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 so 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 in 2006 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.
In March 2016, an
Australian Tribunal
determined that separate male and female seating arrangements
contravened section 33 of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act. The Tribunal
ordered that all future publicity materials for public events hosted by
Hizb ut-Tahrir must clearly inform attendees that segregated seating
arrangements are not compulsory.