Islam and Women

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Islamic scriptures generally employ the masculine pronoun in Arabic, which is used to refer to both men and women. On occasion, the scriptures diverge from this standard, inclusive usage, and comment specifically on men or women. The perspective taken by Islamic scriptures on women is of special interest in recent times due to frequent collision with modern values.

Women are legally disadvantaged by Islamic law in several in several domains of life. Particularly, women are disadvantaged in matters of sexual, domestic, legal, financial, sartorial, and physical autonomy. According to Islamic legal theory, while not all of Islamic law necessarily has a perceptibly rational basis, legal restrictions on women may be due to their supposed intellectual deficiency, which was pronounced by Muhammad according to Sahih Bukhari.

It should also be noted that whereas the patriarchal arrangements of early Islamic society hardly deserve indictment, given their historical situation and the fact that they were in a limited sense an improvement upon pre-Islamic gender norms, the same can, perhaps, not be said about the perpetual enshrinement of those patriarchal norms - however much an improvement in 7th century Arabia - as took place in the ideas of Islamic law that finally emerged.

Overview

Women in Islam

Souad Saleh, a female professor at Al-Ahzar University in Cairo and a vocal proponent of women's rights in Egypt, recently stated, "Islam is pure and simple, and it holds women in high esteem."^[1] Saleh has also stated that Muslim men have the right to enjoy sex slaves and that "If we [Egyptians] fought Israel and won, we have the right to enslave and enjoy sexually the Israeli women that we would capture in the war."^[2] The sharp contrast between the two statements made by Saleh reflect the dissonance of the Islamic tradition. While women are, in some metaphysical sense, men's equals, they are simultaneously deemed to be inferior in such things as intelligence and are subject to a wide array of unique legal disabilities.

Islamic scriptures

Honor Violence and Islam

Honor Related Violence is physical violence that is inflicted on an individual by perpetrators who believe the victim has brought dishonor upon the family, clan, or community by engaging in any conduct that is perceived as immoral or unacceptable by religious or social/cultural standards. This violence almost always happens in Muslim families.

While not prescribed in Islam, Muslim women are killed by family members for many "honor" related reasons, including being raped, associating with non-related males, getting pregnant outside of marriage, refusing a forced marriage, and for the belief they might have done something else immoral. In the eyes of their family, death serves restore the family's honor. The entire family may all collaborate on this, and in some cases the whole community may participate and even celebrate the occasion. The generally controlling nature of Islam towards women, and the death penalty in Islam for some types of zina (unlawful sexual intercourse) are plausible indirect reasons for such extremely negative attitudes towards women.

While honor violence is not explicitly endorsed in Islamic law, it often appears where Islamic law is implemented. Certain Islamic punishments such as stoning, flogging, and even death by being thrown off a tall building are prescribed for sexual crimes. While these punishment are not justified as 'recovering honor' as such, it is not difficult to see how a culture can make that connection and then implement the violence prescribed through other, extralegal means.

Honor killings by family members

Domestic violence is an issue that transcends cultures and is not limited solely to the Islamic world. Yet while honor killing indeed occurs in other cultures, and is not prescribed in by Islamic schools of jurisprudence, the ubiquity of killing of children by parents is popularly excused through reference to Islam. Shari'a law allows a father or mother to murder their children without retaliation (Qisas):

Thus according to the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, a father or mother may murder their offspring for any reason, without fear of vengeance or justice. Most often, this sort of murder is done to preserve family "honor" and this honor usually revolves around something that a female family member has done. Such extreme negative attitudes and actions in response to female freedom are no doubt influenced by Islamic punishments for zina and the highly controlling nature of Islam towards women generally.

The United Nations Population Fund estimated in September 2000 that as many as 5,000 women and girls fall victim to such killings each year.

In Islamic doctrine

Women as intellectually deficient

Muhammad's declared that the majority of the inhabitants of Hell are women.^[3] When asked why, he said it was because they are deficient in intelligence and religion and because they are ungrateful to their husbands.

Muhammad also disapproved of female heads of state in severe terms.

72 Virgins in Paradise

Main Articles: 72 Virgins and Authenticity of 72 Virgins Hadith

These articles discusses what the Qur'an, hadith and Islamic scholars say about the 72 Virgins and heavenly houris in general, and dispel popular misconceptions surrounding them. The Qur'anic Paradise is sensual in nature, promising Muslim men voluptuous, gigantic, and transparent-skinned virgins, but does not specify their exact number. This cannot be, as is sometimes claimed, a mistranslation because raisins do not have large eyes, breasts, or be wed to men. The hadith literature compliment the Qur'anic text by specifying the exact number of virgins as 72 and providing us with detailed descriptions of their characteristics. These narrations are not weak but vary in strength from good to authentic. There are also given details on the physical attributes given to men to sustain 72 virgins, namely, ever-erect penises that never soften and the sexual strength to satisfy 100 women. Although it does say they will receive a "great reward" and there are also hasan (good) hadith which refer to 72 virgins as one of the "seven blessings from Allah" to the martyr, the Qur'an does not specify these virgins are a reward exclusively for jihadists/martyrs, but rather for any Muslim male who gains admittance to Paradise.

Women are possessions

In the following hadith, note that Sad bin Ar-Rabi used his wives as a mere possession to be traded in a purely commercial transaction:

The prophet of Islam stated the following, recorded in the earliest biography:

Women are also mentioned in these texts as possessions along with animals:

Women are the inhabitants of hell

Some Qur'an translators use the word "spouses" instead of "wives."^[5] Yet, the Qur'an is clear in telling us that if some persons deserve hell, their spouses must simply follow suit irrespective of whether or not they are guilty. The tafsirs are also in disagreement over the correct word; Ibn Abbas goes with "wives."^[6]

Women compared to dogs

Most orthodox Islamic scholars considers dogs to be haram - forbidden and najis - unclean. Thus the comparison of women to dogs in these Sahih (authentic) ahadith are noteworthy:

Women compared to devil

Man Can Take Pleasure from their Women (Wives)

Women are Placed in Paradise for the Pleasure of Men

Muhammad Suggested Marrying Virgins to Fondle Them

In Islamic law

Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is obligatory in the Shafi'i madhab^[7] and encouraged by the remaining three madhabs, namely the Hanafi, Hanbali, and Maliki. Salafi scholars also encourage the practice. In universally conceiving of FGM as being either an obligatory or favorable practice, the schools of Islamic law agree that prohibiting FGM altogether would not be acceptable, as this would be tantamount to contravening God's laws and preferences. Views on the specific type of FGM required or permitted vary within and between the madhhabs. Some prominent modern Islamic scholars have dissented from the favorable consensus of the Islamic tradition and ruled it to be unlawful.

The Islamic legal tradition, while differing on its implementation, embraced FGM wholeheartedly, and, In the hadith literature, Muhammad is recorded as tacitly approving of the practice (Sahih Muslim 3:684) , prescribing circumcision in general without specifying the requirements thereof per gender (Sahih Bukhari 7:72:777), and commenting generically on its implementation (Sunan Abu Dawud 41:5251). No where is Muhammad recorded prohibiting the practice.

In 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood worked to decriminalize FGM. According to Mariz Tadros (a reporter),"the Muslim Brotherhood have offered to circumcise women for a nominal fee as part of their community services, a move that threatens to reverse decades of local struggle against the harmful practice [...] Many of the Brothers (and Salafis) argue that while it is not mandatory, it is nevertheless mukarama  (preferable, pleasing in the eyes of God)."^[9]

Muhammad and Women

Wives and Concubines of Muhammad

Main Articles: List of Muhammad's Wives and Concubines and Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Muhammad's Wives and Concubines and Ages of Muhammad's Wives at Marriage

According to multiple sources, Muhammad had many wives and concubines, and was known as a "womanizer".^[10] Muhammad consummated his marriages with thirteen women and divorced another six. He also used to visit all his wives in one night:

Aisha

Aisha, sometimes spelt as 'Ayesha' or 'Aysha', was the nine year old child-bride of Muhammad. She was engaged to him at the age of six. She was also the daughter of Abu Bakr, a close friend of Muhammad. Historically, she is known as Muhammad's "favorite wife."

The age of Muhammad's child-bride Aisha, has only in recent times become an actively contested issue, with many claiming that she was in fact older than nine when married or when the marriage was consummated. It has also been recorded in authentic Islamic sources that Muhammad struck Aisha^[11] and also allowed Abu Bakr to do the same.^[12] Aisha was not 'offered' to Muhammad by her father, as many lay Muslims believe, rather it was Muhammad who approached Abu Bakr, and Abu Bakr originally protested.^[13] However, Muhammad justified his desire for Aisha with a 'divine' vision from Allah.^[14]

Khadijah

Khadijah bint Khuwailid/Khuwaylid (555 – 619 AD) was the first wife of Muhammad and also a distant cousin. Belonging to the Bani Asad tribe, Khadijah was the daughter of Khuwaylid bin Asad bin. ‘Abd al-‘Uzza bin Qusayy, the Grand son Qusayy. She was a wealthy woman aged forty who ran her own business, and her marriage with Muhammad was a controversial one which almost ended in bloodshed.

Khadija's high social standing is often used as "proof" that women are equal in Islam.^[15] However, she was a "great independent businesswoman" before Islam, during the so-called "Period of Ignorance" (Jahiliyah). Indeed, after Islam, Muhammad prohibited women from taking leadership positions^[16] and this is why in some Islamic countries women "cannot run for president or become judges."^[17][18]

Safiyah

Safiyah bint Huyayy (610 - 670 AD) was the bride of Kinana and the chief mistress of the Jewish tribes of Quraiza and An-Nadir. When the Muslims invaded and conquered Khaibar, the fighting men were killed and Safiya was taken captive (along with the rest of the women and children) and allotted as booty to Dihya Al-Kalbi, a Muslim.^[19] Kinana, Safiyah's suitor or husband, was tortured and executed by the Muslims in order to discover the hiding places of treasure,^[20] and one source relates that he and Safiya had been married only one day.^[21] She was so beautiful, that the Muslims began praising her in the presence of Muhammad^[22], and so the prophet commanded that Dihya be brought before him along with Safiya. Upon seeing her, Muhammad said, "Take any slave girl other than her from the captives"^[23] and he selected her to be his slave rather than the slave of any of his companions.

She was held captive up until the marriage, and when Muhammad decided that she would be a wife rather than a slave-girl, that is when he made known that her manumission was her mahr.

Mariyah

Mariyah the Copt was one of the prophet’s wives’ maids. Muhammad slept with her without any ceremony, which caused uproar among his wives and finally was settled by divine intervention.

Muhammad and the Violation of Qur'anic Sexual Norms

Women and the Farewell Sermon

Main Article: The Farewell Sermon See also: Analysis of Muhammad’s Farewell Sermon

The Farewell Sermon (خطبة الوداع‎, Khuṭbatu l-Wadā') is Muhammad's last sermon before his death in 632 CE. There is a popular redacted and edited version of the sermon, but in the original versions found in Sunan Abu Dawud 1900 (Ahmad Hasan Ref), al-Tabari's History, and ibn Ishaq's Sirat, Muhammad's order to beat women coincides with the Qur'anic order of wife-beating in 4:34. In al-Tabari's version, he also compares women to domestic animals, and in ibn Ishaq's version quoted below, they are compared to prisoners:

Women in the modern Muslim world

According to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, over 90% of married women report being kicked, slapped, beaten or sexually abused when husbands were dissatisfied by their cooking or cleaning, or when the women had 'failed' to bear a child or had given birth to a girl instead of a boy.^[26]

See Also

• Women in Islamic Law
• Umm Qirfa
• Cousin Marriage in Islam

External Links

• Women in Islam
• Women in Islam: An exegesis
• Sex and sexuality in Islam

References