Women in Islam

A feminist critique

The extent to which women are granted rights and the ability to exercise their freedom in the Islamic tradition is a much disputed issue. As Islam purports to be a ‘way of life’, stretching beyond the spiritual aspect of faith, the Quran and the Hadith set specific legal parameters that women must adhere to. A prominent discrepancy between the status of men and women surfaces in the reading of the Quran as many verses regarding women are addressed to men, creating a hierarchical structure of transmittance. Taken at face value, the laws of inheritance, marriage, divorce and legal status indicate that there is a gender gap in Islam. However, if the Quran is placed in the context of the society in which it was revealed, it is evident that the women belonging to the ancient Arabic peninsula were granted many legal freedoms that they did not possess prior to the emergence of Islam.

The Islamic legal system, unveils many gender equalities. In debit or credit transactions, the Quran lays out that “If you cannot find two men, then take one man and two women of your number whose witness will be accepted, so that should one of them make a mistake, the other will be able to remind her” (Q2:282), suggesting that Islam considers women as inherently flawed in matters of reason and memory; an outlook which has no scientific ground in the modern world. A hadith of the Prophet Muhammed fortifies this point of view – “Is not the witness of a woman like half the witness of a man?” “And that is on the account of the deficiency of her reason”. Since there are no metaphorical connotations in either the Quranic verse or the hadith, one cannot argue that they blatantly undermine the status of women as equal legal citizens. In criminal cases, evidence solely obtained from women is not accepted “because the testimony of women involves a degree of doubt.” Hence if a criminal activity is exclusively witnessed by women, the transgressors will go unpunished, creating a degree of injustice in the legal system as a whole. The only cases in which the evidence of women alone suffices are those directly related to the female body such as pregnancy and virginity. According to Mawardi, important public leadership roles cannot be undertaken by women based on the hadith of the Prophet that states— “A people who entrust their affairs to a woman will not prosper.” As women cannot shape the policies or politics of a society in which they must operate, men are able to monopolize power in states where the Shariah law is imposed.

Marriage plays a crucial role in Islam as both a community building institution and a means of preventing individuals from indulging in ‘unlawful’ sexual activity. Men are allowed up to four wives, stressing on the assumption that male libido is stronger than that of women. The woman, on the other hand, can only be married to a single man at a time and must share her status as wife with other women. There is a restriction on the allowance of multiple marriages in the Quran, which states that “should you fear that you should not be able to treat all of them fairly or equally then you should marry one such woman”. However, there is no explanation of what is considered ‘fair’ or ‘equal’. The obligation of paying bride-wealth in a marriage is also a disputable issue as it may be viewed from two opposing perspectives. In communities where women play strictly domestic roles, bride-wealth might seem to grant financial independence while progressive cultures will possibly view it as a commoditization of women. However, Islam explicitly maintains women have to give consent for their own marriage. A woman is also allowed to remarry after she has been divorced but she has to undergo a “designated waiting period” before she does so. This is similar to the predicament she faces after the death of her husband, ordering her to mourn in the confines of her home for a period of four months and ten days. Additionally, a woman cannot simply pronounce a divorce on her husband but she must seek ’khula’ from the court and give back her bride-wealth. In terms of offers of marriage, Islam grants agency as a woman is allowed to make an offer of marriage to man, contrary to what was thought proper in traditional societies.

In matters of inheritance, the man gets “portions equal to that of what two females receive,” as per Quranic scripture. However, this division presupposes that men are to provide for women; therefore they have rights to a greater share since a fraction of it will ultimately be spent on the woman. Furthermore, the man is required to spend on his family whereas a woman has complete freedom to do as she likes with her wealth/property. This explanation is valid for societies where women do not support themselves; the financially independent woman might find that this law puts her at a disadvantage. This system of division ultimately stresses upon the fact that Islam advocates a social system characterized by female dependency and male control.

The woman is seen as an instrument of temptation in Islam and this is clearly laid out in a verse of the Quran: “Attractive to men is the love of pleasurable things of life: women, children, heaped up treasures of gold and silver, horses of pedigree” (Q3:14), treating the woman as a commodity by juxtaposing her with other status symbols. Furthermore, the burden of instilling modesty is laid on the women who “should not display any of their charms publicly save what is decently observed and they must draw their veils over their bosoms” presenting the female as a primarily sexualized being.

Certain verses from the Quran or traditions of the Prophet serve to protect women. In the case of false accusation, the Quran states “Sentence to eighty lashes those who bring accusation of adultery against chaste women” and such men are cast away from the grace of God. This punishment is validated by the fact that the punishment for adultery (for both men and women) is stoning to death. The status of the mother is also upheld greatly in Islam and according to a famous tradition of the Prophet “paradise lies under the feet of your mother.” The stress laid on the status of the woman as a mother and a wife, reiterates the notion that women are mainly domestic actors who operate in the private sphere whereas the public sphere is predominantly masculine.

The argument that significant rights are granted to women in Islam can only be made if the scripture is contextualized and Islamic laws are deemed changeable. Women in Islam are given specific roles which they must fulfill and very little is said about their status outside the domestic realm. In order for true progress to take place, there is a need to adapt religious readings to current ideals of female agency.

The writer is a staff member of Pakistan Today and holds a degree from Mount Holyoke College.