ISLAM THE BASICS

WOMEN IN ISLAM
 
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HRH, The Prince of Wales, Islam And The West
 
  Islamic countries like Turkey, Egypt, and Syria gave women the
  vote as early as Europe did its women -- and much earlier than in
  Switzerland! In those countries women have long enjoyed equal pay,
  and the opportunity to play a full working role in their
  societies. The rights of Muslim women to property and inheritance,
  to some protection if divorced, and to the conducting of business,
  were rights prescribed by the Quran twelve hundred years ago, even
  if they were not everywhere translated into practice. In Britain
  at least, some of these rights were novel even to my grandmother's
  generation!
 
Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography Of The Prophet
 
  Western critics often blame the Quran for its treatment of women,
  which they see as iniquitous, but in fact the emancipation of
  women was dear to the Prophet's heart. There are complaints that
  the Quran teaches a double standard: the laws of inheritance, for
  example, decree that a woman can inherit only half of what her
  brothers (who have to provide the mahl to start a new family) will
  receive. Again, women are allowed to be witnesses in law, but
  their witness is only half as valuable as that of a man. In the
  context of the twentieth century - when, we should remember, we
  are still campaigning for equal rights for women - this Quranic
  legislation does seem prohibitive. But in seventh-century Arabia
  it was revolutionary. We must remember what life had been like for
  women in the pre-Islamic period when female infanticide was the
  norm and when women had no rights at all. Like slaves, women were
  treated as an inferior species, who had no legal existence. In
  such a primitive world, the very idea that a woman could be a
  witness or could inherit anything in her own right was
  astonishing. We must recall that in Christian Europe, women had to
  wait until the nineteenth century before they had anything
  similar: even then, the law remained heavily weighted towards men.
  -- p. 191
 
Sir Abdullah Suhrawardy, The Sayings of Muhammad
 
  Muhammad was content with his lot as a shepherd, but his uncle,
  Abu Talib, desired something better for him, and obtained him
  employment with a rich widow, Khadija, the daughter of Khuweilid,
  son of Asad, and thus Muhammad found himself at the age of 25 in
  charge of a caravan conveying merchandise to Syria. On Muhammad's
  return, Khadija was so pleased with his successful management of
  her business, and was so attracted by his nobility of character,
  reports about which she heard from her old servant who had
  accompanied him, that she sent her sister to offer the young man
  her hand. Muhammad had felt drawn to Khadija, and so matters were
  soon arranged and, though Khadija was by fifteen years his senior,
  their twenty-six years of married life were singularly happy.
 
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Discovery of India
 
  Among the unfortunate developments that took place in Inda was the
  growth of purdah or the seclusion of women. . . In India there had
  been previously some segregation of the sexes among the
  aristocracy, as in many other countries and notably in ancient
  Greece. Some such segregation existed in ancient Iran also and to
  some extent all over western Asia. . . Byzantine influence
  travelled to Russia where there was a fairly strict seclusion of
  women right up to Peter the Great's time. This had nothing to do
  with the Tartars who, it is well established, did not segregate
  their women-folk. The mixed Arab-Persian civilization was affected
  in many ways by Byzantine customs . . . there was no strict
  seclusion of women in Arabia or other parts of western or central
  Asia. The Afghans, who crowded into northern India after the
  capture of Delhi, had no strict purdah. Turkish and Afghan
  princesses and ladies of the court often went riding, hunting, and
  paying visits. It is an old Islamic custom, still to be observed,
  that women must keep their faces unveiled during the Haj
  pilgrimage to Mecca. -- p. 242 - 243
 
Mary Walker, A World Where Womanhood Reigns Supreme
 
  [Mary Walker was Production Coordinator on the BBC2 series "Living
  Islam". Article courtesy of Impact Magazine]
 
  When I joined the team of "Living Islam" two years ago, my
  perception of Islam was dominated by prejudice and ignorance, and
  I found its treatment of women abhorrent. To me the veil
  symbolised the oppression of women, making them invisible,
  anonymous and voiceless, and the cause of this oppression lay in
  the will to perpetuate the family and maintain a patriarchal
  framework - the very basis of an Islamic Society. I thought women
  were entirely submerged by divine justification of their role as
  wife and mother. . .
 
  "Living Islam" was filmed over two years in 19 different countries
  and on location I was a lone female in an otherwise male team. . .
 
  The first Muslim woman I met in Mali was far removed from my
  preconception about the Muslim female. She was the wife of a
  Shaikh dedicated to converting pagan villagers to Islam. A
  sophisticated, well-educated woman, previously married to a
  diplomat, she had renounced a Western lifestyle for a life in
  purdah. . .
 
  The emancipated woman in the West faces the conflict between
  confirmation of her femininity and the privileges that she
  associates with it, and repudiation of the confines of her female
  role and all the limitations that men want her to assume. From
  where I stood, this woman had transformed those limitations into
  priviliges. . .
 
  On my next trip to northern Nigeria I met two more women who would
  alter my views even further. . . And once again they had rejected
  the Western lifestyle which I considered so superior to Islam in
  its treatment of women. . .
 
  The women talked and in their answers I saw the seeds of my own
  re-evalutions. They argued that the veil signified their rejection
  of an unacceptable system of values which debased women while
  Islam elevated women to a position of honour and respect. "It is
  not liberation where you say women should go naked. It is just
  oppression, because men want to see them naked." Just as to us the
  veil represents Muslim oppression, to them miniskirts and plunging
  necklines represent oppression. They said that men are cheating
  women in the West. They let us believe we're liberated but enslave
  us to the male gaze. However much I insist on the right to choose
  what I wear, I cannot deny that the choice is often dictated by
  what will make my body more attractive to men. Women cannot
  separate their identity from their appearance and so we remain
  trapped in the traditional feminine world, where the rules are
  written by men.
 
  By choosing to wear the veil, these women were making a conscious
  decision to define their role in society and their relationship
  with men. . .
 
  So were my notions of oppression in the form of the veil
  disqualified? If my definition of equality was free will then I
  could no longer define that oppression as a symptom of Islam. The
  women had all excercised their right to choose. To some extent,
  they were freer than me - I had less control over my destiny. I
  could no longer point at them and say they were oppressed and I
  was not. My life was influenced by male approval as theirs - but
  the element of choice had been taken out of mine. Their situations
  and their arguments had, after all, served to highlight
  shortcomings in my view of my own liberty.
 
Sherif Abdel Azeem, Women In Islam Versus Women In
       The Judaeo-Christian Tradition
 
  Why are there four female converts for every male convert to Islam
  in the US? This paper provides clues by examining the teachings of
  the three monotheistic faiths.