The ‘place’ of a Muslim woman in society has always been the cause of much controversy. Since the attacks of September 11th, 2001, and the following ‘War on Terror’, Islam has been thrust under the spotlight and Muslims everywhere have been forced to deal with an upsurge of morbid interest in the shadier details of their ‘religion’. Of these details, the subject of women is a hot favourite. However, it has not been said, and CANNOT be said enough, that many of the preconceived ideas the West has about women in Islam derives from culture, simple as.
As a young Muslim woman living in Ireland, I’ve been asked too many times to count if I’m forced to wear the hijab (by who, I really wonder), am I educated, was I a child bride, do I feel my ‘place’ is in the home. It’s frustrating to say the least, and at the same time I can almost see where such ignorance comes from. The power of the media is a formidable thing, and with such ‘Islamic’ countries as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan leading the way when it comes to examples of gender-related issues, it’s no surprise people expect me to be an illiterate idiot with five kids and an inferiority complex.
However, enough is enough! The truth is out there, and it’s about time a clear line is drawn between religion and culture. I could type for pages and pages about the injustice of places like Saudi, where women are unable to drive by law, or Afghanistan, where girls were not sent to school for years and had to cover, head to toe, for fear of being publicly beaten. But for now, what I‘m going to touch briefly on are topics in which people seem to hoard the most interest. I will post more on each topic individually at some later stage, but for now I just want to get the most important points out there.
The Hijab.
I want to start off by saying that the hijab (headscarf and modest clothing) is a part of Islam. It is not a cultural thing, but rather a spiritual one. The idea of the hijab being a tool by which men can control women is false. To be a Muslim, you must believe in God. To believe in God is to believe in His Word, the Qur’an. And in the Qur’an, God asks the believing women to cover.
(Quran 24:31) “And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, or their brothers' sons or their sisters' sons, or their women or the servants whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex, and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O you Believers, turn you all together towards Allah, that you may attain Bliss.”
Islam isn’t a man-made way of life. The Qur’an wasn’t written by men, like the Bible was. To say a Muslim woman is oppressed by men because she covers is a load of trash. Muslim women do not wear the hijab because their husbands say so. I don’t wear it because my Dad says I must. I wear it because I believe God, the All-Knowing and my Creator, wants me to.
Women and Education:
Nowhere in the religion of Islam does it state women are to be left uneducated. In fact, the seeking of knowledge is seen as a MUST, for both sexes. The very first words revealed from God to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) were ‘Read! In the Name of your Lord.’ The significance of this is huge; education, both religious and worldly, has always played a huge role in the history of Islam. The Prophet (PBUH) said:
"Seeking knowledge is mandatory for every Muslim (male and female)."
(Hadith Sahih Bukhari
The idea that men should receive an education over women clearly does not come from the religion of Islam; it is man’s rule, not God’s, that kept women away from schools in ‘Islamic’ countries. Aishah (RA), one of the most beloved wives of the Prophet (PBUH), was known for her intellect and her practice of memorizing Hadiths and Ayats from the Qur’an. Khadijah (RA), the first wife of the Prophet (PBUH) was a successful business woman.
Marriage:
The subject of marriage is too broad to even touch on briefly, so I’ll make just a few points. The first is that nowhere does it state in Islam that it is the woman’s job to do the cooking and cleaning. This is a cultural thing from many places around the world, and many people assume the dutiful Muslim wife is the one that cooks and cleans. The dutiful cultural wife perhaps, but not the dutiful Muslimah! Marriage is a partnership, and the duties of providing meals for two and keeping the house in which both husband and wife live in clean should fall on both parties. This is just common sense. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the most perfect human of all creation, helped his wives with chores around the house, mended his own clothes and patched his own shoes. However, whatever household chores a Muslim wife does, she will be rewarded greatly by Allah, as it will be classed as an act of charity on her behalf.
The second point I would like to make concerns polygamy. Polygamy is permitted in Islam, but the rules regarding it are so complex that they are extremely hard to follow, and due to this it is discouraged. The idea of a man having six or seven wives, or even his own harem of women, comes again from culture, as the maximum amount of women a man can be married to at once is four.
"If you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two, or three, or four; but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then (marry) only one…" (Qur’an 4:3)
It is clear from this Ayah that polygamy is neither mandatory or encouraged; it’s merely allowed. It is also clear that in order to do so, the husband must deal with each wife justly, or not bother at all. To put it simply, what one wife is given, the rest must be provided the exact same. If one has a house, the other must be given a house etc etc. It is also clear that the permission to practice polygamy is not associated with mere satisfaction of. Rather, it is associated with compassion towards widows and orphans, a matter that is confirmed by the atmosphere in which the verse was revealed. One final point to be made is that the word ‘marry’ is used. Marriage in Islam is a civil contract that is not binding unless both parties agree to it. In other words, a woman cannot be married against her will to a man; she cannot be given to a man as a second wife etc.
One final point I’d like to make re marriage and women is the subject of motherhood. While I hope what I’ve already written has dispelled any ideas of women being seen as ‘second class’ in Islam, this next point surely will. When it comes to the level of love, respect and obedience a human owes to others, God comes first, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) comes second and your parents come third. And in the duo of your parents, your mother should be honored over your father.
There are so many clichés (all true!) I could go into to describe the amount of love and gratitude one owes ones mother. I won’t, but I’ll give some examples from the teachings of the Prophet (PBUH).
A man came to the Prophet (PBUH) and said, ‘O Messenger of God! Who among the people is the most worthy of my good companionship? The Prophet said: Your mother. The man said, ‘Then who?' The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man further asked, ‘Then who?' The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man asked again, ‘Then who?' The Prophet said: Then your father. (Bukhari, Muslim).
The Prophet is also reported to have said ‘Paradise lies under the feet of your mother’ (how beautiful is that!)
O humankind! Be in awe of your Lord and Sustainer, He who created you all from a single soul, and created from it its mate, and from the two of them brought forth many men and women. Be in awe of Allah and of the wombs (that bore you). Surely Allah is watching over you. - Surah an-Nisa ayah 1
In this Ayah, Allah is drawing a link between Himself and mothers. He commands us to be in ‘awe’, or give huge respect to our mothers. As a Muslim woman, the role of a mother garners a huge amount of love and gratitude. Of course, the father does too, but if you worked your whole life I don’t think you could repay your mother for all she did for you.
Right, so that concludes my intro on women in Islam. Obviously, I don’t think women can be reduced to the three categories of Hijab, Education and Marriage, but from experience they are the three topics people are the most interested/ignorant. I’ll go into detail of each at some other stage, as well as other things
