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Gender roles in islamic society
Gender roles in islamic society
Women of islam past and present
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Women who have the misfortune of living in predominately Muslim societies often are confronted with adversities concerning their rights in marriage, divorce, education, and seclusion. Consequently, many Westerners seeing a lack of equality towards women in these societies consider it as a confirmation of their own misconceptions about Islam itself. Islam is often rejected as being an intolerant and violent religion that discriminates against and subjugates women, treating them as second-class citizens. From a Muslim’s perspective, Islam’s stance on women can be approached by two opposing views. Scholars amongst the Muslim apologists have claimed, “The verses in the Qur’an represented Muhammad's intention to improve a debased condition of women that prevailed during the Jahiliya, the time of ignorance before Islam came into being.” (Doumato, 177) If inequalities still exist between men and women, they cannot be attributed to Islam, but are a result of the misinterpretation of Islam’s true meaning. Others have entirely denied the notion of inequality between men and women in Islam, claiming that the alleged inequalities “are merely perceived as such by foreign observers who confuse seclusion and sex difference with inequality.” (Ibid.) Many Muslim apologists defend the Koran as noble for the very fact that it raises women to an equal status of men despite their inferiority. Regardless of whether or not women are or should be equal to men, what “Islam has not in all cases accorded similar rights to man and woman. But it has not also prescribed similar duties and similar punishments for the two sexes.” (Mutahhari 33) There can be no denial that Islam views men and women as functionally different, admitting them different rights and ... ... middle of paper ... ...same-sex marriage often argue, everyone has the equal right to marry any consenting adult of the opposite sex. In a state that has not legalized same-sex marriage, homosexuals have equal rights in marriage as heterosexuals, but such a law is still discriminatory based on sex. These are just a couple of many ways in which men and women might be treated differently, but equally in modern Western society. To mathematically prove the existence of a long-term and balanced equality by weighing out the different privileges established in the Koran for each sex is hopeless, but the argument is still legitimate. Either we must acknowledge that men and women are in fact different and should thus be treated differently, but equally, or we can deny any differences between men and women, in such a case all differences in treatment must be dissolved in order to avoid hypocrisy.
The first religion and its views on women that will be discussed in this essay is Islam. Islam is a religions founded in Saudi Arabia almost two thousand years ago, by the prophet Muhammad. In fact, Muhammad dedicated much attention towards women in the Koran, the holy book of Islam. However, even though much was dedicated to women in the Koran, it was not dedicated to them in the sense of equality. Women in Islamic culture were apparently much lower on the totem pole than men, "The men are made responsible for the women, since God endowed them with certain qualities, and made them the bread earners...If you experience opposition from the women, you shall first talk to them, then [you may use such negative incentives as] deserting them in bed, then you may beat them (129)." Excerpt...
The Islamic Revolution of 1979 placed an ideological wedge that created an increasingly pervasive rift in gender equality that is now only gradually being successfully challenged and correct upon.
...se Hosseini was able to conduct such fieldwork and effectively published Islam and Gender, it is obvious that Muslim feminists are in fact making great strides in achieving modification in Islamic jurisprudence.
For years American women have been and still fight for equality. On the other side
Female’s oppression in the Islam religion and Islamic states is a valid concern. Violence between the sexes and strict decrees for cleanliness seem for Westerners to create an abnormally large schism between the sexes. Is such a perception true
...as of Islam’, “Islam gave this oppressed part of humanity, as it did to all other classes and groups, their legitimate place in life. In a world where woman was no more than an object of sexual gratification for men, and at a time when the religious circles and authorities in other cultures argued over whether woman was human or not, has a soul of her own like man, Islam declared “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and female” (Qur’an 49; 13). Thus, men and woman have similar rights and duties; Almighty says “Never will I waste the work of a worker among you, whether male or female, the one of you being from the other” (Qur’an 3:195). Islam removed the false idea about woman that she was the sours of evil. Qur’an mentioned that both Adam and Eve are responsible for the first sin. However, both repented, and both were forgiven (Kayani, 1)
Gender inequality is often a broad, abstract, and vague idea. This is one of the great puzzles of modern society and explaining gender inequality has proven to be a challenging task to say the least. After all the years spend on this subject, we have not been able to discover why the blooming of equality has failed. While some argue that it was wrong to ever challenge the practices that oppress women, others add that the mistake was to believe that women and men are inherently the same and we are simply collecting the inescapable sequence of nature. How much true is in these arguments? Could there be another answer?
Homosexuals can marry just like any other person, with the same rights and obligations as heterosexuals. If a homosexual complains of discrimination because he or she can't marry someone of the same sex is as if a polygamous complains of discrimination because you can't marry several women, or a pedophile with a child. There is no discrimination with none of these ones. Everyone is equal to the la...
The perception the public has had on the role of men and women is outdated and has been for some time, but public attitudes change slowly even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Gender plays a big part in life, it is supposed to give a purpose in life, but why? Explaining the severity of knowing why men and women are equal is one step to rebuilding society and the future. The second step is to actually make these changes happen. Gender Equality is something that every human being should strive for, as well understanding gender roles and how these two really affect our developed and developing countries. Each gender has the power to make a change for oneself and their rights, but coming together we can make an effective change for future
In conclusion, even though our society would like to believe that women have always had equal liberties (with men) in everything they do, we can see this is not the case. Throughout human history, woman has believed she is inferior to man, however, now with our civilization progressing in the women’s right movement everyday, women can finally come to terms with the fact that they are indeed equal to men.
First of all, women have equal rights in Islamic world. Islam highly encourages to give women their equal rights. This includes all types of rights, spiritual, economic, social, education, legal, and political rights. According to Islamic concept, men and women are created equal. They have spirits given by God. Neither man has superiority on woman nor has woman. The duties assigned to both are same. The same five prayers a day are obligatory for women which are for men. Everybody will get the reward for his own deeds on the Day of Judgment. If muslim women are supposed to fulfill their duties then why not their rights are equal in the eyes of western world. According to Zakir Naik: “In terms of moral, spiritual duties, acts of worship, the requirements of men and women are the same, except in some cases when women have certain concessions because of their feminine nature, or their health.” (Naik).
You might have heard at some time or the other that Islam teaches that women are "inferior" and "unequal" to men. Women are described as weak, inferior, inherently evil (it is the nature of woman to promote fitnah (mischief)), we have deficient intellectual capabilities and are spiritually lacking. Furthermore, these evaluations have been used to claim that women are unsuitable for performing certain tasks, or for functioning in some ways in society.
The role and place of Women in Islam has changed drastically, in a positive way, over the past millennium: the changes can be greatly attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, and the Qur’an. To understand the changes in women’s rights and freedoms, one must understand their role and place before Islam was created, which happened in the Arabia Peninsula, now Saudi Arabia (Angha). Before Islam was formed women lacked many of the basic human rights, and they were treated as more of a burden in their culture then someone who should be respected, but that is not the case today. Though women in Islam have gained many rights, there is still some controversy over whether or not women are still being oppressed and treated like second class citizens compared
...el the status of women in the Muslim world today as "Islamic" is as far from the truth as labeling the position of women in the West today as "totally liberated and equal".
In today’s globalized world, women’s studies is emerging as a fast growing discipline which is not restricted any more to the academia but is significantly capturing the attention of the civil society. The way civil society responded to “Nirbhaya” gang-rape case of December, 2012 in Delhi; the way people came on the streets in protest against this horrific and barbarous crime committed against a 23 year old woman; this people’s movement has undoubtedly engineered the emergence of a new consciousness among us about the need for a realization of women’s honour and dignity in the society. There have been serious debates on the issue of whether more stringent laws (in the line of Shari’a law) be implemented in our Indian society so that such heinous crimes against women can be prevented. However, the aforesaid incident is only one among many hundred other such crimes happening everyday in almost every corner of the globe. Many such incidents of crime are either suppressed or do not come to limelight. The following analysis is a humble attempt to deal with the status of women (especially in Islam) in a globalized world.