Women In Islam Essay

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

The prophet, Muhammad, said that “The pursuit of knowledge is a duty of every Muslim, man and woman,” this gave people the motivation to educate themselves, regardless of their gender, which was originally frowned upon (Angha). Since women are now able to educated themselves, they have the necessary knowledge to take advantage of their new freedom, joining the workforce. By joining the workforce women in the Islamic culture can really feel a sense of freedom because they are no longer expected to just sit at home and take care of the house and children, while their husband is at work. Women’s education and work abilities also helps further push for equality and allows them to join “reformist efforts to challenge the control of the male clerical elite over social life” (Fisher). The women in the Islamic culture have become empowered to make changes by being allowed to gain further education. In pre-Islam, women could not purchase their own property, but with women not being able to work, they would have never had the funds to purchase the properties. Today in Islam, women can work and use the money to purchase their own property, another step in making women equal to