Women in Islam

For some reason Western women, and others, are apologetic about the plight of women under Islam. By 'Islam' here I mean according to Sharia Law, the Koran, the Hadith, the Life of Mohammad and the practice and implementation is countries across the globe. I don't mean some idealized fantasy ideas that we seem to hear from the media and other sources.

There are other excellent sources like Ayaan Hirsi Ali who lived the life and Rosemary Sookhdeo who interviewed many Muslim family members but lets stick to the actual teachings.

Let's start with the definition of equality. The dictionary version makes everything the same, e.g. a man is equal to a woman, let's see what the Koran has to say about it. Suras 4:1, 17:70 and 49:13 intimate that men and women are equal, in terms of their creation.

The Bukhari Hadits 1:303, 8:456 and others like 2:28, 2:161, 2:541 and others all describe hell as being full of women. This is because for a women to get into paradise she must be absolutely obedient, any infraction and its off to hell and the man gets the houris. In the Sunan Abu-Darwood hadith 876 (narrated by Qaya ibn Sa'd) it says that women should postrate themselves to men because of the special right given to men by Allah. Women that make it to heaven are submissive, subordinate, veiled and secluded in a harem while their husbands make love to beautiful houris. Not really very equal then.

Women go to hell because they are ungrateful to their husbands (Hadith, Al Bukhari, 161:2), 1:301 from the same source also tells how women are deficient in intelligence. Sura 4:34 describes how men are in charge of women because they are superior. The same verse talks about beating your wife is she disobeys. A woman must drop everything when her husband wants sex, including the cooking (Hadith: Al-Bukhari 121:7, Al-Tirmidhi 959). A woman's veracity is also less than that of a mans with two women needed to equal one man's in testimony, but only when accompanied by a man, i.e. 2 men = 1 man and 2 woman but 4 women do not equal 2 men (Koran 2:282). Why? because, as Mohammad said, they are deficient in intelligence (Hadith: Al-Bukhari 301:1).

This inequality also carries over to inheritance where sura 4:11 states that men get half as much as the man. There are many other topics that can be covered under this subject like the veil, marriage in which the woman must surrender all rights, that men get the children after divorce and just how easy it is for a polygamous man to divorce a woman but how difficult it is for the woman to do so.

So while there are some verses in the Koran that seems to support the idea that men and women are equal when you scratch the surface there is a lot more to it. The result is that women are beaten or killed for any perceived loss of honour. A man can bring or restore honour, a woman can only bring shame. This is common across all major divisions and schools within Islam.

At the same time there are moderate Muslims who do not practice these things but out of the 1.3 billion Muslims in the world today a large number of them do accept and practice these teachings and the really scary part is that many of the under 30's are stronger in this than the elders ones, particularly the males in that category. This is why we see 'honor' killings in Western societies.

So when a Western woman thinks that Islam will treat them with any equality try visiting Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia or any other large Muslim nation and try exercising your freedoms. Try not wearing a head scarf, or a short dress or criticise a man in public. If you live to tell the take I am sure that this will cure you of your misconceptions.

What I fail to understand is why so many women's groups are silent on this issue?