Preview

The Role of Women in Islam

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4042 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Role of Women in Islam
Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School

The Analysis of the Role of Women in Islamic Culture by ...

May 24, 2012

Abstract My paper is written in purpose to cover the issue of the role of women in Islamic culture. My first part is devoted to the status of women according religious texts of Islam, Quran and Sunna. The first factor that determines the role of Muslim women is spirituality. In this regard women are equal to men; they all play the role of “vicegerents”. Women are allowed to take part in Friday prayers and other religious activities as well as they may be present at war. The second criterion evaluating the role of women is their status within the family, namely their rights and duties in terms of marriage, divorce, motherhood and widowhood. Then the economic and political rights of women take place. The second part is aimed at the implementations of the Muslim laws in Islamic countries: how women are treated in families and problems they face; to what extent they participate in the social life, economically and politically. The analysis of these factors may show us the real role of women and bring us to some conclusions.

The Analysis of the Role of Women in Islamic Culture According to the statistics conducted by Pew Research Center, in 2010 1,618,143,000 people which accounts for 23.4% of the world population professed Islam. Now imagine that about a half of them are females - Muslim women who differ from the rest of all by their culture, role in society and even by their outfits. Comprehending the role of women is crucial as the number of Muslim women in our society is steadily increasing within the fast growth of Islam.



References: Baden S., (1992), The position women in Islamic countries: Possibilities, constraints and strategies for change, Bridge, University of economic studies, University of Sussex, Brington Grillo, R.D., (2008), The family in question: immigrant and ethnic minorities in multicultural Europe, Amsterdam University Press Hasan, A.G., (1996), The rights and duties of women in Islam, Darrussalam Publishers Hoodfar, H., (1997), Between Marriage and the Market: Intimate Politics and Survival in Cairo, University of California Press Kabeer N., (1991), Women and Islam in Bangladesh: Beyond subjection and tyranny, Palgrave Muslim Women’s League. (1995). Spiritual role of women, Los Angeles, http://www.mwlusa.org/topics/spirituality/spiritrole.html Osman, M.F. (1993), Muslim Women in the Family and the Society, Minaret Publications

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Women of the Middle East have experienced the abuse of women’s rights. Middle Eastern women’s rights have been abused in different ways. They are looked down as the inferior to men in the Middle East. They are becoming stronger and rising up to equality to men. People involved in particular situations may have different opinions on rights of Middle Eastern women. Women are human; therefore no human rights should be restricted from them.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This book elaborately discusses numerous inaccurate depictions of Muslim society. However, the central stereotype, which is being challenged throughout the text, relates to Islamic women and how they are seen as limited by their religious beliefs. It is important that Wilson…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nine Parts of Desire

    • 1250 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are many political, religious, and cultural factors that shape the lives of Islamic women. Islam is one of the world’s fastest growing religions; however, Brooks argues that “Islam’s holiest texts have been misused to justify the repression of women, and how male pride and power have warped the original message of this once liberating faith.” The book also shows these factors have slowly been taking away women’s rights, rather than furthering them.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The rise and expansion of Islam both broadened and restricted women's rights throughout the 20th century. There is evidence of prior advancements towards women's rights found in the ancient writings of The Holy Qur'an. Women in every religion, especially Islam, had to fight for their own rights. In Islam, that fight is continuing and many documents, photos, quotes and other sources show the back-and-forth struggle to get women out from under the veils and into the lights.…

    • 839 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chapter 15

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages

    |4. |What does the chapter reveal about the status of Muslim women? Compare their status with the status of women in other parts of |…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nine Parts of Desire

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It also contributes to the concept of gender identification. This book suggests that Islam is a patriarchal religion where the women have no status and the men rule over all. For example; a married woman cannot divorce her husband only under the circumstance of Talaq, which is divorce by repudiation. The husband has to repeat the words “I divorce you” three times, and then they can carry out the divorce, and that still gives the husband all of the power. The Koran states that women lower their gaze and be modest, display their adornment to only that which is apparent, and cover their bosoms. Nine Parts of Desire presents many…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Barlow, Rebecca, and Shahram Akbarzadeh. "Women 's rights in the muslim world: reform or reconstruction?." Third World Quarterly 27.8 (2006): 1481-1494. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Mar. 2011.…

    • 2608 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sa’diyya Shaikh, a Muslim woman gives the readers her definition of “feminism.” She clarifies that there is no single identity of feminism but a range of feminism identities in the Islamic world due to the integration of gender from different origins of the World and cultural backgrounds they have been exposed too. The religion and political situations as well…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    [ 34 ]. Gender and National Identity: Women and Politics in Muslim Societies, ed. By Valentine M. Moghadam. (Zed Books LTD, The United Nations University, 1994) p. 8…

    • 3369 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Religion goes hand in hand with culture, and in the Muslim countries this is very apparent. The cultural importance of men over women may have stemmed from religion, however it was further recognized when imperialist countries introduced capitalism and class divides. “Islam must combat the wrenching impact of alien forces whose influence in economic, political, and cultural permutations continues to prevail” (Stowasser 1994, 5). Now, instead of an agrarian state where both men and women had their place, difficulties have formed due to the rise in education and awareness that women can and do have a place in society beyond domestic living Though women are not equal to men anywhere around the world, the differences between men and women are greater possibly in the Muslim world, partially due to religion and culture. “Fewer women are educated in the Muslim world than in other culture areas...The percentage of women working other than agriculture is probably the smallest in the world, the birth rate the highest, and the laws regarding marriage and related matters most unequal” (Stowasser 1994, 5). Though, of recent years inequality has been blamed on the Islamic religion, gender inequalities were in the Middle East before Islam. However, by radical groups and male elite, women are being discriminated because of their gender due to religious connotations amongst other things. The male bias, like in most religions, has been enforced within society like in the text of the Qur’an. Keddie and Beck asserts that, “In Islamic law women have male guardians; woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man; women are considered to have less reason than men” (Beck and Keddie 1978, 25-26). So the Qur’an in many of the Middle Eastern countries has been taken and formed in ‘Islamic Law’ which may not entirely reflect what is said in the Holy Book, but has been used to discriminate and divide, not only gender, but class and status. What will…

    • 2569 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thesis Statement: The First Amendment gives all American the freedom of religion, expression and speech. However, in today’s post 9-11 society Muslims are experiencing an incredible increase in discrimination.…

    • 1469 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Muslim Oppression

    • 1517 Words
    • 5 Pages

    While gender and gender-related issues are without a doubt as old as creation since they have attended the conception of the earliest human society, the emergence of the gender debate and the interest of academia in `gender studies' is a distinctly modern prerogative. A parallel interest in learning about Muslim societies and about gender relations in particular, is also part and parcel of the modern encounter of the West with Islam. The shaping discourse on gender and Islam available to readers today in both the Muslim and contemporary Western worlds is occurring against a changing discourse on modernity in a rapidly changing global context which is becoming as open to technological challenges as it is vulnerable to the noticeable currents of social and cultural entropy.…

    • 1517 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Roles Of Women In Judaism

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The role of a women began to challenge traditional roles, there are many questions arose the ‘source’ of women’s inequality within Judaism. In Judaism, Orthodox movement, changes in woman’s role have been slower due to this movement. The process of change is very slower because of traditional laws various…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Among the many topics of interest to non-Muslims, the status of Muslim women and the theme of their rights, or rather, the perceived lack of them seems to be foremost. The differences in how the Islamic countries interpret and follow the Islamic laws, seems to contribute to this perception. An acceptable number of Muslims and non-Muslims do agree that women should have more equal rights, whilst others believe that traditional gender differences under Muslim law are proper and positive in the Muslim society. The meaning of the words “Muslim” and “oppression” might help us to understand the argument over whether Muslim women are oppressed by the Islamic laws. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, under the definition of Muslim, the etymology of the word Muslim is given as the “active participle of aslama to submit oneself to the will of God, of which the noun of action is islām.” The OED goes on to say that one is referred to as a Muslim if one is “a follower of the religion of Islam,” and that Muslim as an adjective means “of or relating to Islam, its followers, or their culture” (defs. A1 and B). The same dictionary defines oppression as the “prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or exercise of authority, control, or power; tyranny; exploitation” or “the action of forcibly putting down or crushing; the repression or suppression of a person or thing” (defs. 2a and 4). It is now clear then that the argument is whether or not the Muslim women are being suppressed or treated unjustly under the Islamic laws. My own view is that Muslim women are not oppressed under the Islamic law. Women who follow Islam voluntarily may not be equal to men in the manner defined by Western feminists, but their cultural core differences from men are acknowledged by the Islamic laws, and they have rights of their own that do not apply to men.…

    • 2222 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics