The Woman's Role in the Islam Religion - Essay Example

Running Head The Woman's Role in the Islam Religion The Woman's Role in the Islam Religion Islam, one of the oldest and most influential religions in the world, has about 1.4 million followers around the world (Nashat and Beck 2003). In each major region (the Middle East and Africa), the impact of Islam is different. Its impact on the population is affected by (among many other things) the percentage of the members of various ethnic groups who convert; whether or not those who control political power are conservative or radical Muslims; the amount and intensity of contacts with the West, the Middle East, and North Africa; the level of economic and social development of the population in general and of Muslims in particular; and the culture and society that existed prior to the arrival of Islam. Similar to other religious, Islam has stipulated a certain position of women in society including their role and social status. The Islam tradition goes back to the 7th century when the revelations transmitted to the Prophet Muhammad who emphasized Islam's continuity with earlier Semitic traditions. During this period of time, the patriarchal nature of most Islamic societies reinforced the pervasive belief that Muslim women were more subject to the control of men than were women in most other societies. This control was dramatic in the case of Muslim women during the 7-10 centuries. They were secluded immediately upon marriage; that was, they were removed from contact with men (other than relatives) and rarely allowed to move about in public. Islam stated that "marriage is the only road to virtue and that in marriage wives must be submissive and obey their husbands" (Roded 1999, p. 57). Girls generally married between the ages of ten and twelve. Scholars have argued that the definition of power should be broadened to include the invisible control of events by women, which gave them a certain status and position. In Muslim societies, kinship and lines of descent were important, and consequently women's power was most visible as they matured and developed the ability to influence the lives of others in their immediate kin and descent groups. In these societies, high-status aristocratic women in particular had power in their ability to influence the actions of their sons, husbands and other male relatives (Roded 1999). Quran and its laws had the profound impact n position and status of women in society and their relations with men. In general, Muslims affirm the Quran to be God's actual words; Muhammad is neither author nor editor, for no human agency influenced the formation of the text. Muhammad does not, therefore, function in the way, for example, the Evangelists do in Christianity. The Islamic tradition is reluctant to allow even this modicum of human involvement in the production of the Quran. Muhammad is not a partner but a go-between, chosen from among men to transmit verbatim God's Word communicated to him through the angel Gabriel. The role of women is to listen and obey, to live the life outlined for them in the revelation and the traditions, and made specific in the law. During the Middle Ages, the role of women in society did not change greatly affected by strict social laws and religious traditions. A blend of Islam and local cultural prescriptions shaped women's lives. In Muslim societies, the local culture was clearly patriarchal, making it difficult to distinguish what part of current culture came from Islam and what pre-Islamic influences remained (Roded 1999). The pre-Islamic record in Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq suggested important public and political roles for royal women. It was clear from historical accounts that the incorporation of Islam into the society profoundly changed the cultural, political, and social conditions under which women lived and worked. Prior to the coming of Islam, women of aristocratic origin had participated in public affairs (Nashat and Beck, 2003). Since the inception of the Islam religion, women were instructed to dress simply and modestly, while all men wore the same simple pilgrim's garb, two pieces of seamless white cloth; one was worn around the waist, the other covered the torso and was slung over the shoulder. Men should wear no head covering, nor should women veil their faces. Violence was forbidden; even anger or the harming of animal or vegetable life within the precincts of the sacred territories was outlawed. After this time, ruling-class women in all the states experienced a steady diminution of their influence and were systematically deprived of their authority and autonomy in every area of life. Even traditional titles and offices relating to authority over women and redress of their grievances became nominal or were discarded altogether (Nashat and Beck, 2003). By the sixteenth century, the erosion of the standing, influence, and authority of women coincided with the growing influence of Islam. Under the influence of scholarship and science, a small number of women became literate in Arabic. For royal women, the most important consequence of the jihad was the loss of their authority and thus the primary foundation of their influence in political matters. Thus, the state provided the stable conditions necessary for Islamic culture to grow and deepen. During the 18th and 19th centuries Islamic women suffered from male oppression and religious rule imposed on them. Women were meant to be wives and mothers. Marriage and childbearing were religious duties. The roles of husbands and wives were viewed as complementary rather than unequal, and although both men and women were equal before God, men stood a step above women in society (Roded, 1999). Thus, the family remained hierarchical and patriarchal in structure. During this period of time, society treated a woman's identity from the point of view of a jealous husband. A woman could not appear attractive outside the home, she could not have friends beyond the family circle, and she could not have a life free from the supervision of her husband. She was to blame if a man was attracted to her, for sin originates in her, not in her male counterpart. Within the family, a wife had both rights and duties, and men had obligations to support their wives. Wives who disobeyed their husbands were beaten and lost their right to receive support. Within their own world, women did have a great deal of autonomy. They were secluded, but men were excluded from women's space. Women could visit members of their family once the sun goes down, and, with their husbands' permission, they could receive their friends. Thus, women had access to many homes, men to few. Men never enter the female quarters of nonfamily homes and rarely enter the female sections of the homes of either younger brothers or sisters. However, they could visit older married sisters or the wives of older brothers (Roded, 1999). Since the inception of Islam, the Quran states that a man may marry as many as four wives if he can support and treat them equally, but a woman may marry only one man at a time (she may remarry after a divorce or the death of a husband). A man may divorce his wife at will by declaring his intention three times in front of three witnesses but is enjoined to do so only for serious cause (Roded, 1999). Should a woman seek a divorce, she must do so in Islamic court. In court the testimony of two women is equal to that of one man. However, it is clear that women are not compelled by the religion to tolerate mistreatment or nonsupport. In spite of their disadvantages in court, women in most Islamic societies have developed strategies for manipulating seclusion and divorce procedures to their own advantage (Roded, 1999). On the subject of women, the Quran undoubtedly took a great leap forward. It was noted above that women were allotted shares of inheritance. Capricious divorce of women was condemned. Kind and generous treatment of women was recurrently emphasized, and even in case of divorce, "If you have given a wife a heap of gold [as a gift], take back nothing from it-will you take it back as an awesome calumny and a clear sin" (4:20 cited Roded, 1999, p. 45). The general equality of men and women was affirmed: "The rights of women [against their husbands] are commensurate with their duties toward them" (2:228 cited Roded, 1999, p. 45), except that "man is a degree higher" because he is made financially responsible for women by earning through his strength Regarding polygamy, the Quran restricted the number of simultaneous wives to four. The classical passage for this is sura 4:3 (cited Roded, 1999, p. 45). It appears that the intent of the Quran, as is clear from the context, was to allow up to four marriages to orphan wards, for in 4:2 and 4:12 the Quran accuses the custodians of these orphan girls of improperly consuming their properties, of being unwilling to return their properties to them when they came of age, and of marrying them to enjoy their properties permanently (Roded 1999, p. 45). At the beginning of the 20th century, Islam's primacy had significant consequences fo women. In the first two decades, Islamic women were severely disadvantaged in both education and politics compared to European women. In Christian missionaries established roughly twice as many schools for boys as for girls. No such schools were established in Iran and Iraq for either boys or girls, although the colonial government did establish a few schools for the sons of the ruling class. Literacy for women was about .02 percent. Whereas women in the predominantly Christian states were given the right to vote, women in the Islamic states did not receive this right until the end of the 20th century (Nashat and Beck, 2003). Matters of vital concern to women (marriage, divorce, child custody, property rights) were regulated by Islamic. To this day, when there is a conflict between Islamic orthodoxy and modern ideas. Hence, any effort to enhance the rights of women here must be done within the bounds of Islamic sanction and must meet the requirements of Islamic law (Esfandiari, 2003). The Shah's White Revolution improved position and status women nod turned Iran into a modernizing state. These influences attained dominance and changed the role of women under the impact of economic growth and continuing exterior forces, including the wave of anti-Western fundamentalist nationalism sweeping the Islamic world (Schulz and Schulz, 1999). The same attitude was embodied in the recruitment and staffing of the new industries and commercial establishments set up during the 20th century. Men were trained first and hired, and women were only to be drawn into the new wage labor market in a second phase. Left in the rural areas when men migrated to cities to find employment, women were now responsible not only for their traditional tasks but also for the obligations men used to meet and for their work in the family field. By 1960s, women were seriously disadvantaged relative to men in their access to the benefits of society, including political office, inherited wealth, the status of paid jobs, the advantages of education, the ability to get credit or inputs for agricultural production, and ownership of the major resource of an agricultural society: land. Women were not, however, powerless or silent (Nashat and Beck, 2003). Neither Islam nor the colonial era had removed women's freedom of movement, their ability to participate in the market, their right to control what they earned, and their readiness to speak out for what they wanted. During the 1970s, feminist leaders underlined important role of education and freedom for Muslim women. The teachings of Islam in regard to educating women are not unlike those of other religions. Education is viewed as essential in order that women know how to fulfill their duties as wife and mother. Girls are to study female role models and religious injunctions to learn how best to support male family members. They should learn to please their husbands and to obey them. Their modesty and obedience is praised. Their productivity is measured in the health and well-being of their children and in the satisfaction and success of their husbands and fathers. Reality in most of the developing world, however, dictates that women cannot stay home and fully occupy themselves with domestic tasks. They will also be involved in economic production (Nashat and Beck, 2003). Certainly in most agricultural societies, women are part of the labor force, involved in many aspects of agriculture and animal husbandry. Increasingly, too, women are being drawn into the informal sector and eventually into wage labor positions in urban areas. Although they are still a small minority of the paid work force, their percentage in every position level is growing rapidly. Nonetheless, the beliefs instilled by both Christianity and Islam persist- women are primarily defined by their roles at home as wives and mothers (Chadwick et al 2001). They may engage in work outside the home, but only if necessitated by a shortage of family funds. If the morally approved role of a woman is to be occupied with domestic chores, then education may be seen as unnecessary beyond the elementary level or some fraction thereof. Education at a higher level may even be seen as a threat to a woman's acceptance of her proper role (Nashat and Beck, 2003). Western education, in particular, tends to stress individual rights, individual responsibilities, and individual worth, which may be seen as inconsistent with the view of a woman as subservient to her husband and obligated to meet his, and her children's, needs before anything else. None of the world's major religions directly proscribes education for girls in their principal texts, but various Islamic clerics have interpreted these texts in just this fashion, warning against sending women to school lest they be corrupted by the general decadence of the ideas of Western industrialized societies. At the end of the 20th century, mmany women in Arabic world are still deprived from equal rights with men. Sierra Leone, Congo, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Liberia, Pakistan, Peru, Nigeria, Iran are a small list of countries where women have no rights and freedom of choice. The main problem in these countries is that rights of women are constitutionally granted by most of them do not come into force and violated. For instance, in Afghanistan women are not legally protected and have no possibility to protect their freedom. Arab women have no equal opportunities with men in pay and work conditions. Most of them take low administrative positions or considered as common labor. Even today, in Islamic countries women are deprived the right to use contraception and safe abortions. For instance in Iran "women face restrictions in virtually every aspect of daily life, and are denied equal educational, professional, legal and personal opportunities and rights" (Iran's Women Victims of Double Suppression, n.d.). The main problem caused absence of freedom and rights is that abuse is the part of the culture in most Arabic countries. While in America during the 20th century with a dramatic growth in democracy and decline in colonialism women fought their rights, women in Afghanistan and Iran are still lived under double oppression, cultural and legal. For instance, in Afghanistan: "under the rule of the fundamentalist Taliban, women in Afghanistan continue to be deprived of basic human rights: they cannot leave house without a male escort and they must wear a burqa at all times in public, they are not allowed to work or receive education, health care is virtually nonexistent" (Corbett, n.d.). Similar to American women, Iranian women have a right to divorce, but in reality it takes a long time and a long legal battle while men can divorce at will in a short period of time. Today, Islamic women's organizations have formed to bring about dramatic changes in the position and status of women based on Islamic precepts and within the confines of Islamic culture and traditions. The call for a fundamental reconsideration of the position of women has occasioned great public controversy (Saddique, 2004). In spite of great changes in social and political life, the separation of marital property as required by Islamic law may have advantages, as early marriage and frequent divorce are the norm. Women have a right to the money they themselves earn, and the rules of inheritance are among the most highly developed and distinctive characteristics of Islamic law. In sum, across the Middle East women are struggling to make their lives, and those of their families, better. In all too many cases, their sole preoccupation is with the basic elements of survival. In spite of great social, economic and political changes, Islam has played a crucial role in lives of modern Muslim women and girls. Thus, an ever-larger number of women are becoming aware that they have less status, less involvement in the development process, and less access to choices opened by economic and political change than men do. Without necessarily focusing on this inequality, women are beginning to demand more freedom and liberty. Increasingly, they recognize that these are only a few of the changes essential to improving their lives References 1. Chadwick, B.A., Fronk, C., Huntington, R.L. (2001). Family Roles of Contemporary Palestinian Women. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 32 (1), 1-2. 2. Corbett, D. (n.d.). Women Around the Globe Face Threats to Human Rights. Retrieved 03 August 2007, from http://www.now.org/nnt/fall-98/global.html 3. Esfandiari, G. (2003). World: Violence Against Women -- In Iran, Abuse Is Part Of The Culture. Retrieved 03 August 2007, from http://www.payvand.com/news/03/nov/1159.html 4. Nashat, G., Beck, L. (2003). Women in Iran: From the Rise of Islam to 1800. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 5. Roded, R. (1999). Women in Islam and the Middle East: A Reader. (London and New York: I. B. Tauris Publishers. 6. Schulz, J.J., Schulz, L. (1999). The Darkest of Ages: Afghan Women under the Taliban. Peace and Conflict, 5, 237-256. 7. Saddique, A. (2004). CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEE OF EQUAL RIGHTS FOR AFGHAN WOMEN SO FAR BRINGS LITTLE CHANGE TO EVERYDAY LIFE. Retrieved 03 August 2007, from http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav030804.shtml 8. Weiner, L. (2004). Islam and Women: Choosing to Veil and Other Paradoxes. Policy Review, 127, 49-50. Read More