Islam Advocates for Equal Rights of Sexes - Research Paper Example

Islam Advocates for Equal Rights of Sexes For a long time now, women have been deprived of their rightful status in almost every community. Muslims, also, do give women or rather wives the position of a useless object around the homestead, this is in spite of the Holy Qur’an giving clear guidelines about what the rights of women really are (Jawad, Haifaa, and Jawad 23). The Promised Messiah himself describes the status of women as important in a family setting and in the whole community as a whole. Today, there have been a lot of efforts made to ease the deplorable position women often find themselves in. Looking at most Third World countries, be they Muslims or Christians, if there is one thing that is very evident in the societies is the fact that women really are subordinate in the society. In most instances, almost every person who knows the Muslim people assume that since there is too much mistreatment of women, that it is the Holy Qur’an that stipulates that, as it prefers men to women. This paper will look at this idea and use quotations from the Holy Qur’an itself to refute the notion. Gender imbalance and thus subordination of women cuts across every area in life and across all communities on the planet. If we look at the West, for instance, it is expected that women be given equal positions to men. The truth is, while they are now enjoying equal rights to men, this has not been the case for a long time. Their liberation, in other words, just started a few years ago. Sometime back, the United Stated of America had a potential female presidential candidate. While there were chances that she could lead and had the potential to lead the country to greater heights, a myriad excuses were presented just to bar her from running the race. While US, apparently, is the developed country that is said to be the most liberal when it comes to civil rights and freedom of the sexes, it is ironical that over 50% of the country’s population are not ready to have a woman presidents, in spite of having over 44 presidents, all men (Streb 80). The above discussion shows that women are in general treated as lesser beings to men, in every society if we say so. While the teaching in Islam do not condone the idea, Arabic customs do and that is what most people mistake for Islam. A situation where most gender imbalance is felt is definitely in the division of labour. According to the Holy Qur’an, there are roles that are best suited for either gender. Looking at roles such as those that entail lifting of heavy loads, it would only be unfair if “equality” were expected in such a situation. Biologically, men are stronger than women. Letting them share such amounts of work equally would be unfair to women. In the pre-Islamic Arabia though, women’s roles and their overall position in the society was low. They were treated atrociously and there is nothing they could do about it. The Holy Prophet, however, championed that men and women enjoy human rights. In a matter of fact, he established women’s rights to inheritance, something they never even dreamt of, as they were themselves taken as property. Most countries are yet to give women equal rights to men, more so those that involves the inheritance of property. During the time of the prophet, most tribes saw it right for close families to inherit widows, just as they would property. The situation was a little absurd though, since stepsons could inherit their stepmothers. In addition, the stepson had the power to marry off the widows to whoever he wished (Chaudhry 511). To sum this up, the stepmother did not have a say on the matter, the traditions made sure they had none. In Ch.2:Vs.235, the Prophet maintains that upon the death of a husband, the widow should wait concerning herself for four months and ten days and that no sin shall lie on her in anything that she does in regard to what is fair and just. According to the Holy Qur’an, Allah was aware of such deeds and it was infuriating to him. Upon the completion of this period, women can marry any person they wanted to, and should therefore not be compelled to do so. As is mentioned above, women were denied rights to own or control their property. In Ch.4:Vs.35, the Holy Qur’an states that “Men are guardians over women because Allah has made some of them excel others, and because they (men) spend of their wealth. So virtuous women are those who are obedient, and guard the secrets of their husbands with Allah’s protection. And as for those on whose part you fear disobedience, admonish them and leave them alone in their beds, and chastise them.” The Holy Qur’an prohibits men from controlling their wives’ property. In Ch.4:Vs.33, it is mentioned that both men and women shall have a share of what they have earned and it is wrong that a man commands the wife to contribute whatever she has earned to the livelihood of the family. Men’s responsibilities involves that of being the breadwinner and if they cease to do so, then they should not command the same authority they should be. The role of raising the children belongs not to the wife, as most parts of the world believe, but to the father and mother to the children. Men who do not offer parental care to the children are cursed. Sometimes, men take advantage of the fact that they can divorce their wives and thus do so over very trivial matters (Ali 57). While most people would argue that only men have the rights to divorce their wives, women who do not find content in a marriage due to an abusive husband have the right to ask for a divorce. Unfortunately, men would beat up their wives and then ask that they share the property of the wife in case the wives asks for divorce. The Holy Qur’an has strictly forbidden that. Conclusively, Islam has definitely safeguarded the rights of women. Their aforementioned rights to inheritance is something they received way before any other religion on the planet thought of giving to the women. The Holy Qur’an, in no way, does it favour men as the Sharia laws definitely watches over women as well as it does men. Their rights are equal as seen above and the vile traditions and cultures that we see with most Islamic communities are not based on the teachings of the Holy Qur’an but according to the old Arabian traditions. Islam also teaches that men ignore trifling mistakes that they see with their women and should treat them (wives) as they would all other human beings with kindness and as gentlemen. Works Cited Ali, M. M. Holy Quran. eBookIt. com. (2011). Ali, Shaheen Sardar. Gender and human rights in Islam and international law: equal before Allah, unequal before man? Kluwer Law Intl, 2010. Chaudhry, Zainab. "Myth of Misogyny: A Reanalysis of Womens Inheritance in Islamic Law, The." Alb. L. Rev. 61 (2009): 511. Jawad, Haifaa A., and H. A. Jawad. The rights of women in Islam: An authentic approach. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 2008. Streb, Matthew J., et al. "Social desirability effects and support for a female American president." Public Opinion Quarterly 72.1 (2008): 76-89. Read More