Ethics within Muslim Women - Essay Example

Running Head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL of submitted Ethics and Islamic Studies Introduction Religion and political ideologies have over the years been conflicting and at times they happen to be confused. Essentially the misconception comes in when the people or governments deem certain religion as being inferior or when certain religion forms opposition to government as a minority group. Women have always been exploited and mistreated by the old perception of religion that women are not equal to men. This lead to very critical questions for instance, what are the effects of religion on women. Literature Review The Ideology of Islam The relationship between women and religion has not been a good one for quite sometimes. Though the women have initiated efforts to lift the oppression they have been going through because of the male superiority, it's still evident that religious doctrines have been misused and are still being misused to oppress women. Muslim has been very notorious for this act compared to other religions which are moving towards equality in places of worship and observance of religious beliefs (Roald 2008). In the West, the women have quite a say in social issues as there are some organizations that take care of human rights hence the freedom of worship is influenced. Many of them have been noted to be shifting from traditional religions like Muslims, orthodox depending on the place and forming moir contemporary ways of worship. Paradoxically Despite the oppression and the shifts, the women still make the best part of religion adherents (Kabasakal & Bodur 2002). This leads to very critical questions as why they leave, where they go and what they do. Currently, the Muslim ideology has increased its scope and has power even in political issues. These features of Islam have electrified revolutionaries and legalized political organization. Islam has grounds as a political phenomenon and the issues that are raised about it in debates as it is political manifestation (Kabasakal & Bodur 2002). When an ideology is flexible, it's very easy to grow and expand to win many people in support. The official interpretation will therefore rule; manly religions do not have that official interpretation. Ideologies relegate to people what to do. Nonetheless, the idea of religion is very great and cannot just be demonstrated by officials alone. No particular understanding is also considered complete (Ghorbani & Tung 2007) Social and Ethics Feminism and fight for equality in Muslim has been a subject for discussion in the current years and a solution has not been found yet. Feminism has also been coined on the educated and civilized Muslim women who seek equality as their male counterparts in terms of responsibility in marriages and duties at places of work among other things. The educated women reread the Qur'an to analyze it and also go through the early history of the Islam religion to recuperate their doctrines from patriarchal and violent misinformed interpretations; this helps to address the women's rights and their participation in spiritual idioms, and to allow legitimate theology to a woman's rights (Barbas 2002). According to Asma Barlas, Women have a right to ijtihad (ijtihad is technical term in Muslim principles describing the practice of reaching a legal decision by autonomous understanding of the legal doctrines like from the Qura'n and Sunnah); they should also have rights to make and lead prayers. Basically this has not been the case in the Muslim world (Stowasser 1996). Asma Barlas's concerns is whether the Qura'n address the men in a special way, she basically tackles the ideology of misogynistic or patriarchal concept. Muslim has a misconception that men have a special relationship with God and that women are generally unclean, weak or aberrant. Barlas makes it clear that the Qura'n does not in any way represent Allah (Muslim name for God) as Male ; in fact it explicitly prohibit sacralising God to be father or making similar comparisons for God. Neither does it make fathers sacred. It distinguishes that in history, existing patriarchies, males were the authority locus and does not talk about patriarchies. This does not mean that the Qur'an condones nor advocates for it. The Qura'n hence does not purport that men are superior (Barbas 2002). Wadud is one courageous woman who came to spotlight after defying the long time Muslim belief that men were the only one who could lead prayers. She led Friday prayers in New York with over 100 men and women. Basically according to her, the imams should not be the only ones to conduct prayers as the Qura'n recognizes women to be equal to men. Basically the men in Muslim tend to look down upon the women as a lesser being in the society. This is particularly so as they are never involved in critical matters like leading a prayer and giving witness in court (Barbas 2002) The patriarchal by Muslim men is a misplaced doctrine as even in the way the earliest Muslims worshipped during the times of Prophet Muhammad, it's not true that women were usually separated from the men. Such kind of gender discrimination is a creation of men and is very common among Muslims and it's very difficult to make progress when women are still under oppression (Wadud 2006). Wadud brings out the concepts of Islam as a religion and the way justice should be served relative to the history of the religion and the cultural situation in history. She also motivated the need to attain freedom as the nations of the Muslim belief (Barbas 2002) Stowasser clearly discusses the rights and the role of women in the Muslim society. Modern reading from the Qura'n is not just about getting the words and following the doctrines blindly. Logical and coherent varied understanding from the Qura'n does not in any way indicate harassing of the women anywhere. In fact contrary to what is being practiced, in the early times of Islam establishment, women could visit Muhammad and discuss with him a lot of issues ranging from family problems to sex issues. Currently not even socializing with women very closely is allowed. The way women are depicted by the Qur'an forms the foundation or the blue print of how women today should act and be treated. The status of women in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular has not been a good one and as a consequence Leila Ahmed addressed historical teachings of Islam to teach peers about their rights. The interplay between western and the middle experience has abused history to cover the political ideology. (Barbas 2002) It's estimated that over half a billion women stay put all over the world facing this kind of difficulty without question. In spite of the monolithic terms, Muslim doctrines are still they are useful. These kinds of stereotyping spiced up by incidence of resurgence in the Muslim doctrine. Cultural segregation in women is still a problem, however, there are very many supporters of women empowerment who want the women to have the power and right to take part in general social process and executing and assessing public policy (Ahmed 1993). Muslim rights just like other religions need to do away with the existing patriarchal structure and actions which present human rights in contradiction to Islam. Effect of Islam Culture on Women in Workforce Saudi Arabia suffers an unemployment rate of about 8 - 30% in men alone. The statistic in women is believed to be worse. Due to such problems of unemployment, the country is has come under heated debate about economic reforms which opens it to external investors. Women empowerment is increasing as supported by courageous women like Bulkhair, a journalist in her 20s went to school outside the country. The government and business also appreciate that women are becoming more learned and more inspired than men. For Saudi Arabia to come out of the economic problems, it has to consider allowing even more women to enter the workforce (Ghorbani & Tung 2007). Saudi Arabia being a monarchy, there are no formal political parties or elected representatives in various institutions to work for the citizens rights. In this regard, the women have achieved very little progress towards achieving gender equality in Saudi Arabia compared to other regions (Pejman. 2004). This has been attributed to the Islam principles in the region though oil is also on top of the list as a factor. Very few women are in the workforce even today as the world attains global civilization. Islamic ideologies have led to atypical powerful patriarchal cultures, political ideologies, laws and doctrines. Basing on the female work pattern all over the world these facts seem to be true. In the west, the number of women in the workforce is very high almost 50:50 ratio women to men. This ratio is lower in countries like Saudi Arabia where women in workforce are very few (Pejman. 2004). Basing on what the majority of Muslim men believe in and logic reasoning, it's very difficult for anyone with respect to humanity to justify what has been happening to the women in Saudi Arabia. Due to the western influence, Muslim women are now realizing that times have completely changed. They also affirm that close scrutiny of the Qur'anic scriptures to assess their true or original value in no longer beneficial. Being able to enter the workforce has enabled some Muslim ladies to earn income and to be independent. This has made the regulatory nature of the Islam ideology obsolete. In face of this kind of transformation, a woman's place in Islam is about to be gained (Ghorbani & Tung 2007). Over the past years, the women in Saudi Arabia were restricted in terms of vocational training. Most of them never attended school and the few that did were further restrained from the subjects they could study. Engineering and Law for instance were not for women. Furthermore the women could not vote, or travel without the clear consent of the husband, or even get employment in government offices. Thanks to the western civilization and feminism which has instigated change that is picking up very well. Methodology The method of data collection will include the use of statistics from the church and mosques registers for the people (both men and women) who are participating or attend religious gatherings often (staunch members). Door to door survey will be most effective in data collection over a small range of populace while key informant interviews will be used to collect information from professionals like employers, consultants and other workers. There is also some previous information about the religious concerns and ethical issues studied before this research and will provide very critical secondary source information (Maqsood 2008 & Mayer 1998). Some data collected from earlier studies by the national human rights activists, census, registrar of persons and employment records will also be used especially for comparison purposes and to fill in the gaps that will be encountered from this research. A screening interview will be used to find out the total number and ratio of women that are indeed affected by the religious ideology or discrimination. The response rate of the study is expected to be high as many people are now concerned about the role of religion whether it's supposed to oppress or it for freedom (Maqsood 2008). The subject being somehow contentious many people will be obligated to participate. Conclusion Many Muslim women lead desperate lives and have to remain contended with such treatment as they perceive it is sacred to do so and rebelling will be a show of disrespect to the prophet. However elite families from the west now educate their women in Europe, American and across Asia. The experience of the feminist ideas from the west is having a very great impact on the Muslim women and its spreading very fast bringing out a change that will be felt if women get equal right. References Barbas A. (2002). Believing woman in Islam: Unrewarding Patriarchal Interpretation of the Qur'an. University of Texas Press Freidmann Y. (2003). Tolerance and Coercion in Islam- - Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition. Cambridge University Press Ghorbani M & Tung R.L (2007). Behind The Veil- -An Exploratory Study of the Myths and Realities of Women in the Iranian Workforce Journal of Human Resource Management. Vol. 17, issue 4 pp 378 - 396 Kabasakal H & Bodur M (2002). Arabic Cluster- - A Bridge between East and West World business Journal VOL. 37. Issues 1 pp 41 - 56 Maqsood R.W (2008). Islam, Culture and Women. Islam for today. Women and Religion in the West- - Challenging Secularization Ashgate Mayer A. E (1998). Islam and Human Rights: Traditions and Politics. West-view Press Pejman. P (2004). Saudi Arabia-- Women Say Religious Traditions Block Their Rights Inter Press Service retrieved on 28th July 2009 from http://www.religiousconsultation.org/News_Tracker/Saudi_women_say_religious_traditions_block_rights.htm Roald A.S (2008). Women in Islam- - The Western Experience p186- 211 Tropenaars F & Turner C. H (1998). Riding the Waves of Culture- - Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business. Nicholas Brealey Publishing Stowasser B. (1996). Women in the Qur'an, Tradition, and Interpretation by Barbara Oxford University Press Wadud A. (2006). Inside the Gender Jihad- - Women's Reform in Islam. One world. One world publishers Read More