Women in Islam and Christianity (original) (raw)
Related papers
A Historical Reflection on Womanhood in Islam
2013
Women‟s status in Islam has gained currency in the academy, particularly, in gender studies and social criticism. Despite the availability of credible information about Islam throughout the world, some scholars still argue that Muslim women have no genuine rights in Islam and that Islam is head-to-toe patriarchal. Using Leila Ahmad‟s theory of Islamic gender egalitarianism, as framework, and Qur‟an and Sunnah as interpretative evidence, this paper critically examines women‟s rights and privileges provided by Islam from historical perspective. The major finding is that Islam places both men and women on an equal footing in every Islamic religious endeavour, although, their core differences have been acknowledged. Hence, Islam is egalitarian in terms of gender. The main argument is that Muslim men and women enjoy similar rights and that the discrimination against today‟s Muslim women resulted from an incorrect interpretation of Islamic injunctions. However, many scholars misread and s...
Publisher's Note As regards the rights and status of women in society, the question arises as to whether the natural rights and status of men and women are identical or not; whether nature has gifted these rights bisexually or unisexually. What is now before the respected reader is a series of three articles which, based on Quranic statements, claim that the question of the system of rights for women in the home as well as in society should once again be assessed. International Relations Department Islamic Propagation Organization
1996
CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES Women in Ancient Civilization WOMEN IN ISLAM 1. The Spiritual Aspect 2. The Social Aspect (a) As a Child and Adolescent (b) As a Wife (c) As a Mother 3. The Economic Aspect 4. The political Aspect CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY PREFACE Family, society and ultimately the whole of mankind is treated by Islam on an ethical basis. Differentiation in sex is neither a credit nor a drawback for the sexes. Therefore, when we talk about status of woman in Islam it should not lead us to think that Islam has no specific guidelines, limitations, responsibilities and obligations for men. What makes one valuable and respectable in the eyes of Allah, the Creator of mankind and the universe, is neither one's prosperity, position, intelligence, physical strength nor beauty, but only one's Allah-consciousness and awareness (taqwa). However, since in the Western culture and in cultures influenced by it, there exists a disparity between men and wom...
Precedent & Perception: Muslim Records that Contradict Narrative on Women
Brill, Hawwa
Muslims who insist on the seclusion of women or their exclusion from men's gatherings are now routinely dismissed as extremists. That is inaccurate. Many such Muslims follow only key works of fiqh (Muslim scholarly legacy), which modern academics designate as pristine, classical Islam. But this fact leaves important questions unanswered: Why the early Muslim precedents do not always reflect this classical Islam? Why do Arabic-speakers enthusiastically embrace contradictory perceptions of the Sunna on women, that is, the excellent examples set in their communities in Islam's early centuries? Cracked historical lenses have been the mainstay of such conflicting beliefs, not extremism or irrationality. This article focuses on the disparities between Muslim records and their dominant narratives in presentations of exemplary women. How a particular worldview carefully designed an outline of history that created two separate stores of Muslim memories-one operational and the other latent-reveals the power of such precedents. The article concludes that, despite strides in contemporary research, led by many women, their brilliant findings could remain irrelevant What matters is that the bolted door of the formal narrative opens to admit standards set by long dead and (in Muslim views) excellent women to its store of valid precedents with which the faithful deduce Shariʿa rules/laws.
Status of Women in Islam: A Perspective
THE paper aims to break the myth of Muslim women being oppressed , passive, and neglected part of society, imprisoned in four walls and more focus is on association between religion and women’s position. Paper offers a brief overview of the Islamic concept of modesty as enshrined in the Quran and the sociocultural contexts in which the concept was introduced. The paper makes brief deliberation on the on the status of women from Islamic perspective. The attempt has been made to cover not only the spiritual but also social, economic as well as the political aspects. The paper aims to build a cohesive, global moment of Muslim women that will reclaim women’s rights.it offers a cumulative picture of Muslim women. The paper is not ready to recognise that women’s rights are fundamentally human rights cutting across cultures, regions and religions. Crusaders of women empowerment are increasing day by day but giving it a right sense has not a big literature. This paper is just a little step towards the enlightenment of status of women from Islamic perspective.
Islam and Gender: Major Issues and Debates draws attention to the debates on gender in Islam, emphasizing on lived experiences of Muslim women and men. It focuses on the evolving cultural interplay between women studies, critical feminist theories, and normative religious study (p. 2) and discusses the epistemological advancement of the first three waves of feminism and evolving applications of the woman and gender problems in the disciplinary study of religion and theology. Adis Duderija, Alina Alak, and Kristin Hissong explain various theories behind the traditional construction of masculine and feminine dichotomy and trace Muslim women's ontological and epistemological advancement from diverse nationalities. Finally, they contextualize the debates and discourses initiated by Islamic feminists Fatima Mernissi, Rifat Hassan, Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas, and others. The book traces the evolution of gender in Islam and examines the tensions between the modern and Islamic understanding of gender. The book traverses two major themes. First, it examines a traditional gender discourse in the Islamic jurisprudence, and how they have been interpreted through the Quran and Hadith. It scrutinizes the concept of "topos," known as assumption theory, as the basis of the gender hierarchical and patriarchal nature of the religion. The book has a broad discussion on the nature of the premodern Islamic tradition on gender issues, noting its subscription to the "gender oppositionality" theory that operates behind the tradition of patriarchal construction (p. 25). It explores the logic and the dynamics behind the conceptual patriarchal honor and female modesty law concerning the practice of veiling, seclusion, gender segregation, honor-based violence, and female genital mutation. The main argument provided in the book is whether or not these practices are "Islamic"; all these practices are rooted in the same operative logic, termed as "the logic of patriarchal honor," to control and regulate the female sexuality to uphold patriarchal honor (p. 44). The book argues the importance of the interpretative and hermeneutical approach to the Quran and Sunna in forming gender norms and rules in Islam. It includes a short history of the evolution of Quranic exegesis in Islamic thought and also presents the interpretative methods applied to the Quran in classical Islam that facilitated the construction of a hierarchical gender relation (p. 59).
Women in Islam—What the Quran and Sunnah say (Vol 40 - No1- Year 2022)
Reviewed by dr.Tauseef Ahmad , 2022
In the current academic discourses on Islam, one of the most fiercely debated and discussed topics is ‘women in Islam’. There are numerous ‘misconceptions’ and ‘misinterpretations’ related to their status or place, role, and contribution. Numerous works, written from different perspectives, deliberate on this topic, which appears as a ‘never-ending’ debate. A latest addition to the literature on portraying women in Islam in its real perspective is the book under review. Written by Abdur Raheem Kidwai (Professor of English and Director, K.A. Nizami Centre for Quranic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, India), it is a succinct, slim, and simple volume which highlights the rights, status, role, and contribution of Muslim women in its real context as well as demystifies and deconstructs the main misconceptions and misconstructions on this vital but sensitive issue.