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
women there is more need for stating Islam's position on important
issues in a clear way.
Dr. Jamal Badawi's essay, The Status of Women in Islam, was originally published in our quarterly journal, Al-lttihad,
Vol. 8, No. 2, Sha'ban 1391/Sept 1971. Since then it has been one of
our most-demanded publications. We thank Br. Jamal for permitting us to
reprint his essay. We hope it will clarify many of the misconceptions.
Anis Ahmad,
Director Dept. of Education and Training
MSA of U.S. and Canada
P.O. Box 38 Plainfield, IN 46168 USA
Jumada al Thani 1400 April 1980
I. INTRODUCTION The status of women in society is neither a new issue nor is it a fully settled one.
The position of Islam on this issue has been among the subjects presented to the Western reader with the least objectivity.
This
paper is intended to provide a brief and authentic exposition of what
Islam stands for in this regard. The teachings of Islam are based
essentially on the Qur'an (God's revelation) and Hadeeth (elaboration by Prophet Muhammad).
The Qur'an and the Hadeeth,
properly and unbiasedly understood, provide the basic source of
authentication for any position or view which is attributed to Islam.
The
paper starts with a brief survey of the status of women in the
pre-Islamic era. It then focuses on these major questions: What is the
position of Islam regarding the status of woman in society? How similar
or different is that position from "the spirit of the time," which was
dominant when Islam was revealed? How would this compare with the
"rights" which were finally gained by woman in recent decades?
II. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES One major objective of this
paper is to provide a fair evaluation of what Islam contributed (or
failed to contribute) toward the restoration of woman's dignity and
rights. In order to achieve this objective, it may be useful to review
briefly how women were treated in general in previous civilizations and
religions, especially those which preceded Islam (Pre-610 C.E.). Part of
the information provided here, however, describes the status of woman
as late as the nineteenth century, more than twelve centuries after
Islam.
Women in Ancient Civilization
Describing the status of the Indian woman, Encyclopedia Britannica states:
In
India, subjection was a cardinal principle. Day and night must women be
held by their protectors in a state of dependence says Manu. The rule
of inheritance was agnatic, that is descent traced through males to the
exclusion of females.
In
Hindu scriptures, the description of a good wife is as follows: "a
woman whose mind, speech and body are kept in subjection, acquires high
renown in this world, and, in the next, the same abode with her
husband."
In Athens, women were not better off than either the Indian or the Roman women.
"Athenian women were always minors, subject to some male - to their father, to their brother, or to some of their male kin.
Her
consent in marriage was not generally thought to be necessary and "she
was obliged to submit to the wishes of her parents, and receive from
them her husband and her lord, even though he were stranger to her."
A
Roman wife was described by an historian as: "a babe, a minor, a ward, a
person incapable of doing or acting anything according to her own
individual taste, a person continually under the tutelage and
guardianship of her husband."
In the Encyclopedia Britannica, we find a summary of the legal status of women in the Roman civilization:
In
Roman Law a woman was even in historic times completely dependent. If
married she and her property passed into the power of her husband . . .
the wife was the purchased property of her husband, and like a slave
acquired only for his benefit. A woman could not exercise any civil or
public office . could not be a witness, surety, tutor, or curator; she
could not adopt or be adopted, or make will or contract. Among the
Scandinavian races women were:
under
perpetual tutelage, whether married or unmarried. As late as the Code
of Christian V, at the end of the 17th Century, it was enacted that if a
woman married without the consent of her tutor he might have, if he
wished, administration and usufruct of her goods during her life.
According to the English Common Law:
...all
real property which a wife held at the time of a marriage became a
possession of her husband. He was entitled to the rent from the land and
to any profit which might be made from operating the estate during the
joint life of the spouses. As time passed, the English courts devised
means to forbid a husband's transferring real property without the
consent of his wife, but he still retained the right to manage it and to
receive the money which it produced. As to a wife's personal property,
the husband's power was complete. He had the right to spend it as he saw
fit.
Only
by the late nineteenth Century did the situation start to improve. "By a
series of acts starting with the Married women's Property Act in 1870,
amended in 1882 and 1887, married women achieved the right to own
property and to enter contracts on a par with spinsters, widows, and
divorcees." As late as the Nineteenth Century an authority in ancient
law, Sir Henry Maine, wrote: "No society which preserves any tincture of
Christian institutions is likely to restore to married women the
personal liberty conferred on them by the Middle Roman Law."
In his essay The Subjection of Women, John Stuart Mill wrote:
We
are continually told that civilization and Christianity have restored
to the woman her just rights. Meanwhile the wife is the actual
bondservant of her husband; no less so, as far as the legal obligation
goes, than slaves commonly so called.
Before
moving on to the Qur'anic decrees concerning the status of woman, a few
Biblical decrees may shed more light on the subject, thus providing a
better basis for an impartial evaluation. In the Mosaic Law, the wife
was betrothed. Explaining this concept, the Encyclopedia Biblica states:
"To betroth a wife to oneself meant simply to acquire possession of her
by payment of the purchase money; the betrothed is a girl for whom the
purchase money has been paid." From the legal point of view, the consent
of the girl was not necessary for the validation of her marriage. "The
girl's consent is unnecessary and the need for it is nowhere suggested
in the Law."
As
to the right of divorce, we read in the Encyclopedia Biblica: "The
woman being man's property, his right to divorce her follows as a matter
of course." The right to divorce was held only by man. "In the Mosaic
Law divorce was a privilege of the husband only .... "
The
position of the Christian Church until recent centuries seems to have
been influenced by both the Mosaic Law and by the streams of thought
that were dominant in its contemporary cultures. In their book, Marriage
East and West, David and Vera Mace wrote:
Let
no one suppose, either, that our Christian heritage is free of such
slighting judgments. It would be hard to find anywhere a collection of
more degrading references to the female sex than the early Church
Fathers provide. Lecky, the famous historian, speaks of (these fierce
incentives which form so conspicuous and so grotesque a portion of the
writing of the Fathers . . . woman was represented as the door of hell,
as the mother of all human ills. She should be ashamed at the very
thought that she is a woman. She should live in continual penance on
account of the curses she has brought upon the world. She should be
ashamed of her dress, for it is the memorial of her fall. She should be
especially ashamed of her beauty, for it is the most potent instrument
of the devil). One of the most scathing of these attacks on woman is
that of Tertullian: Do you know that you are each an Eve? The sentence
of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of
necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway: you are the unsealer of
that forbidden tree; you are the first deserters of the divine law; you
are she who persuades him whom the devil was not valiant enough to
attack. You destroyed so easily God's image, man. On account of your
desert - that is death - even the Sop of God had to die). Not only did
the church affirm the inferior status of woman, it deprived her of legal
rights she had previously enjoyed.
Post a Comment