Women in Islam This Report Term Paper

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In Islamic society, women can divorce at any unjust or inconsiderate act by a spouse. In addition, even remarriage is more equal in Islamic society. The Christians see remarriage as a sin but in Islamic society, women have a right to remarry as long as they meet a three-month period of abstinence.

Christians and non-Muslims continue to portray Islamic religion as a religion that has historically oppressed women. They also suggest that Islamic society puts women in a politically inferior role to men. Unfortunately, some of the stereotypes the western world follows are not based on the word of the Koran but more of the actions of men who have historically stolen their women's God-given rights. Other reasons may be that the traditional modesty rules of covering up while in open society with a burka may give an impression of female inferiority or that women hold a less prominent role in society. "Men as household heads are responsible for cash income, regardless of their level of education and skill, thus they tend to work in several jobs and migrate to oil-rich countries. Women's cash-earning abilities, on the other hand, are limited by a combination of modern labor laws, the sexual division of labor, and gender ideology." (Mir-Hosseini, 1999) Those misconceptions are not Islamic ideologies just like as the fact that there have been no female popes is not actually a written Christian ideology.

The roles women play in Islamic society may have been established from ancient practices, laws or cultural traditions and not derivates of Islam's written word. Traditional customs may also simply have been added into Muslim societies by other nonreligious factions. A good example can be demonstrated in the nation of Saudi Arabia where Muslims have always ruled. There, women have no legal right to drive an automobile. Westerns see these rules as having been implemented by a male dominated Muslim regime and that there most be some religious connotation. In fact, these driving rules in Saudi Arabia were instituted by the Saudi oligarchy but had no religious bearing at all.

Other seemingly discriminatory laws were implemented in times of war or occupation and were actually meant to protect women from any usurping or conquering army such as during European colonization.

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European colonization also affected Muslim society by creating a great many legislations which eventually led to the discriminatory policies in place today. "The notion of citizenship has remained gendered as Middle-Eastern nation-states modernized. Often governmental institutions and political processes tie women's rights and benefits to their being the wife or daughter of a male citizen, thus rendering them dependent, second-class members of society." (Ali, 2002)

The bottom line is that the majority of discriminatory laws followed in Muslim nations today are only pieces of any actual written Islamic law proposed by the Koran or a mixture of some piece of written Islamic law and some other nonreligious interpretation. The status of women under Islamic law should be one of equality and honor but the problem is that although we have many Muslim societies, we may not actually have a pure Islamic state.

In conclusion, this report intended to show the extent and reality of women's roles within the Islamic realm. As demonstrated, there are many theories that coincide between the written word, perceived notions, and actual realities for women in an Islamic society. This paper tried to demonstrate some of the various roles women do play which includes the realms of politics, economics and labor, Sufism/the mystic orders, the military, or the overall domestic sphere. The woman's role in the political system or in positions of leadership has been proven to be greater in Islamic society than in our own western society. In the twentieth century, the nations of Turkey and Pakistan have clearly demonstrated that the Queen of Sheba was not a fluke occurrence and that the Koran does not prohibit women from accepting leadership roles in Muslim society......

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