The status accorded to Muslim women: a barometer of progress in the Islamic movement

By Anisa Abd el Fattah

Throughout the history of Islam it seems that the question of women’s position and the proper social intercourse between men and women has been an issue, along with the rights of women and their roles in Muslim society. There are numerous ayaat of the Qur’an that deal with this issue and also many ahadith, indicating that before Islam, the Arab culture was insufficient in its perspective on these subjects. No great amount of time need be dedicated to the proof of that, since we all know that before Islam, the girl-children of Arabs were sometimes buried alive simply because they were female. There are, of course, many other examples, for instance the many forms of marriage that existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, all of which served to reduce women to mere bearers and carriers of offspring, having no rights, not even to the exclusive love and devotion, in some instances, of a single husband, having instead to accommodate several men if she hoped to meet her needs for sustenance. When Islam came, it civilised the Arab tribes, and as it spread, its civilising qualities spread with it; and as Islam has declined, so has the status of women in Muslim societies.

Though non-Muslims in the West have seized the rhetorical high ground, charging Islam with holding degrading ideas about women and fostering the ill-treatment of women, it is a fact that Islam is the only religious doctrine to deny the concept of woman as evil seductress, responsible for the original sin and fall of mankind. It was Islam that granted women rights of inheritance, the right to choice in marriage, and the right to full discretion in the disposal of her personal assets. It was Islam that first addressed the sexuality of the human being as a matter of dignity and not evil, assuring us that Allah rewards the conduct of human sexuality when conducted within the purifying bounds of divine law, and prohibited celibacy and the avoidance of women as an act of worship outside of the divine precepts that guide ritual worship. These principles apply to both men and women.

It was Islam that denied the idea that women in menses are "unclean" and defiled, or bad luck, making it clear that although the products of menses were unclean, the woman herself is not polluted. Indeed it was Islam, before all of the modern world’s initiatives on behalf of women, most notably the program of the radical feminists of the United Nations (who are leading the charge for female superiority in revenge for the many injustices against women resulting from the teachings of the orthodox Christian and Jewish faiths and the paganism that has coexisted with them), that raised women’s status in society, Allah saying that the best of human beings are those who are most righteous, whether they be male or female.

The reasons for the diminishing status of women over several centuries are not clear. Many theories have been put forward to explain this phenomenon, but none address the revival of pre-Islamic ignorance that has come to prevail over the pure teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah and that have caused Muslim woman to be excluded from the mainstream of society, her voice silenced and her inalienable rights ignored. The results manifest as poverty among women, abuse of women through unfair and un-Islamic laws and customs; emotional, spiritual, and material neglect of children, along with the refusal to educate women and enforcing strict codes of conduct on women that are not also attached to men. All this creates unbalanced, unjust and extreme interpretations of honor and chastity that are sometimes brutally enforced on women, but completely ignored when it comes to men, giving the erroneous impression that only women are bound by law to chastity and morality, while men can (and do) indulge in immorality to the extent that norms have been established in Muslim societies that suggest that such immorality is somehow being "manly," or a part of the male fitra. Even though we know, in theory, that the nature of a human being, our fitra, is pure, whether male or female, we have somehow accepted that men are inclined toward immorality, so we should be tolerant of their sins, despite knowing from the teachings of Islam that immorality can and has brought entire civilizations to their knees.

The corruptions that we have embraced are from the pre-Islamic ignorance of Arabia, coupled with the ignorance that previously prevailed in countries that subsequently accepted Islam, but fell again into ignorance and paganism, and from the decadent immorality and disregard for Allah that comes from the secular, liberal influence of the West. These concepts and traditions are passed on and inherited by generations as "culture" derived from religion.

Today the Muslim Ummah is faced with the challenge of restoring a pure, just Islam and re-establishing its laws and precepts in Muslim lands, by as law, and eliminating the influences that caused our societies to decline, and the status of Muslim women to decay. For years Islam has been charged with the injustices that have been suffered by Muslim women, yet the truth is becoming increasingly apparent: these injustices have resulted from the imposition of colonialist laws, and from the inadequacies and deficiencies of other faiths and cultures.

With some effort we are able to trace the decline in status of Muslim women from the time of the Prophet (saw) until now. In modern times, the fall of the Ottoman Empire perhaps initiated the most obvious decline in this status. The final obliteration of the last remnant of Islamic authority left each new "Muslim" nation-state to develop its own body of law, devoid of Shari’ah and mimicking the social and legal systems of the colonialist powers. For the most part these laws were secular, and the rulers established over the new Muslim nation-states were also essentially secular and godless, giving their allegiances to the colonial powers in exchange for position and power. If we attribute the low status of women in modern Muslim societies to this obvious and significant development, we may be on the brink of a cure, at least in principle.

Reversing the historic decline of Islamic authority in the Muslim world is a challenge for every Muslim, yet before we can accomplish this feat we must develop Islamic political and social ideals that address the myriad of contemporary social, political and economic challenges that face not only Muslims but the world. We must include in these programs and ideals significant roles for women in society, once again allowing Muslim women to take their place as the natural mates and companions of men in the establishment of Islam and the perpetuation of the Islamic order of life.

The common quality of those women who are declared the "best women" by Allah is their extreme struggle and sacrifice for the establishment of truth over falsehood, and for the liberation of all mankind from the chains of ignorance and sin. The doors must be reopened to allow women the opportunity to fulfil these roles, and the purifying quality of struggle must again become a central theme of our efforts. We must forsake the appeal of materialism and power, exchanging these temptations for activism motivated by the fear of Allah and a love of His creation that guides us, men and women, to great sacrifices. As secularism reaches the apex of its power, seeking to employ the women of the world as its agents in schemes designed to eliminate morality as a barrier to its dominion, Muslim women must be given the opportunity and freedom to join in the struggle and work alongside our men to restore the primacy of Islam in the world.