The Qur’an and Islamic Law Do Not Discriminate Against Women Essay Example for Free

The Quran and Muslim Law Do non Discriminate Against Women EssayTreat your women well and be kind to them for they ar your disruptners and committed helpers. From the last utterance of Prophet Mohammed The perception of most of the ball, except possible the hotshot-sixth of it that follows Islam, is that Islam and Quran pr separatelyed that women must be subservient to men. Everyone turns to a verse in the Quran which tells men that they should beat their wives.Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has do nigh of them to excel others and because they overstep out of their property the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in their sleeping places and beat them then if they obey you, do non seek a way against them surely Allah is High, Great. (Shakirs version of the Koran, Quran, 434)The verse is used by opponents of Islam to denigrate the faith and even by about of the practitioners of the faith to justify their mistreatment of women, but it may non be being interpreted the way that it should be. Asma Barlas, a professor at Ithaca College and noted scholar of Islam, who identifies herself as a follower of Islam, contends that the definition of the verse has been come ton out of context and used to portray women in Islam as victims in an attempt to force women of the faith into a position of needing rescuing.That positioning gives women in the western world a feeling of superiority (Barlas, Southern Illinois University, 2007). The Quran instructs peck to take divinity fudges devoted Word, The Quran, as a whole, she said, and not to pick and choose the verses to follow or not to follow Barlas argues that the Quran does not promote the degradation of women. Instead, she said, the Quran promotes all humankind equally and is a good deal less mysogonistic than the Bible, the Holy Word of the Christian faith.In her speech at Southern Illinois University, Barlas asserted that she did not speak for anyone other than herself, but her views are shared by many women in Islam. They believe that it is in historic documents used by whatever Moslem cultures that the Quran has been misinterpreted and the mistreatment of women began. Again this is not true. Many writers who wrote about womens rights refer to the statement in 434 as a sign of the man is above the women in status but it is a misunderstood statement.In 434, the expression .. al-rijalu qawwdmuna ala al-nisai. means The men are do responsible for the women, and GOD has enable them with certain qualities, and made them the bread earners. This expression simply means that God is appointing the husband as master key of the ship. Marriage is like a ship, and the captain runs it after due consultation with his officers. It does not assign unlikeness but rather assigns duties to avoid conflicts and disputes. (Misc erstwhileptions in Islam)The problem is that most people dont take the sentence to read the original Arabic or even attempt to find an accurate interpretation of the texts, they simply believe what they are told about what the faith believes. This is part of the problem. Nonetheless, if we take sexual/textual conquering seriously, and I believe we must, the issue of how Muslims read, oras I will arguefail to read, the Quran becomes critical, especially for women. (Barlas, Muslim Women Sexual Oppression)Unlike Christianity which prescribed women to an inferior status by saying that woman was made from the rib of man, (Ragab 1) Islam teaches that God the creator made them as halves of each other. Neither does Islam teach that man was made in Gods image as the Bible does, (Barlas, SIU) but instead teaches that the difference in the midst of God and man is so extreme that people can never understand the nature of God. This is one of the arguments that woman supporters of Islam use to argue that Islam is not nearly as mysogonistic as Christiantiy is.Instead, Barlas and others argue that Islam faith promotes par between the sexes, even going so far as to outline specific rights of women. For example, unlike Christian women, Muslim women are given a specific right to divorce their husbands and allowed to remarry after a three month period. (Ragab 1). Both men and women have equal rights to contract a marriage as well as to dissolve it. The precondition of marriage is merely the mutual agreement by some(prenominal) parties.And unlike Christianity, a woman in Islam can divorce her husband at any time if she feels that she has been dealt with unjustly or even if she is just unhappy with her spouse since marriage is based upon mutual responsibilities toward each other. Islam has alike ensured the womans right to remarry pending a three month refrainment period. (Ragab 1) Islam also promotes the equality of women in that it explitly allows them to work outside the home. Muslim coun tries have even elected women as prime ministers.Some people even argue that the mistreatment of women in the faith comes not from the religion but from many of the colonial overlords that once ruled countries now considered Muslim. Much of the civil law that legislates personal and family matters in Egypt, for example, is directly based on old French law. As a result, an Egyptian man can divorce his wife much more easily than the reverse. Consequently, women often have to suffer long and expensive court procedures and have to evoke that they were mistreated by their husbands before being granted a divorce.Often times, laws in Middle east countries, which are legislated and enforced by men, only take bits and pieces of Islamic law and combine them with concocted rules based upon some cultural or foreign practices. (Ragab 1) Other practices, such as the prohibition against women driving in some Muslim countries, has nothing to do with Islam (Misconceptions of Islam) Why then is Is lam portrayed as a religion that oppresses women and puts them in a position inferior to men?Part of that is certainly due to the stereotyped image of how Islamic women are portrayed in western media as an extension of Islam-bashing. A prominent example is the pictorial matter Not Without My Daughter in which scores of false and fictitious depictions were made of women in an Islamic country. It is also true, however, that in many so called Islamic countries, women are not treated according to their God-given rights. But this is not the fault of Islamic ideology but rather the misapplication or sometimes the outright defence mechanism of the ideology in these societies. (Ragab 1) The misconceptions of the treatment of women in Islam are a factor of the historical writing in some sects and the way that Muslim countries have misinterpted the Quran (Baslas, SIU). For example, Sunna and Hadith writings claim that women must habiliment a veil but this is not in Quran. These books do no t represent the words of God in the Quran and on many occasions contradict them. (Misconceptions of Islam) But too much of the world has accepted these teachings of the expression of Muslim nations as the absolute truth of Islam.This misconception was augmented by some newsworthiness media that made little effort to correct their understanding before broadcasting their views on this matter. Adding to this misconception are the unfortunate practices in most so called Islamic countries or societies where myths, traditions and innovations have won over the true Islamic (Quranic) teachings and where women are traditionally subdued and oppressed. (Misconceptions of Islam).