The study of women in Islam investigates the role status of women within the religion of Islam. The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by both Islamic texts and the history and culture of the Muslim world. While men and women have different roles within Islam, the Koran makes it clear that they are equal.
Sharia (Islamic law) provides for differences between women's and men's roles, rights, and obligations.Majority Muslim countries give women varying degrees of rights without regards to marriage, divorce, civil rights, legal status, dress code, and education based on different interpretations. Scholars and other commentators vary as to whether they are just and whether they are a correct interpretation of religious imperatives. Conservatives argue that differences between men and women are due to different status, whileliberal Muslims, Muslim feminists, and others argue in favor of other interpretations. Some women have achieved high political office in Muslim majority states.
Sources of influence
slamic law is the product of Quranic guidelines, as understood by Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), as well as of the interpretations derived from the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (hadith), that were agreed upon by majority of Muslim scholars as authentic beyond doubt based on the Science of Hadith These interpretations and their application were shaped by the historical context of the Muslim world at the time they were written. Many of the earliest writings were from a time of tribal warfare which could have been inappropriate for the 21st Century.
The Marxist writer, Valentine M. Moghadam argues that the position of women are mostly influenced by the extent of urbanization, industrialization, proletarization and political ploys of the state managers rather than culture or intrinsic properties of Islam; Islam, Moghadam demonstrates, is neither more nor less patriarchal than other world religions especially Hinduism, Christianity and Judaism.
"The dowry, previously regarded as a bride-price paid to the father, became a nuptial gift retained by the wife as part of her personal property.Under Islamic law, marriage was no longer viewed as a "status" but rather as a "contract", in which the woman's consent was imperative "Women were given inheritance rights in a patriarchal societythat had previously restricted inheritance to male relatives." Annemarie Schimmel states that "compared to the pre-Islamic position of women, Islamic legislation meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at least according to the letter of the law, to administer the wealth she has brought into the family or has earned by her own work."
William Montgomery Watt states that Muhammad, in the historical context of his time, can be seen as a figure who promoted women’s rights and improved things considerably. Watt explains: "At the time Islam began, the conditions of women were terrible - they had no right to own property, were supposed to be the property of the man, and if the man died everything went to his sons." Muhammad, however, by "instituting rights of property ownership, inheritance, education and divorce, gave women certain basic safeguards."
During his life, Muhammad married eleven women depending upon the differing accounts of who were his wives. His last wife, Aisha was six or seven years old when she was married, though at the time women married at an early age but their marriage was solemnized when ayesha reached a mature age. Muhammad saw in her a great woman of the future who was best suited to perform the duties of a wife and of a teacher, whose words and deeds had to be preserved for the guidance of mankind.
Aisha was nine years old when Mohamed consummated the marriage, and was likely prepubescent. Aisha's pubescent status at the time of her marriage consummation has been a subject of criticism and controversy.
Many Shiite scholars dispute Aisha was six or seven when Muhammad married her. They contend that she was between thirteen and sixteen when he married her. Furthermore, they believe Muhammad's most favored wife was his first wife Khadija. He married her while he was in Mecca, but she died before he migrated to Medina. Muhammad called the year of Khadija's death the "Year of Sorrow." When Muhammad settled in Medina and married several wives, he would often mention Khadija and her contributions to Islam. Some of Muhammad's wife would be uncomfortable when he would mention Khadija. The Prophet was once disappointed with Aisha because she complained when he mentioned Khadija.
Female education:
Historically, women played an important role in the foundation of many Islamic educational institutions, such as Fatima al-Fihri's founding of the University of Al Karaouine in 859 CE. This continued through to the Ayyubid dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries, when 160 mosquesand madrasahs were established in Damascus, 26 of which were funded by women through the Waqf (charitable trust or trust law) system. Half of all the royal patrons for these institutions were also women.
According to the Sunni scholar Ibn Asakir in the 12th century, there were various opportunities for female education in what is known as themedieval Islamic world. He writes that women could study, earn ijazahs (academic degrees), and qualify as scholars (ulamā’) and teachers. This was especially the case for learned and scholarly families, who wanted to ensure the highest possible education for both their sons and daughters. Ibn Asakir had himself studied under 80 different female teachers in his time. Female education in the Islamic world was inspired by Muhammad's wives: Khadijah, a successful businesswoman, and Aisha, a renowned hadith scholar and military leader. The education allowed, was often restricted to religious instruction. According to a hadith attributed to Muhammad, he praised the women ofMedina because of their desire for religious knowledge.
"How splendid were the women of the ansar; shame did not prevent them from becoming learned in the faith."
While it was not common for women to enroll as students in formal classes, it was common for women to attend informal lectures and study sessions at mosques, madrasahs and other public places. For example, the attendance of women at the Fatimid “sessions of wisdom”(majālis al-ḥikma) was noted by various historians including Ibn al-Tuwayr and al-Muṣabbiḥī. Similarly, although unusual in 15th-century Iran, both women and men were in attendance at the intellectual gatherings of the Ismailis where women were addressed directly by theImam.
While women accounted for no more than one percent of Islamic scholars prior to the 12th century, there was a large increase of female scholars after this. In the 15th century, Al-Sakhawi devotes an entire volume of his 12-volume biographical dictionary Daw al-lami to female scholars, giving information on 1,075 of them.
Female employment:
The labor force in the Caliphate were employed from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, while both men and women were involved in diverse occupations and economic activities. Women were employed in a wide range of commercial activities and diverse occupations in the primary sector (as farmers for example), secondary sector (as construction workers, dyers, spinners, etc.) and tertiary sector (as investors, doctors, nurses, presidents of guilds, brokers, peddlers, lenders, scholars, etc.). Muslim women also held a monopoly over certain branches of the textile industry, the largest and most specialized and market-oriented industry at the time, in occupations such as spinning, dying, and embroidery. In comparison, female property rights and wage labour were relatively uncommon in Europeuntil the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the 12th century, the famous Islamic philosopher and qadi (judge) Ibn Rushd, known to the West asAverroes, claimed that women were equal to men in all respects and possessed equal capacities to shinein peace and in war, citing examples of female warriors among the Arabs, Greeks and Africans to support his case. In early Muslim history, examples of notable female Muslims who fought during the Muslim conquests and Fitna (civil wars) as soldiers or generals includedNusaybah Bint k’ab Al Maziniyyah a.k.a. Umm Amarah, Aisha, Kahula and Wafeira.
A unique feature of medieval Muslim hospitals was the role of female staff, who were rarely employed in hospitals elsewhere in the world. Medieval Muslim hospitals commonly employed female nurses. Muslim hospitals were also the first to employ female physicians, the most famous being two female physicians from the Banu Zuhr family who served the Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur in the 12th century. This was necessary due to the segregation between male and female patients in Islamic hospitals. Later in the 15th century, female surgeons were illustrated for the first time in Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu's Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery).
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