How the Quran encourages emancipation of women.
When Islam was originally founded by Mohammed it was a revolutionary idea, and a huge leap in favour of women.
Mohammad held women in high regard, as equal members of society and not merely as the units of trade they had been regarded as earlier, and in the surrounding patriarchal, tribal Arabian society.
The revelations of Mohammad dramatically changed this situation. He was seriously convinced that women should have the right to inherit, and that her witness was accounted for in judicial matters. She became a legal person.
For us this may seem as if the glass is half empty, but for the women, they finally got a glass, and it was more than half full. Mohammad changed the law so that her wedding dowry was given to her, and not to her family, so that she may support herself financially in case of a divorce. Women thus became important economical players, and decision makers in their own right. In Europe, the Danish women only got voting rights in 1915, and the Swiss are still waiting for someone to modernise them.
Here, in Europe and the western world, we preach the change and modernisation of Islam, so that the Muslim countries may be as modern, progressive and liberal thinking as we are.
This Islamic revolution started in the 7th century. What were the modern Europeans doing at that point? The Vikings were looting and pilfering our neighbours, and stealing the women they found to return back with them into forced marriages, or forever to be kept as thralls. Some of these men kept several wives; polygamy was thriving and part of culture.
And so you think, “but wait a second, isn’t forced marriages also part of Islam?”
That is the fundamentalists approach to this text. The Quran states that a man may have up to four wives! However, you must remember to read this in a context.
In the 7th century, Mohammad founded Islam, and so laid foundations for women’s rights. As part of a society prepared to care for it’s needy.
The fact is that many men died in the numerous wars that accompany the first centuries. And so, to protect the widows, and orphaned children, men were obliged to take on further wives to ensure that no one should be left without any form of insurance. The requirements were also that there should be no discrimination between these wives, all should be treated evenly, and be given equal rights.
The husband could marry the daughters which he adopted, but only with her permission, and if she desired to marry him.
When they married, they were ensured the right to keep their own property, and they were ensured financial support from their new husband, so that they wouldn’t have to become desperate housewives.
For many years, the Muslim men were absolutely appalled at the way the Europeans were treating their women. Like slaves, and objects to be traded in a good deal.
I suppose they’re still appalled, when they see the advertisements on our bus stops, and might feel that they’re values are being corrupted.
However, all religions will be coloured by the norms and cultures of the societies in which they are practiced, and so the original teachings of Islam have been modified by the surrounding patriarchal society.
The important thing to remember is, that the original values were different from those from whom we today see as the fundamentalists.
According to my own opinion, there are many values to be found in the Quran, but not if they are taken literally. I do believe that many of these values, are highly relevant even today, I just feel there should be some form of reconsidering about the context in which we interpret the Quran.
After the Mohammad died, a collection of his words was made known as the Hadith. I personally believe that there are many wise and beautiful sayings in the Hadith. For example, “Every good deed, is a charity, and it is a good deed to make someone smile”, or “Wealth comes from a contented heart, not a lot of possessions”, and more appropriately, “All men and women, must seek knowledge.”
We say that Islam needs modernisation, to fit with current standards, and our interpretations of right and wrong. Maybe, to become modernised we must look back to the original values of Islam, and give these a renaissance.
Maybe we should take up the challenge of changing the situation for women now, like the prophet did in his century.
Perhaps it’s time to revisit our current prejudices of Islam, to find the original values, and start to find common ground.
Originally Posted by Nivaran
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