Women’s Rights in Islam Part 3

March 4, 2009 by BT

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Women’s Rights in Islam Part 3 - Equality of men and women in Islam
By Babar

There are a number of normative verses which give support the claim that the Quran favors equal status for both the genders:

“O! Mankind, be conscious of your Sustainer, who has created you out of one living entity, and out of it created its mate, and out of the two spread abroad a multitude of men and women (The Quran 4:1)."

The implication here is that both men and women have originated from one living thing, and hence have an equal status. This verse also makes it clear that Quran does not agree to the view that Eve was created from the crooked rib of Adam, which is the source of much discontent among feminists and women in general, as it seems to relegate women to an inferior status. "Quran explicitly states that both and men and women have a common origin from one living source".
(Asghar Ali Engineer, The Rights of Women in Islam (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), 17).

“Lo! Men who surrender unto Allah and women who surrender, and men who believe and women who believe, and men who obey, and women who obey, and men who speak the truth, and women who speak the truth, and men who preserve, and patient men and patient women, and the humble men and the humble women, and the charitable men and the charitable women, and the fasting men and the fasting women and the men who guard their chastity and the women who guard it, and men who remember Allah and women who remember, Allah has prepared for them forgiveness and a mighty reward (Quran 33:35)."

In the above verse, Allah specifically addresses both men and women, ten times each, to make it clear that Islam does not discriminate between men and women on religious matters. Both have the same obligations in religious and spiritual matters. In fact, women are exempt from certain obligations such as praying and fasting when they are menstruating or when they are in a state of post-natal bleeding. Women are required to make up for missed fasts because of these conditions but not the missed prayers, as that would be too much of a burden on them.

Similarly the following verse of the Quran reiterates the equal status of men and women:

“Allah has provided mates for you of your own kind (Quran 16:72)."

In this verse, Allah clearly says that men and women have the same spiritual nature.

“They are apparel for you and you are apparel for them (Quran 3:187)."

The function of a garment is to hide the defects of the body and make it look good. In the above verse Quran clearly states that both men and women should perform the same function for each other – hide each other’s defects and shortcomings and highlight the good aspects. Not only the wife, but the husband should also perform this function.

The Issue of wife-beating and male superiority:

“Men are the maintainers of women, with what Allah has made some of them excel others and with what they spend out of their wealth. So the good women, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded. And (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in bed and chastise them. So, if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Surely, Allah is ever Exalted, Great (Quran 4:35)."

This verse of the Quran is a source of great controversy, as on the face of it seems to say that men excel women and that wife-beating is permitted under certain circumstances. (“chastise them” is sometimes translated as “beat them”). However, to understand it correctly, one needs to understand the sociological conditions under which it was revealed, as it is a classic example of a contextual verse of the Quran. As I have already shown, a number of normative verses of the Quran give an equal status to men and women. So is this contextual verse contradicting the other more egalitarian verses?

Maulana Usmani, a noted scholar, explains that if the Quran wanted to say that Allah has made men superior to women, it would have said so explicitly. But instead of using specific words which denote the masculine and feminine genders, the verse uses a term which is gender neutral and which is used to refer to both men and women. He says that it is a general statement: Allah has given excellence to some over others and that it includes both genders. "More specifically, it means that men have certain qualities which are absent in women and likewise women have certain qualities which are absent in men.
Nowhere does the verse say that men and superior to women (Asghar Ali Engineer, The Rights of Women in Islam (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), 51)."

The second controversy regarding this verse is that it is seemingly justifies wife-beating. Prominent Muslim scholars argue that far from encouraging wife-beating, the phrase discourages it. One needs to study the verse in the context of when and where it was revealed. First, wife-beating was a common occurrence in Arab society of the time. Second, the word translated to “fear desertion” in English, refers to serious breach of sexual conduct, and not merely some simple house-hold quarrel. And finally, in an environment where wife-beating was common, a woman who indulged in such sexual misconduct was surely to be beaten. In this context, the Quran says that the husband should first admonish the wife. If that does not work, he should isolate her. Even if that does not work, he can then resort to what he would have done immediately if the Quran had not been revealed – that is chastise her.

"According to a noted commentator, Zamakhshari, this verse was revealed when the leader of a local tribe slapped his wife and she went to the Prophet to complain (Asghar Ali Engineer, The Rights of Women in Islam (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), 47)." Prophet’s immediate reaction was that he asked her to retaliate. But this caused uproar and the men in Medina strongly protested to the Prophet. In this environment, Allah revealed this verse to deal with the crisis in the context of the situation and the societal practices. But even in the contextual verse, the Quran allows chastising (or beating) only when two other options for remedying the sexual misconduct of the wife have been tried.Clearly, Islamic scholars argue, that this contextual verse is trying to lead the society towards the normative value of Islam where there should be no violence between men and women. It was not possible for the Quran to outright ban accepted violent practices of that society. The prophet tried to give the wife the equal right by asking her to retaliate, but the reaction was upheaval and strong revolt. This revelation tried to deal with that situation.

The above verse is extremely controversial because certain Muslim jurists use it to justify male supremacy and take it as a normative prescription. On the other hand it is also the most quoted verse of the Quran by the Western media to prove that Islamic law is inhuman and cruel towards women. However, if the verse is seen in its correct sociological context, it becomes evident that it does not advocate male supremacy and that it is in fact subtle way to move a patriarchal, male dominated society towards the normative Islamic value of gender equality.

In this context, a relevant analogy can be made with the issue of slavery in Islam. Even though the Quran permitted slavery and the Prophet never prohibited it, it was primarily because the phenomenon was so widespread and all-pervasive in the Arab society of that time. It would simply not have been possible to ban slavery if a verse to that effect had been revealed in the Quran. So notwithstanding Quran’s strong emphasis on equality, slavery was not banned altogether. But the normative value of equality was established in no uncertain terms which made it possible to ban slavery later on by the practice of Ijtihad.

Read "Women’s Rights in Islam Part 1" and "Women’s Rights in Islam Part 2"

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