Women in Islam: What the Qur'an and Sunnah Say

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I love being in the United States. I should have come here to start off with. Elsewhere people talk about freedom; here you actually live it. And I love the American think-tank world – you don’t have to quote old books, you can experiment with your own thoughts. You don’t have to be a great scholar – the point is to show that you are grappling with problems and finding answers. At the American Enterprise Insititute, I can write anything – almost nothing is off-limits. Some people think my book Nomad is outrageous, but I’m just looking for answers.

The most despicable expression one can ever come across is that according to Hadith, women of heaven will be created in such a way that after each sexual intercourse, they will become virgin again. What a wild and naked misogyny! What an insult to women and to humans! A man who divorces his wife must pay the full amount of the bride- price. When the wife agrees to buy her freedom, it is called khula in Arabic, which means something belonging to the wife is taken away from her. “There is no sin for either of them if the woman ransom herself.” (Koran 2:229) The text of the scripture makes clear that the wife is actually paying money to her husband to get her freedom. In this context, liberation and change must come from within the Islamic sphere, where Muslim women have a proactive and autonomous role in reform, re-reading of the Qur’an, and revealing the historical prejudices that colored the understanding of the Qur’anic message. In an environment of religious devotion, liberation must be rooted in the roots of the Qur’an. 14 Recommendations for advancing women’s rights in the Middle East The scholars of hadîth are of the view that this statement was made before Aisha Radhi-Allâhu ‘anha reached the position of excellence whereupon Nabî Sallallâhu ‘alayhi wasallam said: “The virtue of Aisha Radhi-Allâhu ‘anha over all the women of the world is like the virtue of tharîd [a meat dish] over all other food.”In the Koran there are four so called neutral verses where women are considered equal to men (at least not demeaning towards women); to which apologists for Islam refer us repeatedly. Here are those: In all of these countries all of these atrocities are illegal, they are banned, and you have several different punishments for them. For instance, for causing bodily harm (because female genital mutilation falls under bodily harm) in the Netherlands, to a child, an individual, you could get a maximum sentence of 15 years. I’m sure you get more than that in the US. But the problem is that it is not enforced, so government is negligent in failing to devise a control system to counter that, to protect children. And the same applies to forced marriages, and honour beatings. For an honour killing the government will say that’s murder and the law will go after the murderer, and the murderer will be put in jail. But the government is again negligent in pursuing all the individuals that are involved in that murder.

beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them means (of annoyance): For God is Most High, Great (above you all)”Whoever commits a sin is required for just that, and whoever works righteousness – male or female – while believing, these will enter paradise wherein they receive provision without any limits.”