In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful

by Anisa Abd El Fattah

Throughout the history of Islam it seems that the question of women's position and the proper social intercourse between men and women has been an issue, along with the rights of women and their roles in Muslim society. There are numerous ayaat of the Qur'an that deal with this issue and also many ahadith, indicating that before Islam, the Arab culture was insufficient in its perspective on these subjects. No great amount of time need be dedicated to the proof of that, since we all know that before Islam, the girl-children of Arabs were sometimes buried alive simply because they were female. There are, of course, many other examples, for instance the many forms of marriage that existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, all of which served to reduce women to mere bearers and carriers of offspring, having no rights, not even to the exclusive love and devotion, in some instances, of a single husband, having instead to accommodate several men if she hoped to meet her needs for sustenance. When Islam came, it civilised the Arab tribes, and as it spread, its civilising qualities spread with it; and as Islam has declined, so has the status of women in Muslim societies.

Though non-Muslims in the West have seized the rhetorical high ground, charging Islam with holding degrading ideas about women and fostering the ill-treatment of women, it is a fact that Islam is the only religious doctrine to deny the concept of woman as evil seductress, responsible for the original sin and fall of mankind. It was Islam that granted women rights of inheritance, the right to choice in marriage, and the right to full discretion in the disposal of her personal assets. It was Islam that first addressed the sexuality of the human being as a matter of dignity and not evil, assuring us that Allah (swt) rewards the conduct of human sexuality when conducted within the purifying bounds of divine law, and prohibited celibacy and the avoidance of women as an act of worship outside of the divine precepts that guide ritual worship. These principles apply to both men and women.

It was Islam that denied the idea that women in menses are "unclean" and defiled, or bad luck, making it clear that although the products of menses were unclean, the woman herself is not polluted. Indeed it was Islam, before all of the modern world's initiatives on behalf of women, most notably the program of the radical feminists of the United Nations (who are leading the charge for female superiority in revenge for the many injustices against women resulting from the teachings of the orthodox Christian and Jewish faiths and the paganism that has coexisted with them), that raised women's status in society, Allah (swt) saying that the best of human beings are those who are most righteous, whether they be male or female.

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