Western women i.e in England, do not have a law as to what clothes they must wear, for example, wearing a mini-skirt and vest top around the town is common. In the Islamic culture, I feel Muslims are extremely oppressed, compared to western women and their clothes, which have pressures from peers to fit in.
In some places, Muslim women are not allowed to go out without a close male relative, travel abroad, drive, vote or anything that most women in England do. In a sense though, I think that Muslim and western women have more in common than they think. They are both looked upon by some men in a stereotypical manner, that females should cook, clean and wait on them hand on foot. Women in western society can do the same job as men but still get a lower salary, just because they are women. All kinds of women may be discriminated against because they are not male or they don’t live up to the stereotype expectation that women have always had to. Western women are oppressed because of this, same as the Muslims, but western women have a chance to be liberated, to vote, to walk freely in a street alone, to travel, to be part of the hierarchy that men are and rise above the typical stereotype-driven male. Compared to western women, Muslims do not have a choice to be liberated, they have to follow the gender roles, or get into trouble.
In more than one way, some Muslim women live in fear of men and have no choice but to do what they are told, what Allah and Muhammad taught. Due to the fact that women in Islam wear the Nicab, Hijab or the burqa, they are often mistaken for not being free, even if they wear them as a choice. Today, though you don’t find western women being told they don’t look free because of the way they dress and how they choose to live their life.
Models; women who are liberated or oppressed? They can be considered liberated because no-one can make them show their body but oppressed in the sense they get paid for it and attract attention to themselves. There is a pressure in society to look the way models do, skinny and perfect with lots of make-up and usually fairly revealing clothes. I think this would be evidence that the statement/title is true because Muslims do not have to worry about showing their bodies for money and being models.
Another difference between western and Muslim women is the aspects of marriage and family. In Islam, it is a social necessity because through marriage, families are established and the family is the fundamental unit of theirr society. Muslim women get married because of family but also because of personalities. As the women are always covered up in the presence of non-related male figures, the only way a man can get to know a lady is by talking, not by looking. In contrast, in western society, a relationship can be built upon personality, but most people find that the sole opinion on a person at first is the way they look. Consequently, I think that there are hundreds of divorces in the western society compared to Islamic society because the Muslim marriages take time to advance and find a good match for the couples. It is frowned upon to divorce in the Islamic culture and the couple could risk becoming an outsider to the community by not obeying rules and laws.
Family, the other aspect. If dangers for family and particularly matrimonial life could be achieved successfully in the West, they would be more able to gain ground in the Muslim World. There, family life with all its aspects concerning not only husband, wife and children, but all other relatives too, is so firmly established by tradition as well as by religious law that it could not be affected seriously. Now, one may say that a happy and healthy family life cannot be guaranteed by law. It is true that it depends so much upon the goodwill of all concerned that the best laws remain written phrases where this goodwill is missing. Here, however, as in all other spheres of the Islamic Way of Life, the ruling factor is the fact that Islam is not a religion in the Western sense of the word, but sometimes, truly the way of life for those adhering to it. Islam means on the one hand the complete submission to the Will of Allah. And on the other, it is the conscious acceptance of man's vicegerency on earth as ordained by Allah.
If family is the foundation of Islamic society and it is a follow on from marriage, if marriage is more successful in the western culture than the Islamic culture, does it mean that family is too? I think that in western society, family can be well-structured but unlike Muslim society, a family may come as a surprise because of accidental pregnancies etc, which are extremely rare in Islam. With family comes motherhood, mothers in Islam are treated completely different compared to western women. Apart from maternity leave and being more careful around in the street, western women, I feel are not treasured as much as Muslims are. The honour, respect and esteem that come with motherhood, pregnancy and child birth, in Islamic culture, is beyond compare, I think they are looked upon in a totally different manner.
In conclusion, looking over the evidence I have given, I feel that the statement has aspects that would make it false but more aspects that would consider it true. Western women are able to be mostly equal to men; they have a mind of their own, and do not usually need permission from a male relative to do something. They are exploited to be used for personal gain in many areas such as using their body for publicity and money. I know I have written about the cultural differences between Western and Muslim society, I can not really think of a reason how Muslims are exploited except prejudice and them being both liberated and oppressed. Lastly, I just think that Islam is a way of life and people should not be judged for this decision to live their life a certain way.
