Women In Islam
In today's society, women have been finally able to achieve their status through hard work, force and education. They have come a long way since 1900's when they were treated with no worth and were dominated by men. Today, in most parts of the world, a woman can do anything and everything that a man can. However, there are also some countries which are still dominating and supressing women using religion as an excuse. One example of this is the religion "Islam" in countries such as Pakistan, Afganistan, Iran, Iraq, Tajiskistan and so on. There are a lot of misconceptions towards the religion islam and the way it treats women. As one might say, every religion teaches one to respect and be kind to each other. God created everyone equally and therefore, both men and women have the same rights and responsibilities, just not identical. It's not the religion Islam which is causing misery to women, in fact it's the men and society's traditional views which are changing norms around and using Islam as a backup to use and abuse their power. Thus, women are not stuggling against the religion "Islam", which has actually helped them, but rather against men, society and traditions which use religion as an excuse to promote their own interests.
Firstly, muslim women have been given many rights by the religion Islam. These rights are clearly stated in Hadiths and Quran. For example, men and women are equal and protectors of one another (Quran 9:71), respect women because you were born from her womb (Quran 4:1), dont distort or decline justice whether it be men or women or rich or poor (Quran 4:135). According to this, Islam acknowledges and recognizes a women and her independent personality. It also states that she is equal to men in the persuit of education and knowledge, she is entitled to freedom of expression as much as men, she has equal rights to earn and own property, rights to inherit the share of the property of a deceased kin, a right to choose her own husband and the name she would like to use after marriage. When a woman gets married, Islam entitles her to get "Haq mehr", which is a source of security for her after getting married. Haq mehr is a certain amount of money which every married woman is entitled to receive incase the wedding does not work out. Also, while she is married, her husband is completely responsible for providing her with food, shelter, clothing, physical protection and treating her with respect. For example, the messenger of God, Prophet Mohammed said, "the most perfect in faith amongst believers is he who is the best in manner and kindest to his wife". A women also has a right to ask for divorce and not put up with any type of physical abuse because the Quran states that "the one putting up with pain is worse than the one causing it". Moreover, Islam is also the first religion ever to give a woman the right to vote 1400 years ago. Islam also gives a lot of significance to women due to motherhood. Quran states that "pain of pregenancy is not a punishment for a woman but instead a gift" and Prophet Mohammed also states that "heaven lies under a mother's feet". Therefore, as can be seen by the above, Islam has actually blessed women with a lot of respect, rights and privillages.