Misconceptions Of Islam: Caravane Women In Islam

While people in the west think that women in Islam are oppressed, they do not know that Islam liberated women from oppression. There are many people who have opinions about the religion of Islam, but mostly about the women who follow it. Westerners have this idea that women in Islam are disrespected, mistreated and oppressed. In actuality, these allegations are incorrect. Women in Islam have rights and are not oppressed. The veil is widely misunderstood and many do not know what it represents. In many ways, men and women are equal as much as they are not; and this is in every religion.

Gender roles within Islam have been widely disputed throughout history. However, new thoughts on the role of women within Islam began to emerge with the writings of Sufi scholar Muhammad b. Ali b. Muhammad Ibn al-Arabi al-Ta’i al-Hatimi. Ibn al-Arabi’s thoughts concerning Islamic women within the 12th and 13th centuries drew much attention from the Islamic community. This attention was originally seen as heresy, and many responded with hostility as well as the denouncement of Ibn al-Arabi’s faith. However, Ibn al-Arabi was a devoted follower of Muhammad. His views upon women stem from his life experiences, and his progressive ideas have now secured his spot as a major Muslim theologian.

De facto, the oppression of Muslim women is a result of the conservative interpretations of Shariah law, which also incorporates gender selective traditional rules that are depicted as God’s undisputable words. Muslim feminists suggest the rationale of women’s domination lies in the same Shariah laws which infer the godly laws incorrectly. Moreover, Muslim law is saturated with pro-male-dominated versions. Albeit the place of females improved throughout the timespan of the prophet it was only for momentary period. Muslim masses do not think beyond their interpretation of Islam, and they believe it as perfect way of existence.

All throughout history men have been superior over women. Islam wasn’t any different in that aspect, though Muhammad said men and women were created equal. The Islamic men were known to be great scholars of mathematics, astrology, medicine, and of natural sciences. They were also known to have made great architectural structures and displayed beautiful pieces of artwork throughout the buildings and all throughout the civilization of the Islamic people. It’s fair to ask, did the women have any part of the artistic beauty and structures displayed in Islam, or was it only the men who were granted the privilege to make such advanced and beautiful structures and art within the Islamic world during the early periods.

In the article, Afghanistan: Human Rights “ In 2009 a law was passed in Afghanistan where they criminalized child marriage, forced marriage, giving away a woman or girl to dispute, forced self- immolation, forced prostitution, and other acts of violence against women, including rape and beating.” hoping this will change the way these muslim women are being treated some countries have noticed how badly they are being treated so these countries have taken action and are changing some laws about oppression against women. Some countries like in Saudi Arabia for instance are taking small steps to help with women's rights although there are still very little laws helping women (Manal- Sharif| A Women Who Dared To Drive) This still doesn't seem to be enough though, these women need to take action, most women just ask when something is going to happen instead of taking action on it now. These Islamic countries need to create new laws so that the women's rights are the same as men. Women and men need to realize that they are created equally in the eyes of God and they should both equally have the same rights. Overall, this whole world needs to be a better place, even though these muslim women are just following their religion they should have the right to have a voice and speak up. These women are human beings and they deserve to be respected and loved and treated right, they shouldn't have to be sold for marriage at a

Abstract -Customary laws, Islamic laws, imported European laws, and reformed versions of Islamic laws affect women in" Varying degrees in the different Middle Eastern legal systems. Women legal status of in the Middle East has been in transition since the early part of the twentieth century, and the status does not seem to have been settled. The improvement in the status of women has not resulted from pressures from women's groups as much as from the desire of male members of the political elite to modernize and industrialize their societies. Thus, using law reform as a tool of social engineering. It is where political leadership has judged that legal reforms in the status of women would promote the achievement of full modernization that reforms have been made.

Should women be allowed to drive cars in Saudi Arabia? On the first page of the first chapter of everything’s an argument, the author states about “It (The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) is the only country in the world, which forbids women to drive.” The first thing one should know when discussing this issue is that the country of Saudi Arabia operates under strict “sharia” laws that are an interpretation of Sunni Islam, so they do not follow conventional human rights when dealing with women in the country. This is an Islamic country that believes in upholding its religion and forces its people to adhere to teachings of the Quran. Judges face challenges when hearing cases because they have to follow the interpretation of Sunni Islam when determining legality of a case. In other words; Religion is the law. However, the Global Gender Gap report ranked them among the last 5 countries out 134 that have gender parity. Does this mean that Islam is a religion which is bias to males and oppressive of females? But how can that be if all other muslim countries allow their women to drive? Their seems to be an inconsistency that makes this gender equality issue is highly controversial.

In her essay, Ahmed relies chiefly on the development and eventual permanence of Muslim law to support her thesis, which is that “the process of the creation of Islamic law” must be examined in order to subvert or equalize modern gender roles and gender-specific laws in Muslim societies (71). While the Hughes text is clearly written with a broader goal in mind, the authors are nevertheless providing an incomplete picture by deemphasizing the effects of the legal codification of patriarchy and domination. The authors briefly refer to Muslim law and its divine infallibility, but they say only that “Muslim law required women to remain in seclusion and to be veiled. . .in public, [but] in practice women found ways to gain considerable control over their lives in spite of these restrictions” (162).

It wasn 't until 622 AD that the Islamic religion took its lead. It started with the creator, Prophet Muhammad and his followers fleeing to the town of Yathrib and starting the first Hijra movement. This movement began the popularity of the Islamic faith (Patel). Today the Islamic faith is one of the most practiced religions in the world. The Islamic faith goes back to the town of Mecca, which is considered for them the holiest place in the world. The Kaaba, which is located in Mecca, holds many of the hundreds of god and goddess that they worship (Patel). Many people around the world see their religion through different eyes and assume that what they worship and how they treat their loved ones is strange. Guity Nashat, a professor at

Most Middle Eastern country’s follow the Sharia law which is a religious law that is enforced in many parts of the world and followed by many people. This just be the case why many of the followers of Sharia law think that we are at wrong because many of the rules in Sharia law are based upon the Quran which gives a religious standpoint for the followers of Sharia law. Many of the western world’s people believe that Sharia law oppresses the people who are forced to live under it most of all the women live a very restricted life there whole life. A women being beaten or abused by her husband, father, brother, or other male member of the family is considered ok under Sharia law if she was disobeying them in any way. And to disobey a male figure in your life is as easy as singing in front of someone, or speaking out of turn than some of these women have to be very careful under Sharia law. Also under Sharia law to move away from Islam is punishable by death one of the many hardships this oppressed people have to worry about every day of their life’s.

Islam is not a new religion. Muslims believe in prophets from the Bible such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, John the Baptist, as well as Jesus. It establishes the same focus of living a life abundantly according to God’s will. Muslims however, believe that Muhammad was the last revelation sent by God to be an ideal model among the Muslims so that they may learn to steer away from temptations and be led back to their one true God. Muhammad was a well respected messenger of God and announced the message of how Muslims should

However, in spite of these misunderstandings, the majority of the people in the west believe whatever they hear around them without actually researching and studying the facts themselves. Muhammad (pbuh) was a normal human being who was given a responsibility to spread a simple divine message of truth, love and peace. The simple message of Islam was to worship One God (The God of Abraham, David, Moses and Jesus) and to speak the truth and fight injustice. Muhammad never claimed divinity nor did he introduce his own God.

While the basic beliefs of the Islamic faith may not seem like they would directly oppress women, Islamic law does in fact support the subjugation of women. Known, as Sharia, Muslim law is exactly what it seems, legal codes and regulations based on the Islamic faith. This is because lessons from the Koran and Mohammed’s life

The first finds it difficult to develop in accordance with the rest and those restrictions are mainly imposed by the religion. It refuses to take into account the importance of what we call modern. Through the history we have witnessed several transitions to modernization and often exactly religion suffer throughout that process, since it is based on constant believes which are hard to convert to a new era. In world full of opportunities, there is gender segregation in some Islamic countries. In Sudan, for example, in public buses women must stand separately in the back. Their existence and everyday living depends on their guardian who accompanies and literally possesses them. The basic rights are taken away and replaced with an interpretation of the divine law that they respect. In Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to drive because it would expose them to “temptation” and lead to “social chaos”. Meanwhile, in the West emerged the need to create new laws and conventions in order to achieve gender equality. Women were given rights to vote, starting with the Scandinavian countries – Finland (1906), Norway (1913), Denmark (1915), (successors of the first two, apart from Europe – New Zealand (1893) and Australia (1902)). However, we cannot neglect the facts of the past. Islam was the first religion to give a woman the right for inheritance. While Arabic world had strong presence of women in their political life, for example prophet Mohammad’s wife Aisha, in the West they were not influential at

The idea of a woman needing a male guardian to leave their home is one of the more popularly discussed aspect of some societies that have a population that consists mostly of Muslims, for example Saudi Arabia. This assumption stems from, “Men are protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given one the more (strength) than the other and because they support them from their means…(Qur’an 4:34). Another verse used to justify male guardianship is “ Oh, wives...abide in your houses and do not display yourselves as [was] the display of the former times of ignorance. And establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin]..” (Qur’an 33:32-33).