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Essay about The Status of Women in Islam

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Introduction:
In today’s globalized world, women’s studies is emerging as a fast growing discipline which is not restricted any more to the academia but is significantly capturing the attention of the civil society. The way civil society responded to “Nirbhaya” gang-rape case of December, 2012 in Delhi; the way people came on the streets in protest against this horrific and barbarous crime committed against a 23 year old woman; this people’s movement has undoubtedly engineered the emergence of a new consciousness among us about the need for a realization of women’s honour and dignity in the society. There have been serious debates on the issue of whether more stringent laws (in the line of Shari’a law) be implemented in our Indian society …show more content…

This has subsequently resulted into the birth of several feminist theories and movements. Again, there are different factions among the feminists themselves: some are liberal feminists, while some others are radicals. This study, however, does not attempt deal with the theoretical aspects of feminism which includes notable feminist critic and theorist Elaine Showalter’s idea of evolution of a female through the stages of feminine and feminist. Toril Moi makes an interesting distinction between these terms saying that feminism is a political position, while femaleness is a matter of biology, and femininity is a set of culturally defined characteristics (qtd. in Hawthorn, 115). The present study, therefore, deals with the cultural aspect of the feminine.
This paper attempts to address the issues related to the position of women in the society, their subjugation, and their unfortunate commodification in a techno-trade and market oriented globalized world. Effort has also been made to highlight the status and dignity of women as prescribed in Islam and how one can search for a proper solution to the ever-growing violence against women in this age. Attempt has also been made to negotiate the issue of the status of women in Islam with reference to authentic Islamic texts such as The Holy Qura’n (the revelations of Allah for mankind) and Hadith (the teachings of the Prophet of Islam).
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