Oppression of Women in Islam

From the time of birth itself, a Muslim woman’s identity in Islamic society already has a veil over it. Instead of the pleasing cries that boys receive of “Allahu Akbar” when they are born, a baby girl is welcomed into the world with a hushed Quranic prayer. This is one of the most alarming yet ignored legal issues in the world. This is being done in the name of some ideology that is full of violence and hatred. The causes of the crisis have everything to do with the part of tradition and religion which is clearly about the oppression of women. The atrocities perpetrated on women in Islam are real and manifold. The existing problems regarding this issue are as follows: 

Firstly, Saudi women aren’t allowed to drive themselves to work or even to the doctor’s office. Some of the other things that women in Saudi Arabia may not do were listed in the Week magazine. In addition to that, serious sexual harassment, stripping, and rapes of Muslim women have also been reported in Egypt.

Secondly, Female Genital Mutilation is yet another form of violence against women, which is not advocated in Islam in any way, shape, or form. Yet, it is very much adopted by some Muslim societies. It’s important to talk about what happens physically so that every human being, male or female, understands that the genitals of the female are cut. It's going everywhere in the world where Muslim brotherhood goes. Female Circumcision is basically done to limit the sexuality of women. It happens to about 6,000 girls everyday. It is an epidemic, it is a plague. 

It is definitely linked to the issue of honor. But it is very difficult to explain to western societies as a lot of it has to do with how women behave and the sexuality of women. Honor is something that is carried and contained in a woman and is there to be guarded by men. The honor of a family is vested in a woman’s body; the honor of a family is vested in what she does and says; his honor is connected to what she does and says, it is a misplaced sense of honor.

The root cause of addressing gender differences and empowering women is connected to the issue of Child Marriages. There is a real kind of a lack of understanding of what women and girls face once they are forced into a child marriage. These marriages mostly result in rapes, still families do this for a number of reasons. Perhaps, they cannot afford to feed the rest of their children, it can create family alliances, and it often settles debts. Child marriages occur in more than 50 developing countries around the world and almost always results in the girl’s removal from the school. Thus, discouraging the already discouraging attitude towards female education amongst Muslims.

There is a terrible fear of the educated, empowered women. What families don’t realize is that by curtailing the girl’s education, they are only increasing the cycle of poverty. Domestic violence is yet another issue that has been considered by many to be a problem in majority Muslim cultures. Likewise, forced prostitution is another form of violence against women with basis in Islam and which must be eradicated through empowerment of women. 

People usually shy away from criticising anything that’s different because we don’t want to be seen as the type of people who would restrict people’s expressions. Although, Islam usually denies its role in the oppression of women, a survey of Islamic countries reveals that women are deprived their humanity.

Over the last 20 years, progress has been made in many countries, which has helped increase the role that Muslim women face in their societies. Awareness about this topic is necessary because as long as women suffer abuse, they cannot achieve their full potential as free and equal members of the society. Now there is a ton of changes that have occurred in the old norms and customs. Moreover, there has been a lot of usage of examples of the Prophet and verses from the Quaran and the Hadiths to bring about a positive change. Like people should understand that Islam encourages education of Muslim women. 

Khadijah was a successful businesswoman when she became Muhammad’s first wife, his first employer, and also the first female Muslim. So women are allowed to work in Islam. The restrictions are only put by elders who predict the verses from the Quran or Hadiths. Islam also discourages domestic violence over women as the prophet Muhammad himself said, 

“The best amongst you, in the sight of God are those, who are the best to their wives.” 

There are also a number of prominent female Islamic scholars who play an integral part in the development of the spiritual life of Islam.

A real-life case of Afghanistan included a “BURNT WARD” in 2003, where several girls had set themselves on fire. A girl named Marzia was 15 years old and had set herself on fire because she had broken her husband’s TV set and she obviously was so fearful of reaction from him or the family that she decided to set herself on fire, and that really was a suicide attempt. Another girl named Jamila, who was also admitted to the same hospital was a 15-year-old Arabic young girl. She had been stabbed by her husband. She already had two kids and had just been trying to visit her mother without her husband’s permission. A prominent Pakistani woman once said to describe the control of male over female: 

She said, “When we are born, we are controlled by our father. Later, we are controlled by our brothers. Once we are married, we are controlled by our husbands, and today, she said, I am controlled by my sons.”

Within the Muslim community, conservatives and Islamic feminists have used Islamic doctrines as the basis of women’s rights. Drawings on the Quran and the Hadiths, and the lives of prominent women in the early period of Muslim history is evidence.