Role of Women: Islamic Cultural Norms vs. Islamic Religious Practices

Jesica Shipley
Akien
College English 1101
11/20/2009
Role of Women:
Islamic Cultural Norms vs. Islamic Religious Practices

To America Islam may seem nothing more than a single religion, among hundreds practiced in our country, however to the Malay Muslims Islam is a culture. As the religion of Islam originated in 6th century Arabia, the early forms of Islamic culture were predominately Arab. With the rapid expansion of Islamic empires Muslims contacted and assimilated much from the Persian, Turkic, Mongol, Indian, Malay, Berber, and Indonesian cultures. Muslims can be found in many different countries and communities and it can be difficult to isolate much that unifies them other than their religion of Islam; however since religion seems to be viewed as an aspect of cultural anthropology, and history, secular academia does not acknowledge that distinction. The Koran states that “Man and women were created as a single soul, and they are moral equals in the sight of God” (Maqsood), however there are very few scholars who have described Islam, predominantly the role of women in Islam, without prejudice or some inclination towards Islamic culture.
So that we may achieve an objective fair evaluation of what Islamic culture and religion actually contributed toward the restoration of women’s dignity and rights, we must review how women were treated, generally, in the religions preceding Islam. Hindu scriptures described the good of the wife as equal to that of her husband. “a woman whose mind, speech and body are kept in subjection, acquires high renown in this world, and in the next, the same abide with her husband” (Badawi). Athenian women always remained subject to a male, may it be her father, her brother, or her husband. It was not mandatory that marriage was advocated with her consent, and “she was obliged to submit to the wishes of her parents, and receive from them her husband and her lord, even though he was a stranger to her” (Badawi). A roman wife may have been described as someone to be submissive to her husband, someone who lacked the capacity to do anything according to her own taste. Today many people believe that it is the Islamic religion that forces women into polygamous marriages, forbids them to drive cars, and mutilates their genitals, however these practices are merely part of culture, and they vary between the different regions that practice Islamic religions.
For someone to truly understand a religion and the practices that come with it, they must separate completely cultural norms and styles of society from religion. Female genital mutilation is still practiced in a handful of countries but is viewed as inconceivable by the vast majority of Muslims (Maqsood). While some women are forbidden to drive cars, they will gladly take the wheel once they are abroad, knowing that this is just one of their countries uncanny laws, and not considered to be a sin in their religion.
As far as marriage goes while it has been different in the past, currently a majority of Islamic followers agree that a marriage may not be forced upon the women, making it nearly impossible to marry without the woman’s consent. Once they become legally bound to each other the women is not inclined to trade her prior possessions, or last name for that of the groom. To a Christian, marriage is “made in heaven” and is a promise to last “until death do us part”, however an Islamic marriage merely stands as contract. Once either spouse breaches the contract, divorce is not only allowed but expected.
The practice of polygamy began in the age of the prophet when warfare resulted in a large number of widows. The act of marrying multiple women was not meant to be interpreted as a provocative act but as a charity to help support widowed mothers of many children. The practice is no longer common because the Koran states that wives should be treated fairly, meaning that a man may not take up a second marriage if it is to deteriorate the first. The Koran also states that “and they (women) have rights similar to those over them (of men), and men are a degree above them,” that degree being Quiwama (maintenance and protection) (Koran 2:228 qtd :Badawi). The above quotation is where many scholars get confused, the degree of Quiwama does not mean that a man is a dictator over his wife, but it emphasizes the importance of a man providing for his family.
Women are not forbidden from the workforce, but encouraged to make their home duties, a mother and a wife, their priority. No one can properly educate children as carefully reared as their mother. If a women feels that her most sacred job (a mother) is sturdy and well developed she is defiantly not discouraged from positions that need her the most such as: nursing, teaching, and medicine. Actually women in Islam are included in the right of election; they may participate in nomination and public affairs. Both in the Koran and Islamic history rest examples of women who not only participated in but who argued their points, even with the prophet himself (Badawi).
Islamic women hold the full right to their Mahr, the gift of marriage. We discussed earlier that no marriage is arranged in Islam, but we mustn’t forget to recognize their right to seek an end to marriage that may seem unsuccessful. Majority of the time when two divorce it is the women who gains custody of the children, this is true with Islamic women. It also remains true that the men are required by Islamic law to continue to support their divorced wives, and children, by paying child support.
Worship is a main part of Muslims relationship with their God and the Koran clearly states in multiple scriptures that the status of a woman should be equated to that of a man. In the beginning of creation it was neither the man nor the women’s fault solely but their faults jointly. Islam requires a good bit of prayer and fasting, however a women is exempt from this during her menstrual period, forty days after child birth, and while she is breast feeding. This is so that she does not pose a threat to the health of herself or that of her baby (Badawi).
Premarital sex is an issue, not only in Christianity, but in Islam as well as other religions. Sexual intimacy is forbidden when it included sex before marriage, adultery, and homosexual relations. According to Ruqaiyyah Maqsood, even within a marriage intercourse should be raised from a form of self gratification to “sadaqah” to a form of worship and consideration of the happiness and satisfaction each spouse brings to the other. To decrease the temptation, both women and men are believed to guard their modesty and not to display their beauty and ornaments (Koran, XXIV:30,31). Over time the interpretation of this was that women be required to wear veils, and cover any exposed skin from head to toe, the expectations of modesty became a dress code that only applied to women. This is where many people find reason to believe that the women in Islam are being controlled, but that is misleading. It is not required that women wear the complete veil coverings but encouraged that the dress in modesty rather than provocatively. It is clear that a women has significantly more that should not be exposed than a man, and much more baggage can be gained for a women if she were to give herself away. The veils and cloth coverings are for protection of the men and women, for it is a sin for a man to look at a women in lust, these dress codes make it slightly more difficult for either to fail their God.
Islam is as much a world faith as Roman Catholicism, and while no one nationally claims the Islamic religion as its own, Islam is spreading fast even on the continent of North America despite the negative press it receives (Berrington). Men in Islam are simply support for the women, not complication. Even in the time of the prophet men and women fought against the enemies in combat, together, side by side. Islamic women have obtained the right to own and sell property, hold political and workforce positions, and chose their own marriage partners. We can take the Koran alone, and nothing and no one has worked so hard to free the rights of women from the manacles of prejudice, and social injustice. Whether we blame the culture, system, media, society, religion, the men, or the women themselves, if we remain in the state of being mislead no ones perceptions will ever change. Islam is a religion even stronger than Christianity, where religion is not a practice but a life and the very core of the heart. Depending on the society women may seem as having the wrong weight, wrong height, the wrong level of intelligence, or the wrong religion (Badawi), but dualism is the primordial design for all creation: ‘from all (created) things are pairs’ (Koran 51:49 qtd: Wadud).