Women in Islam

I was tired of reading all the comments on SD’s blog about how in Islam women are inferior to men and all the myths because that’s what they are. However there is a complication of the matter and there are some hard truths in what has been said, specifically how women are treated in some Islamic countries.

The status of women in Islam is a not a new topic but has been used often by the Western critics of Islam who try to show that women are inferior to men within the body of Islamic teachings and its worldview. Although even a superficial study of Islamic teachings is sufficient to rebut the attacks (I won’t go into this) made by most critics of Islam, it is often difficult to defend Muslims themselves who, by their own actions, blatantly violate the tenets of Islam in relation to the treatment of wives and women in general. This disregard for Islamic teachings is often due to the influence of culture and ignorance, and the inability to discern between divine knowledge and cultural practice.

The tendency to treat women as mere objects or, in the more extreme cases, as second-class, is real and does exist within our Ummah (Islamic countries). This dark reality is an aspect that shadows the self, refuses to go away or be dealt with in a real way. Ignorant males often twist religious teachings to support oppressive cultural norms that justify their treatment of women as mere objects. Perhaps if it were not for Western critical assaults, the issue would remain undisclosed.

I believe this is something the definitely needs to be looked at and needs to be changed from bottom to top through proper education.