Women in Islam : Demand Gender Equality and Equal rights with Men

26/10/2016.
        813.
                All Members,
         Respected family members of this great holy Nation.

Women in Islam :

1. Introduction :

Many scholars claim Shari'a law encourages domestic violence against women, when a husband suspects nushuz (disobedience, disloyalty, rebellion, ill conduct) in his wife.

One of the verses of the Quran relating to permissibility of domestic violence is Surah 4:34.

In deference to Surah 4:34, many nations with Shari'a law have refused to consider or prosecute cases of domestic abuse.

Shari'a has been criticized for ignoring women's rights in domestic abuse cases.

 Musawah, CEDAW, KAFA and other organizations have proposed ways to modify Shari'a-inspired laws to improve women's rights in Islamic nations, including women's rights in domestic abuse cases.

2.Personal status laws and child marriage :

a.)

Shari'a is the basis for personal status laws in most Islamic majority nations.

These personal status laws determine rights of women in matters of marriage, divorce and child custody.

A 2011 UNICEF report concludes that Shari'a law provisions are discriminatory against women from a human rights perspective.

In legal proceedings under Shari'a law, a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s before a court.

b.)

Except for Iran, Lebanon and Bahrain which allow child marriages, the civil code in Islamic majority countries do not allow child marriage of girls.

However, with Shari'a personal status laws, Shari'a courts in all these nations have the power to override the civil code.

The religious courts permit girls less than 18 years old to marry.

c.)

As of 2011, child marriages are common in a few Middle Eastern countries, accounting for 1 in 6 all marriages in Egypt and 1 in 3 marriages in Yemen.

However, the average age at marriage in most Middle Eastern countries is steadily rising and is generally in the low to mid 20's for women.

 Rape is considered a crime in all countries, but Shari'a courts in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia in some cases allow a rapist to escape punishment by marrying his victim, while in other cases the victim who complains is often prosecuted with the crime of Zina (adultery).

3. Women's right to property and consent :

a.)

Sharia grants women the right to inherit property from other family members, and these rights are detailed in the Quran.

A woman's inheritance is unequal and less than a man's, and dependent on many factors.

For instance, a daughter's inheritance is usually half that of her brother's.[Quran 4:11][245]

b.)

Until the 20th century, Islamic law granted Muslim women certain legal rights, such as the right to own property received as Mahr (bride price) at her marriage, that Western legal systems did not grant to women.

However, Islamic law does not grant non-Muslim women the same legal rights as the few it did grant Muslim women.

Sharia recognizes the basic inequality between master and women slave, between free women and slave women, between Believers and non-Believers, as well as their unequal rights.

Sharia authorized the institution of slavery, using the words abd (slave) and the phrase ma malakat aymanukum ("that which your right hand owns") to refer to women slaves, seized as captives of war.

c.)

Under Islamic law, Muslim men could have sexual relations with female captives and slaves without her consent.

Slave women under sharia did not have a right to own property, right to free movement or right to consent.

Sharia, in Islam's history, provided religious foundation for enslaving non-Muslim women (and men), as well as encouraged slave's manumission.

However, manumission required that the non-Muslim slave first convert to Islam.

Non-Muslim slave women who bore children to their Muslim masters became legally free upon her master's death, and her children were presumed to be Muslims as their father, in Africa, and elsewhere.

d.)

Starting with the 20th century, Western legal systems evolved to expand women's rights, but women's rights under Islamic law have remained tied to Quran, hadiths and their faithful interpretation as sharia by Islamic jurists.

Thank you for reading
           JAIHIND.
            To be continued...