Islamic Womens’ Rights Essay

Islam since its inception has maintained the select of universality a message and a way of life applicable and appropriate to all peoples in all places and times. Now more clearly than at any other point in the history of the Moslem tradition, this claim seems to be manifested through the presence of Muslim communities literally across the world. The Muslim population is estimated in the range of one billion, approximately half of whom be women representing a great range of cultures, racial-ethnic identifications, interests, attitudes, and aspirations.While it may be rather daunting to attempt to generalize about Muslim women, it is nonetheless true that certain themes fall out with some regularity when one looks across the Muslim world. Muslims struggle with and attempt to reconcile the affirmation of their heritage with the challenges of the modern world and the ongoing legacy of western sandwich imperialism. Muslim women in all societies are key to these discussions, both( prenominal) subjects and objects in a very important and continuing meditate about what it factor to be a Islamic woman.Womens rights (both Islamic and constitutional) are under constant debate, as are matters of seclusion and segregation, the family relationship of womens dowry to fundamentalist spiritual pressures, and the role of women in political struggles for independence and economic advancement. Some countries such as Egypt ease up stressed the importance of womens education for the better secern of the century. Others like Saudi Arabia have only recently begun to work toward this goal.It is clear that oerall there is increased attention to the importance of education for Muslim females both as a right and a value in and of itself, and as an essential ingredient in the advancement of nations. As in galore(postnominal) areas, it is as well clear that enormous differences exist educationally for women in urban and in rural areas, a dichotomy that at least in the short run away probably will become even more pronounced (Carroll 85). There is also the major concern of womens employment in Muslim countries and the debate over which occupations are considered proper for women to pursue.In many countries shortages in the labor force are making it imperative for women to work, but the tide of traditionalism tends to decrease strongly in limiting those opportunities. In many countries increasing results of women are engaged as wage earners, but they are limited earlier to such occupations as teaching and medicine (Hussein and Radwan 12). The oil wealth of the Gulf states had led both to better education and to more work opportunities, although the conservative Islamic ethos has severely complicated the situation.Kuwait offers the greatest opportunities for womens employment, and Bahrain with its economic diversification is opening new doors for female employment (Hussein and Radwan 12). Whether because of or despite Islam or regimen policies, wome n across the Islamic world are becoming more economically active. This does not necessarily mean, of course, that they are imperativeness for increased work opportunities. Many women would cull not to work, doing so only because of economic necessities and happy that the extra money earned means a more comfortable life for their families.Enhanced master key opportunity for women is not without its down side. Women in a number of cultures have come to realize that along with the societal and familial strains that occur when women work out of doors the home (including perceptions that men cannot support their families) is the reality of women taking on added responsibilities without the expectation that they will be able to do less in other areas of their lives. And the relationship of economically and politically active women to the advancement of the state adds further strains for many women (Mintjes 17).In Iraq, for example, womens liberation and full integration into society i s a dismantle of the Bath party platform. But reforms in personal status laws lag behind the political rhetoric, adding to the burdens of women (Sanasarian 124-125). This is generally true across the Islamic world, and it means that these burdens will continue as long as there is no real resolve in the tension betwixt needing women for national development and not being able to accord them full status in society because of socio-religious restrictions (Rassam 99).The other issue is, undoubtedly, the question of womens dress which is one of the most pressing concerns of Islamic societies today. Sometimes the government in allegiance with the religious establishment and seeking its support insists on women wearing appropriate covering. In other instances governments are making every attempt to discourage the wearing of Islamic dress precisely because they fear the rising power of extremist fundamentalism (Yeganeh 26-27).Today controversy over the governments ban on students wearing Islamic dress at the universities has become a major ideological and political issue. Islamic conservatives offer that the Quran dictates the wearing of the turban, preferably with a kind of long loose overcoat covering the body to the feet. The governments supreme educational council has recommended corrective action for any female students appearing in such dress. The debate has become a major one in the struggle between secularist political theory and Islamic revivalism in that country (Bahry 502).Besides, the question of birth overcome is a matter of major concern to many Muslim families. While a a couple of(prenominal) of the ulama, if supported by state efforts, are saying that there is Islamic sanction for some preventive measures, the majority oppose any such control as un-Islamic. When young Iraqi men and boys were being killed in the war with Iran, the government waged a campaign stressing the role of women as mothers. Contraceptives were no longer allowed at the same time that men were encouraged to take second wives for the purpose of having more children.Clearly there are differences in mens and womens attitudes on the issue of birth control. In Tunisia, for example, where legislation concerning women is generally seen to be more progressive than in many other countries, a survey showed that farther more women than men favored the use of contraceptives. Where official policy does not support the possibility of contraception more subtle measures are sometimes used. In Bahrain housing projects limit the number of bedrooms so that they are available only to families with two children (Bahry 509- 511).Finally, a word needs to be said about Muslim women and the rise of feminism. It cannot perhaps be emphasized too strongly that whatever stand Islamic women may take on issues of education, employment, and equal opportunities in society, they have serious reservations about what they understand to be feminism in the Western context. For the most par t they find it too individualistic, too removed from genuine cooperation between males and females, and too much tied to forms of Western colonialism and imperialism.Sexual behavior that may strike an American feminist as liberated, said one young Tunisian woman, may strike me as just another form of slavery, and a rather neurotic form at that (Megademeni 10). Muslim women and men together are still very much in the process of working out ways in which to affirm their Islamic identity as members of societies and nations moving into a new century. The issues they face will not be quickly or easily resolved.Women are not only faced by a number of conflicting pressures and claims on their allegiance, but find themselves speaking to a number of different audiences their husbands and families, their Islamic sisters, their Western critics, the clerics or government agencies responsible for determining many of the circumstances of their lives, themselves. There is little question that man y women across the Islamic world are becoming increasingly aware of the rights that belong to them within the Islamic system, as well as of themselves as key players in the movements that will continue to redefine the Islamic way of life.The responses they give to their own changing circumstances may vary with the different situations to which they are called to respond, and they may change fairly dramatically in the next few years. But it is clear that whatever solutions are found to the issues that they face, for most women they will be discovered in conversation with other females as well as males in the Muslim community, and they will be in one form or another Islamic solutions.Works Cited Bahry, Louay. The New Saudi Woman Modernizing in an Islamic Framework. Middle East Journal. Vol. 34 4, 2002. Carroll, Lucy. Nizan-I-Islam Processes an Conflicts in Pakistans Programme of Islamisation, with Special Reference to the Position of Women. In Journal of Commonwealth and Comparativ e Politics. Vol. 20 1992. Hussein, Freda and Radwan, Kamelia. The Islamic Revolution and Women Quest for the Quranic Model. Freda Hussein, ed. , Muslim Women. New York St. Martins Press, 1994. Megademeni, Negiba.Muslim Women Developing a Theory of Islamic Feminism. Unitarian Universalist World. Vol.16 8, August 15, 1995. Mintjes, H. The Doctor and the Ladies A New Debate on Women and Islam in Pakistan. al-Mushir. Vol. 25 1993. Rassam, Amal. Revolution Within the Revolution? Women and the State in Iraq. Iraq The Contemporary State. New York St.Martins Press, 2002. Sanasarian, Eliz. The Womens Rights Movement in Iran. New York Praeger, 2001. Yeganeh, Nahid. Womens Struggles in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Azar Tabari and Nahid Yeganeh, eds. , In the Shadow of Islam The Womens Movement in Iran. London Zed Press, 1982.