Islam definitely showed, over 1400 years ago, that men and women are equal in terms of reward, punishment, responsibility, offering worship, and human rights. Islam also declared men and women equal in terms of human duties. Each gender would play the role it was better suited for in order to build strong families and societies.
The level of civilization in Europe then is seen in the way their women were treated. Before the advent of Islam, the status of a woman was appalling in ancient Rome, Greece, India and Arabia. When the Olympic Games started way back around 775 B.C., women and slaves were not allowed to witness them. In India, girls did not inherit parental and other properties and all their wealth was taken away by their brothers and husbands.
The French Revolution of the late 18th century produced a human rights document entitled “Declaration of the rights of men and citizen”. The first sentence states – “Men are born free and equal under the laws.” There was an attempt to add ‘and women’ but this was rejected. It was only two whole centuries since then that they got the right to vote in 1946. The Napoleonic code in revolutionary France limited suffrage and reduced women to the state of a minor (as in the case of a child) under the authority of their fathers and husbands throughout the 19th and 20th centuries while women and slaves fought for equal political rights.
The French economic philosopher, Jules Simon said, “A woman must remain a woman because with this quality she can find happiness and bring it to others. Let us reform the position of women but let us not change them. Let us beware of turning them into men because that would make them lose much and we would lose everything nature has done everything perfectly. So let us beware of anything that could take us away from its laws.”
Muhammad Ali al Hashmi writes in The Ideal Muslimah: “Under Roman law a woman was considered a possession deprived of her identity. As a result of Roman law woman’s position in society was terrible. Some religious councils shed doubt on the humanity of a woman and the nature of her soul; conferences were held in Rome to debate these matters and to discuss whether women had souls like men or were their souls like animals like snakes or dogs? In Victorian England, girls were tightly laced up in stays and corsets made up of steel back up on the spine and around the neck to restrict the growth of bodies. It hampered blood circulation and muscles remained underdeveloped. It also bent the spine.”
In Saudi Arabia, before Islam, women were considered a source of shame. They were despised and hated and they were owned like animals. Many hated it if a girl was born and tried their best to hide the news often by burying the baby girl right after she was born. A companion of the prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) came crying to him and told him that before he became a Muslim he had buried all the daughters he had. One of his daughters, the youngest, was a little older when he took her to a field where he was to bury her. She helped him with the digging and wiped his sweat when he was tired. Not even this moved his heart. It was a cruel society in which females lived. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said that whoever has a daughter born to him and he did not bury her alive or humiliate her and he did not prefer his son to her, Allah will admit him to Paradise because of her.” (Musnad Ahmed)
Islam has truly raised the status of woman. After the dark ages it has given her many many rights which were not given to her before, some which are not even given now.
In the Muslim family and true Islamic society, girls find protection and care no matter how long she stays with her parents. Contrary to this, in some countries, a girl, on reaching the age of 18, is made to get her own place, find a job and face the hardships of life all alone.
These days women are also influenced by the fashion industry. They have become slaves to the wealth of this world – clothing and other things. Like the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said, wretched is the slave of the dinaar, dirham and fancy clothes of velvet and silk! If he is given, he is pleased and if he is not given he is displeased because these things do not help our akhirah. What really matters is bettering the personality.
There are things for which a woman was created and things which concern men only. Allah says in the Qur’ān, “Men are protectors and maintainers of women because Allah has given one more strength than the other…” (Al-Qur’ān – 4:34).
Each person should do things for which he/she was created so that they can build a society which has its members doing their jobs and therefore resulting in happy households. Not women trying to imitate men, compete with them and take a position among them. Though women are not in any way inferior to men, imitating men only makes it look like women are acknowledging their (men’s) superiority. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said, “Each of you is a shepherd and each of you is responsible for his flock. A woman is a shepherd in the house of her husband and is responsible for her flock.”
In The Ideal Muslimah, the author writes, “A professor after his visit to Europe and America writes about the misery of woman there. They have been drawn by currents of blind equality. I felt sorry for their struggle to earn a living for they have lost their freedom for which they have strived so hard and lost their feminity and happiness. Continuous, exhausting work has plagued their refuge as in home. Children can’t grow and flourish without a woman.”
Islam has given woman many rights some of which include:
1. Women have the right to inheritance from fathers, brothers and sons.
2. Islam has made it obligatory for every Muslim male or female to acquire knowledge. A woman is more in need of education and guidance to form a distinct person. Like they say educate a man and you educate one person, educate a woman and you help educate the society. There are many women who have excelled in the different fields of education. Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) was great at calculation as in math, matters of inheritance, literature, poetry and medicine.
3. Women and men have equal rights in matters related to rearing of children, proper teaching and caring of children.
4. Allah has given a mother a much higher status than a father.
5. Woman has the right to provisions from her husband, if not him then her father or then brother.
6. Islam has protected a woman by her outer covering saving her from evil intent.
7. She has the rights to spend her money the way she wants.
Islam has given these rights to a woman making her free, proud and respected.
There is a great difference between the laws of Allah which bring happiness, and the imperfect man-made laws which cause nothing but misery.