The Qur’ān states that both men and women are equal, but also, as in 4:34, that “Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has made one of them to excel the other, and because they spend from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient and guard in the husband’s absence what Allah orders them to guard.” Also, in the Qur’an it is indicated that all of mankind is made from a single soul.
WOMEN’S ECONOMIC POSITION
Islam has given women rights to work, to own property and to own wealth. Women can seek employment and work in profession such as medical care, teaching, civil and justice professions. These rights remain the same before and after marriage. Regarding the right to work, Allah says in the Holy Qur’ān:
“Do not covet what Allah has conferred more abundantly on some of you than others. Men shall have a share according to what they have earned, and women shall have a share according to what they have earned. Do ask Allah for His bounty. Allah has full knowledge of everything.” (4:32)
In the Islamic history there were no restrictions in women’s full participation in the economic, political and social spheres of their society. For example, Khadija, the Prophet’s first wife, was one of the most important merchants of the time, and Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) himself was her employee. Ayesha, the Prophet’s another wife, was one of his most important advisers and consultants.
In the early Islamic history women not only participated in various aspects of their society’s public sphere but also had the right to be elected to political offices. For example, Omar, the second caliph, appointed a woman to oversee the affairs of the marketplace. Women also participated in wars and fought in the battles.
The labour force in the Caliphate was employed from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds, while both men and women were involved in diverse occupations and economic activities. Women were employed in a wide range of commercial activities and diverse occupations in the primary sector (as farmers, for example), secondary sector (as construction workers, dyers, spinners, etc.) and tertiary sector (as investors, doctors, nurses, presidents of guilds, brokers, peddlers, lenders, scholars, etc.) Muslim women also held a monopoly over certain branches of the textile industry, the largest and most specialised and market-oriented industry at the time, in occupations such as spinning, dyeing, and embroidery. In comparison, female property rights and wage labour were relatively uncommon in Europe until the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the 12th century, the famous Islamic philosopher and qadi (judge) Ibn Rushd, known to the West as Averroes, claimed that women were equal to men in all respects and possessed equal capacities to shine in peace and in war, citing examples of female warriors among the Arabs, Greeks and Africans to support his case. In early Muslim history, examples of notable female Muslims who fought during the Muslim conquests and Fitna (civil wars) as soldiers or generals included Nusaybah Bint K’ab Al Maziniyyah alias Umm Amarah, Aisha, Khaula and Wafeira.
A unique feature of medieval Muslim hospitals was the role of female staff, who was rarely employed in hospitals elsewhere in the world. Medieval Muslim hospitals commonly employed female nurses. Muslim hospitals were also the first to employ female physicians, the most famous being two female physicians from the Banu Zuhr family who served the Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya’qub al-Mansur in the 12th century. This was necessary due to the segregation between male and female patients in Islamic hospitals. Later in the 15th century, female surgeons were illustrated for the first time in Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu’s Cerrahiyyetu’l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery).
EDUCATION & EMPOWERMENT
Islam considers women as an integral part of the society. Without education and empowerment of women, nations cannot develop and progress in a real way.
Education is an essential element of the empowerment of girls and women. A good quality education, designed on the basis of women’s and girls’ immediate and strategic needs, builds women’s capacities and prepares them to seize opportunities in the public and private domains. The empowerment of women is crucial to change some of the societal attitudes and behaviours that discriminate against girls and women.
The empowerment of women is therefore linked to the development of the nations and the societies.
Education and training of girls and women is a human right and an essential element for the full enjoyment of all other social, economic, cultural and political rights. The Millennium development goals (2000), the EFA and Dakar goals (2000), and the Beijing Platform have consistently placed emphasis on the importance of education in promoting gender equality and the advancement of women.
Women education and empowerment is necessary for the betterment and development of the nations. It plays a vital role in the prosperity and development of the nations. Striving to empower women to make them contributing members of the society, women and girls have equal opportunities to be educated, to participate in governance, to achieve economic self-sufficiency and to be protected from violence and discrimination.
EMPLOYMENT PATTERNS TODAY
Patterns of women’s employment vary throughout the Muslim world: as of 2005, 16% of Pakistani women were “economically active” (either employed, or unemployed but available to furnish labour), whereas 52% of Indonesian women were employed.
Women are allowed to work in Islam, subject to certain conditions, such as if a woman is in financial need and her employment does not cause her to neglect her role as a mother and wife. It has been claimed that it is the responsibility of the Muslim community to organise work for women, so that she can do so in a Muslim cultural atmosphere, where her rights (as set out in the Qur’ān) are respected. Islamic law however permits women to work in Islamic conditions.
The work should not require men or women to violate an Islamic law (e.g., serving alcohol), and be mindful of the woman’s safety. If the work requires the woman to leave her home, she must maintain her ‘modesty’.
Due to cultural and not religious beliefs, in some cases, when women have the right to work and are educated, women’s job opportunities may in practice be unequal to those of men. In Egypt, for example, women have limited opportunities to work in the private sector because women are still expected to put their role in the family first, which causes men to be seen as more reliable in the long term.
An indicator of the attitude of the Qur’ān to women in the workplace can be seen in the quotes regarding working women. These are the examples of two female shepherds (Qur’ān 28:23), and Khadijah (Prophet Muhammad’s wife), who was an eminent businesswoman. Khadijah is called a role model for females in the Qur’ān.
[The writer is Lecturer in politics, VSR & NVR College, Tenali, A.P.]