One of the most irritating things to see is blatantly wrong information being spewed like it is fact by the media or people. What’s worse, yet, is many people will accept the outlet at its word and won’t bother to research the topic before forming an opinion. This, unfortunately, happens frequently, especially in regards to Islam.
While Islam as a whole is a grossly misunderstood religion, the ignorance revolving around Islam’s teachings about women takes the cake. We have been programmed to think, “Oh, those poor, oppressed women. They can’t (insert verb). What a repressive, backwards religion.” These sorts of thoughts are incredibly exhausting to me, because they are so thoroughly off-base.
Just because a distorted image of Islam is out there doesn’t mean Islam itself is distorted. These people are clearly uninformed about the progressive teachings of Islam.
So let’s set the record straight here: Islam is a human rights-oriented way of life, and obviously, this term is all-encompassing and includes women.
In addition to other teachings and verses, there is a whole chapter in the Quran titled, “The Women,” and it is directed to men and instructs them on how to treat women and describes what rights women have.
For example, women have the right to a voice, to own property, to an inheritance, to have a job and receive equal pay for equal work and to an education. They have total control over their finances and possessions—the men in their lives can’t touch it without explicit permission.
They can’t be married against their will, and when they do marry, they can choose to keep their own name, and thus, retain their identity. If they so choose, they can also get a divorce.
Islam forbade female infanticide and the practice of passing of women from one man to another, as though they were objects rather than people.
These are what we consider universal human rights in today’s modern society. It is remarkable Islam established these rights 1,400 years ago, which were virtually unheard of in Western societies until the 1900s. Indeed, 1,400 years ago in Europe, it was being debated whether women even had souls.
Clearly, there is much more to the topic of women in Islam, and none of it goes along with what is said in the media or with whatever misconceptions people have.
There are really sad stories about the mistreatment and abuse of women, but these are not associated with the teachings of Islam.
Unfortunately, domestic abuse is present in every society, even our own. It just so happens when the offender is Muslim, his offense is tied to his religion, as though it encourages it.
I highly encourage anyone who is not familiar with Islam to go out and research it. This is especially important since anti-Islamic sentiment is prevalent in our society today, and because a large portion of the world has an Islamic identity.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Fear always springs from ignorance,” and there is certainly a lot of fear and suspicion in the air.
