Is Male a Degree above Female in Status? Part 1

Introduction:

In the present scenario of the world, internationally, Islam is getting a very bad press when it comes to Rights of Women. We can't blame the western think tank or media only, but we need to really look into ourself, into our policies that has been developed that is indeed biased towards our fairer sex. We should be a man to accept it, that we are not giving our sisters enough right that the Quran has given, them. Let us on occasion on of International Women's Day, look into the following aspects. This article is originally taken from V.A Mohammad Ashrof, Al-Harmony, April - June, 2007. Also in another blog an article on the same subject but in broader perspective by Karen Armstrong has been uploaded. the url for which is

http://hashmiaf.blogspot.com/2008/03/original-egalitarian-order-of-most.html

The articles on this subject will come in pieces as and when I am able to get time to upload them.

Let us ask

Is Islam inherently a male religion, which places the female on an ontologically second position? Is there any Quranic roots for the oppression of females which is widely preventable in the Muslim world? Or is the problem just rooted in the interpretation? Three Quranic passages – 4:34, 2:228 and 2:282 – are generally cited to support the contention that men have “a degree of advantage over women, God, who speaks through the Quran, is characterized by justice, and it is stated clearly in the Quran, that God can never be guilty of “zulm” (unfairness, tyranny, oppression, or wrongdoing)[i] Hence, the Quran, as God’s Word, cannot be made the source of human injustice, and the injustice to which Muslim women have been subjected cannot be regarded as ordained by God. The paper further argues that dominant norms and practices, far from being rooted in the divine commandments of the sacred text, are actually functions as well as strategies of both traditional and patriarchal interpretation of texts and cultural contexts.

Sexism in the dominance of one gender, usually male, over the other gender. Sexism, thus, in the contemporary world, is merely male chauvinism, which epitomizes, misogyny, and is very similar to racism. Misogyny is a tool of hegemony, an indispensable one in the realm of ideology, for legitimizing patriarchy and the inherent privileges associated with it for the ‘stronger sex”. There is no reason to single out Islam or the “popular” version of the faith as misogynous, as every faith- based system have been made to be sexist. Thanks to the subjective interpretation of the Quran (which is almost exclusively are by men), the predominance of the misogynic ulema, and the regressive Shariah law in most Muslim countries, Islam per se is widely believed to be misogynic.

Most Muslims- both men and women- consider it self-evident that men are superior to women. Most females, being born in a culturally biased society and having no opportunity for being educated and enlightened, blindly accept the prevailing assumption of superiority of males. Going further, many Muslims justify many manifestations of inequality as inherent in Islam. Throughout the world, and especially in the Western hemisphere, there exists the notion that Islam acts as a barrier to women’s human rights as it places women into a type of second-class citizen. The traditional teachings of Islam, even while, do not advocate the subjugation of women, places her, to some extent, a lesser status. In recent years, largely due to the pressure of anti-women laws in some parts of the Muslim world, women with some degree of education and awareness are being to realize that religion is being used as an instrument of oppression rather than a means of liberation.

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[i] Quran 50:29, 3:182, 8:51, 9:70, 10:44, 16:33, 16:118, 18:49, 22:10, 24:50, 29:40, 30:9