Progress of Women: An Islamic Perspective

WOMEN IN HISTORY AND TODAY women as respectable human beings, may at the same time lend them confidence, dignity, poise, self-respect, and freedom from exploitation of all kinds. Only then could the human race become more vigorous, of a superior breed, capable of spreading welfare, love, friendship, and goodwill to make this beautiful earth a better place to live. Till now, a dispassionate study of the position of women in Islam has rarely been made. Orientalists are in the habit of quoting and misquoting, even misinterpreting the Quranic injunctions and the Sunnah, which form the source of the Islamic system. The Muslim society is also, by and large, responsible for stultifying the dynamism of Islam and creating misconceptions because they have lost their capacity to represent Islam in its true spirit. The Muslim culture that we see around us is not truly the Islamic culture that the Prophet of Islam had evolved, but a sad mixture of many cultures, where un-Islamic infiltration has nearly altered the very essence of what should have been the Islamic society. So, while presenting these points regarding the rights of women in Islam, one thing should be clear in our minds: these are purely what should have been in Muslim society and not what exists today. One significant point that we have to understand about Islam is that it does nowhere raise the question of superiority or inferiority of any sex while talking about men and women. Islam considers each sex unique in its sphere of activity and allows roles to each sex, best suited to them and according to their nature and needs. Men and women in Islam are