Rights and Progress of Women

CHAPTER 2 RIGHTS AND PROGRESS OF WOMEN Islam accords equal status to men and women, notwithstanding the natural differences between them. Besides conferring innumerable rights to women, Islam has enhanced their prestige in their families and communities. At the time of Prophet Muhammad, women were free to participate in congregational prayers in mosques and attend the sermons of the Prophet. Women were given the right to own property, dispose of it, inherit from their relatives, and keep to themselves their earnings, which they could spend in any way they wished. Muslim women play many societal roles: daughters, sisters, mothers, and wives to men. In their different capacities, they are allowed to share in the properties of their relatives in proportions fixed by the Quran, which are explained in the traditions of the Prophet and the literature of Islamic jurisprudence.