STATUS OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY
In almost every inhabited corner of the globe, the societies of ancient times regarded the status of women as being inferior to that of men. “In Athens,” says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “women’s status had degenerated to that of enslaved people. Wives were secluded in their homes, had no education and few rights, and were considered by their husbands no better than chattels… In ancient Rome, a woman’s legal position was one of complete subordination, first to the power of her father or brother and later to that of her husband, who held paternal power over his wife. In the eyes of the law, women were regarded as imbeciles.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica (1984), Vol. 19, p. 909)
The reason for the ill-treatment of women in ancient times was the prevalence of superstition. There were, in fact, very few matters upon which irrational beliefs of one sort or another had not been adopted. Such perverted thinking became elevated to the status of religion and, as such, had a pervasively baneful influence on all human relations.
Speculation was another mode of thought which produced strange and often pernicious results. Ridiculing the thought processes of the ancient Greeks, Bertrand Russell writes, “Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives’ mouths.” (Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society [1976], p. 17)
Women’s Status in Christianity
Christianity did little to improve this situation, having given great importance, in the very first book of the Bible, to the erroneous belief that it had been Eve’s wrongdoing that had caused Adam’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Referring to women in general in this context, the Encyclopaedia Britannica says, “(According to Christianity) they were regarded as temptresses, responsible for the fall of Adam, and as second-class human beings.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica [1984], Vol. 19, p. 909) With such a myth ever-present in the collective consciousness of society, it is little wonder that women were allotted an inferior position in both religious and secular matters. In the first letter addressed to the Corinthians, St. Paul says, “For the man is not of the woman, but the woman is of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man.” (Bible, Corinthians, 11:8.) St. Paul is simply reaffirming the gospel truth in the Old Testament Book of Genesis.
Women’s Status in Islam
In ancient times, thanks to the unreasoning and unreasonable approach fostered by superstition, speculation, and other forms of irrational thinking, the woman came to be considered inferior; one distressing result was that she was deprived, among many other things, of the right to inherit property. She was entitled to no share, even in family property. How great an incapacitating factor this was may be judged by the neglect and degrading treatment that women had to suffer for centuries. It was not until the advent of Islam that, for the first time in the history of humanity, women were given their due legal rights over property.
What is significant is that, in granting women equal status and proper rights, Islam set up an important precedent that had as far-reaching an effect on the civilization of the times as Western civilization has had on today's world. If Islam could accomplish such a revolution in human affairs, it was because Islam did not remain just a philosophical creed, but it conquered and influenced the minds of the people in most parts of the inhabited world of the times.
In the world of today, even those commentators who generously acknowledge the virtues of Islam often repeat this phrase that Islam has conferred an inferior status upon women. But these two things that Islam gives women a share in property and that Islam has degraded women are contradictory. From ancient times till today, the question of inheritance has been the most important social issue. The issue of inheritance might well be considered the sole criterion of status in society. Contrary to the custom of the time, the entitling of women to have a share in property is clear proof that Islam had no desire to degrade women. Had this been so, the first demonstration of this desire would have been reflected in her being deprived of her share in property, which would have been considered correct and justifiable according to the traditions of the times.
It is interesting to see the reverse side of the coin as presented by a recent revert to Islam, namely, the English pop singer Cat Stevens, now known as Yousuf Islam. Asked by a Jewish woman how he intended to deal with the problem of Islam’s ‘degradation’ of women, he said that he had not made a study of women’s status in Islam but that, for his part, he had, since his reversion, asked his mother to come and stay with him and that he loved looking after her. His relations with his wife had also considerably improved.
In its assessment of the status of women, the Western mind has made the same error as the ancient man: it has formed opinions based on irrational beliefs. This accounts for latter-day distortions of thought on the balance of power between the sexes in advanced Western countries and the resultant grave distortion in the concept of women.
Women in Modern Civilization
The modern Western man fell deeply into error because of his blind acceptance of the concept of the equality of the sexes without giving due consideration to what equality—in its best sense—ought to mean or to what, in practice, it entails. According to modern thinking, equal status to women meant bringing them out of their homes, thus making them come face to face with men in all facets of life without regard for the practical and moral problems that might ensue. Islam, on the other hand, defines separate roles and, therefore, separate spheres of work for men and women since it is natural and realistic to do so. The other significant error made by modern Western thinkers was to assume that a role that was separate, different, and played out in other than traditionally masculine strongholds was necessarily of trifling importance—in short, inferior. As such, the West concluded (because of separate roles) that Islam gives a subordinate position to women.
On the contrary, since it is being said in the West (in theory) that women must be given a place in every department of life given to men, they conclude that the West provides her with a superior position. So, modern man imagines that his feminine counterpart has been accorded a superior position. But let us examine the state of women’s affairs in the West. In the societies of the West, which have attained a high level of material development, theory has not been put into practice, and men and women still live and work in their own very separate domains. The status of women is only marginally better than in ancient times; there are still mutually exclusive divisions into male and female spheres, with the corresponding attitude very much in evidence. If this were not so, what need would there be for ‘women’s lib’?
Fourteen hundred years ago, Islam launched a much-needed ‘women’s lib’ movement, whose purpose was to free women from artificial curbs and to give them the position that any normal human being should have in society. (One instance is to provide them with a share in family property). This movement increased their status without any sacrifice of femineity or traditional values and without creating any perversion in society.
The fact that Islam launched its movement under the guidance of revelation, its exponents were in no doubt as to what limits should be set to societal change. The West, however, in its preoccupation with modernity, plunged headlong into experimentation with the old order of values, sweeping away traditional moral precepts and ‘restrictive’ conventions. All of this was done under the banner of ‘reason,’ ‘empiricism,’ ‘logic,’ ‘liberalism’ and so on. However, the whole ‘liberation’ movement has been so swamped in a welter of emotion that what is supposed to be acceptable in terms of normal human standards is once again becoming obscured, and the problems created in society by morally rudderless individuals are becoming legion.
