Islam honoured women

Etched in the history of the Babylonia civilization, a man would commit a crime, but his wife gets punished.

In Greek mythology, “Pandora”, they say, was the first woman. It’s believed that she was the cause of all evil and misfortune.

When the Roman civilization reached its peak, a man was permitted to even kill his wife. Women were

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And that of the Egyptian civilization, women were considered as a sign of the devil.

In some parts of the Eastern Europe and India, if a husband dies, his wife would either be killed or burn alive together with the dead body of her husband.

With the Arab civilization, dating to the period of ignorance, which was before the revelation of the Quran, when the female child was born she was buried alive. Women were actually nothing but bedmates and objects in the hands of men.

Nonetheless, after the revelation of the Quran, the status of the women were uplifted by Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) long before the world knew about women’s empowerment.

The below are few abridged rights Islam wielded to women, permeating all facets of life, dating 1443 years ago:

1. Islam granted women the right to be educated.
2. Quran doesn’t only prohibit the killing of a female child, but it rebuked even having a sad thought that a female child is born.
3. Islam honored women spiritually, in the sight of God. Like men, they are both equal, not identical though.
4. Islam allowed women to take part in battles, treating the injured.
5. Islam made women to own a trade.
6. Islam gave women rights to inheritance.
7. Islam obligated men to rather pay the dowry to women.
8. Women are known in Islam as a “fortress” against the devil, unlike how it’s perceived that women are “instrument” of evil.
9. Islam prohibited marrying women against their will.
10. Women don’t have to take a new surname after marriage. They keep their father’s own.
11. The Quran makes it difficult to accuse women of formication and adultery. One who does so and fails to provide four witnesses, s/he would be flogged 80 lashes.

In the last sermon, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ): “O, people fear from Allah in the matter of women, treats them carefully and fairly as Islam teaches you.”

Those who think insisting that women rights are honored, as enshrined in the Quran and hadith is a needless feminism balderdash, thank you. If it’s making what Allah hasn’t made compulsory your forte then you’re in it alone.

Imagine any of you had been at the time of “ignorance”, this your decorated dogmatism wouldn’t have been any better than those who regarded women as nothing but bedmates, servants, and slaves of men.

Proponents of women rights aren’t Muslim feminists. The right word is “Egalitarian”. It means a person who advocates or supports the principle of equality for all people. “God commands justice and fair dealin.” [Quran, 16:90]

Prophet Mohammed (ﷺ) said: “Among you the most respectable is the one who respects women and the most disrespectful is the one who disrespects women.”

Islam started rooting for women’s empowerment not today; it’s part of the cardinal philosophies of Islam.