I see this argument again and again: Islam gave women rights. Before Islam, women were treated like property.
So I put together some “feminist” verses I found in the Quran and Hadith for your reading pleasure.
Islam is feminist.
According to Islam, women are;
- Deficient in intelligence (Sahih al-Bukhari 304)
- Inferior to men and can be beaten if their husbands fear their disobedience (Surah an-Nisa 4:34)
- “Impure” when menstruating (Quran 2:222)
- Cannot be successful leaders (Sunan an-Nasa’i 5388)
- property that can be bought by paying Mahr (price of the vulva) (Surah An-Nisa 4:4)
Female slave (and female prisoners of war) in Islam are treated far worse than property:
- Raped by their owners (Quran 23.5-6)
- Sold (Sahih Bukhairi 2229)
- Groped for “inspection” before being purchased (Countless Hadiths about Umar uncovering and groping female slaves’ breasts, buttocks, thighs and vagina).
- Impregnated (Sahih Bukhairi 2229)
- Beaten, even for wearing a hijab (Majmu‘ al-Fatawa 15/372)
- Made to “service” other men, even a group of men (gang-raped) (Again, Hadith on Umar’s sex slaves)
Islam gave women the choice of marriage.
Before Islam, women did not need to be “married off” by a male guardian. They could choose to enter into marriage of their own free will (Example: Khadijah’s marriage to Muhammad). Islam prohibited this. Under Islamic law, a woman cannot marry without the approval of a male guardian.
There is no concept of age of consent in Islam. Children, even prepubescent, can be married off by their male guardians. (Aisha, for example, was married off by Abu Bakr to Muhammad at the age of 6.) Do you think a child is capable of giving consent?
The Quran itself permits sex with prepubescent girls (Quran 65:4).
There are fatwa’s that allow the molestation (touching breasts and “thighing” of children under the age of 9 years old.
Nowhere in the Quran is “rape” acknowledged as a distinct offense. Muslims treat rape as the same as zina (sex outside of marriage) because the Quran does not prescribe a punishment for it. This is why the concept of consent does not exist in Islam, nor does the recognition of marital rape.
Islam gave women rights over their husbands.
Islam restricted a woman’s right to divorce. While a man can divorce his wife simply by uttering a few words, a woman must ask her husband for divorce. Unless he agrees, she has no way out.
Women are commanded to obey their husbands. Nowhere in the Quran is a husband told to obey his wife. In fact, a husband is permitted to beat his wife if he fears her disobedience (Surah An-Nisa 4:34).
But how obedient must she be?
According to Muhammad:
“If I were to command anyone to make prostration before another, I would command women to prostrate themselves before their husbands, because of the special right over them given to husbands by Allah. By the One in Whose hand is my soul, if a man were covered from head to foot with weeping sores oozing pus, and his wife were to come to him and lick his sores to clean them, this would not fulfil the rights he has over her.” (Sunan Abi Dawud 2140)
In other words, the husband’s rights are almost limitless, such that no matter how much a wife sacrifices, she can never truly fulfill them.
So yes, women in Islam do have rights: the right to be absolutely obedient and subservient to their husbands.
As another hadith states:
“A woman cannot fulfill her duty to Allah until she fulfills her duty to her husband.” (Sunan Ibn Majah 1853)
A woman’s devotion to God is tied to her obedience to her husband.
Islam gave women the ability to own and run businesses
Women were already owning and running businesses before Islam came to be. Khadijah (Muhammad’s first wife) was a wealthy business owner. This was before Islam.
In fact, Islam restricts a woman from having careers by placing the majority of the burden of childcare and taking care of the household on them.
Not to forget, a woman’s duty is first to serve her husband. (Sunan Ibn Majah 1853)
Islam gave women the right to inherit.
Islam introduced a patriarchal system in which women received smaller portions. Before Islam, a daughter could inherit the entirety of her deceased father’s estate if he had no sons, or if he chose to leave it to her. Islam took away that right and prohibited women from receiving more.
If the deceased leaves no sons, the majority of the estate goes to the closest male relative.
If the deceased has a son, his portion is double that of a daughter. (Quran 4:11)
Islam abolished female infanticide by burial
The killing of baby girls wasn’t even a common practice to begin with. The main reason fathers buried their daughters was to prevent them from being taken as prisoners of war or sex slaves if misfortune befell their tribe.
And while Islam did abolish infanticide, it never abolished sex slavery. Neither did they abolish female genital mutilation, where part of the clitoris is cut off to cause numbness and reduce sexual pleasure, for the sole purpose of ensuring that the girls would grow into wives loyal to their husbands. How very feminist.