Page 37 - Status of Women in Islam

Status of Women in Islam

This period of decline had an enormous effect on the

rights of Muslim women which were bestowed on them by
the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah (traditions) of the Prophet,
socially, politically and economically.

Since then, their legal rights were oppressed by cultural
traditions and customs. They became unaware of their
rights which the ‘Shariah’ granted them to protect
themselves and save them from having to live in an
unhappy or even hostile environment.

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth
century, movements of reform which included both men
and women began to reinforce the true original Islamic
principles for equality in relation to education, social and
political participation in which Islam asked women to play a
role equal to that of men.

The position of Muslim women in early Islam is an
exemplary one that should be studied and known by every
woman whether she is a Muslim or non-Muslim; whether
she lives in the East or the West. When Dr Homer of
Sweden was asked by the United Nations in 1975 to study
the status of women in the Arab countries; she said: “It is
the Swedish woman who should demand her freedom, as
the woman in the Arab countries has already reached the

36