Woman

peace to all readers. The topic that I am about to discuss for today is woman. I have selected this topic because there is a special beauty that lie within every woman which I think I must share with others. As for myself, I am deeply in love with what I am going to share soon.

Woman in different cultures and societies are valued differently. Some have gone to the extreme of valuing a woman to the extent of creating a female idol to be worshipped, while others have degraded woman to the extent of practicing female infantide(killing of female newborn babies). We know that in many places around the world woman are being degraded, unfortunately woman have battle with the injustice that they are facing for quite some time. With regards to how much a woman is to be valued, I have selected the best way in which woman must be treated and valued. I have chosen to view woman in the light of Islam.

After Prophet Muhammad take on the role of prophethood, he started conveying God's message to the early muslims. One of the first thing that the prophet abolished was the burying of female newborn babies also known as female infanticide. Before Ababia was under the rule of Islam, there were mix communities of jewish, christians and the majority pagan arabs. The pre-Islamic period was also known as time of ignorance where people know the true God of Abraham but refuse to recognise Him as the Al-mighty. During those days, woman were treated very badly. Far worst than what we see today. They were made to run naked in public places, they were enslaved by others and many more.

To an arab family a girl child is considered to be a disgrace, this is because upon marriage, the girl will no longer hold the name of her father instead she would use her husband's name.Also its because woman are degraded in the society, family would face the risk of being shamed by other families. However when Islam preveils this problem was solved. In Islam the woman would keep her sir name even after marriage. For example when I get married to a woman in future, her name of birth will remain as it was. I am wondering besides Islam, which other religion, culture or traditions is similar to Islam where the surname of the woman does not change.

During the last sermon of the prophet, he told the people that the man have their rights over their wife and the wife have her rights over her husband. On top of that the man of the house are made to be responsible for the well-being of their wife. The man are to clothe them(wife), feed them and protect them. The prophet have brought the woman into a whole new level, where they are to receive proper treatment from the husband and society. The prophet also upgrade the status of a wife to be the partners and commited helpers of the husband.

In the Quran the book of authority in Islam there is a chapter call "Sura Nisa"(chapter women) which happens to be the fourth chapter in sequence and third longest chapter after "Al-Baqarah"(the cow) and "Al-Imran"(the family of Imran). The chapter on women deals extensively on women rights and obligations. I would like to use some of its contents to briefly show the true position of woman in Islam.(by the way quran is the only scripture that deals with woman's right in a community)

In the case of marriage, the woman is on the receiving end as for those man who wants to take her as a wife are obligated to produce a dowry. In Islam, the woman is totally free to choose if she wants to work or stay at home and deals with the home affairs. The men of the house on the other hand are suppose to feed and clothe their wifes, in other words the man of the house dont have a choice but to work and feed the family. Even at home the woman can choose not to do any home chores, she can choose not to do laundry, clean the house or anything like that. According to the example of the prophet, he does the home chores on his on, he wash his own clothes, do shopping and at the same time he have to work and earn money to feed his family. As a prophet of God he is doing it on his own, hence for a muslimin(muslim man) like me, I should not be complaining of the hardship because the prophet himself did it willingly.

In a case of divorce, the man is still responsible for the finance of his child if he has one. The mother of the child does not need to finance the child at all. If a wife happens to be working, she can keep her earnings to herself and does not need to share it with anyone. After some discussion on woman rights in muslim community, I would say that women have a higher probability of benefiting financially and psychologically. However the media have always been trying to portray a negative image of Islam by show violent images of woman being prosecuted. The video which is shown are minority groups who still practice oppression towards woman and they are practicing it according to their culture and not in the name of Islam.

In Islam if the wife misbehave, we are taught to advise her for the bad conduct. If she is persistent with bad behavior we are taught to sleep in separate beds(dont have any sexual intercourse with wife). If she still causes problem we can hit her very gently. Hitting is permissible but with the condition of not causing her to bleed, swell, fracture or damage to the skin. The verse continues by stating that if situation might worsen if you were to hit her, than dont hit her at all.

I might not be the best person to describe to you how woman are treated or if they are being oppressed by family, society, or the religion itself, however I am certainly sure that you would not get the accurate answer if you were to get answers from a non-muslim or people who dont know Islam. To be fair you have to ask a muslimah(muslim woman) on these issues to know the actual story.