Epigraph:
Surely, men who submit themselves to God and women who submit themselves to Him, and believing men and believing women, and obedient men and obedient women and truthful men and truthful women, and men steadfast in their faith and steadfast women, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women who give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard their chastity and women who guard their chastity, and men who remember Allah much and women who remember Him — Allah has prepared for all of them forgiveness and a great reward. (Al Quran 33:36)
The raw figures on gender inequality look bad, but significant advances are taking place across the Arab world
Source: Newsweek
By Cherie Blair: She is Founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and wife of Tony Blair
A recent poll by Thomson-Reuters found that women remain marginalised and underutilised across much of the Arab and Muslim world.
This is a worrying state of affairs, not only because women should on principle have equal representation across society, but also because the full participation of women in society would improve the prospects for economic growth and political stability across a region that desperately needs both.
The findings, however, tell only part of the story. There are signs in the region of progress on multiple fronts for women, at all levels of society, that must be encouraged if we are to address the most critical challenge: the need to expand economic opportunities for women.
Tony Blair and Cherie Blair
An important but little-discussed factor driving these changes is that more women hold positions of authority in the greater Middle East than ever before. There are of course the high-profile names of women such as Queen Rania, Queen Noor, and Sheikha Moza, women, who by sheer force of their personalities, have raised their societies’ expectations for girls and other women.
There are pioneers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) like H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarek, who not only spearheaded universal education for women in the 1970s but also successfully pushed for the appointment in 2004 of the country’s first female Cabinet Minister, H.E. Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, who today is Minister of Development and International Cooperation.
The cultural shift led by these women is visible on the ground. In the U.S., there have recently been female Arab Ambassadors from Oman, Pakistan, and Bahrain (who also happened to be Jewish). The State of Qatar has just named its first female Cabinet Ministers and its first female Ambassador to the United Nations. The list goes on.
This is not to say that these women are typical or that Arab women do not face major challenges, such as battling oppressive traditions and sometimes the tenets of their religion, as the Reuters poll suggests. Progress across the region remains uneven.
So while, thanks to leaders such as Sheikha Fatima and the women she inspired, the UAE has the best ranking out of 136 countries for the ratio of girls to boys in education (according to a report by the World Economic Forum), other countries in the region fare less well.
But throughout the region, the gap in economic equality still remains perilously wide, and the full potential of local, regional, and global economies remains unachievable when half the population—increasingly educated and ambitious – is not engaged and contributing.
Women here have made some inroads. The growth of small to mid sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Arab and Muslim world is particularly fertile ground for female entrepreneurs, and overcoming barriers for them to access capital has been instrumental in realizing this potential.
The UAE, for instance, has implemented various reforms to encourage greater lending for both men and women, and banks and other lenders are now following the lead. Mariah Khan, head of private banking for women at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, is one of many lenders promoting loan packages and other incentives for women to start their own businesses.
Like any business, some will succeed and others will not; it is equality of opportunity that holds the promise for women to fulfil their full potential. Today, more than 20,000 companies in the UAE are owned by Emirati women, and this number continues to grow grew by 5-10 percent each year.
Of course, these emerging women entrepreneurs in the Arab and Muslim world, just as with any entrepreneur, need the right kind of support and network to launch and run their businesses. That is why in addition to assistance with start-up capital, mentoring and training are critical to female economic engagement.
Additional Reading
Gender Equality in the Holy Qur’an – In the Beginning Man and Woman Were Equal
Categories: Europe, UK, Women, Women In islam, Women Rights, Women's right
Qur’an gives equal rights to women. The religion of Islam does not stand in the way of the progress of women. But Islam is emerging from its dark age and it will take a while before most women in the Islamic world will feel the breath of fresh air.
Women should remember that they are not powerless. They in fact have tremendous power even in a male dominated Muslim society. But they have to take charge and not be intimidated by their religious leaders which are at least a hundred years behind in their thought. All power to those women who are trying to get their rights in male dominated cultures.
I find Islam to be liberating not oppressive: women are partners.
Islam is the first religion which systematically empowered women when women were considered as totally subservient to man. There was no concept of her being an independent entity and enjoying equal right with dignity. We live in a country where women are over-sexualised and sold as ‘products’ for capitalist gains. A woman’s beauty is splashed around everywhere, and she is only judged by that. Islam tells a woman to cover up so that she is not abused as Western women are. Islam provides the security and respect to women community than other religions. The western countries are using the women as an entertainment channels. All the women in the world should think about themselves then decide what is right and what is wrong for them in other religions (than Islam)
What is feminism? Nothing but women’s movement to empower her and to consider her full human being and not mere second sex as ‘Simon de Bouire called her. Thus we see in western countries until early part of twentieth century she did not enjoy an independent status. It was only after thirties of twentieth century that she won equal status legally and various western countries passed the laws to this effect. Yet patriarchy is looming large on her in these countries.
Qur’an empowered her and gave equal status. Another important question is what is the difference between Islamic and western feminism or is there any difference at all. If we go by definition of feminism as an ideology of empowerment of women, there is no difference. On the other hand, women had no rights and but won through great deal of struggle and this struggle came to be known as ‘feminism’ i.e. women’s empowerment.
But there are significant differences also between Islamic and western feminism. Islamic feminism is based on certain non-negotiable values i.e. equality with honour and dignity. Freedom has certain Islamic responsibility whereas in the west freedom tends to degenerate into licentiousness, though not in law but certainly in social and cultural practices. In western culture sexual freedom has become a matter of women’s right and sex has become matter of enjoyment and lost its sanctity as an instrument of procreation.
Qur’an does lay down certain strict norms for sexual behavior. Both man woman have right to sexual gratification (a woman has as much right to sexual gratification as man) but within marital frame-work. There is no concept of freedom for extramarital sex in any form. Sex is permissible only with marital framework. Sex, as far as Islam is concerned, is not mere enjoyment but an act for procreations and hence has sanctity.
It is important here to emphasize that in a patriarchal society men decided the norms of sexual behavior. It was theorized that man has greater urge for sex and hence he needs multiple wives and woman tends to be passive and hence has to be content with one. This is not true as far as Qur’an is concerned. Qur’an’s approach is very different. It is not greater or lesser degree of sexual urge which necessitates multiple or monogamous marriage.
Whole emphasis is on monogamous marriage (in both the Qur’anic verses i.e. 4:3 and 4:129). Multiple marriages were permitted only to take care of widows and orphans and not for greater sexual urge and the verse 4:129 gives the norm of monogamy and not to leave first wife in suspense or neglected. Thus as far as Qur’an is concerned sexual gratification is a non-negotiable right for both man woman. And hence a divorcee and a widow are also permitted to marry and gratify their sexual urge.
Also, in western capitalist countries women’s dignity has been compromised and she has been reduced to a commodity to be exploited. Her semi-naked postures and her sexuality is exploited commercially unabashedly. It is totally against the concept of woman’s honour and dignity. Unfortunately western feminists do not consider this as objectionable but accept it as part of woman’s freedom. Some (though not many) even advocate prostitution as woman’s right to earn her bread.
This is against the concept of Islamic feminism as while sanctioning sexual gratification as much right of woman as that of man, it prohibits extra-marital sexual liaison and on one hand upholds dignity and honour of woman and on the other, exalts sex on the level of sanctity and restricts it for procreation.. Thus it would be seen that discourse of Islamic feminism, while having something in common with modern western feminism, it also significantly differs from it. Islamic feminists have to observe certain norms which modern western feminists are not obliged to.
There is institutionalised oppression of women in all cultures. In India Hindu female foetocide numbers approximately two million every year. Hinduism is rife with sexism. Women are classed as objects owned by men. The Muslims from the Sub-continent were converted from Hinduism. They carry even now a lot of Hindu traditions of dishonouring women mostly in isolated ruler areas. In urban areas Muslims are well educated both Islamically and worldly and women have all the rights given by Islam.
UNICEF photo of the year shows, a bridegroom, 40, with his 11-year-old bride in Afghanistan. The bridegroom is going to take care of her and their future children. UNICEF photo of the year must show that the teenage pregnancies and abortion, drug addiction, binge drinking and anti-social behavior is on the rise in Britain. All of them are burden on British tax-payers. This is sickening. It’s no wonder Great Britain is in such a bad shape. Ten years old British girls are haveing babies out of wedlock. They are not allowed to get married but are allowed to have babies. Teenage pregnancy rate in Great Britain is the highest in Western Europe. It is a civilised country and Yemen is a backward country because it allows young girls to get married.
The Holy Quran gives more rights to women than the so called western civilisation.
Western Secularism cannot teach Muslims how to treat women. Islam teaches us how to be civilised. Islam is a middle path. Women are even abused in the UK Parliament, which is called the Mother of Parliament. It is not just verbal abuse the female MPs have had to deal with. The tradition of killing women for family honour is a “curse”. Violence against women is a global phenomenon. An Australian Judge failed to jail nine males who admitted gang-raping a 10-year old Aboriginal girl, by saying the victim probably agreed to have sex with them. More than half the babies born to British mothers this year will be outside marriage for the first time since records begins. There is a steady decline in marriage among British couples. Nearly all births to Pakistani mothers are within wedlock.
The veil signified the rejection of an unacceptable system of values which debased women while Islam elevated women to a position of honour and respect. It is not liberation, where women go naked. It is just oppression, because men want to see them naked. Miniskirts and plunging necklines represent oppression. Veil is a sign of liberation from a prevailing and dangerous western, secular norm – namely, a view of women purely as sexual objects. Western culture is liberalism, and that is in itself a set of norms. But now the time has come that liberalism must change its attitudes because Britain and the whole of West has undergone significant change. It is a fact that a veil cannot be equated with forced marriages, female circumcision or unequal education for girls. The real difference between man and woman is that they have different kinds of bodies designed for very different purposes, and they have also different kinds of mind because these, too, are designed to contribute differently to human needs and purposes. Men tend to be more imaginative and have more flair than women, but women are much more tenacious and better at multilasking than men.
Muslim boys and Girls need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Male and female Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. Muslim youths feel torn between two cultures, thanks to the state schools with monolingual non-Muslim teachers. Islam teaches Muslims youths to be virgin but western education system teaches the opposite. It makes their lives very confusing. They suffer from Identity Crises. The solution is that each and every Muslim child should be in state funded Muslim schools because western education makes a man stupid and selfish according to Lord Bertrand Russell.
IA
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
Dear Iftekhar Ahmed,
Excellent and to the point!
Jizakallah.
Dear Iftikhar Ahmed,
Excellent and to the point! Maa Shaa Allah, very powerful exposition of the female status in Islam and the western society. The Quran has described the ladies as “Hidden pearls”. But I need to find the exact verse…..
Every word of Iftikhar Sahib is true. Islam gave the right to the ladies in inheritance 1400 years ago. Nobody could take away her assets. She inherited from the mother and the father and husband (if married) and from her children.
Jizakallah, Iftikhar Sahib. May Allah bless you with His blessings.
Well! Would she also like to shed some lights on his war criminal husband’s stubbornness and consistent lies?