Outstanding Women Scholars of Islam-  8^th century to 20^th century

Source: Academia.edu

By Zakaria Virk, Toronto, Canada

There is a misconception that there have been no women scholars in Islam. In this article we are presenting brief biographies of 55 eminent Muslim women who were gifted scholars. Some women established girl’s schools and some were matrons of scholars. Some were rulers who spent money stupendously in disseminating knowledge. Some were lecturers, authors and some were translators. Some women were so learned that men drank from the fountain of their knowledge. Each woman described here contributed to the sum total of human knowledge in her own unique way.

We agree there should have been more women scholars, but the severe social taboos and religious restrictions placed on women in Islamic countries were insurmountable barriers in their pursuit of knowledge. Women were not allowed to go out of their houses. To this day in many modern Islamic societies women are considered a distracting influence. Some men feel threatened by the educated woman or consider them a challenge to their authority. Women were obliged to observe veil-purdah which was a hindrance in interacting with male professors. They were not allowed to talk to strangers. Mothers taught their young daughters’ acquiescence to male domination. Men were considered inherently superior. Women were expected to procreate, satisfy men, stay at home and raise children. Any time a woman did something on her own free will it was considered disgrace to family honour. In the 10^th century Muslim scholars banished women from mosques claiming dogs, donkeys (unbelievers) and women disrupt prayer just by passing too near a mosque. Independent travel by women was not allowed. Women, evil temptresses, who acted like men were cursed. Immodest women aroused uncontrollable urges in men. (M. French, History of Women, page 281)

Some woman, however were allowed to attend schools, hence they made a name as we shall see in this article.

Muslim woman daring to read a book – “the best person in the sight of God is one reading a book.”

Things are improving around the world. In particular those Muslim woman who have been born or raised in the Western culture. These women are making big strides in every field. Those women, who emigrated from Muslim countries to Europe or America, have made tremendous advances because they are free to think and make choices. As for Muslim countries, women are scoring victories, small and large. Iran’s parliament compromised with conservative clerics to allow a single young woman to study abroad, albeit with her father’s permission. Bangladesh passed legislation increasing the punishments for crimes against women, including rape, kidnapping and acid attacks. Egypt has banned female circumcision and made it easier for women to sue for divorce. In Qatar women have the right to participate in municipal elections and are promised the same rights in first-ever parliamentary balloting in 2003. Bahrain has assured women voters and candidates that they will be included in new elections for its suspended parliament. Saudi Arabia has started issuing ID cards to women since 2010 so they can travel in the absence of a guardian though permission is still needed. Turkish parliament has reformed family law. Previously, a man was the head of the household, able to make unilateral decisions concerning children. No more. The law also establishes community property in marriages and raises the marriageable age of girls from 15 to 18. In India and Pakistan women’s plight is so egregious that it is better not to say anything. In May 2014 a pregnant 25 years old woman was bricked to death near the Lahore High Court because she married the man she loved.

When we compare the plight of women in Muslim countries with that in the Western world it was no different. In Europe and America university women were confined to basement laboratories and attic offices. They crawled behind furniture to attend science lectures. They worked in universities without pay as volunteers, in the US as late as 1970’s. Science was supposed to be rigorous and rational; women were deemed to be soft, physically weak and irrational. Until 1920’s most European high schools for girls were finishing schools. Women who wanted university training had to hire private tutors to learn math, science, Latin and Greek – required subjects for admission to a university.

If a woman established a scientific partnership with a man, it was assumed that he was the brains and she was the brawn. Western women suffered racial and religious discrimination. German mathematician Emmy Noether (1935), founder of abstract algebra & who did difficult calculations for Einstein, lectured in Gottingen under another mathematician’s name after the Prussian government refused her to be a university lecturer. Nobel Prize winner Italian Rita Levi-Montalcini began her research in her bedroom hidden from the Nazis. China born C.S. Wu (d.1997) who overturned law of parity could not get a research job during WWII due to discrimination against Asians. Gertrude B Elion, winner of Nobel Prize in medicine 1998 worked without pay. In the US universities were the main sponsors of research positions for men. Gerty Cori (Nobel Prize 1947) husband Carl was offered a job of his dreams at an American university, provided he stopped working with his wife. Collaborating with one’s wife in the 1920’s was un-American.

For women science education was much easier than getting a research job. Most colleges, universities, industry and government refused to hire women. Majority of women scientists taught in women’s colleges. Only 4% of women scientists in the US were employed by colleges and universities, in low ranking positions such as instructors, assistants, and assistant professors.

Where some women succeeded in science it was due to religious values stressing education. Astronomer Joycelyn Bell Burnell, discoverer of pulsars was a Quaker. Half of the women who won Nobel prizes had Jewish background. Of the three women born and educated in the US, & who won Nobel prizes two are Jews. The Jew’s commitment to learning and abstract thinking has helped them immensely.

Before the WWII in the 40’s Princeton Institute NJ, Columbia University NY, and Massachusetts institute of Technology refused to admit women as students. Maria Mayer, Emmy Noether, Lise Meitner and Hertha Sponer none of them became a regular professor in Germany. Johns Hopkins in Baltimore was a coeducational medical school, but the university JHU was vehemently opposed to admitting women as regular undergraduates. Maria Mayer, winner of 1963 Nobel Prize in physics, was never listed with 30 male research associates at Johns Hopkins in its catalog. When she asked for an empty office on the main floor, she was sent to the attic. She worked there for a number of years without pay just to stay active in physics.   (Nobel Prize women in Science by Sharon McGrayne, Joseph Henry Press, Washington dc 1998).

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