The Position Of Women In Islam

The Present Book Deals With The Status Of Women In Islam. It Has Been Divided Into Two Parts-The First Deals With The Status Of Women As Per Tenets Of Islam In The Family Structure And In The Society And Economy; And The Other, With The Status Of Muslim Women In Our Country. The Problems Specifically Highlighted Are: The Acquisition Of Knowledge By Muslim Women, Their Participation In The Process Of Consultation, Their Rights And Obligations In Regard To Social Life Of Muslim Community And Their Role In Economic Activities.

Challenging the conservative framers of Islamic law who accorded a lesser status to women, Mohammad Ali Syed argues that the Quran and the Hadith—the two primary sources of Islamic law—actually place Muslim women on the same level as Muslim men. Syed provides an overview of both sources and explores their respective roles in Islamic law, emphasizing the Quran's role as the supreme authority and questioning the authenticity of some of the alleged sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). From these texts, he elaborates women's rights in a variety of areas, including treatment by God; marriage, divorce, financial provisions, and custody of children; coming out of seclusion (purdah), and taking part in social, economic, legal, and political activities. Rather than presenting what is practiced today, the book covers the theoretical position of Muslim women as sanctioned by the Quran and the authentic Hadith and offers a glimpse of the exalted position of honor and dignity enjoyed by Muslim women in the early days of Islam. This well-researched book is made more distinctive by the author's personal experience. Raised in Bengal, India, Syed was inspired by his family, who valued men and women equally. As he grew up, Syed realized that most Muslim women lived very differently than the women of his family. According to the author, his family was egalitarian because his father and male relatives were not only devout Muslims but also very knowledgeable about Islam. This book is a culmination of his lifelong concern for women's rights under Islam.

A classic, pioneering account of the lives of women in Islamic history, republished for a new generation This pioneering study of the social and political lives of Muslim women has shaped a whole generation of scholarship. In it, Leila Ahmed explores the historical roots of contemporary debates, ambitiously surveying Islamic discourse on women from Arabia during the period in which Islam was founded to Iraq during the classical age to Egypt during the modern era. The book is now reissued as a Veritas paperback, with a new foreword by Kecia Ali situating the text in its scholarly context and explaining its enduring influence. “Ahmed’s book is a serious and independent-minded analysis of its subject, the best-informed, most sympathetic and reliable one that exists today.”—Edward W. Said “Destined to become a classic. . . . It gives [Muslim women] back our rightful place, at the center of our histories.”—Rana Kabbani, The Guardian

Contributed articles.

In this book, an attempt is made to describe the possible role of Muslim woman in a modern society in the light of the Qur'an and of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. In this respect, special consideration will be given to the effect of natural factors on the respective spheres of operation of the sexes; woman's position and status in society, whether equal or unequal; and whether the respective roles of the sexes have any influence in determining their status and role in society.

Mona Samadi examines the sources of gender differences within the Islamic tradition, with particular focus on guardianship, and describes the opportunities and challenges for advancing the legal status of women.

Political projects of modern nation-states, the specificities of their nationalist histories and the positioning of Islam vis-a-vis diverse nationalisms are addressed in this volume with respect to their implications and consequences for women through a series of case studies.