Islam

Islam: Marriage and Gender Roles

In today’s world, marriage and gender roles differ from one part of the world to another. As such, there are many differences between societies in the West and Islamic countries in the Middle East as far as gender roles and marriage life goes. Thus, in Islamic counties highly influenced by the Qur’an, does the woman play a more important, less important, or as important role in the family? I believe that, according to popular scholars and excerpts from Qur’an, not only does the woman play an important role, she is as equal to the husband, however she is superior in certain areas where the husband cannot fulfill those certain tasks.

The Argument

There can be found leading evidence in many excerpts of the Qur’an that both Mohammed and Allah’s writings are not exactly misogynistic when it comes to family values, even though it may seem quite the contrary. Indeed, Muslim scholar Amin Ahsan Islahi writes,

“First, men have been granted superiority over women. There are certain innate abilities and traits in men which are more pronounced in him and because of which he has been made the head of a family unit.” 1

However, he then proceeds to write,

“It should be appreciated here that the superiority men have over women is not absolute: it is only in certain [areas] […].There are certain other [areas] in which women are more superior [to] men but they do not entitle them to become the head of family.” 1

As such, women have their own areas in the family where they are superior to men. While married, the woman is subjected to taking care of the household, as well as taking care of the children. Such activities are not done by the husband, since he is financially responsible for the family: he provides t...

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...creates his or her own interpretation, which may be in a terrible, unintended way.

All in all, Islam is a very peaceful, and relatively equal religion at its core, when it comes to gender roles in marriage. Both genders have essential, but different, rights that supersede one another on different levels, meaning that not one person is of higher importance than the other. Unfortunately, many misconceptions occur when it comes to certain Qur’anic verses, which sometimes happens to be to the woman’s disadvantage, or even her demise in some cases. However positively, the general consensus amongst scholars and imams is that misogyny and domestic violence toward women within marriage is completely unacceptable and un-Islamic. A man and a woman are made to have mutual respect for one another, which has been the striving goal put forth in the Qur’an so many centuries ago.