The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the topic of religion in marriage. Specifically it will discuss whether Islamic marriage is better or worse for women than Christian marriage. After study of these two religions, it becomes quite clear Islamic marriage is much worse for women than Christian marriage. This essay will show that Islamic women are subjugated by their religion and do not enjoy the freedoms or the equality that Christian women enjoy, and perhaps even take for granted.
Why is Christian marriage so much better for women? There are many reasons, but perhaps the most compelling is the idea of spiritual love. Nearly all Christian marriages are based on faith and spiritual love, while Islamic marriages are most often based on not love but marriage contracts and family management. In effect, Islamic married women are little more than prostitutes. They must satisfy their husband's sexual desires and in return, they receive food, clothing and shelter (which they of course must maintain). Writer Robert Spenser notes, "This superiority is divinely ordained: 'Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them' (Sura 4:34). Thus, husbands are advised: 'Women are your fields, go, then, into your fields whence you please' (Sura 2:223)" (Spenser, 2002). This writer continues, "A hadith has the Prophet saying, 'If a man invites his wife to sleep with him and she refuses to come to him, then the angels send their curses on her till morning.' The Prophet does not say anything about why the woman might have refused" (Spenser, 2002). Thus, women are simply sexual servants or slaves to their husbands, while Christian...
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...ss in their marriages.
References
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My research paper studies the three most significant and commonly known Western Religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in terms of their religious beliefs regarding the place and the role of women in society. Religion is the cardinal force that binds a race or a religious group together, and it equips it with a sense of identity. It does this by providing a code of life, governing all aspects of life, and determining convictions of its followers
She makes the case that Western feminists have radically misinterpreted the veil. For many Muslim women, the veil acts as a divide between the public and private. The veil may actually liberate women from “the intrusive, commodifying, basely sexualizing Western gaze”. The veil frees women from the oppressive hyper-sexualization of found in Western culture. Reducing the veil to a symbol of oppression disregards the possibility of female agency outside a Western feminist paradigm. The veil has the potential to liberate women in the public space. Projecting our Western notions of sexuality and gender roles denies the possibility of different forms of sexual
The significance of representing such a history is that it may open William Beckford’s narrative of the Arab Muslim woman to a new analysis and judgment. It may, as well, help in “allowing us to see them [Arab Muslim women] not as "culminations" of a natural truth, but "merely the current episodes in a series of subjugations" (Foucault 1977, 148)” (mohja), and to differentiate between them as represented in Western texts whose feet never touch earth, and the real –flesh and blood–ones whose “feet touch earth in Hamah or Rawalpindi or Rabat.”( MOHJA)
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One of the most famous contemporary ethnographic studies of women and gender within Islam is Erika Friedl’s Women of Deh Koh, in which her main concern seems to be providing he...
In traditional Bengali culture, young women are not encouraged to date casually. Eventhough Mrs. SK’s parents were open-minded and westernized compared to their contemporaries; Mrs. SK was expected to marry a Bangladeshi man through a match-making process. Mrs. SK expressed that it is very important for her to marry someone who is Muslim and “follows The Qur’an in a modern way”. She stated that being with ...
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The first religion and its views on women that will be discussed in this essay is Islam. Islam is a religions founded in Saudi Arabia almost two thousand years ago, by the prophet Muhammad. In fact, Muhammad dedicated much attention towards women in the Koran, the holy book of Islam. However, even though much was dedicated to women in the Koran, it was not dedicated to them in the sense of equality. Women in Islamic culture were apparently much lower on the totem pole than men, "The men are made responsible for the women, since God endowed them with certain qualities, and made them the bread earners...If you experience opposition from the women, you shall first talk to them, then [you may use such negative incentives as] deserting them in bed, then you may beat them (129)." Excerpt...
One of Sultana Yusufali’s strongest arguments in “My body is my own business” is her scrutinization of the exploitation of female sexuality. Initially Yusufali writes about the injudicious individuals that assume she is oppressed by her hijab. Thereafter, she describes them as “brave individuals who have mustered the courage to ask me about the way I dress”. Moreover, Yusufali’s word choice is intriguing as she utilizes the word “brave” when laymen hear this word they habitually associate the aforementioned with heroic, valiant and courageous. Consequently, Yusufali ensues to comprise her opinions on the hijab and how it carries a number of negative connotations in western society. Furthermore, Yusufali proceeds to strike on the importance
Abu-Lughod, Lila. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections On Cultural Relativism And Its Others." American Anthropologist 104.3 (2002): 783-790. Print.
Although both early Muslims and current Sharia law greatly value the protection of women, there are vast differences between the two regarding women in court and law, veiling, ownership of property and business, and basic freedoms such as education revealing the exaggeration of rules and values within Islam and leading to a condescending perception and restricted rights of women in Islamic societies. Claim 1: While women were granted the same opportunity as men to freely utilize the court and law to their advantage during the beginnings of Islam, women under harsh Islamic law today are disadvantaged legally resulting in an Islamic societal perception that women are less important than men. During the first several centuries of the existence
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As an Arab American, a Muslim and a woman writer, Mohja Kahf challenges the stereotypes and misrepresentation of Arab and Muslim women. Her style is always marked by humor, sarcasm, anger and confrontation. “The Marvelous Women,” “The Woman Dear to Herself,” “Hijab Scene #7” and “Hijab Scene #5” are examples of Kahf’s anger of stereotypes about Muslim women and her attempts to fight in order to eradicate them, in addition to her encouragement to women who help her and fight for their rights.