Western Views of Women in Islam

Before venturing into the ideals and movements of Islamic feminism, it is important to recognize some of the biased views Westerners often take when it comes to women in Islam. Because of the portrayal of women in the Arab world through pop-culture and the media, some Westerners may believe that Islam creates a society in need of modernity. The concepts of religious government are also foreign to the Western world. Feminists often focus on the practice of veiling women in Islamic tradition as a law made to minimize the importance of women as citizens. It is important for us to recognize where our biased views exist, and what sorts of root assumptions we make about women in Islam.

The truth is, Islamic culture is highly misunderstood, and the customs within Islam are often misinterpreted by Westerners. Often we point to the Arab world as an example of poor treatment of women, without evaluating our own laws and practices. In an article in the Start Tribune published in 1989, Dr. Fatma Reda, a scholar from Egypt who came to the U.S. with her husband the year before, experienced some of the Western stumbling blocks for women and longed for her Islamic country. She decided to buy a parcel of land for herself, but in the U.S., she needed a co-signature of her husband. She had been used to more equality in Egypt between men and women. “Under Islamic law, women can own property independently of their husbands… in Islamic teaching, women are entirely equal to men… many times Muslim women make choices that look on the surface like we don’t have as much freedom, but it is just different” (p. 1).

Many Islamic cultures do in fact see women as secondary citizens, but Islamic women are becoming much...

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... It is time they realized they have much common ground” by Arzu Merali, the author points out what feminists have assumed of Muslim women. “The Islamic Human Rights Commission receives case after case of employers and educators using this image of the downtrodden Muslim woman to excuse discrimination. Muslim women are denied many opportunities on the assumption that they will- if not on a whim then by force- get married, or have many children. Or they face the horrendous dilemma of having to choose between employment and their Islamic garb.”

We are not prepared to enter a discussion on Muslim women if we do not understand that our stereotypical images are not accurate. The purpose of this project is to bring light to the facts of Islam, of women, and of the Qur'an. After obtaining these facts, only then can we interact for the common goal of feminism.