Gender Analysis
This article investigated the status and role of woman in Islam towards gender
equality. Islam treats both, man or woman equally in obligation and reward,
equally in education, equally subservient to God and obliged to worship Him and
obey His commands in their daily life, woman has right to property, freedom of
expression, matrimonial rights, equally in spiritual duties, equality in
treatment, equality in employment, equality in political sphere. The paper
concluded that to achieve gender equality.
Islam and gender is a controversial problem for scholars and analysts of the
Middle East. Unfortunately, the debate on this issue has at times become highly
acrimonious and not always placed in its proper historical or sociological
contexts. Women's limited participation in the scientific labor force
particularly at the highest echelons may be one of the most persistent and
slow-moving demographic characteristics in the scientific world today. A report
released last month by the US National Science Foundation suggests that women
scientists are at the bottom of the salary ladder by the time they reach
mid-career.
Broadly speaking, two related gender issues exacerbate the problem: one is
attitudinal and based on beliefs and values, the other relates to legal
doctrines. The attitudinal component concerns the prevalence in much of the
Middle East of certain patriarchal values, learned through the socialization
experience, on women and gender roles. The legal dimension pertains to the
essentially discriminatory nature of Islamic personal stares laws and the
criminal code when applied to women. The combination of these two
factors--patriarchal attitudes and legal strictures--places women in a highly
disadvantageous position in the social order. Clearly, many Islamic countries do
not apply either the full Islamic criminal code or the complete version of
personal stares laws to their citizens. The intensity of patriarchal values also
varies both within one country and from one Islamic society to another.
Nonetheless, the two themes of patriarchy and legal discrimination continue to
remain central to the debate on Islam and gender.
The problem is further complicated by strong positions that many Islamists have
taken on gender segregation in public space and in favor of other
non-egalitarian gender views. In their own particular way, the Islamist
movements have centralized the women's issue both in their extensive discourse
on the subject as well as in their behavior in public space.
Naturally human beings are divided into two genders and both are given
responsibilities and rights which suit them, discrimination is the practice of
granting or denying rights or offer privileges based on the gender. Islamic
considers woman not only equal to man but in some respects give her importance
more than man. Anyhow the misconception spread to the contrary, the present
demonstrates beyond doubt that the gender equality, freedom and dignity that
Islam offers to woman remain unparalleled.
The degeneration of the Muslim woman around the world over the past centuries is
a necessary corollary to their cultural disorientation wrought in the main by
the colonial holocaust. The platform for action that they need is the one
projecting the universal Islamic values. Some considerable aspects apart, the
proposed United Nations work-plan, at times, is in direct conflict with their
cultural milieu and, therefore, most likely to generate confusion and add to
their disorientation that they need to shake off at the first available
opportunity if they are serious to walk the road to equality.
“The number of female researchers in the Islamic World is above average, but
this does not translate to the quality of their participation, says Athar
Osama”.