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WOMEN OF ISLAM.
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Discusses roles of women in Muslim society.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses roles of women in Muslim society. Position of women a function of religion, not level of education. No clear separation between the cultural and religious aspects. Global Muslim community in today's world. Immigrant Muslims and indigenous Muslims. Muslim and Western cultures. Effect of Islamic faith on family unit. Contends circumstances are different for Islamic women in different areas (Middle East, Pakistan, United States, England).

Paper Introduction:
Background Today the Islamic, or Muslim, community is global and numbers in excess of 900 million practitioners (Esposito 3). It continues to spread its influence throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and North America and can be found in such diverse environments as in the former Soviet Union, China and in England. It represents the second largest of the world’s religions and therefore must be considered a highly prominent influence in the global society. Even in the United States, Islam has a strong presence with an estimated “faithful” population in the range of between two (2) and three (3) million persons. The high rate of birth, the growing number of converts, and the continuing flow of immigration will likely contribute to Islam being the second

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New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.Haddad, Yvonne and Adair Lummis. A very large hurdle that needed to be overcome wasbringing people up to the higher educational and economic standardsprevalent in Western culture. New York, Amherst: Prometheus Books, 1997.Lobban, Richard (Ed). Thereaction of many Muslims to the feminist movement in the United States isalso very important as they view these beliefs to have significantlycontributed to the breakdown of the social structure. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.Hekmat, Anwar. Middle Eastern Women and the Invisible Economy. Considerable attention istherefore given to the position of men and women in the family unit. "Islamic Views on Domestic Violence." 21 November 2 2. As such thedifferences between Muslim and Western culture and the perceptions as towhat is appropriate and what is not appropriate for women, in the eyes ofthe West, have only deepened instead of improving. The high rate of birth, the growing number ofconverts, and the continuing flow of immigration will likely contribute toIslam being the second largest religious community in the United States bythe end of the first decade of the twenty-first century (Haddad & Lummis3). The first group consistsof those individuals who have come directly from other areas of the world,or whose parents or grandparents have immigrated. The Koran encourages tendernessand empathy between husband and wife.Conclusion The study of the women of Islam has oscillated between envisioningthe romantic, stereotyped luxury of harem life to describing their life asmiserable, oppressed, veiled, and subordinate to the dominant male of thefamily. It represents the second largest of the world's religions andtherefore must be considered a highly prominent influence in the globalsociety. Originally this groupconsisted primarily of persons of Lebanese descent, but today representover sixty (6 ) other nations. In North America, the Muslim population is divided into two (2) basicgroups-immigrant Muslims and indigenous Muslims. From thisit can be concluded that each circumstance is very different and must beevaluated according to factors unique to its own context. The rising divorcerate, promiscuous behavior, widespread availability of pornographicinformation, and the frequency of sexual inferences present in the mediahave strained Muslim beliefs at home in the United States as well as inother parts of the world. The most serious questions that have evoked this return totraditional Islamic standards, are those associated with resolving thefollowing issues (Haddad & Lummis 122-123): . Secondary to thiswas the typical Arab viewpoint that males were to be the protectors ofwomen from the public world of other males. Works CitedEsposito, John. Finally, the answer to the question of the role of women in Muslimsociety is made much more complicated by the lack of a clear separationbetween the cultural and religious aspects involved. In order to do this, many Muslim leadersrecognized that they would have to allow a more active role for women intheir society. Supporters of the faith will argue that Islamoffers an entirely different manner in which the relations between ahusband and a wife should be carried out. From the time of the Crusades, Muslims in the Middle East believedtheir morality and justification in the treatment of women in their societywas based upon the legal structure of the Islamic faith. What might appear to a Western observer as an inequity for a woman,such as the adoption of strict Islamic dress, can be interpreted as the"choice" the women make to better identify with their faith and to assumetheir responsibility "within the family unit" of educating males and thechildren of the family in the basic tenets of Islamic life and order.Again the reader is reminded of the reference to each member of the familyunit being able to appropriately fulfill his or her duties to the faith.In this context, it would be hard not to agree that the sexes, in Islam,are treated reasonably equal-most Americans, however, simply do not chooseto accept this line of reasoning (Haddad & Lummis 125). Statistical data pertaining to women in Muslim society is of poorquality. This leads to"methodological confusion" (Lobban 7) in seeing religion simultaneously asa cause, effect, barrier and provider in understanding gender relationshipsand interactions. This has also included a greater emphasis on family values andplaces an added burden, for example, on Muslims living in the UnitedStates. Islam: The Straight Path. The freedom associated with male-female encounters. The "colonial exposure" of the Middle East to Western culture in thelate nineteenth century as well as in other parts of the world where theIslamic religion had a reasonably dominant position placed additionalpressure on the Muslim society for change such that it could better adaptto Western culture. Some women becomeheavily involved in the decision-making and economic activity thatcontributes to their own specific economic welfare (Lobban 2-3). During the time of European "colonial intervention" in theMiddle East, missionaries and other representatives of Western culture wereable to convince Muslim leaders to bring about limited levels of changethat resulted in a number of reforms pertaining to the role of women. Polygamy and divorce. It is very likely that the position of women in Muslimnations will be a function of the general level of education more than afunction of religion. . Another factor that has become increasingly significant is thePakistani influence on the interpretation of Islam in the Arab world. Thecontext of the family unit in the United States is very different than thatto which Muslims are accustomed. Background Today the Islamic, or Muslim, community is global and numbers inexcess of 9 million practitioners (Esposito 3). The maintenance of the family and itsstructure is very important to Muslims. Women and the Koran: The Status of Women in Islam. It continues to spreadits influence throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and North America and can befound in such diverse environments as in the former Soviet Union, China andin England. . Nor did many of thesechanges necessarily represent "appropriate" roles for women. Consequently, Muslims are caught in a situationwhere they actively seek Western technology, but their beliefs cause themto need to reject the social values of Western culture, especially thosethat are associated with the relationship between the sexes (Haddad andLummis 124).The family unit The Islamic faith emphasizes the central position of the family asthe core unit supporting society. The manner in which marriage partners are selected. The second group consists of largelymembers of the Afro-American community and a growing number of "Anglo"conversions that are presently estimated to be around 75, persons(Haddad & Lummis 3).Integration with Western beliefs While both of the above groups have integrated themselves reasonablywell into the culture of North America (and other Western cultures aswell), on a global basis, there continues to be a large disparity betweenthe cultures with the largest distinction being the way in which women aretreated and their respective roles in relationship to Muslim males. . Florida, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1998.Shabazz, Ama. Western culture makesa very definite distinction between religion and culture whereas theIslamic model seeks unity with religious tradition. Domestic violence is another area in which there is largedisagreement between the Western and Muslim cultures. Even in the United States, Islam has a strong presence with anestimated "faithful" population in the range of between two (2) and three(3) million persons. Certainly in theUnited States, domestic violence against women is running at epidemicproportions. The enemies of Islam try to imply that the faith condonesdomestic violence (Shabazz). It is difficult, in this latter regard, for example, to ascertainif the low wages reported in exported factory work is indicative ofexploitation or liberalization in the cash economy. At the time of the Crusades,many Arabs were taken aback by what they perceived to be the moral laxitydemonstrated by European Christian males in regards to the sexual freedomsafforded to women-this deep seeded resentment continues to surface even tothis day (Haddad & Lummis 122). Islamic Values in the United States: A Comparative Study. The wide range of the status of women in thesenations indicates that religion may be more of a contextual setting forpolitical struggle than a causative factor. Consequently, there hasbeen a return by Muslims to the traditional standards of modesty, moralityand honor. As stated earlier, the Muslim belief structure is firmly rooted inthe teachings of the Koran where basic rights for women are delineated.Full religious equality exists, according to the Koran, between the sexesas far as is necessary for each to fulfill the basic duties of the faith.It is the last phrase of the previous sentence that is so important,"...for each to fulfill the basic duties of the faith...." Many of the"inequities" perceived by Westerners with respect to the treatment of womenin Muslim society are simply based on judgments and interpretations made ofthe Koran where the male has the specific responsibility to care for andprovide for the women contained within his family unit (Haddad & Lummis125). Thechanges, however, were not absolute and sweeping.

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