Do women rights matter?

Women in history religions have been faced with social and cultural obstacles. They were
under a man’s domination and were treated like objects. Man had the rights to trade
women and even kill them. Islam rejects all kinds all kinds of discrimination against women.
It gives women an identity and independence in terms of ownership and acceptance.

In the pre-Islamic era, women did not have any human or social value, her only duty was to
serve a man and give birth to a son. Let’s go to the very start, daughters at birth were
considered a misfortune and were often buried alive.

Let’s now talk about different places and different religions and
the rights of women there.
Let’s start with India,
After the death of a husband, the fire worshippers would kill the wife and burn her in fire,
they considered burning the women as a kind of sacrifice and it would show and mark the
love of a woman for her husband. In their religion the best wife would be the one who
cremated her husband after his death. In Marta, 2 Indian chiefs died one had 17 wives and
the other had 12 wives, they had a total of 29 wives, only one who was pregnant had
survived till her delivery while the other were all burned in a fire.
Egypt,
To increase the Nile river, girls were decorated with ornaments and were drowned in it.
Usually the women inherited very little to nothing at all. Women were used at objects and
would often be rented or given to friends with the intention of increasing the generation.
Iran,
A woman in ancient Iran had no freedom nor authority to express her opinion between the
good and bad decisions even if it were to be about their own life. Women and girls in all
legal fields were with their parents or husbands. According to some historians, in Iran, based
on the wrong idea of preserving family lineage and not mixing the blood of this family it’s
other families, marriage and mahrams, even brothers and sisters were considered
permissible and sometimes even necessary. Women were also counted as non-citizens as
well as slaves and they were not given the right to vote and participate in elections.
Zoroastrianism:
Women of such religion have started to evolve
into having appropriate and equal rights such
as previously women were only seen as
objects but as time passed their overall status
increased, they gained rights legally. There
Different religions
was improvement in inheritance law, marriage
rights, greater rights for Parsi women. Even
though men are still considered more
dominant and have gained more rights,
women rights have significantly increased.
Polytheistic religion:
Judaism: The female guardian would not have a legal
Women previously would not have personality. In their eyes, the exclusion of girls
appropriate rights and were only seen as a from inheritance was a general and accepted
object towards producing generation, they principal. Before women were seen as an
would be traded like objects, now their status individual who would bear children, weave fabric
has increased and they are seen as having a and manage household activities. Now women are
sacred role of bearing children, running their receiving education as well as are granted
homes and taking responsibility for their inheritance.
children’s upbringing. They have now been
provided with rules of modesty, education, Christianity:
and there has been a improvement in the Women somewhat had better
treatment of women. As the education is
treatment and were given equality
provided there are numerous woman scribes
as well, leading to betterment of future though even at that time male were
generations and increase of rights for women given more rights. Women have played
in general. important roles in Christianity especially
in marriage and in formal ministry
positions within certain christian
denominations. As time passed women
started gaining more rights like
permission to work other than just in
churches, they are also given more
status and dignity as well as respect.

As per Islam:
In the era or prophet (SAW), a new horizon was opened in the life of women. They gained
their dignity and moved on the path of studying science and attaining human perfection. As
a result, hundreds of women proficient in Islamic
sciences and education and active in social affairs were educated and participated
in social activities such as political allegiance and participation in social,
economic, science, culture, religion, immigration, and even jihad and fighting
against the enemies of Islam and martyrdom in the way of God. Women were given more
rights and values like choosing a spouse, taking part in social and political affairs, having the
right to divorce etc.
Some of the rights of women in the Quran include:

Equal rights of men and

women in business: Men
and women have equal
1. rights in business and property, and there is no difference between spouses in this
regard. God says in verse 32 of Surah Nisa: “ for men it is a benefit from what they
have earned, and for women it is a benefit from what they have earned”. Therefore,
women have the same freedom in business as men a prime example would be
Khadijah (ra) who was a success business woman.
2. Defending women’s privacy: the holy Quran prescribed severe punishment for
slandering chaste women: “ And those who accuse chaste women of adultery then do
not bring four witnesses, so give them eighty lashes, and never accept any testimony
from them, and they are the ones who are in fact transgressors”
3. Order for men to treat women well: in various places of the holy Quran, god orders
men to treat women well and not tolerate their rights. And of course, the reason for
such statement to men is because of the probability of this is very high, because men
are usually more ready to violate women rights due to their physical strength and the
position they have created for themselves in different societies for all kinds of abuse.

In Islam there is absolutely no difference between men and women as far as their relationship
to Allah is concerned, as both are promised the same reword for their good deeds and same
punishment for the evil conduct.
The Quran says “ and for women rights over men are similar to those of men over women”
(2:226) the Quran also in addressing believers often uses the expression, ‘ believing men and
women’ to emphasise the equality of both genders in regard to their duties. the Quran also
says that women have souls in exactly the same way as men and will enter paradise if they do
good. The Quran admonishes those men who Ill treat women or oppress them. Prophet said “
women are the twin halves of men”. Aisha reported that Saudah bint zamah went out one
night and Umar (RA) saw her and said, “ by god, o saudah, why do you not want to hide
yourself from us?. She went back to the prophet and told him about it while having supper in
her room, and Prophet said “ it is permitted by Allah for you to go out for your needs”.
By comparing different religions with Islam regarding the rights of women, we
can realise that Islam has a special philosophy regarding the family rights of men
and women, and some of the rights, duties and punishments are for men and some
of them are for women considered more appropriate. In general, it can be said
that it is necessary for men and women to share in human dignity and honour that
they have equal rights to each other so that there is no legal preference or
privilege. Or its requirement is that the rights of men and women should be
similar and uniform in addition to equality and no division of labor and is there
no duty at work. There is no doubt that it is necessary for men and women to
share human dignity and their equality in terms of humanity, their equality in
human rights, but what about their similarity in rights? What is certain is that
Islam has not given equal rights to men and women, but Islam has never given
rights to men over women. Islam has respected the principle of human equality
for men and women. Islam is not against the equality of rights of men and women,
it is against the similarity of their rights. There is no doubt that these two are
different from each other, in terms of natural creation, and this difference and
diversity in the natural creation of men and women does not make one imperfect
and the other perfect. Just as the rights of men are discussed in Islam, the rights
of women are also discussed. What is important from the point of view of Islam
is that men and women are not similar to each other in many ways due to the fact
that one is a woman and the other is a man, creation and nature did not want
them to be uniform and this requires that they do not have the same status in
terms of many rights, duties and punishments.
Therefore, if a woman wants to find rights equal to men's rights and happiness
equal to a man's happiness, her only way is to eliminate the equality of rights, to
give rights to men in proportion to men and to herself rights in proportion to
herself. It is only in this way that the true unity and intimacy between man and
woman will be established, and the woman will enjoy a happiness equal to that
of a man, but even higher than it. And men will give equal and even more
rights to women out of purity and without deception. The dissimilarity of the
rights of men and women to the extent that nature has placed men and women in
a disparate situation, is better adapted to justice and natural rights and provides
better family happiness, it does, and it also moves the society forward better.
References: Wikipedia.
1-Equal rights of men and women in business: Men and women have equal
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