Muslim claim that Islam has given the highest status to women; hijab-wearing Muslim women claim that it 'liberates' them. Well, giving high status to women or liberating them in Islam means turning them into slaves of men...
Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah (translated as The Life of Muhammad by A. Guillaume) is very telling about Muhammad, the cult of Islam and the value system functioning in 7th-century in Arabia.
Many Muslims proudly claim that Islam gives the best right to women. Many Muslim women, who wore Hijab or Niqab, claim that this dress-code 'liberates' women.
It is a shame, indeed, that those women, if asked, have probably never spent much time studying the Qur'an trying to decipher its meaning through knowing the reasons for the revelations (Asbab Alnizool). It is also a shame that such women have probably never read the Sirat to see how much rape and misogyny it includes. In this article, I provide the reader with two quotes from the Sirat to show the value system of Muhammad and the Sahaba regarding women.
Quote 1
This quote comes from Mu'adh, who was sent to Yaman (Yemen), to invite people to the fold of Islam. When Mu'adh was in Yemen, a woman came to him and asks: 'O companion of God's apostle, what rights has a husband over his wife?'
This is a realistic question coming from a woman, who wanted to understand what value system Islam has regarding the relation between a husband and wife.
Did Mu'adh tell her that Muhammad was a feminist, that women were equal to men, and that a woman could divorce her husband if he was over-bearing?
No sir. He did not say that.
Here is what he said verbatim (p. 644):
Woe to you, a woman can never fulfil her husband's rights, so do your utmost to fulfil his claims as best as you can.
Upon which the woman says:
By God, if you are the companion of God's apostle you must know what rights a husband has over his wife!
It gets even better. Here is what Mu'adh says to her in response:
If you were to go back and find him with his nostrils running with pus and blood and sucked until you got rid of them you would not have fulfilled your obligation.
Now, and may this is just me saying that, I do not think you can be a good Muslim and a good women's rights activist. In fact, if anything, the above quote shows how demeaning to women Islam can be.
Now, one may argue and say that this is just Mu'adh saying his opinion. He is not Muhammad after all. Does Muhammad fair any better?
Quote 2
Qur'an 4:34 sanctions beating of women. Isn't that enough to say that Islam demeans women, not liberate them? There has been many Muslim apologetics (e.g. Jamal Badawi), who try to 'dilute' this divine sanction of beating women. But this teaching about beating women is not only in the Qur'an. Muhammad preached similar injunctions in his khutbas (speeches or sermons). The following quote is from his famous farewell pilgrimage speech (p. 651):
You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you. You have the right that they should not defile your bed and that they should not behave with open unseemliness. If they do, God allows you to put them in separate rooms and to beat them but not with severity. If they refrain from these things they have the right to their food and clothing with kindness. Lay injunctions on women kindly, for they are prisoners with you having no control of their persons .
Now, correct me if I am wrong: Don't we treat our animals better than that?
I have written on the subject of women in Islam previously. The part 'not with severity' in the above quote does not mean that you are to go on lightly in the act of beating a woman. It simply means not doing it up to breaking bones. That is all. You can beat them well. Look, if you are going to beat her, you might as well do it right. Make it count!
It is a sad reality that many Muslim women today, who wear hijab, which, in reality, is a symbol of misogyny, claim that the hijab "liberates" them.