Has the rise and expansion of Islam broadened or restricted woman

rights?
By: Brian Esmeral Ariza

Over the years we have witnessed, from the comfort of our Western world, the way
in which Middle Eastern women have had some fence around them, however,
Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia) speaks of complementation, the differences are
between the roles of women and men, rights, and obligations. However, neither the
Qur'an nor the Hadith mention that women should be housewives. In most Muslim
countries women have a diverse set of rights in terms of marriage, divorce, civil
rights, legal status, dress codes, and education, based on different interpretations.
Scholars and other analysts disagree as to whether the interpretation of these
religious imperatives is correct and whether they are correct or not.
The Qur'an presents two visions regarding the role of women. Both emphasize the
equality of women and men before God in regard to their religious duties (including
believing in God and his messenger, praying, fasting, paying zakat (charity),
performing the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca / Medina)) and places women "under" the
care of men (that is, men are responsible from a financial point of view of their
wives). In a certain paragraph, it states: "Men are the providers and protectors of
women, because Allah has made one of them outweigh the other, and because they
spend their property (to support women)." The Qur'an explains that men and women
are equal in creation and in later eternal life, but not identical. The sura an-Nisa '4: 1
indicates that men and women have been created from a single soul (nafs wahidah).
A person does not precede another, one person is not superior to another, and one
person is not the derivative of the other. A woman has not been created to serve the
purposes of a man. But both have been created for the mutual benefit of each one
(Quran Quotation: 30:21).

Now, entering the social and global context, we can say that the moment Islam
expanded, we could observe more closely how women come to be submitted or
limited in the name of a religion that does not allow them to develop as much as the
rest of women in the world. And there will be someone who thinks that the Western
world is full of deviations and depravations that make women denigrate their
integrity, and that is probably true, but at least that is the decision, in most cases, of
each of them.
It seems as if the men of the Middle East had deformed the words of the Qur'an for
their convenience, instead of building an egalitarian society that respects the dreams
and decisions of each individual of the same. Such is the case that countries of the
Arab world that have been more flexible with women have been classified as impure
and unfaithful, according to their words. It is necessary to say that this is a culture
rich in history and great advances, but its way of life based on extreme religion has
put many negative points in the vision that the outside world has of them. Therefore,
the rights of the women of Islam have been somewhat restricted and rarely granted
in the way one would expect it to happen.

In conclusion, there is nothing left but to see how the women of Islam are once again
relegated to being a kind of property, with rights often limited or not granted. And it
seems that there is no possible solution and they are condemned to live like this
forever in the name of a culture that has taken their religious beliefs to such an
extreme that oppression is the bread of every day. Whether it looks like a feminist
discourse or not, is the reality.