Status of Women in Islamic Society

This research examines the status of women in Islamic society. The status of women originated in the Koran and Mohammed's interpretation of it 1400 years ago. By the time of Mohammed's appearance, the cultural expression of Christianity had become ecclesial and institutional. The cultural expression of Islam on the other hand held that religion and everyday experience were intertwined. Islamic doctrine evolved toward what Campbell describes as the "ungainsayable consensus" and "the mystique authority from heaven" (Campbell 439). The consensus was articulated as Islamic law, called the sharia, characterized by "a transcendental order untouched by the realities of time, or by the sins of those upon whose shoulders it descends" (Campbell 438). In other words, those who administer the sharia are infallible, and Islamic culture escapes "the so-called laws of the nations [that] are but delusions, afflicting all in whose hearts the light has not yet dawned" (Campbell 439).

The facts of history are against the idea that the sharia is unchanging, at least in its real-world application. On the other hand, the severity with which the sharia is applied to women in some Islamic cultures suggests that convictions about its immutability are deeply held. The relevance of this to women's position in Islam can be traced to a famous verse of the Koran:

Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support th

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prime minister at the national level. Mokeddem (passim) uses the political rivalry between fundamentalists and secularists in Algeria as the background for a novel in which injustices and humiliation are routinely aimed women by patriarchal fundamentalists. Yet Schwartz (79) also quotes an Algerian journalist to the effect that women "and only women . . . stand between us and Islamist takeover." In Malaya, a group of Muslim professional women who call themselves the Sisters In Islam have attempted to foster a reconciliation of the Koran's position on women as anchors of family life and the drive for equal social rights. What is significant about that informal group is that its very existence would be unthinkable in Sudan or Saudi Arabia ("In the Name" 110f). Dube (167-8ff) cites the governance of the predominantly Islamic islands of India's Lakshadweep Territory in the Indian Ocean, based on the so-called taravad, or a matrilinear style of governance which appears to have accommodated Islamic concepts of property and trade in exchange for the guarantee of women's rights. However, in Sri Lanka, the sharia is in control, and restrictions are placed on Islamic women's behavior (Goonesekere 305). Callaway and Creevey (passim) cite d

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