Frontline: Muslims

Women's Rights and Marriage in Islam

By Susan L. Douglass and Nadia Pervez  - 2003

Overview

The lesson provides information on marriage and the general legal rights of women according to Islamic law. Quotations from the Qur'an and the Sunnah illustrate the spirit and substance of the ideal of marital relations. Several verses on gender rights and obligations explore the issue of relations between men and women in society. Finally, a series of quotations from prominent 20th century male and female writings on women in Islam give a range of viewpoints on the subject of gender relations.

Objectives

The student will be able to:

• describe the basic rights and obligations of women by analyzing the words of the basic sources (in translation) to understand their basis in Islamic law
• explain the spiritual, personal and social significance of the ideal of marriage in Islam
• analyze aspects of gender relations according to the Islamic sources
• compare the views of several twentieth century writers on Islam and gender issues based upon excerpts from their writings.

Procedure

1. Distribute Handout 1 "Analyzing Primary Sources - Women's Rights in Islam" and have the students read it over. Explain to the students that Muslim jurists have derived women's rights from the two primary sources of Islamic knowledge, the Qur'an and Sunnah, for the purpose of judging individual legal questions and cases. Working as individuals, pairs or small groups, students will associate the numbered list of women's rights at the top of the page to the primary source quotations in the list below the dotted line. In the post-activity debriefing, students will be asked to explain why they matched the sources to the rights in the way that they did. See answer key. NOTE: some quotations or rights have more than one correct match.
2. Adaptation: For younger or mixed ability students, the teacher can select the briefer quotations, cut them out of the handout and ask students to and match them to the right item on the list of rights (on an overhead transparency or other form of projection). In small groups, have them read the statements of rights and prepare to describe how these quotations support the idea of rights for women in Islam. Discuss the concept of rights linked to duties, and ask what persons or social groups are responsible for giving women their rights.
3. At the conclusion of the basic activity, open discussion on one or more of these basic rights for women with the purpose of answering the following questions:
   • rights are linked to obligations in the Islamic ethical system. Using the primary source quotes, infer what obligations women have for each of the rights listed. Are these obligations implied in the primary source quotes?
   • what do the rights of one gender mean in terms of obligations on the persons related to or married to a Muslim woman?
   • What do these rights mean for economic, social and political affairs in society as a whole? What obligations fall on society in terms of courts and judges who would uphold women's rights?
   • What customs or traditions in Muslim and other countries might inhibit or impair exercise of the rights and obligations given to women under various belief systems? Why do you think such customs and traditions developed?
4. Distribute Handout 2, "Analyzing Secondary Sources: Readings on Islam and Marriage, and the Status of Women." The students may be asked to choose one of the authors to focus on. Discussion questions for the three excerpts:
   • How do the authors characterize the status of women in Islam? How do they characterize the status of women in contemporary Muslim countries?
   • According to these authors, what efforts are Muslim men and women making to realize social justice for women?
   • How do the authors contrast the efforts of Western feminism with efforts among Muslims on behalf of women's rights?
5. Adaptation: Select one of the excerpts, or select individual paragraphs from them, and discuss the selections with the class, going over any vocabulary as necessary.
6. Extension: Students may do further research on the subject of marriage, divorce and women's rights in Islam and in Muslim societies. Two good sites of links are "Women in Islam" at http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/Islamwomen.html and "Near Eastern, Islamic, & Arabic Studies: Selected Internet Resources" at Yale University http://www.library.yale.edu/Internet/neareastern.html.

Sources

1. See notes to excerpted secondary sources in Handout 2.
2. Qur'an and Hadith translations from The Alim Islamic Software, Release 4. Baltimore, MD: ISL Software Corporation, 1996.