I am often asked about women’s role in Islam. The reality is that women are an integral part of both Islam and Britain alike. The Quran regards men and women as equals in the sight of God. It’s time, then, that we champion the success of Muslim women such as Malala Yousafzai, Mishal Husain and Nadiya Hussain, who are throwing a positive spotlight on the contribution that Muslim women make to British society and who give young girls up and down the country and around the world someone to look up to.
Islam grants women, as it does men, fundamental rights to life, property, and opinion, and has done so for more than 14 centuries. However, it cannot be denied that despite this, they’ve had to fight for equality every step of the way. Men have sought control over their finances, opinions and fundamental rights to life, but “Time’s Up” on those controls; it’s time for a cultural shift.
[TOP RATED COMMENT] It is nothing less than an absolute insult to women everywhere to allow the representative of a religion that treats them as second class citizens by it's own religious laws a public platform to speak about women on Women's International Day. The utter bald faced hypocrisy of this 'newspaper' is completely baffling to me.
[ANOTHER] Where are the female imams? You chaps talk the talk but do you walk the walk?
[ANOTHER] Yep, Muslims are so bent over backwards to treat both sexes equally that around a third of British Mosques have absolutely no provision for women. These are registered as charities and as such subsidised by everyone, including women. We are just so stupid.
[ANOTHER] As an Imam, I often write transparently mendacious pieces for the left-wing media to try to con the naive that my backward religion is compatible with 21st century western values.
[ANOTHER] Most people in this country live near a Muslim community and can see with their own eyes how women are treated . We don't need this flannel from an Iman.
[ANOTHER] Nice read but a bit too much to swallow all in one go, I'm afraid.
To be fair we must also consider the behaviour of Catholic persons and ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Religion has never been a friend of society considering the costs in lives and cruelty over the centuries.
[ANOTHER] "The Quran regards men and women as equals in the sight of God" is a lie.
4:34 in my old Penguin Classics, The Koran, reads "Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other".
I stopped reading there because Quari Asim revealed he either hasn't read the Koran (hardly likely as an imam) or he is using taqiyya - the practice in Islam of lying to gain the trust of infidels. [The Independent] Read more
