Women in Islam

Prior to Islam, girls were killed or buried alive. The primitive tribal Arab society wanted boys. Islam stopped this practice and severly punished those who committed such crimes. Recognising their specific physiological and mental characteristics, Islam protected women from abuse or violations. As a result Muslims in general are highly protective of their sisters, mothers or wives and attend to all their needs. In Islam, men are expected to pay for all the household needs and for raising the children while women are not required to work. For this reason, women inherit half of the share allocated to men. This is not easily understood in countries where women go out to work and earn wages.
Like any widespread religion, Islam is influenced by local cultures. While the Ottomans veiled their women (Harem), in Gambia, Muslim women walked the fields topless. At this very moment, Women in most Muslim countries frequent universities and hold professional jobs. As a matter of fact, Muslim women became Prime Ministers and Presidents before their counterparts in most Western countries. Until today, no woman was elected as President or Vice President in the United States of America. Furthermore, most Muslim women gained their voting rights before the women of Switzerland.

It is easy to find failures when using today's values in judging past practices. In primitive societies, women were considered as physically weak and had to depend on a male relative for support. Islam introduced legislations that were considered 200 years ahead of time. Unfortunately, instead of living in the 23rd century, Muslim fundamentalists of today want Muslims to live in year AD 600 the way the Prophet (PBUH) had lived. Arabs and Muslims need a room for their natural development, away from foreign interference. We lost our freedom, independence, sovereignty because of oil. I am unhappy to be distracted to tackle the women issue, leaving the current USraeli Nazi-type atrocities against my people. At one time, Baghdad was the centre of knowledge before the Monghuls destroyed it and killed 30000 'scientists', albeit the Caliph at the time was having 3000 women slaves. By the way, how can we verify the authenticity of any historical figure/number when there is so much distortion we see today despite the advanced communication facilities and travel media. Did you forget the fiasco of Saddam WMD? Has anybody behind the forgeries been investigated? Imagine someone is reading our history a thousand year from now and describes the idiocy of an American nation with Harvard and Yale and millions of graduates. History is written to suit the powerful and certain power centres. The current USraeli onslaught on Islam causes a backlash, with more men growing beards and women with head covers, mainly in defiance. On a recent visit to Cairo university I was surprised by the number of female students with head cover. It is 10 times more than that of few years ago. The more the Americans push the more ground they lose.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times