Freedom of women in Islam Fatwa No: 84550
- Fatwa Date:21-7-2002
Why in Islam women do not have their freedom?
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
A woman was in a miserable state before Islam. She was subjected to humiliation, injustice and oppression. She was buried alive for fear of poverty. Also, women were used as a means for gaining money and for prostitution, which is a source of disgrace.
By the advent of Islam, the Sharee'ah honors the woman, gives her the natural position in life and returns her freedom. In general, she is like a man except in some rulings and regulations that befit her physiologically.
The woman in Islam ranks high as a daughter, sister, wife and mother. Islam grants the woman her personal and financial freedom as well as independence to behave within the Sharee'ah limits and good customs that Islam sanctions, i.e. without committing what is unlawful such as displaying her charm, misdeeds and uncovering her body. At the same time, man has freedom, but within the Sharee'ah limitations and good and useful customs that Islam sanctions.
So, it is not true to say that women do not rank high in Islam. Whoever wants Muslim women to be free from her modesty, morals, honor and religion, wants misery for her in order to overburden her and to ask her to do what she naturally cannot.
Allah knows best.