Women in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

Islamic law prohibits Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men. If a Muslim woman converts to Islam, her marriage to a non-Muslim husband is nullified. If a Muslim woman's husband apostatizes, their marriage is also nullified.   

This ruling, derived from a verse in the Qur'an, has enjoyed legally-binding scholarly consensus (''ijma'')<ref name="IndianaLawJournal">Leeman, Alex B. (2009) "Interfaith Marriage in Islam: An Examination of the Legal Theory Behind the Traditional and Reformist Positions," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 84 : Iss. 2 , Article 9. pp.754-759

Muslim men, by contrast, have fewer restrictions and are permitted to marry Muslim women and people of the Book (this includes Jewish and Christian women).

Rape, known in [[Islamic law]] as ''zina bil-ikrah'' or ''zina bil-jabr'' (literally "[[Zina|fornication]] by force"), is generally defined by Muslim jurists as forced intercourse by a man with a [[Islam and Women|woman]] who is not his wife or [[Slavery|slave]] and without her consent. As with enslaved females, according to Islamic law, married women are required to oblige their husbands' sexual advances - raping one's wife is permissible.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Muh Endriyo |last=Susila  | year= 2013 |url=https://journal.umy.ac.id/index.php/jmh/article/download/271/234| title=Islamic Perspective on Marital Rape |issue=2|volume=20|publisher=Jurnal Media Hukum, p.328}}</ref> The concept of "rape" is thus deemed to be equally non-existent in the contexts of both marriage and slavery.

A small number of hadiths are cited to support the Islamic punishments for rape. These narrations relate to the rape of free women and of female slaves who are not owned by the perpetrator. However, the Qur'an, on numerous occasions, permits Muslim men to have sexual relations with their own female slaves (famously referred to as "what your right hand possesses"), often in conjunction with the commandment for men to keep otherwise chaste. In addition, there are narrations in which female captives were raped prior to being ransomed back to their tribe.{{Quote|1={{Bukhari|3|34|432}}|2=Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri: that while he was sitting with Allah's Apostle he said, "O Allah's Apostle! '''We get female captives as our share of booty, and we are interested in their prices, what is your opinion about coitus interruptus'''?" The Prophet said, "Do you really do that? It is better for you not to do it. No soul that which Allah has destined to exist, but will surely come into existence."}}

{{Main|Revelation of the Hijab|Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Hijab}}According to Islamic scriptures, Umar bin Al-Khattab, a companion of Muhammad, wished that Muhammad would reveal verses from Allah requiring women to cover and wear the hijab. When Muhammad did not oblige, Umar followed Muhammad's wives out at night and in the dark when they went to go to the toilet and made his presence known, later informing the prophet that he had spied his wives relieving themselves in the dark, and that had his wives been cloaked in a garment such as the hijab, he would not have been able to identify the women as being the prophet's wives. Having heard of this, Muhammad received the revelation that Umar had requested, and the verses of the hijab were sent down from Allah. Islamic scholars differ in their interpretation of the verses prescribing female attire. All four madhabs agree by consensus that women must cover their entire body, excluding their hands and face, except for Hanafis, who also permit women to reveal their feet. These clothing requirements only apply in the presence of unrelated men (in addition to some male relations) and during prayers. Hanafis and some other scholars also require women to observe these requirements in the presence non-Muslim women, fearing that these non-Muslim women may describe a Muslim woman's physical features to other men. {{Quote|{{Quran|24|31}}| And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments.}}

{{Main|Sex Segregation in Islam}}In Islamic law, unrelated women and men are not allowed to be alone together, have any sort of physical contact, engage in frivolous conversation, look at one another for any reason other than momentarily for the purpose of identification, or pray such that a woman is located in front of or adjacent to any man (women must stand behind men in prayer). Women are also instructed in the Quran to remain at home as much as possible and are required to live and travel under the supervision of a male guardian or relative. Islamic law, as a result, virtually excludes the possibility of male-female friendships. Islamic scholars have traditionally taken these specific limitations on women's presence and participation in the public sphere and have implemented them through more comprehensive policies of sex segregation. While some modern Islamic scholars have argued against broader restrictions, such as gender-segregated classrooms or other society-wide gender segregation measures, on the basis that these broader restrictions are not explicitly mentioned in Islamic scriptures, the majority have embraced what they perceive as common-sense modern-day extensions of the specific rulings and attitudes found throughout Islamic scripture.

{{Main|Adult Suckling}}Adult suckling (Arabic: رَضَاعَةُ الْكَبِيرِ), or the act of breastfeeding a male adult, is mentioned in several relied-upon collections of hadiths. According to five hadiths in Sahih Muslim, Muhammad once plainly instructed the daughter (or wife -- sources are unclear) of a companion named Suhail to suckle a "grown-up" freedman named Salim so that Salim would become the daughter's mahram, or a relation whom the daughter could no longer marry, and thus render Salim's cohabitation with the family appropriate and legal. The practice, sanctioned by a number of traditional jurists, is popularly rejected by Islamic scholars today, but was the subject of a controversial fatwa from a scholar at Azhar in 2007. A minority of Islamic scholars continue to endorse the practice.{{Quote|{{Muslim|8|3425}}|'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hadhaifa, lived with him and his family in their house. She (i.e. the daughter of Suhail) came to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) and said: Salim has attained (puberty) as men attain, and he understands what they understand, and he enters our house freely, I, however, perceive that something (rankles) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa, whereupon '''Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said to her: Suckle him and you would become unlawful for him''', and (the rankling) which Abu Hudhaifa feels in his heart will disappear. '''She returned and said: So I suckled him, and what (was there) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa disappeared'''.}}

Generally, Islam grants women half the share of inheritance available to men if they inherit from the same father. This forms part of a wider Quranic and cultural context in which men were expected to provide for women and to pay a dower for marriage.