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The Status of Women in Islam Rights, Respect, and the Myth of Oppression
Elizabeth L. Métraux
Women in the West cannot evade a sense of heartbreaking sympathy (accompanied by equal intrigue) at the sight of a woman in hijab. It’s the kind of observation that ignites a sudden discourse on the inhumanity of Islam and the women bound by the unyielding restrictions of the faith.
Look past the veil, however, and the case against the oppression of women that seems so distinct in ignorance expands into a much broader debate, and one utterly misunderstood by the West. As my American orientation would so doggedly suggest, the Islamic faith is suffocating women – denying them their value and their basic human rights. From genital mutilation to honor killings, female infanticide, polygamy, and the archaic practice of arranged marriages, it appears that Islam has turned the clocks back several centuries for the sake of propagating a misogynist social order that prospers on the systematic abuse of half of its population. And all this, all the stringency associated with this male-dominated religion, most often comes to the fore at the mere glimpse of a woman donning the veil.
But is this really a factual illustration of modern Muslim practices, or has the West projected an inaccurate view of a faith for which we know very little, falsely accusing Islam of subjugating its women?
