Womens status in Islam.

[sabiqoon]

<i>Originally posted by JohnDoe </i><b>It is very difficult for me to understand what the relationship between women and men is in Islam and I have a lot of trouble accepting the \"rules\" as anything other than male dominance over women. Similar to the christian doctrine in marriage where the statement used to be \"honour and obey</b>\" which most women now have ommitted from the marriage ceremony.  

I understand your explanation (I think) where the muslim man wouldn't actually force himself on the woman but I still view this attitude as disprespectful to a woman. I am fairly sure, Islam does not recognise rape within marriage and this attitude leaves the door open for abusive husbands to do what they like.  

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Again u just tend to bring a certain incident and build a whole theory on it making a premature judgement. By no means such attitude is disrespectful to a woman on the contrary. Simply the man is protecting himself. Leave alone, u never mentioned how this woman was dressed. If she was dressed up immodestly, he even has more reasons not to look at her avoiding sins.

Perhaps I do have a narrow view but I come here looking for answers.  

The woman was dressed modestly, in  professional business attire. She was a mature lady, mid 40s perhaps, a project leader. He was downright rude, failing to greet her at meetings, refusing to take instruction from her (her role being project lead). He was dismissed.

Okay one person's actions. Some people do get sentimental but that does not mean all Muslim men. Muslim men are considered the best who treat their wives the best and treating wives the best means being considerate of their feelings and when you are considerate and fear Allaah( that means will not do any injustice on the wife) then you are not abusive.

As far as it goes, Islaam out of all the religions in the world whether you agree or not is the most female friendly. There is a lot of unfairness and discrimination against women in judiasm and christianity, especially they are separated and treated differently during their menstrual cycle. This is one example of unfairness towards women in judeochristian traditions. Similarly, in hinduism and sikhism the women are not treated fairly.

Furthermore, the amount of American women accepting Islaam is 3 to 5 times the amount of American men accepting Islaam and this too before marrying any Muslim(meaning marriage of a non-muslim woman to a muslim guy is not a motivation for conversion). This has to tell you that obviously these American women see something in Islaam to embrace it.

Furthermore, you mentioned something about feminism. There is a trend among feminists now to develop a nurturing and caring attitude and not compete in a 'a man's corporate world' They realize that women have the greatest potential as a caring and consdirate person with their children and they are encouraging that, something that Islaam recommends for women.

Thats my two cents.

regards.