The role of women in Islam is very different from the role portrayed in mainstream media.
The Qur’an, the sacred text of Muslims, is referred to as Al-Furqan, the Criterion that differentiates between right and wrong. Muslims believe the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, through the Angel Gabriel directly from God. Faithful Muslims consider the Qur’an divinely authored.
The Qur’anic view of women is that she is a “khalifah,” God’s vicegerent on earth. The Qur’an defines her role in the same manner as it defines a man’s: to worship the Creator and pursue the highest level of God-consciousness. Males and females are created from the same essence.
The message of equality is clear. The first creation is neither male nor female, but a person. The Qur’an is silent on who was created first. The person’s mate is equal in nature, and the primary role of woman and man is servant of the Creator.
The Qur’an never specifies a woman’s role in relation to men but emphasizes her elevated status and rights. Women are equally qualified to manage property and maintain wealth. Additionally, women are equally encouraged to “seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.”
This is how women’s role is defined in Islam’s sacred text. How a Muslim woman defines her role in the material world is connected to her primary spiritual role as devotee of God, yet women are free to show their devotion to the Creator through various expressions and social roles.
Muslim women’s main social challenge is facing public ignorance about Islam and Muslims and counterfeit images of Muslim women. Most Americans get information about Islam and Muslim women from the media, where Muslim women are negatively portrayed through the lens of Middle Eastern politics. Although only 20 percent of the world’s Muslims are Arabs — the majority of the world’s Muslims live in South and Southeast Asia — the popular image of Muslim women is almost always Arab.
Tayyibah Taylor, founding editor-in-chief of Azizah Magazine, a voice for Muslim women in North America, addressed the impact of these false images: “When a people who are not of a society’s dominant culture do not see themselves reflected positively in the media, they experience a very subtle, yet very real and powerful process of internalization of inferiority. This has happened with African-Americans and other groups, and it has happened to the Muslim woman.”
Western society’s stereotypes of Muslim women have oscillated from the sensual seductress of the harem, to the veiled mindless non-entity, to the evil terrorist, to the malcontent anti-Islam woman who wants to tell you everything that is wrong with Islam.
Fortunately, Muslim women in America are in a unique position to fight these images. We have a judicial, political and social system that provides tools to address discrimination. Educating businesses and law enforcement officials has made a huge difference in changing attitudes. Additionally, participating in interfaith programs help present Islam in an accurate light. The Atlanta-based Islamic Speakers Bureau, founded by Soumaya Khalifa, has made an outstanding impact in this regard.
The creation of Muslim media has also contributed greatly to this cause. Here’s what Malika Bilal, the co-host and digital producer of Al Jazeera English’s “The Stream,” an Emmy-nominated news talk show, said about her role in the media.
“The very act of being in these newsrooms makes a difference. It means someone else is no longer solely in charge of directing a narrative about a group of people they may not know. It means we are the ones actively helping to shape how these stories are told instead of having those stories simply told about us.”
Muslim women are defining their roles and fulfilling their purpose on earth: to attain the highest level of God-consciousness through worship and work in the community and the world.
Azizah Kahera is chief operations officer for Atlanta-based Azizah Magazine.
About the Author
