Women in islamic society

Women in Islamic society research papers report on the role of women in the Middle Eastern Islamic states. Paper Masters can write on any topic regarding women and Islam, and have written on the following extensively in the past:

• The historical role of women in Islam
• The role of women in the Islamic family
• The legal support that Islam receives in the Middle East
• How women are marginalized in Islamic Society

The traditional role of women in the Islamic culture is outlined in research papers from Paper Masters and reveals that the traditions originated in the historic connection of the people of the Middle East to the desert. This involvement with the desert making up much of the Middle East had effects of the Middle Eastern way of life which continue to be reflected in the lives of Middle Easterners down to today. The position women had in the societies of the desert people of the Middle East long ago has determined more or less their place in today's Middle Eastern societies. This traditional place of women came to be reflected in the religion of Islam as spelled out in the Koran. The basics of Islamic women's lives are prescribed in passages in the Koran.

Modern Islamic Society

In pre-modern day Islamic society tied to the environment of the desert. In modern Islamic society, women's lives continue to be focused on the family and the home. Islamic society does not minimize the importance of these. In the Islamic society of the desert, women were given the important task of guarding a family's precious supply of water. In general, however, Islamic society does not allow women to take an active or influential part in activities such as politics or business outside of the family and the home. Order a custom religion research paper on women in Islamic Society.

Woman and Islam

In the Islamic fundamentalist world view, such as that subscribed to by members of the Taliban and similar fringe groups, women are afforded no inherent value. Always deemed secondary in importance to their male counterparts, women are viewed as valuable only in proportion to their ability to carry out household duties and their ability to produce (male) children. The Taliban's governmental capacity has inscribed these beliefs into the legislative and political system of the country. Many laws have been enacted to reinforce the subservient status of women in the country, and taken together, these laws make it extremely difficult for Afghan women to live a safe, healthy existence.

Based on a body of Islamic civic law devised in the medieval period, Sharia, the Taliban developed a system of social control that dictates the extremely narrow parameters of the typical daily routine in Afghani society. This system is based not only upon the profound devaluing of females, but also upon the fear that the unchecked sexuality of women in the society would corrupt the pious men. Based on these two principles, the Taliban regime sought to wholly defuse any potential power women were thought to have in the society, be it political, economic or cultural.

Politically, women from Afghanistan have no significant part in determining the government or its direction. Women are rarely allowed to testify in court, and even if they are so allowed, their testimony has a minute legal value in comparison with their male counterparts. In addition, women cannot directly petition the court; instead, all legal actions must be taken through a male. Stripped of all political and legal right to recourse, Afghan women are wholly disempowered and unable to form any visible resistance to their treatment without endangering their own lives and those of their family and friends.

The Taliban regime, which many outside observers have identified as comprised largely of illiterates, have made it their priority to remove every education opportunity for women and girls. Even though schools that catered to females were scarce even in the pre-Taliban era, the Taliban have methodically closed down every secular school and have made it illegal for any woman or girl to engage in teaching or being taught. There are underground networks of education, organized by groups of women, but these are extremely risky for the participants.

Another realm in which the Taliban has stripped women of their rights is the economic realm. No female is allowed to retain employment under the Taliban's policies. This means that even the most highly educated doctors and lawyers are no longer free to attempt to support themselves using their training and skills. Paired with the fact that many men in the country were killed during civil battle or the Soviet conflict, this leaves thousands of Afghani women forced to beg for their subsistence. Or, in a painfully ironic alternative, many women have found it necessary to work as prostitutes as a means of survival. Of course, this sad situation subverts the putative purpose of barring women from the workplace, which is keeping the inherent sexuality with which the Islamic fundamentalists invest women from tempting all the pious male passersby. Even those male employers who sought to retain their female employees after the Taliban-imposed ban were severely punished.

In addition, Afghani women have been denied the right to freedom of movement under the Taliban. This is probably the broadest limitation placed upon women under the regime, as no woman can leave the house for any reason without a male chaperon from her immediate family. In addition, women have severe limitations imposed upon their means of transportation and travel.

Probably the most serious limitation imposed upon women and girls in Afghanistan is the strictures disallowing comprehensive health care. Because of the inherent danger to male piety that is associated with the female body, women and girls are only allowed to receive the most cursory of medical examinations from male physicians. In addition, since women are disallowed from practicing trades for which they have received education, only a handful of female medical personnel have remained employed in the Taliban era.

As a result, women are only allowed to undergo medical examinations by a male when fully clothed, and all illnesses must diagnosed and treatments administered with as little patient-doctor treatment as possible. Even surgical procedures must be undertaken with the female patient fully clothed. Humanitarian organizations have reported that Afghanistan women and especially girls are dying at an alarming rate as a result of easily treatable conditions such as dehydration or dysentery. However, the Taliban-imposed limits on the medical care of females renders it extremely difficult for female Afghanis to receive satisfactory medical care. Another related rule has made it illegal for Afghani women to practice family planning.

Women are considered by Westerners, who view the Muslims from an outsider's perspective, to be degraded in the Islamic religion, primarily because men are permitted to have multiple wives and they are required to cover up when going outside. Over time, their equality is being returned to them as the lands modernize. Prior to Muhammad's input and the implementation of the Koran, women had even fewer rights and female children were often killed when born until the Koran stopped this practice. The veiling of women to the extreme that is experienced today is not a religious impression, but a cultural one