Muslim women in the past, before the beginning and slightly during the beginning of Islam, they were treated as objects, never regarded as human beings and were treated as slaves to their husbands and had no right to education, marriage, ownership of property among other rights. However, the birth of Islam brought some change to this situation where women were now regarded as human beings and were liberated (Nasir, 2009). The Islamic religion therefore, elevated the status of a woman and developed rights to the Muslim woman that included the right to ownership, education, and marriage among other rights. Despite all these progress, the patriarchal period brought in serious changes to what used to happen. The woman was never regarded as she was before, they were denied the right to education, they begun to be harshly treated and were denied the right to own properties among other rights in the so called the fall of Islam. It is upon this background that the paper is going to endeavor in bringing out the difference of Muslim women in the past and in the present times.
Women in the very past were never treated any important, they were looked at as objects and not worthy human beings. At the beginning of Islam, the women were elevated and raised from the chains that they were tied to and given their rights to access education, own property, a right to marriage and to even divorce (Hamdan, 2009). During this period, there were several Muslim women who were well spoken of and had done remarkable things and had greatly contributed to the building of the Islam society. At this time, women were equated to men since the Quran also supported such, it even allowed them to handle some other religious responsibilities. Due to the rater revolutionary laws that were created by women, these early Islamic society experience very many women getting involved in very many activities that were later regarded as men occupation.
The early Islamic society experienced women hired as teachers, in hospitals, they were hired as physicians and nurses and even went to an extent of owning which in one way created a very positive impact to the civilization that was associated with Muslims, they even went to an extent of supporting big organizations like hospitals, gardens among others out of the riches they possessed on their own. The roles of women during the first times of Islam were surely admirable because of the respect that they were given. The western world always admired the way they lived. It is a period when a Muslim woman was never mistreated by anybody because of the sharia (laws) that were set to govern the Muslims and the period was marked by very many women scholars. The Muslim women had an opportunity to administer the wealth they had contributed to the community unlike the times before the Rise of Islam where the woman was just a property of the man and was not even allowed to inherit the properties after the death of the man.
Immediately after the end of the seventh century, everything again took a different direction, the freedom that the women enjoyed at the earlier times had turned against then once again (Engineer, 2008). The women started experiencing harsh treatment and their rights were violated. Unlike the later times when the Muslim women had the ability and freedom to participate in the building of the society, the fifth century did not allow them to do that, it was during this time that women were restricted from going to school and property ownership where the patriarchal and the constrains and the culture played a very important role in restricting the women from participating in all these issues.
It is from this period when the Muslim women were treated so harshly that marked the fall of Islam and very many people always thought that the Muslim women were always intimidated and harshly treated as usual. Different countries started adopting their own culture and deviated from Islam and this gave them the opportunity to mistreat the women to an extent of denying them their basic rights like the right to education among other very important rights. The level of literacy from the rise of Islam To the point of the fall of Islamic societies was very high, when you compare the level of literacy in women after the fall of the Islamic societies, it had drastically dropped and very many women were so illiterate (Kumar, 2002). A survey that was conducted in India in the year 1921, found out that, only four out of one thousand women were literate which was a very small number compared to the time of the rise of the Islam societies.
The same situation trickles down to the 21st century anywhere in the Islamic world, the general edict had it that Muslim girls needed not to learn how to write as reading was just enough for them. It has created a very big gap between the early times at the start of the Islam societies and the present times when there were more Muslim women who were very educated and literate during those times than they are today (Engineer, 2008). Most Muslim countries prefer the education of a male child more than that of a female child. In the same way, the Muslim women were denied inheritance. The Muslim women after the passing of the some legislations, they were never entitled to inheritance of properties and some agricultural land. In the present Muslim societies, women find it very hard to sue for a divorce when husbands can do it so easily. The condition here clearly shows what the Muslim women are undergoing in the present times, long during the rise of Islam, the women were given the authority and had the right to divorce their husbands centrally to what is happening in the present Muslim community.
In the same way, the present Muslim women are subjected to very hostile conditions especially, the fear of poverty kept many Muslim women to get married to husbands they even did not love. There are several conditions that were provided that made it very hard for such a woman to divorce the husband she did not love. The women in the past had all the rights and privileges by virtue of being a woman, they enjoyed their marriages because they were always married to people whom they always chose to be married to unlike the present ones. The condition of women in the present Muslim community worsened more than what used to exist before the fall of Islam making life harder for women in the present times than in the past (Nasir, 2009). Despite the harsh treatment of women in the present times which is the time after the fall of Islam societies, very many Muslims cream condemned the harsh acts that take place in the present times. Mohammed Ali Jinnah had condemned the acts by saying that, there is no way success can be achieved in the present times when the women are oppressed. For any society to stand firm, the women have to be given better opportunities, they have to work side by side with the men in order to realize better results.
In conclusion, Muslim women in the past used to enjoy very many rights, they lived the life the religion prescribed and they had all the freedom they wanted. All these made them to become very successful and never depended on men for anything. The very same condition made then to achieve great things since they were allowed to contribute in the building of the society as they put much effort to influence all that they did. The past time was marked by very high achievements that was made by women. The present Muslim women are depicted as a troubled women who do not posed many rights as did the old women and are subjected to hostile environments where they can hardly progress.
Reference
Ali, S. M. (2004). The position of women in Islam: A progressive view. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Engineer, A. A. (2008). The rights of women in Islam. New Delhi [India: Sterling.
Hamdan, A. (2009). Muslim women speak: A tapestry of lives and dreams. Toronto: Women's Press.
Kumar, H. (2002). Status of Muslim women in India. Delhi: Aakar Books.
Nasir, J. J. (2009). The status of women under Islamic law and modern Islamic legislation. Leiden: Brill.
