When the third Caliph Othman ibn Affan was assassinated, the Muslim community’s underlying political system was jeopardized by internal division and conflict. During the Battle of Uhud, for example, she distributed water bags to the Muslim combatants on the battlefield.įollowing the Prophet Muhammad’s death, Aisha’s role became increasingly important. Aisha also rendered legal decisions (fatwa) and delivered speeches publically, powerfully and eloquently.ĭuring the Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime, Aisha participated in the early battles fought by the new Muslim converts against the Arab pagans who persecuted members of the fledgling faith community. She was considered more knowledgeable than most of her male contemporaries in matters related to Qur’anic interpretation, poetry, medicine and history and men and women alike studied under her instruction. Now consider this: Prophet Muhammad fostered Aisha’s education and nurtured her intellectual pursuits. This is to say that Aisha bint Abu Bakr is accorded a highly deferential status in Sunni Islam. During her marriage to the Prophet Muhammad, the couple developed a close relationship and it was in Aisha’s arms that the Prophet Muhammad died in 632 CE. By way of background, Aisha was the daughter of Abu Bakr, one of the Prophet Muhammad’s closest companions, one of the first converts to Islam and the first to assume leadership as Caliph over the Muslim community following the Prophet Muhammad’s death. As for those Muslim women who are deprived of similar opportunities, Islamic law can be used to empower them.Ĭonsider, for example, Aisha bint Abu Bakr who was a female scholar of great eminence and a voice of authority in Islamic jurisprudence almost 1500 years ago. Indeed, Islam can empower women as is evidenced by numerous instances of religiously observant Muslim women who strive towards and achieve professional, financial and social success in accordance with their understanding of religious strictures. Yet, by learning about and celebrating their examples, men and women can better understand and build upon notions of “proper” Muslim women roles while using a culturally authentic paradigm. While many Muslims around the world learn about such Muslim women in grade school, their relevance to contemporary time is frequently overlooked.
Indeed, these women embody viable political, social and financial models with modern applicability. Specifically, Muslims can further the human rights agenda by re-examining the lives of the very first Muslim women who lived during Islam’s formative period as more than historical figures but as modern Islamic models to be emulated today. Where Islam continues to hold political, social and religious currency in society, the human rights agenda can be effectively advanced through re-education initiatives regarding “proper” Muslim women roles through a new yet sound Islamic jurisprudential lens. They may view such ideas as unwanted foreign intrusions into their domestic, religious and family affairs. This is because secular Western feminist notions, often viewed as the cure-all remedy for alleged misogynistic practices in the Muslim world, are frequently met with suspicion and rejected by Muslim men and women alike.
As such, our views remain skewed on the subject.įurther, such pervasive generalizations about Islam’s inherent oppression of Muslim women are not only offensive but ultimately also unhelpful to the female subjects they purport to describe. Recurring images beamed into our homes and phones from abroad of Muslim women being denied access to education, the ability to drive or even the right to cast a vote or run for political office only serve to reinforce such widely held misconceptions examples of empowered Muslim women (particularly those donning the hijab) living here or overseas seldom enjoy the same quality air time. Muslim women are steeped in stubborn stereotypes as meek, oppressed and in need of rescue.
Mental Health of Muslim Healthcare Workers.