Disclaimer: I don’t think “Islam” = Islamic law, which is actually the case. For me, the Qur’an is the ultimate source of Islamic knowledge and everything else, and hadiths come much after – but I’ll talk on hadiths another time. Just know that by “the double standards in Islamic Law,” I don’t mean “double stands in ISLAM.” For me, the two are not the same. And I explain
here why.
The life of the Muslim man and the Muslim woman, according to classical Islamic Law – and much of modern Islamic Law as well, although many contemporary scholars are speaking up and attempting to practice their right of
ijtihad, independent reasoning that’d lead to re-interpretations of laws that were made by an influential group of men from certain time periods
who neglected to consider the perspectives of the women while making laws about women. And this is what they came up with, as far as gender relations as concerned (the list is to be continued soon). Today, all of this is considered Islamic, and none of these points are derived from the Qur’an. None. And I mean none. It’s time we started thinking about our rights and roles. Oh but we can't! They tell us
ijtihad is no longer allowed! Really? Right after you made all these laws? Talk about arrogance. Watch us challenging these laws anyway. Or explain to us what is "divine" about them. What kind of a God who created both men and women and all other genders allows His laws to be frozen in time? Oh, wait, God didn't codify these laws. Never mind.
So let me get this straight. They tell me that
1. The man does not need the permission or consent of his father or any other male guardian in order to get married. The woman’s marriage is invalid if she does not have the permission of her father or another male guardian before she marries. Now, they've more "modern" reasons for justifying this, but the original argument was that the woman is not fit to make decisions on her own. She'll always need someone else to take care of her, to make decisions for her, to be there for her -- because she might err. But God forbid the man ever make a wrong decision. Ever. God forbid. But if he does, at least he tried. When/if the woman makes a mistake, we TOLD you not to leave anything in her hands. We told you.
2. When a man leaves Islam, he is to be killed. When a woman leaves Islam, she is to be imprisoned and beaten every three days until she repents or reverts to Islam. (She doesn’t need to be killed because she’s deemed incapable of making an intelligent decision, and her decisions, no matter how big or small, aren’t likely to have a serious impact on society anyway, compared to the decisions of the man.)
3. Divorce is not a light issue, they tell us. It is to be taken very seriously. Yet, according to Islamic law, a man can divorce his wife just like that for whatever reason he likes, and he can divorce her by simply uttering the Arabic word for divorce (talaaq) three times, and they are divorced. But the woman? A woman must have a “legitimate reason” for getting a divorce, and, in fact, she cannot initiate a divorce unless she stated in her marriage contract that she will divorce him if such and such should ever be the case.
4. Men decided, at the time of Islamic law formation, what aurah meant, and they concluded that it means anything that a woman must cover because it is likely to attract a man. Hence, the woman’s hair and all other body parts are to be covered at all times except when she’s with her husband, father, brother, son, etc. Even her voice has been declared aurah.
What do the men have to cover? Nothing, really. (But it’s navel-to-knee, they tell us still). Because who cares if a woman might be attracted to a man’s voice or hair or legs or arms or neck or chest or whatever else, right? A woman, like a doll, should have no desires to begin with.
