Women’s rights are utterly trampled in the Islamic tradition, in Islamic jurisprudence, and across the record of Islamic history. Yet in Muslim countries, anyone who says this openly is accused of “contempt of Islam” (blasphemy). A woman in Aswan, Egypt, Shahira Mohamed Suleiman, was sentenced to six months in prison on a charge of contempt of Islam, because she said: “I refuse to have anyone tell me that my voice is ‘awra [shameful nakedness].”1
In the documented Islamic tradition and jurisprudence, a woman inherits half a male’s share from her father,2 and an eighth from her husband if she has borne him children;3 counts as one-quarter in marriage;4 counts as half a witness before the courts;5 and her blood-money in the case of killing is half a man’s.6 She was created from a crooked rib;7 her body is a temptation and her voice is ‘awra;8 she must cover her body and hair so as not to seduce men; her clothing must not be sheer, must not be tight, and must not draw the eye, which is why black is preferred for her;9 and if she leaves the house wearing perfume she is a fornicator.10
She is impure: her mere touch nullifies ablution, like a donkey or a black dog.11 She is deficient in intellect and in religion.12 Women swear oaths and are the liars; they refuse sex while desiring it; consult them and then do the opposite, that is, never act on her counsel.13 Her husband may have intercourse with her even on the back of a camel-saddle,14 and if she refuses sex and the man’s sexual desire at any time, in any place, the angels curse her until morning.15 She owes her husband blind obedience: if a man has a lawful excuse to break the Ramadan fast, his wife must break it with him even if she has no excuse, because it might occur to her husband to kiss or to take her during the day.16
