MISUNDERSTANDING OF WOMEN IN ISLAM- Sh.Bilal Philips

-Non-muslim women are looking at Muslim Women @ the prespective of the 20th century, society and culture

1)Objection to muslim women having a guardian when it comes to marriage

-Prior to the 20th century non-muslim women had no say on who they marry and they too had to have guardians.Purpose of a guardian is to check out the man thoroughly to make sure he is suitable for her. To protect her interests.

2)Women not being able to marry non-muslim men.

-The man dominates. Ex: If a muslim husband were to tell his non-muslim wife that he doesn't want her to wear a short skirt, Is it against the woman's religion? No, and so she will follow. Same thing applies if he doesn't alcohol or pork in the house. He would insist to take the children to islamic school or quran classes.

-If a muslim woman had a christian husband she could be put into situations that would put her deen into danger and her childrens. What if she were sent to buy alcohol or asked to cook porkchops for dinner? The children are also in danger of losing their religion.

3)Divorce: Muslim men having the right to pronounce divorce

-Muslim women are more emotional than men.
-Muslim women have the right to divorce except they have to seek khula.
-As a basic rule a woman can't pronounce divorce unless its put in the marriage contract then its permissible.

4)Inheritance: Muslim men getting double the portion of the women

- Men are the maintainers and protectors of women and they would need more because they are the ones that have to take care of them; support them.

5) Witness- 2 female witness= 1 male witness

-The Norm: The man works and the woman is at home taking care of the kids and household

-The man is more involved in buisness resulting in a greater memory and so 2 females witnesses are required to remind the other incase she forgot.Sh. Bilal Philips used an example of how an a survey was taken when the person would ask female after female to estimate the height of a building and she would for example: 800 ft. and the person doing the survey would try to pursue her to say it was 400 ft. He would say "dont you think it's more like 750 ft??" and would keep doing this till she would agree on 400 ft. Proving how easily our minds can be changed but when they did the survey on the men the wouldn't change their minds even though if it was wrong so if it was 1000 ft even thought he was way off he wouldnt change his mind no matter how much you persuaded him

BUT!

If a man and women were married and a woman comes and says that she breastfed both of them when they were younger. No wintesses would be needed and the marriage would be annuled because a woman knows who she breastfed.

6) Polygamy

-Islam restriced it to four women while the rest of the world (back in the day) had no limit
-Quran is the only Holy Book that restricts the number of wives you are allowed to have
-Polygamy comes with it's responsibilities-More than half of non-muslim men have admitted in a survey to having affairs etc.