Does Islam Oppress Women? 5 Myths Animation Series
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Does Islam Instruct Men to Beat Women?
Does Islam really promote violence against women? We dive into the Qur'an and the Prophet's life to find out.
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This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Does Islamic law oppress women? Islam is an inherently misogynistic religion that oppresses women. It's one of the most common accusations leveled against the faith, but it's rife with misconceptions and misrepresentations of Islamic law. A quick delve into a contextual understanding of women's treatment of men and women's treatment of women is a great way to understand the role of Islam in the world. A quick delve into a contextual understanding of women's treatment in Islamic law will give us much needed nuance to counter this claim. Here is one of the most common misrepresentations about the treatment of women in Islam debunked. Myth number one. Islam instructs men to beat women. The most notorious passage people cite to support this claim is a part of verse 34 of chapter 4 in the Qur'an, reading, And if you fear rebellion from your women, then darb them as a last resort. The word darb is often translated as to hit, but that erases the entire context of the verse and how the Qur'an is understood. The Muslim holy book is only to be understood based on the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Ibn Abbas was the first commentator of the Qur'an at the time of the Prophet, and he explained that the last resort in this verse is a symbolic gesture, not a call for physical violence. His student, a famous early Makkan jurist, said that it means a man does not hit his wife, but rather he simply expresses that he is upset with her. And historical court records show that Muslim judges routinely ruled that husbands who cause physical harm to their wives must be punished. Because Qur'anic verses cannot be interpreted in isolation and ignore the values established in other Qur'anic passages and in the life of the Prophet.
Like when Islam affirms in the Qur'an that marriages must be based on love and mercy and unequivocally condemns all forms of cruelty and abuse. None hits except the worst amongst you, said the Prophet. And when domestic violence is explicitly forbidden in Islam various times, do not strike the female servants of God, and do not hit women or revile women. And when the Prophet himself, who is often referred to as a walking Qur'an, never abused his wives in any form and said, how can any of you strike a woman and then hope to embrace her? So, does Islam instruct men to beat women? No. Islam actually enjoins kindness between spouses, not violence. Stay tuned for the next myth in this series. Can Muslim women initiate divorce?
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