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From: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Status of women in Islam
Message-ID: <1991Apr27.154400.3136@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 27 Apr 91 15:44:00 GMT
Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
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Approved: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu

In article <1991Apr23.153534.14606@wpi.WPI.EDU>, brother Rached Zantout
(rached@ee.eng.ohio0state.edu) writes:

>When this suggestion was discussed, a very knowlegeable brother objected
>to it claiming that it is not the duty of the women to make daawa and
>even if they want to do it we should prevent them from doing it since
>this was not done at the days of the prophet PBUH. He is a very
>knowlegeable brother and highly respected in our community, also he had
>his proof ready on the spot, anaya from the Quran (Sura Al-Imran)
>telling women to stay at home. He also gave many examples from the Sirah
>of the prophet (that I don't remember now). 

Assalamu Alaikum [peace on you].

Advise this brother that the Quran does not ask women to stay home.  The
Quran advised the wives of the Prophet (pbuh) to stay home, while making
it explicit that this injuction was only for the Prophet's wives since the
Prophet's wives were different than ordinary women.  Translation of verse
32 in Sourah 33: 

   O Consorts of the Prophet!  You are not like any of the
   other women:  if you do heed God....And stay quietly in your
   houses ...

This is not the only way in which "Mother of the Believers" were different
than ordinary women.  More on this and the reasons behind it at the end
of this article.

>I am writing this because we agreed that we should ask for more opinions
>about this sensitive issue. The questions to answer are:
>1. What are women allowed to do in islam ?
>2. Are they allowed to go out of their homes 
>3. Are they allowed to have their own businesses and to run them ?

I am going to quote excerpts from a book titled "Role of Muslim Woman in 
Society" and edited by Afzular Rahman.  The book discusses Muslim women in 
battle, in agriculture, industry, etc. Here are the excerpts:

"Agriculture and Grazing

... The incident of Jabir's aunt has already been mentioned.  According
to him, his aunt was divorced by three utterances.  She had a garden of palm
trees and wanted to cut down fruit from them; but a man forbade her to go
out during her period of waiting (idda).  So she went to the Prophet and told
him this and he said, 'Certainly cut down fruit from your palm trees, and 
perhaps you may give charity (sadaqah) or do an act of kindness." (Sahih
Muslim)

...It is narrated by Sahl ibn Sa'd: "There was a woman who had a farm and
she used to sow salq (a kind of vegetable) on the edges of streams in her
farm.  On Friday, she used to pull out the salq by roots and put the roots 
in a utensile.  Then she would put a handful of powdered barley over them 
and cook them.  The roots of the salq were a substitute for meat.  After 
finishing the friday prayer, we used to greet her and she would give us some
of this food, which we would eat with our hands, and because of that meal,
we used to look forward to Fridays."  (Bukhari)

[The book continutes to quote two pages of ahadith (traditions)
about the same subject, but I don't have time to type them all. then:]

Industry and Trade

...There was a lady named Qailah who told the Prophet that she was a 
trader and bought and sold things.  Then she asked some qustions of the
Prophet about trading. (Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd, vol.8, p.228).  It is narrated
about Asma bint Makhramah that she received perfumes from her son Abdullah
ibn Abi Rabiah in Yemen and sold them. (Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd, vol.8, p.220)

...The wife of Abdullah ibn Ma'sud was an accomplished artisan and worked
hard at crafts to meet the needs of the family because Abudullah ibn
Mas'ud was mostly engaged in the work of Din [religion] and did not earn
anything.  Once the Prophet asked her if she spent her money on her husband,
and when she replied in the the affirmative, the Prophet said: "You will
get your reward." (Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd, Vol.8, p. 278). ....

...Many incidents are found in the books of history and hadith which seem to
indicate that women did engage themselves in trade and industry in order to
meet their household expenses.  The Prophet met quite a few of these working
women and never objected to their engagement in these crafts, businesses,
and trades...

[From now on, I will just summarize]


Visits to the Mosque

[ The book quotes ahadith in Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, and Tirmidhi to the 
effect that women prayed in the mosques during the Prophet's lifetime.  But 
they were not mixed with men.  Men and women reportedly sat separately.  
Traditions in Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah indicate that women reportedly 
participated in Friday and Eid prayers as well.] 

War Services

[The book contains more than 5 pages of traditions concerning women's
participation in the defense of the Islamic state.  These women reportedly
participated in the actual fighting!  In other cases, women tended the wounded 
or carried water or prepared food for the troops.  Sorry, I don't have time to 
type all these traditions.]

The Defense of Din and its Inducement

[The book cites traditions concerning some women's contributions to the Da'wa
(call to Islam) effort as well as their verbal defense of Islam.]

=============================================================================

At the beginning of this article, it was mentioned that the "Mothers of 
Believers" were said by Qur'an to be different than ordinary women.  Another 
way in which they differed was that they were prohibited to marry anybody 
else after the Prophet's death. Ordinary women can remarry if they are 
widdowed. 

According to traditions, certain obnoxious people were approaching the
Prophet's wives (while the Prophet was alive) and urging them to marry 
them after the Prophet's death!  Apparently marriage with these ladies would
have been a cause of prestige and might have potentially been used by some 
people for political gain and manipulation, obviously a dangerous prospect.

Another way these ladies differed from ordinary ladies was their adherence to a
rather strict form of hijab (i.e. curtain).  In an article, Mostafa Hashem 
Sharif writes:

  The rules of polite behavoior are tightened in the case of the Prophet
  and his wives.  According to the verses quoted above speaking to the 
  Prophet's wives in their residences should be from behind a partition 
  because their private quarters should be restricted from the general
  public.  Furthermore, as "Mothers of Believers" they could not remarry
  after the Prophet's death.  To understand such rules, we have to 
  reconstruct the atmosphere of the times, with the prevailing habits and
  customs.  There is no doubt that many people, particularly among the
  less polished bedouins, were oblivious to individual privacy and were
  insensitive to the sanctity of houses.    They tended to abuse the 
  Prophet's hospitality and graciousness and would call him, for example,
  while he was sleeping without deference to his rank or consideration for
  his need to rest (S. 49:1-4).  They often did not hesitate to enter 
  without permission irrespective of the time.  During a conversation or
  a discussion with the Prophet, they would raise their voices in an
  attempt to drown his.  We can easily imagine the inconvenience that 
  these visitors inflicted on the Prophet and his wives, particularly
  since rooms then did not have doors but were merely partitioned with
  curtains of hair tassels.... Taken in its context, hijab was a social
  education of the general Muslim public in the proper ways of treating 
  and addressing the Prophet's wives and the sanctity of their houses.
  These verses, therefore, introduced much needed decency in dealing with 
  the Prophet's wives and taught them in return to protect the dignity
  of their status.  The consequences were quickly felt; after this verse,
  for example, the Prophet's wives stopped going to the wide terrain on
  the outskirts of Medina (manasi)  that served as communal latrines, and
  resorted to toilet pits inside the houses, unless in the darkness of the
  night. {Ibn Hajar, "Fath al-Bari", X, 150}.

Sharif goes on to point out that this didn't mean that the Prophet's
wives never left their homes.  He cites instances of travel by these
ladies after the revealation of the mentioned verses.

Salam Alaikum,
Behnam Sadeghi