Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
6. The Rights of Husband and Wife
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an organizer or supervisor. For this special role,
Islam has chosen man.
Men are the protectors and maintainers of
women, because God has made some of them
to excel others, and because they support
them from their means.
106
Making man the maintainer in no way indicates
that man is superior to woman. This choice is based
on man’s capacities for management rather than on
his superiority. In a democratic system, everyone
has been granted an equal status yet when a
government is formed, one particular individual is
entrusted with supreme political power. This does
not mean that this possesser of power is superior to
other citizens. In a democratic system, the president
or the prime minister has one vote like all the other
citizens. Even then, in the interest of good
management authority is entrusted to a single
individual.
Except for man’s role as manager, man and woman
have completely equal status. For instance, if a
woman kills a man, and the crime is proved, the
woman will be required to pay the penalty (Qur’an,
