Woman Between Islam and Western Society
1. A Survey
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responsibilities outside the home. This ensures a
natural and effective complementarity in family life.
SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING WOMEN
This downgrading of women, because they came
to be identified with “inferior” tasks, resulted in
their debasement in society. In the eyes of the
law, women could not enjoy the same rights as
men and, therefore, were not considered
deserving of a share in family property. In
practice, there was little distinction made
between women and slaves. The opprobrium
attaching to womanhood became so great that in
certain tribes it lead to female infanticide: it was
considered humiliating to be the father of a
female child.
Ancient legends which perpetuated these erroneous
ideas grew out of the all-too-common human
tendency to exalt the supposedly great and to
deprecate the supposedly inferior. Woman then
became not only inferior, but truly despicable in the
eyes of society. These ideas, which spread with the
legends, were quite false, but took root so firmly in
the cultures of many nations, that they came to be
