Woman Between Islam and Western Society
2. Woman in Society
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to women meant bringing them out of their homes
and standing them face to face with men in all
facets of life without any regard for the practical
and moral problems which might ensue. Islam, on
the other hand, defines separate roles, and,
therefore, separate spheres of work for men and
women, since it is natural and realistic to do so. The
other great error made by modern western thinkers
was to assume that a role which was separate and
different, and played out in other than traditionally
masculine strongholds, was necessarily of trifling
importance — in short, inferior. As such, the West
concluded that in giving a separate role to woman
Islam gives them an inferior position. Conversely,
since it is held in the West (in theory) that women
must be given a place in all masculine spheres it is
also concluded that the West gives her a superior
position.
So modern man imagines that his feminine
counterpart has, in actuality, been accorded a
superior position. But let us examine what, in fact,
is the state of women’s affairs. In the societies of the
West, which have attained a high level of material
development, theory has yet to be put into practice,
