Woman Between Islam and Western Society
2. Woman in Society
~ 87 ~
and men and women still live and work in their
own very separate domains. The status of women
is, in practice, almost the same as it was in ancient
times, there still being mutually exclusive divisions
into male and female spheres, with the
corresponding attitudes still very much in evidence.
If this were not so, what need would there be for
“women’s lib?”
Fourteen hundred years ago, Islam launched a
much-needed “women’s lib” movement, whose
purpose was to free women from artificial curbs,
and to give them the position which any normal
human being should have in society. (One instance,
for example is to give them a share in family
property). This movement raised their status
without any sacrifice of femininity or traditional
values, and without creating any perversion in
society.
Having launched its movement under the guidance
of revelation, its Islamic exponents were in no
doubt as to what limits should be set to societal
change. The West, however, in its preoccupation
with
modernity,
plunged
headlong
into
