Addressing Misconceptions of Women in Islam Through the Exegesis of Female Islamic Scholars

Westerners frequently describe women in Islam as oppressed, abused and subservient beings that are in dire need to be saved. Their arguments are often based on societies that have very strict laws concerning women and modesty, women's roles and their visibility. They make these claims, all while failing to address the oppression of women in the West and how the institutions and laws in the West oppress women. Islam is often associated with misogyny because people use a small scope of what happens to some women who happen to be Muslim. While a multitude of women in Muslim-majority countries do experience some form of oppression, what needs to be addressed is patriarchy and not Islam. Islam is not inherently misogynistic and if the true teachings of the Qur'an were learned and executed, then it would be evident that Islam is quite a feminist faith. There is an imbalance in the amount of critique we see for Islam vs. other religions. Many Christian countries have similar problems regarding women, but they do not receive the same kind of backlash or any at all. Eastern countries may be behind in feminism by a few decades, but it does not mean that the West did/does not have the same issues. The West tends to paint all Muslims and Muslim-majority countries with a broad brush, which consequently fuels the negative stereotypes and prejudices with respect to Muslims. There are also frequent assaults against Muslim women in America who wear hijabs and women in France that are being forced to remove their hijabs, but we do not see the same kind of outrage from Westerners regarding those issues. In this paper, I will examine various interpretations of the Qur'an, scholarly articles, films, case studies, and interviews to draw my conclusions. Through this analysis, I will demonstrate that the issues regarding women are due to a patriarchal society and not because of the Muslim faith.