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Questioning the assumptions & presenting alternatives
The story of the modern woman is one of her journey through the history of Western Europe and North America. Whether the depiction of Mary Wollenstonecroft as the 'first feminist', the French revolution, Mill's work on the 'Subjugation of Women', the Pankhurst's and the suffragettes, or the 'successes' of 'second wave' feminism in the 60s and 70s; it is the European experience that has been taken as the global model for women's emancipation. It inspires, indeed defines, feminism in other parts of the world. But its European context has entrenched a number of Eurocentric assumptions.
This is most apparent when considering alternatives, such as the Islamic social framework. It is true that in the industrial middle class, men translated economic prowess as power both in society and in family, and the domestic mother in the context of advent of liberalism and capitalism came to represent a subjugated role. However, a domestic mother in the Islamic social framework is in an empowered and honoured position. She is afforded rights to property, is encouraged to learn and gain scholarship, to be politically active-indeed is granted the vote-and is afforded a number of marriage rights including access to divorce. This Islamic framework does not measure worth in terms of wealth or access to it, as has increasingly been the case in the West since the advent of liberal Capitalism, and so motherhood is valued no less, and often more so, than a highly paid role.
By the same token, Islam does not consider men predominating in the work place as representing patriarchy, or placing society at the service of men's needs. The Islamic framework is built on accepting that men and women are equally human, neither inferior to the other (indeed it did so well before Europe's enlightenment) and are judged equally before their Creator. Both men and women may choose to work and earn, and those earnings are measured by merit and not by sex; women will earn the same as men if undertaking the same work. Likewise, the validity of opinions is not measured by assumptions about the advocating sex, but as the product of human reasoning. It promotes different roles for men and women, but does not suffer from gender polarisation as it is not men or women who decide the preferred roles and responsibilities but their Creator.
It is common to hear criticisms of Islam's treatment of women because of the difference in, for example, dress code. This is interpreted as representing inequality and subjugation to men, or even sexist. But as the discussion earlier demonstrates, criticising difference as inequality is an unsophisticated outlook and practical views on equality are actually views on social framework. And so labelling Islam's social framework as promoting inequality is to do no more than say it is different; alone it represents no universal criticism as views on social framework are particular to broader viewpoints of ideology and disputed among feminists themselves.
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