Analysing Muslim women and gender segregation

Islam is the second major religion in the world in which there are “over 800 million Muslims in 45 countries that spread from North Africa to South East Asia” (Chowdhury,1993). The messenger of god Prophet Moh’d (PBUH) was sent to convey the message that there is only one god that we should worship. Consequently, this message also included all aspects of a living including rights, limitations, laws and activities that extend from social and personal life to economic and political issues. As a result, Islam was meant to guide and assist both genders male and female giving each their rights and limitations.

In the debate about women’s rights, both liberals and conservatives declares that the Quran guaranteed to put an end to ‘Jahilyah’ rules (Hijab,1988,p15).Thus , in the ‘time of ignorance’ females didn’t have the rights and were considered inferiors to men. For example, when a female is born, the father would bury her alive because of her gender. Thereupon, Islam came to give women their rights and raise their position at the same time. For instance, Islam gave the women the rights to marry divorce, inherit, work, and live her life with limitations. Such limitations that are exposed on the gender’s behavior, created the segregation between men and women.

Segregation of gender means the separation of both genders in which they are separated socially , economically and politically. Segregation is a phenomena that is widely spread in Islamic countries such as Saudia Arabia.For example, women are not allowed to drive and are not permitted to go out without a male relative.In addition, segregation also exists in restaurants in which there are separated areas for men and families in every restaurant around Saudi Arabia(Telegraph,2009).

Segregation of gender is believed to be more of a tradition than a religion.In addition, muslim women are expected to be the ‘conservators’ of traditions , while men are supposed to cooperate with the changing environment (Tucker,1993,p43).

For instance, the Prophet’s (PBUH) first wife Sayida Khadija was an acknowledged merchant and the Prophet worked for her before their marriage (Hibjab,1988,p.15). Thus, this shows there was no segregation between women and men in Islam. Likewise, traditions and customs forced the segregation between the genders to protect and guard the Muslims’ women reputation and prevent her from doing sins. In traditions , its believed that if a women is not guarded with a ‘Muhram’ and is left alone she is exposed to do sins .In addition, there are no Quran citations that calls for segregation between genders.

Nevertheless, Muslim women are allowed to work in place where men are present but applied some limitations to protect Muslim women’s rights. Although most of those limitations were traditions , people accepted them through time. Some of those limitations are a strict dress code for women, assigning women to do specific jobs and sometimes not allowing direct contact with men. In essence, many Muslim women have by passed those traditions and worked in a male dominated work field. For example, Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi became the first Emarati women to work in a male dominated field. She became the United Arab Emirates’ Minister for Economy & Planning(ZU,2006) .In addition, AlQassimi was ranked number 99 for the world’s most powerful women (Forbes,2007).

Sex segregation affects Muslim women every day. Thus, making them struggle on their daily basis. Consequently, the failure of women comes from the fact when sexual differences are deeply stressed out (Krause,2008,p.68).For essence, men are expected to be more powerful that women , thus making the separation between men and women when assigning their roles. According to a participant, “The UAE leadership are men. Men are better at coordinating and planning because the way men think is more logical. Women follow their feelings.But women advise men” (Krause,2008,p.68).As a result, women are separated from men by giving them less powerful positions.

women are most likely to be working away from men, or its preferable that women’s to be working in special places for females only. And that creates lots of controversial issues in the society such as the coordination and transactions between both companies which might affect eventually the efficiency of the job.

Similarly, gender segregation plays a huge role in marriage .For essence, the man is not allowed to talk and go out with his fiancé before getting married. Thus, when enforcing segregation between genders it becomes difficult for the spouses to learn about each other before marriage which may lead to divorce. According to Tucker, “the high rates of divorce in Islamic society introduce a measure of doubt as to whether the absence of consent was always a rule between Arab.”In addition, segregation affects marriage in an indirect way. Making the female less exposed to men ,thus making them unable to meet and choose their own spouses.

Moreover ,gender segregation also exists in education to both genders. For example, Sharjah University doesn’t allow mixing between student in classes, which has lead the university to build two different building for each major so that it can compensate both sides which costs a lot. Actually, The Qur’anic verses which specifies the communication between women and men with : “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and to be mindful of their chastity: this will be most conducive to their purity – (and,) verily, God is aware of all that they do. And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and to be mindful of their chastity, and not to display their charms beyond what may be apparent thereof; hence let them draw their head-coverings over their bosoms.(24:30-31)”

Also, segregation plays a role in marriage. As we can notice, most Muslim find their wives through the assistant of their female relatives such as the mother sister or the aunts. And that’s because interaction between men and women are forbidden in the case of relationships. In which, intimate relation are extremely prohibited before marriage otherwise its called adultery. Also, girls are not allowed to meet men without a supervision of some relative company. Consequently, men send their moms to find them the best woman available for marriage and after engagement he gets the chance to meet her and know her well.

However, segregation in most Muslim countries has risen to reach a level that’s it a tradition or even rule in most societies. As we can witness in Saudi Arabia, women are not even allowed to drive cars or get the driving license. That’s all meant to ensure there is no interaction between women and men in streets. Also, we can notice the severe problems that occur because of illegitimate relation in Arab world. Where they consider it as a scandal to the family of the girl or the man, and sometimes it ends with a crime. Currently, most Arab world are witnessing a massive change in those tradition, where we can see most students entering mixed universities and ales and females shares their jobs equally.

After I did the research I found some recommendations that will help in solving the problem of gender segregation globally and UAE in particular. First , making education “co-educational” and allowing the mixing between genders at a young age .This will help both genders at a very young age to understand the roles and limitations that are expected from them. Second, placing rules and regulations at work that will help both genders to be working together at the same place without the causes of forbidden sins. Third, giving women more options to work in a male dominated field that will help in decreasing the percentage of segregation .As a result, if segregation was totally dismissed females will be having more chances to marry, more talented in her work and will be successful.

In conclusion, gender segregation is a cultural phenomena and is not considered religious .Thus, making it easier to prevent segregation from our future generation. In addition , gender segregation challenges women to take new steps to a better living , giving them more power and confidence to step into a world of dominated men .Consequently, as long as women continue to struggle they will be able to reach their goal and become equal to men bringing a new world with no segregation.