The social involvement of women in the public sphere be it social, economic, political and religious, particularly in the Muslimmajority countries is still dim compared to that of man. What the contemporary Islamic thinkers and pioneers...
moreThe social involvement of women in the public sphere be it social, economic, political and religious, particularly in the Muslimmajority countries is still dim compared to that of man. What the contemporary Islamic thinkers and pioneers of the modern Muslim feminist thought have done to answer the issue of women is not effective enough in addressing the central problem of feminism, namely egalitarianism. This can be seen at least from the fact that the stereotyped view against women, which limits the role of women in the domestic sphere only, still prevails in the Muslim community up till now, and is even regarded as the very dogma of religion rooted in the tradition of the prophet. The early period of Islam, especially that of the prophetic and al-Khulafa>' ar-Ra>syidu>n era does actually provide historical facts that women are an active element of society in social, economic, political and religious life. What such aristocratic figures as Khadi>jah, 'A<isyah and so on have done in preaching and political involvement can serve as a historical evidence abut the active role of Muslim woman at the time. But the opposite might also be true, that the social role these figures play can be deemed as the "transgression" against tradition considering that women is viewed as having no significant freedom in the social structure of the Arab society. These two eras are rampant with the historical facts that stand as a pilot project as far as women social performance is concerned. This is particularly important given that the role of women in the Muslim community since then has become degraded especially during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods -the periods of conquest and territorial expansion-in which practices of slavery (ima>') and concubine-marriage (jawa>ri>) among the princes is very much common, as Laila Ahmed has shown. Thus, this study is aimed at discussing new perspectives concerning women in the social structure of the Arab society, both before and after the advent of Islam, while attempting to explain the social life of women in the prophetic and al-Khulafa>' ar-Ra>syidu>n era together with the factors at the background.
