An Overview of Misogynistic Statements in the Qur’an and Hadith

By Peter Townsend (www.qi-book.com)

BurkaWestern apologists for Islam are falling over themselves to think up ever more creative excuses for the deep hatred towards women embedded in the heart of Islamic theology. ‘It’s just their culture, you have to respect it‘, How about: ‘You just don’t understand. Why don’t you celebrate ‘World Hijab Day’ to show your solidarity‘ or ‘Who are you to impose your values‘. In the meantime real women are suffering while we mostly hear crickets from those who make a living championing women’s rights. Too busy ‘checking their privilege’ I suppose.

What follows is a thorough rundown of the ways in which women are insulted, demeaned and threatened with violence in the Qur’an and hadith. This is the real ‘War on Women’ in our world today. The longer those supposedly in the vanguard of ‘Women’s Liberation’ ignores this the lower their credibility will sink.

There can be few areas where Islam is so out of touch with modern values as in the views expressed in the Qur’an and hadiths on the role and worth of women. Women who follow the Muslim religion have to accept some staggeringly unflattering and insulting statements about themselves.
A common Muslim response to any attention being focused on this part of the teaching of Islam is to state that Muhammad at least elevated the status of women in comparison to Arab tribal traditions. This may or may not be the case, but stating that early Muslim women were better off than their non-Muslim counterparts misses the point entirely. We are not in the 7th century anymore, and the real question that we should be asking is whether the Qur’an’s teaching on women can lead to just and equitable modern societies wherein women can take their full place and live contented and fulfilling lives? It has to be said that this kind of outcome is highly unlikely in light of the following statements:

Disobedient women should be beaten: Qur’an 4:34 is very clear on what should happen to women who disobey their husbands: “Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband’s] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance – [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them.” Some translations render this text as “beat them lightly,” but this has no basis whatsoever in the Arabic text. The fact is the Qur’an provides Muslim men with “divine authority” to commit acts of domestic violence.”

Women may be held in sexual slavery: Qur’an 4:23 provides Muslim men with a list of women with whom sexual relations are prohibited. It contains the following very significant exception: “Also (prohibited are) women already married, except those whom your right hands possess.” “Whom your right hands possess” is a reference to women captured in war or enslaved in some other way. These women are seen as fair game when it comes to the sexual desires of their “owners.”

Women are like fields to be ploughed. Qur’an 2:223 reads as follows: “Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will” The word translated as “tilth” refers to a field that is being cultivated. Just as a field has no say in the frequency or method of cultivation, so women have to simply submit to the sexual desires of their husbands (both in terms of frequency and method). The clear implication of this verse, namely that a Muslim woman cannot refuse sex with her husband is confirmed in several sound hadiths.

The legal status of women is below that of men in several areas. Whenever comment is made about some of the challenges of being a Muslim woman, the response is almost invariably that Islam actually lifted the status of women compared to the norms of the Arabian Peninsula. Upon closer examination, it quickly becomes clear that the supposedly improved status of women still makes them inferior to men. For a start, a woman can only inherit half of what a man can. (Qur’an 4:11) Much worse is the fact that the testimony of a woman in an Islamic court is worth only half of that of a man. When dealing with the rules for giving evidence, the Qur’an gives the following instruction: “...get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her.” (Qur’an 2:282) This verse has been turned into a principle of shari’a law. The implications are staggering and do explain, among other things, why women who have been raped so often end up being prosecuted in Muslim societies. When it is the word of the man against the woman, the man’s evidence will always trump hers.

Women are ritually impure: In a breathtaking snub against women Qur’an 4:43 lists them among other things that can render a man ritually impure (meaning that if he did his ablutions on the way to prayer it will have to be done again): “O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged, until ye can understand all that ye say,- nor in a state of ceremonial impurity (Except when travelling on the road), until after washing your whole body. If ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands.” So merely having been in contact with a woman renders a man’s prayers unacceptable in the eyes of Allah!

As if these incredibly misogynistic statements from the Qur’an are not bad enough, the hadith collections go even further. All of the following statements have been drawn from Sahih Bukhari, the most widely respected hadith collection in the Muslim world:
Muhammad called women stupid and impious: There are no fewer than three hadiths in which Muhammad makes it clear that women are “deficient in intelligence and religion.” Here is the most famous one: “Once Allah’s Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) o ‘Id-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said, “O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women).” They asked, “Why is it so, O Allah’s Apostle ?” He replied, “You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you.” The women asked, “O Allah’s Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?” He said, “Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?” They replied in the affirmative. He said, “This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn’t it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?” The women replied in the affirmative. He said, “This is the deficiency in her religion.“(Sahih Bukhari 1:6:301) Here we have the so-called apostle of Allah making it clear to his female followers that he has very little respect for them and that he considers their practice of Islam to be inferior.

Ungrateful women make up the majority of the population of hell. Muhammad claimed to have visited heaven and hell during his so-call “night journey.” Upon his return he declared, “I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful.” It was asked, “Do they disbelieve in Allah?” (or are they ungrateful to Allah?) He replied, “They are ungrateful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favors and the good (charitable deeds) done to them. If you have always been good (benevolent) to one of them and then she sees something in you (not of her liking), she will say, ‘I have never received any good from you.” (Sahih Bukhari 1:2:28) A Muslim women contemplating eternity will, in light of this hadith, have to do so with a deep realization that the decks are stacked against her by the fact that her prophet declared that if she makes it to paradise, she will be part of a minority among the supposedly more virtuous men who followed Islam.

Muhammad declared women to be the most harmful thing on earth: Is it possible to express a lower opinion of women than the one Muhammad expressed in the following hadith? It is related from Usama ibn Zayd that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “I have not left after me a trial more harmful to men than women.” (Sahih Bukhari 7:62:33)

Wives who refuse sex to their husbands will get into deep spiritual trouble: Muhammad declared: “If a man calls his wife to his bed and she refuses, and he spends the night angry with her, the angels curse her until morning.” (Sahih Bukhari 54:460) This hadith may seem slightly comical, but its implications are devastating. It establishes the principle that a wife has no right to refuse sex with her husband. The concept of “marital rape” is, therefore, totally alien to Islam, and women have no legal protection against husbands who go on to simply take what they believe to be rightfully theirs, i.e., the bodies of their wives.

These verses from the Qur’an and hadiths clearly illustrate the fact that Islam is spectacularly bad news for the women of the world and that wherever is established, women will be forced to live lives of subjugation and inferiority. Not merely because the men in their communities feel that this is a good thing but primarily because these men will believe that Allah and his “prophet” commanded them to treat women in this way.

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Questioning Islam by Peter Townsend. Tough Questions and Honest Answers About the Muslim Religion. www.qi-book.com