Women rights and obligations in Islam

Recently, i received a task to answer to some questions of a potential muslimah about women rights and obligation in Islam. I am a Westerner, a convert muslimah alhamdulillah and now i live strictly under Islam laws in a muslim country, Egypt. And of course maybe she had some questions to see if I am oppresed or this was my choise.I will publish my answer, just the say i sent it to this woman, in order for other potential muslims/muslims to read it.



Bismillah Al-Rahman, Al-Rahim


Assalamu aleikom, sister, my name is Mihaela, I am from Romania and I am 23 years old.

First of all, thank you for asking me about Islam. Insha Allah I will be able to give you a answer, a correct answer and may Allah forgive me if I say something wrong.

Alhamdulillah I am a convert, I started to read about Islam since some years ago but I always felt that I don't have enough power and courage to really convert because I was the only Muslim that I knew, I was living in a non-Muslim country (this includes the fact that people are not really friendly when it's about Islam), I didn't have the necessary support (knowledge, friends or anything) and I was afraid of oppression. But Alhamdulillah I was living knowing that after I discovered Islam, I discovered myself, and this is the life that I wanted to live.

Alhamdulillah, now I am practicing Islam, living in a Muslim country, I know how to pray, insha Allah I will learn Arabic and day by day, insha Allah I will improve my life, and how can you improve it else than please Allah?
I hope that insha Allah I will not bore you , but this it my habit, when I start to talk about Islam, I will never end.



First of all, let me tell you about women's rights in Islam and the obligations that they have in front of Allah.

Islam is a peaceful , honest and balanced way of life.In islam, the woman have rights but she also have obligations, in front of Allah, in front of her familly, mother, father, husband, kids, and also the people around her.

Insha Allah i will try to tell you about the rights that a woman have in Islam. First of all, i would like to add, that before Islam came to the arabs, the women were treated in a very bad way, they didn't have any rights. It was a shame when a mother will born a daughter, and they even used to bury alive the new born daughters. Islam vanished this bad habbit and raise rights.


I hope that insha Allah I will not bore you , but this it my habit, when I start to talk about Islam, I will never end.

Let me tell you about women's rights in Islam and the obligations that they have in front of Allah.


Islam is a peaceful , honest and balanced way of life.In islam, the woman have rights but she also have obligations, in front of Allah, in front of her familly, mother, father, husband, kids, and also the people around her.

Insha Allah i will try to tell you about the rights that a woman have in Islam. First of all, i would like to add, that before Islam came to the arabs, the women were treated in a very bad way, they didn't have any rights. It was a shame when a mother will born a daughter, and they even used to bury alive the new born daughters. Islam vanished this bad habbit and raise rights.


In Islam, the woman have a separate and specific identity. Islam gave women the right to have a personal property. No one (father, husband or brother) have the right on their goods.



Islam gave them the right to inherit. She have a part from her father's property, a husband or a brother without kids, in the case when this are dead.



She have the right to choose her husband. Marriage is not admitted without her consent and even if this happen, she can ask for separation from her husband (called Khula in arabic). If a man have false doubts regarding her chastity and he is considered incapable to bring proofs (4 witness who saw the intercourse), he will be punished :



"And those who acccuse chaste women, and produce not four witnesses, flog them with eighty stripes, and reject their testimony forever. They indeed are the Fasiqun (liars, rebellious, disobedient to Allah)" Surah An-Nur (The Light), Verse 4.



In Islam, the woman have a separate and specific identity. Islam gave women the right to have a personal property. No one (father, husband or brother) have the right on their goods.



This shows how the honor of a woman is protected from false accusations.


The Quraan ask the muslims (men) to treat the women with kindness and to be gentle. The Quraan makes the muslims responsables for the women mentainance. The women are asked (By the Quraan) to be obediant and faithfull.

Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has made one of them to excel the other, and because they spend (to support them) from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient (to Allah and to their husbands), and guard in the husband's absence what Allah orders them to guard ( e.g. their chastity, their husband's property, etc.).
Surah An-Nisa (The Women), Verse 34

Women have the right to develop their talents, to work (have a job), to achieve education, to express her opinion, to argue and/or advocate her cause or opinion to be heard, to vote since 1,421 years, to provisions from her husband for all her needs and more, to negotiate marriage terms of her choice, to keep all her own money [She is not responsible for maintenance of family], to get sexual satisfaction from her husband, to get custody of her children in case of divorce [unless she is unable to raise them for valid reasons], to refuse a proposed and/or arranged marriage, to re-marry after divorce or after becoming widow.


I hope that i didn't forget anything or didn't say anything wrong, or else may Allah forgive me.

Women are exempt from:

Fasting when they are pregnant or nursing or menstruating, praying when menstruating or bleeding after childbirth, the obligation to attend congregational prayers in the mosque on Fridays., they are not obliged to take part as soldiers in the defense of Islam, although they are not forbidden to do so.
But under normal circumstances they are allowed to do all the things that men do. - Even when they are menstruating, on special days, like the two Eid festivals, they are still allowed to come to the Eid prayers, and menstruating women can take part in most of the actions of the Hajj pilgrimage. Islamic laws does not requires that women should confine themselves to household duties.Muslim women have [and are as well] headed Islamic provinces [and states as well], like Arwa bint Ahmad, who served as governor of Yemen under the Fatimid Khalifahs in the late fifth and early sixth century.


A muslim woman (muslimah) have the following obligations:

1.The belief in tawhid and to practice Islam.To pray (Salat), to pay Zakat (mercy for the poor, for the sake of Allah), to make the pilgrimige (Hajj) as many times as she can afford.



2.She have to mentain her chastity.



3.It's her duty to raise the kids in Islam's light and insha Allah, she have to take care of her familly si have the supreme control of the house business and work, she is the queen of the house.



4. She have to dress modest and wear hijab when she is going outside home, or when she meet other adult men, beside the close relative.



And tell the believing women to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts) and not to show off their adornment except only that which is apparent (like both eyes for necesity to see the way, or outer palms of hands or one eye or dress like veil, gloves, headcover, apron) and to draw their veils all over Juyubihinna (i.e. their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms) and not to reveal their adornment except to ther husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons, or their brothers or their brother's sons, or their sister's sons, or their (Muslim) women (i.e. sister in Islam), or the (female) slaves whom their right hands posses, or old male servants who lack vigour, or small children who have no sense of feminine sex. And let them not stamp their feet so as tho reveal what they hide of their adornment. And all of you beg Allah to forgive you all. O believers, that you may be successful"



(Surah An-Nur (The LIght), Verse 31)


5. She is the help and the right hand of her husband. A faithful wife it's the same as protective cover, a spring of peace, happynes and satisfaction for her husband. She have to take care of the peace in the familly and be wise and understanding.




6. If she is asked to go against the laws of Islam or to do anything against Islam or Allah, she have to confront even her husband, father or brother.



7. She will take care of everything (house, fortune, business, property) in the absence of her husband.



Islam considers that husband and wife (man and woman) mutually complete each other. None rule another. Each of them have individual rights and obligations and togheter they form a peacefull and insha Allah happy family which is the base of a united and prosper society.



This one is one of my favourites: Prophet Muhammad (may Peace and Bleassing be upon him) said: don't maltreat your wifes! Treat them gently and be wise. If you don't like something on your wife, find a quality that you enjoy on her and forget about the bad one.







Thank you for having the patience to read and i hope that you found it usefull. If you have any other question, i will be happy to reply.