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Six things you didn't know about Islam Sarah Malik reveals that the Islam we know today has a feminist history. December 2006
*According to medieval Islamic jurists a man's inability to provide adequate sexual satisifcation to his wife was a proven grounds for divorce. *A woman's right to foreplay is a right enshrined by Islamic folklore. According to some hadith (saying or traditions of the prophet Muhammad) Muhammad is reported to have advocated its use for happy relationships and referred to men who did not practise this as "beasts". *Women were openly part of the early islamic society- whether it was frankly discussing sexual and family matters, developing strategies in conflict or in leadership issues. *The youngest of Muhammad's wives- the controversial Aisha led an army into a battle- in the famous "Battle of the Camel" -Islam's first civil war leading to the Sunni/shi'ite divide. *Aisha also narrated over 2100 canons of hadith which forms the bulk of Islamic jurisprudence. This is ironic considering the bulk of Islamic law is dependant on the memory of a woman- yet according to traditional Islamic law female witness is half that of a male. |
*The prophet Muhammad's first wife Khadija was a trader and his employer. A wealthy widower with children from a previous marriage, she was fifteen years older than her 25-year old employee when she proposed marriage to him They married to have four more daughters and form a kind of modern day version of 7th century Arabian blended family.