Gender Equality: Human Rights v. Islam

Abstract

Feminist human rights advocates often criticise Islam for having a discriminatory attitude towards women especially in matters of family law. In support of this criticism, they refer to various practices of Islam to argue that gender inequality is inbuilt in the Islamic social system. With this criticism in view, the present research paper analytically examines the issue of gender equality in Islam with particular reference to the position of Islamic law on polygamy, endogamy, divorce, inheritance and evidential capacity of women. The paper focuses on the argument that the basic principles of Islamic law are not inconsistent with modern human rights as contained in the UDHR, ICCPR and CEDAW. The paper also makes suitable recommendations for the development of Islamic law to bring it in complete conformity with the needs of modern times without compromising on basic principles of Islam.