There is no aspect of Islam more widely misunderstood than the role and status of its women. The popular view combines the fantasy of a Hollywood version of the Arabian Nights, with a picture of deprived and repressed victims of a man’s world. Neither approaches the truth, but ignorance and prejudice have supplied facts to fit the case.
” . . . but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head – it is one and the same thing as having her head shaved. For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have hair cut off or be shaved, she should wear a veil. For man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man. Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man.” (I Corinthians 11:5-9)
The above quotation is not from any Islamic source, but from (St.) Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians – which is part of the Christian New Testament. So who is really trying to follow what is in their scriptures (either real or alleged), regardless of what their “culture” or “politically correct” values tell them to do?
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