Post by Zadkiel on Jan 12, 2016 23:19:31 GMT
It is not true that Muhammad discriminated against women or that he introduced Islam as a woman-hostile religion. On the contrary, women's rights was an issue near to the Prophet's heart. The Koran gave women the right to inheritance and divorce many years before western women achieved a similar status. While the Koran prescribes that the Prophet's wives should wear veils, it says nowhere that this is something that applies to all Muslim women in general or that they must reside in a separate part of the house. These traditions were not introduced until more than a century after the Prophet's death, when dominant male Muslim leaders copied the traditions of the Greek Christians in Byzant, who had veiled and segregated their women in this way for a long time. However, the Koran equates women and men before God, with identical duties and responsibilities. The reason why the Koran allows polygamy is that Islam was founded in an era when many male Muslims were killed in the fight against Mecca and their widows were left without protection. A man was therefore allowed to have up to four wives if he treated them equally, without showing that he favored any of them.
