by Omayyah Ahmad

Created on: January 11, 2010

There are many misconceptions about the conditions of women in the Middle East; some truly think that women in the Arab-Muslim world, especially in the ME are suffering from oppression, or deprived from certain or many rights.

The degree of severity for these misconceptions varies from one place to the other depending on the ideology of the people, their background and certainly their first-hand exposure to other cultures.

Some of these fallacies were very extreme, like the one talking about girls’ rights of education, and that girls are not allowed education in some areas of the ME, or that girls are forced to get married against their will. And some were less extreme like forcing women to cover themselves head to toe, their voting rights, or they cannot participate in decision making, etc…

To say that all off the above is 100% wrong, would not be right, but calling it a common practice, or normal living conditions in these areas is absolutely wrong. There are some individual practices that might demonstrate discrimination against women, but such practices are not limited to certain geographical areas, and are not acceptable by any of the religions or beliefs in practice in the ME, especially Islam.

If one reads into the ancient history of the ME, and women's rights in this area before Islam, they would be able to easily discover all the wonderful things Islam brought to women, and if you look at the way women were treated in pre-Islamic societies, you will be able to understand why Muslims are bothered and surprised by accusations of injustice towards women.

To be clearer, here is a summary of how women were treated in ancient history:

- Hellenes: Called women “The Poisoned Tree”, and women used to be sold like goods.

- Romans: Claimed that women had no soul.

- Ancient Chinese: Called women “The Painful Water that Washes Happiness” and if the husband died, his family would inherit his wife.

- Ancient Indians: Said “Women are worse than death, hell, poison, snakes and fire” and women had no right to live after their husband's death, and they used to be burned with their dead husbands.

- Persians: allowed the man to marry any woman he desires, including his sisters.

- Ancient Jews: called her a curse, because she was considered the cause of seduction, and the father had the right of selling his daughter.

- Ancient Arabs (Before Islam): use to extremely abhor having a baby girl born for them; to the level they

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