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For centuries, women across the world have been denied education, property, and even a voice in society. Yet in 7th-century Arabia, Islam introduced principles that empowered women in ways unparalleled for that era. From economic independence to spiritual and intellectual authority, women were granted rights that challenged social norms and ensured their dignity. This article explores how these teachings not only corrected historical injustices but continue to offer a blueprint for genuine equality today.
Before gender equality in Islam is discussed, a bit of perspective will surely be useful. Throughout recorded history, women have been dehumanised, dispossessed, diminished, degraded, denigrated, marginalised, disenfranchised, secluded, subjugated, and silenced. [1] In ancient India, widows were forced to be burnt alive on the pyre of their dead husbands.
In ancient Greece, women were excluded from political life, could not own property independently, and were legally under male guardianship known as kyrios.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, female infants were buried alive. Female infanticide still occurs in many countries.
In England, prior to the enactment of the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882, any income earned or any property inherited by a woman automatically became the property of her husband. Around that time, John Stuart Mill, the preeminent British political scientist, wrote that ‘In this respect the wife’s position under the common law of England is worse than that of slaves…’[2] Similar conditions prevailed in France before 1930.
The list of enormities against women is long and excruciating. But their rationalisations are even worse.
Innate Equality
Social conditions and prevailing cultural values play a crucial role in the perception of what gender equality means. To therefore be in a position to fairly judge whether men and women can be considered equal, or to see if there really are innate differences would require placing them on equal footing. As explained, equal rights and opportunities have historically been hard to come by, even to this day; however, women have greater opportunities to exercise their capacities to learn and contribute in the fields of math, science and the arts.
In 2005, Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard University, publicly wondered whether women have the same innate abilities in mathematical sciences as men.[3] The bitter-sweet irony of this insinuation is that the recent accomplishments of women have raised the bar so high that the conversation has shifted from whether or not women possess the basic intellect to compete with men in science, and more towards what real accomplishments they are able to make at the highest level.[4]
Thus, some people point to the fact that only 26 women have been awarded Nobel prizes in science so far as evidence that they are not as naturally talented.[5] But on the other hand, a total of 7 men of Indian, Pakistani, Turkish, and Arab origins have received the Nobel prizes in science.[6] Yet for the second group it is recognised that it is lack of opportunity or research facilities and resources – and not a lack of ability – that is responsible for this disparity. Thus, for the first group, too, the small numbers cannot be attributed to innate differences in ability. Research in this area has identified important cultural and societal factors such as lack of opportunity, role models, and motivation that seem to explain such under accomplishment.
In recent years, American universities awarded 27% of PhDs in mathematics to women.[7] Women now form 20% of the MIT faculty.[8]The mathematically precocious girl-to-boy ratio is currently 1-to-2.8, an almost five-fold increase during the last two decades.[9] In 2014, a female mathematician of Iranian origin, Dr Maryam Mirzakhani, became the first woman ever to receive the Fields Medal in mathematics, which is considered by some even more prestigious than the Nobel Prize.[10]
When given the opportunity, women have repeatedly shown that they can thrive and excel. For centuries, a male-dominated world denied them access to education and advancement. Yet, in just the past few decades, as barriers have lifted, women have entered higher education in unprecedented numbers and steadily advanced into fields once reserved for men. The growing presence of women in the physical sciences is a testament to what becomes possible when equality of opportunity is granted.
The Qur’anic Principle
Upon studying the teachings of the Holy Qur’an, we find that men and women have not only been granted these equal opportunities, but they are also actively encouraged to pursue knowledge in every field. Biological differences between men and women are of course recognised, but the reward for the responsibilities assigned to both are not diminished in any way on account of gender.
The Holy Qur’an expresses the moral and spiritual equality of men and women by balancing virtues and rewards for both genders in identical terms.
Surely, men who submit themselves to God and women who submit themselves to Him, and believing men and believing women, and obedient men and obedient women, and truthful men and truthful women, and men steadfast in their faith and steadfast women, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women who give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who are chaste and women who are chaste, and men and women who remember Allah much – Allah has prepared for all of them forgiveness and a great reward.[11]
The ethical qualities enumerated by the Qur’an for both men and women also have social and political dimensions with far reaching implications.
It is remarkable that the Qur’an makes absolutely no statements about the inherent ethical or intellectual superiority of men over women. On the contrary, it says:
O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female; and We have made you tribes and sub-tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable among you, in the sight of Allah, is the one who is the most righteous among you. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.[12]
The Prophet Muhammad (sa) echoed the same principles of equality and egalitarianism in his last sermon:
All of you are equal. Even as the fingers of the two hands are equal, so are human beings equal to one another. No one has any claim of superiority over another. The most honoured among you in the sight of God is the most righteous among you.[13]
Most of us have heard the Prophet’s last sermon hundreds of times – but rarely, it would appear, in the context of gender equality.
But one of the central messages of the sermon is that ‘the content of our character’ – to borrow a phrase from Dr King – not the configuration of our chromosomes that matters.
The Role of the Hijab
Nevertheless, the Qur’an has prescribed different rights and obligations for men and women under some specific conditions. One of the most prominent and well-known is the injunction for women to cover their heads.
The commandment for the hijab is given in two verses in the Qur’an;[14] and commanding both men and women to restrain their eyes and guard their chastity, but it requires women to wear a head covering or an outer garment so that they may move freely, without dressing for the male gaze.
The system of hijab, veil, or purdah is often seen in the West as emblematic of gender inequality and as a tool for the seclusion and subjugation of women. This perception is often based on the way purdah is practised in some Muslim countries. Dannenbaum [15] found that some women find the hijab liberating and noted that there is an element of cultural imperialism in the West’s criticism of the hijab that does not result in segregation.
Germaine Greer, a prominent feminist, observed [16]:
What more could women want? Freedom, freedom from being looked at;…freedom from self-consciousness; freedom from the duty of sexual stimulation of jaded male appetite; freedom from the uncomfortable clothes that must be worn to titillate…Now it is even more important to underline women’s right to reject male advances…and the right to chastity.
This observation, although coming unexpectedly from a well-known feminist, underscores the spirit of the hijab.
The Qur’an’s distinctions in matters such as hijab are not markers of inferiority but of balance and responsibility. They are contextually bound, purposeful, and rooted in safeguarding dignity, harmony, and justice. To misinterpret these well-defined distinctions as blanket inequality is to overlook the profound Islamic principle that men and women, while not identical in every role, are equal in worth, honour, and spiritual potential.
Islam – The Emancipator of Women
Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra), the Second Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, described the status of women before the advent of Islam in the following manner:
‘Before the advent of the Holy Prophet (sa) women in all countries were in the position of slaves and chattels, and their slavery could not but have affected adversely even on men.’ [17]
When we ponder upon the wisdom contained in these words, we realise that the subjugation of women also harms men – they are deprived of equal partners in progress, families lose stability, and society as a whole suffers.
Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra) continues:
‘The Holy Prophet declared that God has particularly entrusted him with the task of safeguarding the rights of women. He proclaimed in the name of God that man and woman by virtue of their humanity were equal to each other.’[18]
Islam presented a revolutionary concept. It emancipated women. It gave women the right to inherit property. It gave them the right to own and manage it individually and independently. It gave them the right to seek dissolution of their marriages and remarry, if they so wished. Fourteen centuries ago, Islam gave women an independent legal status. It taught that if a person has three daughters, and feeds them, gives them to drink, and clothes them from his wealth; they will be a shield for him from the Fire on the Day of Judgement.
Islam empowered women in ways unprecedented in 7th-century Arabia. Hazrat Khadijah (ra), the Holy Prophet’s (sa) first wife, was a wealthy and independent businesswoman whose leadership and acumen commanded respect across the region. Hazrat A’ishah (ra), one of the Holy Prophet’s (sa) wives, became one of Islam’s foremost scholars, with the Holy Prophet (sa) advising believers to ‘learn half your faith from A’ishah,’ underscoring her authority in religious knowledge. Hazrat Umm Salamah (ra), also a wife of the Holy Pophet (sa) was also a great source of knowledge for the Muslims, standing 12th in the companions of the Holy Prophet (sa) in the number of hadith [oral traditions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa)] that she related. Hazrat Hafsah (ra), also a wife of the Holy Prophet (sa), was entrusted to safeguard the first written copy of the Holy Qur’an. In other words, in the Holy Prophet’s (sa) time, the female companions contributed to social, political, and religious life, demonstrating that women’s influence extended far beyond domestic roles. Through these examples, Islam recognised women’s spiritual, intellectual, and economic potential – granting them rights and opportunities that were revolutionary for their time.
The Holy Prophet (sa) promoted the education and welfare of women. He declared that it was ‘incumbent upon every Muslim man and every Muslim woman to acquire knowledge’. He commanded that ‘the rights of women are sacred; see to it that the rights of women are granted to them.’
Paul Findley, a US Congressman, who studied Islamic history, wrote that ‘Islam may be the single most liberating influence on the status of women in recorded history.’[19]
The Medieval Mindset
However, over the centuries, many evils crept back into Muslim societies, as indigenous cultural values, patriarchal traditions, dormant misogyny, and the power dynamics between genders reasserted themselves in the guise of religious orthodoxy. This retrogressive trend has been correctly attributed to ‘the medieval-minded Muslim clergy’ in the succinct phrase [20] of the Fourth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh).
To perpetuate patriarchy – the structure of male authority – the medieval mindset insists on perceiving women exclusively in relation to their male relatives. In this view, the woman does not have any independent existence or identity – she is almost a possession, often an adversary, invariably an ancillary, and always a derived entity. In their relentless pursuit of fundamental gender inequality, the medieval-minded clergy inverts the relationship between the Qur’an and the hadith by using unreliable hadiths to override the Qur’an. The reality is that any statement, hadith or otherwise, which is in contradiction with the Qur’an and cannot be reconciled, is to be rejected. This rings true also with unfounded and oft-quoted statements that lower the status of women.
The Ahmadiyya Reform
After centuries of moral decline and medieval-minded thinking, the modern age needed a new mission that brings about a moral and spiritual revolution. This sort of revolution is one that is long-awaited by followers of the major faiths, who understand the desperate need for a reformer to come in the latter days and overcome the darkness of ignorance and godlessness that prevails. Ahmadi Muslims are those who have the blessing of accepting the reformer whom God Almighty has already sent in this era, one who continued the mission of the Holy Prophet (sa) – to reconnect man with God. He was none other than the Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as).
More than a century ago, the Promised Messiah (as) made an observation about the permissibility and scope of pre-nuptial agreement. It is a statement far ahead of its time and quite in accord with the demands of justice.
Women have the right to lay down the condition that the husband will, under no circumstances whatsoever, marry another woman. If this condition is laid down before marriage, the husband will be guilty of breach of contract, if he goes on to marry another…If the first wife feels that her right as a wife will be placed in jeopardy by the second marriage of her husband, she can seek a way out by demanding a divorce; and should the husband be unwilling to comply with her demand, she can enforce separation through the court.[21]
Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh) wrote about the true concept of gender segregation.
‘Segregation is grossly misunderstood when it is conceived as an imposition or restriction on female members of the Muslim society from fully participating in all spheres of human activities. This is not true.’ [22]
In other words, purdah must not be allowed to create an impediment to women’s full participation in all honourable areas of human activities.
Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra) made an observation about the status of women in Islam:
Women, in short, were to have an independent status. All the spiritual rewards were open to her…Even in this life she could take part in the different departments of civil administration. In this regard, she was to have the same consideration paid to her as that accorded to man.[23]
Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh) noted the contributions of Islam:
The status of women was raised to such a high standard that they could not be treated as helpless commodities. They were given an equal share in the affairs of life. Whereas previously they were distributed as chattels of inheritance, now they could inherit estates of their fathers. They could also stand up to their husbands and talk back to them. They could reason with them and, of course, had the full right to disagree.[24]
The key phrase here is ‘an equal share in the affairs of life’.
Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad (ra), a prominent scholar and writer, and the Promised Messiah’s (as) son, wrote in 1920:
Women can acquire education in academic institutions and can teach there. They can leave their home for exercise, recreation, and sports. They can buy and sell in the market. They can participate in public gatherings. They can meet with men who are outside the legal bounds and speak with them. They can work in offices, government departments, clinics, and industries. They can participate in the tasks of the nation. They can participate in wars and offer reasonable services. They can give counsel in matters of national importance. Hence, the Islamic purdah is not the slightest hindrance in the path of education, training, development, and the performance of necessary tasks for women.[25]
Describing the Ahmadiyya Centenary (1989) speech of Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh), Ian Adamson wrote [26]: ‘The Khalifa emphasised that he wanted women as doctors, architects, lawyers, teachers and engineers as well as men. Women had not only equal rights in Islam, they had special rights.’[27] And His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad (aba) has pointed out that ‘Ahmadi women are more educated than men, Ahmadi women are doctors…they’re engineers, they’re lawyers. They’re research workers, scientists.’[28]
Epilogue
In recent years, societies have introduced measures that echo Islamic principles of women’s rights and modesty. Women-only gyms provide safe spaces for exercise; women-only carriages on trains in cities like Tokyo protect commuters from harassment; and gender-segregated sports leagues ensure fair competition and opportunities for women to excel. These initiatives show a growing recognition of the need for environments that respect women’s dignity and enable them to thrive – principles that Islam has upheld for centuries.
It is essential to understand that – no matter how noble and egalitarian some principles may be – the social conditions must be right for those principles to be implemented. For example, the right of a Muslim woman to own and manage her property independently of her husband empowers her by establishing her independent financial and legal position. But if society or the community does not create the conditions for her to acquire and use the skills to manage it, then that God-given right is effectively revoked by the society.
So, is gender equality in Islam a myth or reality? The short answer to this question, long overdue, must be given in conclusion. It is what we make it to be.
The Holy Qur’an proclaims, ‘There is no doubt that it is a perfect book, and guidance for the righteous.’[29] May we be guided by the Holy Qur’an in building a fair community and a just society, where women and men are given fundamental equality, full responsibility, all the opportunity, and true dignity.
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About the Author: Rafi Ahmed is a computer scientist, who has an M.S. in applied mathematics and a PhD in computer science. He has published 29 peer-reviewed research papers and has written several book chapters and an encyclopedia article. He is the inventor of 33 US patents. He has given several keynote talks at international computer science conferences. He is an architect at Oracle Corporation. He currently serves as the education secretary of the Silicon Valley Chapter, US. He regularly writes and speaks on theological subjects. His numerous articles and presentations appear in Review of Religions, Ahmadiyya Gazette, USA, and on alislam.org.
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ENDNOTES
1. Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra), Muhammad the Liberator of Women (Islam International Publications Ltd., 2008).
2. John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (Dower Publications, Inc., 1997).
3. John Hennessy, Susan Hockfield, and Shirley Tilghman, “Vantage Point: Look to the Future of Women in Science and Engineering”, Stanford Report, February 11, 2005
4. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/1/14/summers-comments-on-women-and-science/
5. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes
6. Ibid.
7. A.C. Grayling, “Math in School Should be Cool”, New Scientist, October 25, 2008.
8. http://web.mit.edu/fnl/women/women.html
9. Sharon Bagley, “Math is Hard, Barbie Said”, Newsweek, October 27, 2008
10. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/13/fields-medal-mathematics-prize-woman-maryam-mirzakhani
11. The Holy Qur’an, 33:36.
12. The Holy Qur’an, 49:14.
13. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980).
14. The Holy Qur’an, 24:31, 33:60.
15. Tom Dannenbaum, Is There Anything More to Western Criticism of Veiling in Islamic Societies Than Cultural Imperialism? (Master’s Thesis), Stanford University, 2003).
16. Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001).
17. Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra), Muhammad the Liberator of Women (Islam International Publications Ltd., 2008).
18. Ibid.
19. Paul Findley, Silent No More: Confronting America’s False Images of Islam (Amana
Publications, 2001).
20. Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh), Islam’s Response to Contemporary Issues (Islam International Publications Ltd., 1992).
21. Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), Chashma-e-Marifat, Ruhani Khazain, Vol. 23 (Islam International Publications Ltd., 2001), 246-248.
22. Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh), Islam’s Response to Contemporary Issues (Islam International Publications Ltd., 1992).
23. Hazrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (ra), Muhammad the Liberator of Women (Islam International Publications Ltd., 2008).
24. Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad (rh), Islam’s Response to Contemporary Issues (Islam International Publications Ltd., 1992).
25. Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad (ra), Seerat Khatamun-Nabiyyin, 1920.
26. Ian Adamson, A Man of God (George Shepherd, 1990).
27. R. Ahmed, et al, “An Overview of National Education Data,” The Ahmadiyya Gazette USA, October 2012.
28. https://ahmadiyyauk.org/educating-women-key-to-preventing-spread-of-radicalization-ahmadiyya-caliph-says/. Accessed September 2025.
29. The Holy Qur’an, 2:3.
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