Women are mistreated in Islam

Happy to accept. Before I begin there are a few things I would like to clarify. Clarifications: 1. Everything I say in this debate does not reflect my personal stance on Islam or on any other issue. It is only written for the sake of this debate. 2. I am not qualified to talk about Islam. I understand that there are so many people who spend years and years studying Islam or any other religion for that matter. As a 21-year old I do not have sufficient formal or informal knowledge of theology or of the jurisprudence of Islam to be an authoritative figure of this matter. 3. This debate should not be on whether Islam is a true religion or whether the Quran is a source from God. If you find yourself feeling conflicted, please refrain from voting. If you do wish to vote, please only judge on the basis of the arguments in this debate only and not on some outside knowledge or personal feelings. 4. I will just be arguing on the basis that the Quran REALLY IS THE WORD OF GOD since this debate is not about whether or not the Quran is an authentic source from God. 5. If at any time I feel this debate has become too heated or if it is starting to invoke hatred and negativity, I will forfeit the round because I do not want this to turn into a place to rant about your personal feelings on Islam, Christianity or any other religion. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I will argue that women ARE MISTREATED in Islam. My opponent starts off by saying that the title of this debate is a common misconception. He then acknowledges that Muslims themselves are responsible for much of the problems facing the Muslim world. To illustrate this point, he claims that many interpretations of the Holy Text (which I will assume to mean the Quran) do not do justice to the Arabic words in which the Quran was originally sent down from God. An example of this being a verse from the Quran which many people are confused about because it seems to disempower woman by stating that men are higher than women when in fact the correct definition is that men have more responsibilities. In fact, there is another verse which shows how men and women are directly equal and the parable used is that they are garments for one other. The fact that there isn't a single female prophet also does not mean that women are less superior than men. Now, I will begin. My stand is that even if women are equal to men in the Quran, the condition of women in the Muslim world does not reflect this. And that is truly the root of the problem. As my opponent has mentioned that Muslims themselves are responsible for many of the conditions of the Muslim world, they are also very much responsible for the way they treat their women. When we talk about the Muslim world, immediately images of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, basically the Middle East countries come to mind. Yes, there are other Muslims living all over the world but we have to admit that these countries are the primary SYMBOLS of Islam since these are the countries where Islam first started. To say that women are equal to men is a hard thing to do when in Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to even drive. They just only recently been given the rights to vote in a few states of Saudi Arabia. In Afghanistan under strict Islamic rule, women cannot even have an education. In some parts of conservative Bangladesh, you should not even have a conversation with a woman if you are a man. My opponent, later on, claims that this is just the action of a minority of Muslims or there are not pure Islamic teachings. To me, this is a weak thing to say. How will people know what the true teachings are if the people who are the SYMBOLS of the religion don't seem very capable of showing the true teachings of Islam? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ It seems that every time a state or country wants to implement strict Sharia (Islamic) rule, somehow women will the first to suffer. In the very least, they will be pressured to wear the hijab and if they don't they are seen as rebellious and even sinful. A woman is expected to stay at home, be a good housewife, just care for the kids because that's the ultimate importance of their life, etc. If you try to live a professional life, they will look at you sadly and say something like this is not the job for women. If the correct teachings of Islam were truly implemented, this would not happen. On what little I have read, when the Prophet was alive, women were teachers, even the men went to the wife of the prophet to ask about some things on Islam they were not sure about. Women participated in holy wars alongside the men. Women travelled the world to teach about Islam. It was perfectly ok for women to be in public in bazaars etc alongside men as long as they were not doing any indecent actions. Women were uplifted and were not seen as a source of shame for the family unlike in other societies in the world. To me, the hijab is not an issue. In Christianity even, women used to have to cover themselves. Much of the fabric of the West is built on the values from Christianity. On the subject of modesty, women used to cover much more of their bodies than is considered normal now. I do think we live in a hypersexual society because men are not, as my opponent mentions lowering the gaze and our standards of how we should dress have become so low, we are confused on what modesty even means, that being almost naked in bikinis and underwear is perfectly normal. So yeah, I don't think the hijab is an issue as long as women are not forced to wear them and they do so out of their own will. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Sadly, these things are not being implemented well in the Muslim world. When did women start to become a symbol for sin? Ok, ISIS and Boko Haram are creations of the CIA to find an excuse to fight the Muslim world. But as my opponent has already mentioned, are Muslims going to blame outside influences for failure to show the world about Islam? Seems like a weak excuse. As Iraq states, Muslims have a responsibility to rise higher to show the world what they are made of. For this, I have to say that women are MISTREATED in Islam. Yes, they may be uplifted in the Quran, but so long as the Muslim countries do not implement this, then women are still mistreated. The very definition of "mistreat" means to be treated unfairly anyway. In this case, in many countries, it is my opinion that they are not being treated to the standard which is prescribed in the Holy Text. If you asked me whether or not women are being mistreated in the West, I would probably say YES too. Women are often almost always defined by their sexual and physical attractiveness. Well, I guess the world is flawed in so many ways. And somehow, no matter in which culture and which country, it is always harder for women. No matter what they do, they are always judged. That is my personal opinion. No offense intended and over to my opponent. :)