Women are mistreated in Islam

Thanks for your response. Further thanks for setting out sensible guidelines for which to consider whilst carrying out this debate. The first line of your argument is something I absolutely, entirely agree with, and I'm sure many other Muslims will also agree in that 'if women are equal to men in the Qur'an, the condition in the Muslim world does not reflect this'. I also agree that this is the true root of the problems surrounding women. But going back to the title of the debate, 'Women are mistreated in Islam', we need to understand that Muslims around the world do not necessarily represent Islam in its entirety, and therefore it cannot be said that if Muslims do this, it show that Islam teaches it. Much like how the KKK were Christians, but I am confident and certain that the Bible does not advocate such behaviour; these men therefore are merely setting a bad name for their religions. Now let me clarify the part of my argument suggesting that Muslims are also at fault. Here I mean that ignorance is the greatest problem, and ignorance is not just of non Muslims, but Muslims too. The key being ignorance, not Muslim or not Muslim. In terms of the idea that places like Saudi Arabia become the focal point when one discusses Islam is a true, yet unfortunate reality. It is heartbreaking for Muslims to acknowledge that the small minority I speak about in my first argument, hold governments in areas such as Saudi Arabia. These small minorities have power which needs to be brought down as they are misusing it to treat different people unjustly. An example is the recent execution of Sheikh Nimr, a scholar who was killed for openly speaking out against the Saudi government. For those who are unaware, due to this execution, Iranians protested outside the embassy in Tehran, and in response, Saudi cut off all relations with Iran. If Saudi are a symbol of Islam today as you insinuated, then this beheading and hasty response should also be something representative of Islam. However breaking and severing relations in this way is highly condemned in the Qur'an: "And those who break the Covenant of Allaah, after its ratification, and sever that which Allaah has commanded to be joined (i.e., they sever the bond of kinship and are not good to their relatives), and work mischief in the land, on them is the curse (i.e., they will be far away from Allaah"s Mercy); And for them is the unhappy (evil) home (i.e., Hell)." And killing a fellow Muslim is also most punishable: "killing one believer is equivalent to killing the whole of mankind". Based on this, I'll revert to my first point of this argument, that the actions of people who claim to be Muslim, do not at all represent the religion of Islam. And therefore, when we see that women are not allowed to drive and have very little rights to vote, let us say that this injustice is due to Saudi Arabians, not Muslims, and even if Muslims were at fault, not Islam. I will touch back on a topic I introduced in argument 1, to once again address your concern that 'These countries (Muslim world) are the primary SYMBOLS of Islam... ' The only primary symbol of Islam however, is the prophet Muhammad. This is because the Qur'an comes in two forms, Qur'an as in the book we all know of, as well as Qur'an An Natiq - the speaking Qur'an. And this speaking Qur'an is the holy prophet, who is the living manifestation of the Qur'an, so if we want a true symbol of the religion, we should look toward him alongside the word of God. And the word of God is "Never will I allow to be lost the work of [any] worker among you, whether male or female; you are equals of one another." - Holy Qur'an. Now to address your next point which describes the weakness of one of my arguments. I'd argue that calling an argument weak with no counter argument, but just a 2 line response itself is weak, but I will address your points nonetheless. I have already suggested that these people are not symbols of Islam like you said, however we can agree on the fact that they should be. In fact, all Muslims should be the symbol of Islam and should be able to showcase the teachings of the religion and it is simply upsetting that many cannot. But, there is a very large amount of people who do strive to do so. And that is the aim of any true believer, to be symbol of the peaceful religion. However, often people in places of power abuse this status. You also said that every state and country wants to implement strict sharia law. However, another misconception which I will touch on briefly, is the fact that sharia law is not a set book or precalculated compilation of rules. Sharia law varies as it is a set of rules which will be decided based on the Qur'an, the Hadith (sayings of the prophet and his holy progeny) and scholars during that time. So, if a scholar says that a woman should be staying at home, that is the interpretation of the scholars. However, the idea that scholars have also got a say by interpreting the Qur'an and hadith to come up with rules and laws, means that they can evaluate whether this would work in certain circumstances and in this era. Therefore, when the Qur'an has a story that homosexuals were stoned to death, this does not mean that sharia law will necessarily encompass this punishment as the story refers to a certain situation and period in history. Now whilst I feel the above is extremely important in such a debate, I'd like spend the rest of my argument more specifically looking at women. The role of a woman PRIMARILY in islam, is to create and raise a family. It is there job to ensure the safety and correct upbringing of the children. Similarly, a man's PRIMARY role is to provide money for the family and ensure the financial status of the family is in order, it is also a man's job to fight in wars when applicable. However, this does not mean that the man or the woman is restricted to these roles, much like how a woman is permitted to earn a living, a man is allowed to assist the upbringing of a child. They must share responsibility. We see this when both Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali would help their wives in the house. However the ultimate responsibility is the man's in terms of looking after the family. I agree in that some Muslims do not represent this entirely, such as Boko Haram, and it also seems normal for Muslim women not to earn their own livings in places like Saudi Arabia. 1) rules are different for each country depending on the law of the land, even if a Muslim disagrees with the law, so long as it doesn't contradict the Qur'an, they must follow the law of the land. 2) it is unfortunate that women are undervalued by some people but reverting back to the question, this does not mean Islam is unjust toward women as they are not symbols of Islam. So women are not just tied to the kitchen sink in Islam, they do have more freedom than that as shown by the Prophet. He stopped the burying of female children in Arabia. He introduced female inheritance. Islam allowed women to earn, and that earning would not need to be shared with the family, all of a woman's income can be used in whatever way. Before Islam, women all across the globe were deprived of inheritance and were themselves considered property to be inherited by men. Islam gave women the right to own property and inherit from relatives, which was a revolutionary concept in the seventh century. Whether a woman is a wife, mother, sister, or daughter, she receives a certain share of her deceased relative"s property. This share depends on her degree of relationship to the deceased and the number of heirs. While many societies around the world denied women inheritance, Islam assured women this right, illustrating the universal justice of Islam"s divine law. A woman is not then made to obey her husband as it seems in Saudi Arabia, she is permitted to refuse a marriage proposal and divorce at any stage too. Your opinion shows your decency and open mindedness where you say that Muslims are not treating women to the standard in the Holy text. This is my argument, that Islam does not prescribe injustice to women, but some people, either because they think they are true but have in reality been deviated, or simply due to ignorance and to satisfy their own hidden agendas. I also really appreciate your acknowledgement that the west do not value women enough, in fact, Islam brought about womanly rights and female inheritance laws well before our 'developed countries'. I will give you a story about how women should be approached by Muslims. An old man was trying to close the shutter of his shop but was too weak to do so due to his age and frail state. A young muscly man walked by and he closed the shop for the old man. Thereafter, a young pretty woman walked by and the young man stated at her while the older man immediately lowered his gaze. If considering an Islamic point of view truly, the stronger man would not be the young muscly guy, but it'd be the one who was able to lower his gaze and deny his desires from overcoming him. This is because women should not be treated as objects which can be used to satisfy ones desires, and also it shows that a man should carry out modesty, our looks should not matter, our spiritual aesthetic matters more. However, the backbone of my argument is that some Muslims have misinterpreted Islam and unfortunately, those Muslims happen to hold governments and status' of power and therefore, we should differentiate the actions of these Muslims to that of Islam. And if we want to do this differentiation, we must compare these horrible individuals to the purest version of Islam, the Prophet and the closest we can get to that status today, is the true scholars, ie Sayyed Ayatullah Sistani and other major scholars like these. I have purposely repeated the idea of deviated Muslims vs Islam to instill the fact that Muslims should be, but aren't symbols of Islam necessarily. No offence intended and over to you