TED Summary: What Islam Really Says about Women By: Alaa Murabit
Experiencing a school of a traditional city in Libya in the age of 15 was the path which led Alaa Murabit; a moslem activist, to start questioning the role of women in her religion. She was introduced to two cultural aspects of religion namely 'Haram'(religiously prohibited) and 'Aib' (culturally inappropriate). After having a lot of conversations and a heavy debating, she then decided to conduct a research. Through her research, she found an astonishing fact regarding a well-known muslimah namely Khadijah, whose participation in economic sector was vital in Islamic movement. This fact proves that women have the same right as men in Islam. Thus, if women are equal in the eyes of God, they should be equal in the eyes of men, as well. Then why there are so many restrictions for women. Men domination is probably the most logical answer. Men have become the decision maker for religion institutions for years; they have been controlling 'the spiritual messages' to create policy in their wills. This condition has caused miss-perception, miss-used, and manipulation of religious scripts. People then tend to hide in the name of religion when giving judgment.
The only way for women to show their qualities is by getting involved in such economic and politic activities in order to begin social and cultural changes. Alaa Murabit utilizes Qur'an scripts and Hadist in her campaign to persuade other women and as a counterattack. She believes that by changing the 'messages', women are able to find alternatives to interact, as men do.
Experiencing a school of a traditional city in Libya in the age of 15 was the path which led Alaa Murabit; a moslem activist, to start questioning the role of women in her religion. She was introduced to two cultural aspects of religion namely 'Haram'(religiously prohibited) and 'Aib' (culturally inappropriate). After having a lot of conversations and a heavy debating, she then decided to conduct a research. Through her research, she found an astonishing fact regarding a well-known muslimah namely Khadijah, whose participation in economic sector was vital in Islamic movement. This fact proves that women have the same right as men in Islam. Thus, if women are equal in the eyes of God, they should be equal in the eyes of men, as well. Then why there are so many restrictions for women. Men domination is probably the most logical answer. Men have become the decision maker for religion institutions for years; they have been controlling 'the spiritual messages' to create policy in their wills. This condition has caused miss-perception, miss-used, and manipulation of religious scripts. People then tend to hide in the name of religion when giving judgment.
The only way for women to show their qualities is by getting involved in such economic and politic activities in order to begin social and cultural changes. Alaa Murabit utilizes Qur'an scripts and Hadist in her campaign to persuade other women and as a counterattack. She believes that by changing the 'messages', women are able to find alternatives to interact, as men do.