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History provides plenty of evidence to show that Muslim women were often not treated with justice. There are two institutions in particular which have oppressed Muslim women for centuries and which have been rightly criticized by Europeans: the inhuman obligation for women to wear the veil and their confinement within the home. Women must leave the house as little as possible and must remain confined in their apartments as long as there are male visitors in the house. If they go out they must cover not only their arms and neck but also their face with a veil which falls down from their forehead and leaves only two holes for the eyes. But all Islamic scholars agree that neither the wearing of the veil nor confinement were desired by Muhammad. These institutions cannot be traced back to the 'Qur'an', to the traditions or to the consensus. There are four passages in the 'Qur'an' which at a superficial glance seem to urge the wearing of the veil and confinement. They are surahs 33:32, 33:53, 33:59 and 24:31. Apart from the fact that the obligation to wear the veil cannot be derived from the verses of surah 33, it is out of the question that they should be taken as the basis of this institution because according to their wording they refer to the prophet's wives only. Surah 24, verse 31 reads: "And speak to the believing women that they refrain their eyes, and observe continence; and that they display not their ornaments, except to their husbands or their fathers, or their husbands' fathers, or their sons;... or male domestics, who have no natural force, or to children who note not women's nakedness... The question was to know where the feminine charms which have to be covered up begin. Muhammad spoke of the bosom, so the Muslim women did not originally wear a veil. The Arab woman of the first centuries was in no way repressed or in bondage. Muhammad's wife, the confident, quick-witted, intelligent Khadijah, who took part in public life, was a leading example of the Arab aristocracy. In conformity with the Prophet's exhortations that women, too, should seek education and knowledge, important lawyers demanded that women be granted the permission to exercise the office of judge. Sigrid Hunke writes on this subject: "Women lawyers are seen appearing in the mosques to hold public lectures and expound laws.."
(170:2)
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