WOMENT’S HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE KORAN : AN INTERPRETIVE APPROACH

i. Introduction
The spirit of the Koran was to raise the status of women in seventh century Arab society, not to relegate them to
subordination as is understood today. If Islamic statutory laws are reformed according to the contextual
interpretation of the Koran, they will meet the international human rights standards.
ii. Islamic Approaches to Human Rights
A. The Secular Approach
A few secular-minded Muslim scholars advocate the approach of applying international human rights law in
Muslim states.
B. The Non-Compatible Approach
The proponent of the non-compatible are comprised of Muslim governments and conservative Muslim scholars
who tend to argue that Islam has its own distinct system of rights and duties. These scholars struggle to make the
Islamic rights system look strongly different and defend the system againt Western intellectual arrogance and
cultural imperialism.
There are three distinct points to be gleaned from an analysis of the non-compatible approach to human rights in
Islam.
1. In Islam the origin of duties and rights is divine and not a human artifact.
2. Human rights in Islam are theocentric, that is, everything belongs to God and man is here only to serve his
maker, as opposed to international human rights values, which are anthropocentric, where man is the
measure of everything.
3. Human rights in Islam are granted by god and are permanent and eternal, in contrast to international
human rights laws, which are man-made and dynamic.
Criticism of the Non-Compatible Approach
Many Islamic human rights standars, match international human rights norms and values, and it is possible
to gain greater compatibility in areas of conflict.
C. The Reconciliation Approach
The proponents of the reconciliation approach argue that Islamic human rights norms are compatible with
international standards in many respects and that where they conflict, those areas could be reformulated and
reconciled with international standars. They believe that there are similarities and dissimilarities and offer their
own formulae on how to reconcile the divergent areas.
Difficulties of the Reconciliatory Approach
The Reconciliatory approach may not be well received in Muslim circles because of the ambivalent feelings of
Muslim concerning Western modernity.
D. An Interpretive Approach
Koran is a living text and can be reinterpreted to meet contempory needs of given muslim Societies.
iii. The Rights of Men and Women in The Koran
The Koran does not make any distinction on the basis of sex and believes in human equality. The Koran also lays
down that men and women are equally responsible for their action. The Koran also recognizes women’s right to
property in general terms and forbids its improper acquisition. The Koran enjoins believers to pray and then spread
on earth in pursuit of an honest livelihood, meaning the earning of a woman belong to her, not to her husband or
parents. The Koranic emphasis on manifold facets of personal freedom: not to be a slave-like followers of any other
person. The Koran stresses justice without distinguishing between man and women. The Koran puts the highest
emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge and consider it the prerequisite for a just and peaceful world. The Koran
recognizes the right to freedom of religion. All these rights are available to both men and women since the Koran
does not specify either sex.
iv. Controversial verses and their contextual interpretation
Certain verses of the Koran have been interpreted in a fashion against women’s equal rights, reducing women to
disadvantaged group. This belief has supported the misapplication of several Koranic verses to the Islamic laws
concerning polygamy, divorce, inheritance, and a woman’s right to bear witness. While regarding the institution of
Polygamy, it becomes clear that the Koran wanted to protect women’s rights, so polygamy was allowed conditionally
in certain situation. Regarding right to divorce (talaq), the Koran gives both men and women the right to divorce, but
the options and procedures for exercising this right are different. Regarding right to inheritance, a man inherits
double what a woman inherits as being a result of man’s greater economic responsibility in the family system.
Regarding a woman’s right to bear witness, in Islamic jurisdictions, a woman’s testimony in financial transactions
involving futureobligations is considered inadequate, and is completely inadmissible in hadd cases, where the Koran
has fixed the punishment (adultery and fornication, qisas (retribution), and diyat (blood money), etc). A contextual
interpretation of the Koran reveals that the conservative interpretation, which supports Islamic laws forbidding or
limiting a woman’s testimony, is inaccurate and contrary to the intent of the Koran. The concern of the Koran is to
find the truth, if the woman does not allowed to reveal the truth of what she witnessed, it would be a breach of
Koranic command.