Women and the Koran : The Status of Women in Islam

From arranged marriages of female children to religious laws that dictate what women can learn, how they must dress, where they may be seen in public, and with whom they may associate, virtually every aspect of their lives being controlled by an entrenched patriarchy, Hekmat insists that the Koran and those who live under its rule must re-examine this dangerous religious text and place it under the microscope of critical intelligence. In powerful chapters devoted to pre-Islamic deities; Muhammad's lust for women; polygamy, concubinage, and slavery; severe punishment laws; female seclusion; wife beating; and divorce, Hekmat explains how Arab tribal society degenerated from a polytheistic, pre-Islamic culture in which women enjoyed positions of relative prestige, honor, and equality to one in which men dominate and women are little more than chattel.