Are women subordinate to men in Islam?

No. The Holy Qur’an says that women have the same rights over men as men have over women. Different rules exist only where women and men are different by nature.

At the time the Holy Qur’an was revealed, women in almost every society were regarded as the property of men. Some cultures worshipped women as goddesses, yet treated them as possessions in daily life. The Holy Qur’an said something new: women belong to no one. They have rights over men, just as men have rights over women.

Equal rights, however, do not mean that women and men are made the same. Women carry children, nurse them and often bear the main burden of the family. Not rarely they are left alone with the children. A teaching that ignored this reality would not be just. Where Islam has different rules for women and men, this is the reason, not any lesser worth.

An everyday example shows this. No one would send a woman, however strong, into a boxing match against a male champion and call that equality. Western societies also take such natural differences into account, without any religious reason. Justice means giving each person what fits their nature.

Those who call Islam hostile to women often compare the behaviour of some Muslims or clerics with modern ideals. What should be measured, though, is the teaching of the Holy Qur’an itself. It honours women as equal believers with their own reward from God, as the verses above show.