Why are women not treated equally in many Muslim countries if the Holy Qur’an gives them equal rights?

Because many Muslims do not act on what the Holy Qur’an teaches. The fault lies not in the teaching but in the failure to put it into practice.

It is worth looking first at what the Holy Qur’an actually says. It speaks of equal rights. Women have rights over men just as men have rights over women. It does not say that men and women are identical in every respect. Where its teaching asks different things of men and women, this rests on differences in their nature, not on any difference in worth.

Before God, all that counts is how a person believes and acts. The second verse above names men and women side by side, quality by quality, and promises both the same reward.

Why, then, does reality look so different in many countries? Because teaching and practice have drifted apart. This is not a problem peculiar to Islam. It affects the followers of every religion. Think of an engine left idling. It roars loudly, yet the car does not move, because no gear is engaged. Religion is like that when it is loudly professed but not connected to how people actually live.

Anyone who wants to know what Islam teaches about women should therefore not start with the customs of particular countries, but with the Holy Qur’an. Where women are treated unfairly, people are acting against their religion, not in line with it. The hadith above sets a clear standard. The quality of a man’s faith shows in the way he treats his wife.