geografia: Women in Islam

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

The status of women's testimony in Islam is disputed. Muslim societies' attitudes range from completely rejecting female testimony in certain legal areas, to conditionally accepting (half-worth that of a male, or with a requirement for supporting male testimony), to completely accepting it without any gender bias. In Islamic law, testimony (shahada) is defined as attestation with regard to a right of a second party against a third. It exists alongside other forms of evidence (bayyina), such as the oath (yamin), acknowledgement (iqrar), and circumstantial evidence (qara'in al-ahwal). A testimony must involve certain knowledge of an affirmed event, and cannot be based on conjecture. The follo…

Evidence: 28 • authority: 72

The experiences of Muslim women (Arabic: مسلمات, romanized: Muslimāt, singular مسلمة, Muslimah) vary widely between and within different societies, both present and historically, due to cultures and values that were often predating Islam's introduction to the respective regions of the world. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree and gives them a common identity that may serve to bridge the wide cultural, social, and economic differences between Muslim women. Among the influences which have played an important role in defining the social, legal, spiritual, and cosmological status of women in the course of Islamic history ar…