On September 22, 2011, KARAMAH ‘s Senior Research Associate, Ms. Ailya Vajid, participated in a panel entitled “Does Religion Infringe upon Women’s Rights?” at the University of Richmond. Other panelists were University of Richmond Professors: Henry L. Chambers, Jr., Professor of Law; Joanne B. Ciulla, Professor of Leadership and Ethics; and Mimi Hanaoka, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies.
Ms. Vajid explained that while we often hear about how Islam is restrictive of the fundamental rights of women, that this is not actually the case. She says: “We attribute all of the injustices towards women that we read about to Islam because this is what some Muslims do. However, this is not what the religion espouses. Rather, what we see are all due to misogynistic and patriarchal interpretations of the Qur’an and hadith. When one looks to the actual texts themselves, it becomes clear that these injustices towards and mistreatment of women are actually based on people’s own culture and customs and their understandings of the role of women in society, rather than on the texts themselves. People tend to mold the texts to their own understandings of what it ‘should’ say rather than read it for what it is.” Ms. Vajid clarified that religion does not infringe upon women’s rights. Rather, people choose to take away the rights of women through their interpretation of religion.
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