Tag Archives: discrimination

IfI Press Release on the Occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21, 2009

Bonn (March 26, 2009) – Islam scholar Prof. Dr. Christine Schirrmacher from the Institute of Islamic Studies, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, has warned against condemning statements critical of Islam as an expression of racism.

Women in Islam: the Provisions of Islamic marriage law

The public debate over women’s role in Islam tends in the West to centre round the issue of the head-scarf, seen as symbolizing women’s inferiority, yet not all practising Muslim women wear the scarf and not all of them are of the opinion that this is undispensable. In fact it is Islamic marriage law which cements women’s inferior legal status as divinely ordained.

Muhammad and his wifes

When Islam is the subject, the topic „Women in Islam“ is also frequently discussed. This is not merely the result of controversial books on Islam (like Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses) or of the problems associated with a “parallel society”, or of the visible external differences between Muslim and non-Muslim women. The reports from human rights organizations on the situation of women in Islamic countries and the autobiographical accounts of Muslim women also fuel the debate about the acculturation of Muslim women in Western culture, under the rubric of “Women’s Rights in Islam“, for example.