Women in the Medieval Islamic Era between Legal Texts and Historical Reality: A Comparative Analytical Study

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the status of women in the medieval Islamic era by comparing the legal texts found in the Holy Qur’an and the Prophetic Sunnah, with their principles of justice and equality, to the historical and social reality in which women lived during that period. The research shows that there was a clear gap between the texts and their application, resulting from the influence of tribal customs, the dominance of patriarchal structures, and the use of religious discourse by authority to consolidate social policies that restricted women.

The research also presents illuminating examples of women who played active roles in the fields of scholarship, administration, politics, and Sufism, despite the restrictions imposed upon them. It recommends the necessity of rereading the texts with historical and rights-based awareness, distinguishing between the essence of Islamic law and the interpretive judgments that shaped it across the ages, and moving beyond the confusion between religion and religiosity, and between text and interpretation.