User:JaneDoe023/Gender roles in islam

Prayer and worship
For Friday prayers, by custom, Muslim congregations segregate men, women, and children into separate groups. On other days, the women and children pray at home. Men are expected to offer the five daily prayers at the nearest mosque. Muhammad specifically allowed Muslim women to attend mosques and pray behind men. Mohammad said, "Do not prevent your women from going to the mosque, even though their houses are better for them," which implies it is better for women to stay at home. "A woman’s prayer in her house is better than her prayer in her courtyard, and her prayer in her bedroom is better than her prayer in her house." (Reported by Abu Dawud in al-Sunan, Baab maa jaa’a fee khurooj al-nisaa’ ilaa’l-masjid. See also Saheeh al-Jaami‘, no. 3833).

Women are prohibited from praying at a Mosque in Surinam.

Female genital mutilation
Surveys have shown a widespread belief, particularly in Mali, Mauritania, Guinea and Egypt, that FGM is a religious requirement. Gruenbaum has argued that practitioners may not distinguish between religion, tradition and chastity, making it difficult to interpret the data. FGM's origins in northeastern Africa are pre-Islamic, but the practice became associated with Islam because of that religion's focus on female chastity and seclusion. There is no mention of it in the Quran. It is praised in a few daʻīf (weak) hadith (sayings attributed to Muhammad) as noble but not required, although it is regarded as obligatory by the Shafi'i version of Sunni Islam. In 2007 the Al-Azhar Supreme Council of Islamic Research in Cairo ruled that FGM had "no basis in core Islamic law or any of its partial provisions".

Male and female sexuality
The Islamic tradition recognizes the sexual desires of both men and women. According to Kecia Ali, "Classical texts note the importance of female fulfillment while stressing the wives' duty to remain sexually available to their husbands...whereas contemporary authors, focus on women's sexual rights within their marriages, attempting to prove the importance of female pleasure by highlighting the separation of sex from reproduction and the importance of the female orgasm." Classical authors also stress the importance of male guardianship as is required to protect the chastity and modesty of women in their care.

Masculinity
Some of what is deemed to be masculine in Muslim cultures stems from the life and actions of Muhammad as put down in the Hadith. Muhammad was married to his first wife Khadija monogamously for 25 years. Upon her death he later married a total of fourteen women. In Sahih al-Bukhari 7:62:142, it is said that Muhammad sometimes had sexual relations with all his wives in one night, and in 1:5:268 he is described as having “the strength of thirty men.” The idea of traditional masculinity is also strongly shaped by the traditional idea of femininity. Several classic Muslim authors such as Sheikh Muhammad Nefzawi and Ahmed Bin Selman describe women as beings with insatiable sexual appetites. It follows that a man who can satisfy multiple women is seen as incredibly powerful and masculine. In many classical arguments, it is the husband's duty to fulfill his wife's sexual needs, which are part of her rights as a married woman. This argument is often paired with the statement that this is how society prevents social unrest (fitna). (added from the male and female sexuality portion)

In addition to the relationship between Muslim masculinity and female sexuality, some concepts of Muslim masculinity stem from the relationships between Muslim men. Prominent writer of "Islamic Masculinities", Lahoucine Ouzgane, proposes the idea that masculinity is rooted in a fear of emasculation by other men. Additionally, projecting homosexuality onto another man is often seen as a way to emasculate him while reaffirming one's own superior virility.

Femininity
What is deemed feminine, and the “ideal” Muslim woman is constantly changing, these changes are influenced by several things including the global market and modernization. The Quran requires Muslim men and women to dress modestly. The law of Hijab states that the whole female body aside from the face and hands should be covered when a woman leaves her home as a sign of modesty, obedience to God and respecting Islamic values. Modernization has changed many aspects of femininity, past and present, such changes have brought about many incorrect stereotypes and ideas about Muslim women. Some common Stereotypes include that women are not allowed to have any rights and must do whatever their husbands tell them, when in the Quran this idea is not put forth. The global market is changing femininity by showcasing and promoting images that are “desirable” for an ideal Muslim woman, this change has caused several traditions for women to become outdated and contested. One tradition that is becoming less accepted is the veil, some women, not all, now see this as degrading in today's world whereas in the past it was seen as a sign of respect. Regardless of past and new traditions women have been used throughout history as a cultural symbol of Muslim religious values which have shaped what it means to be feminine in their society.