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leadership must be based on mercy, kindness, mutual consultation
and shared responsibilities.
for tyranny or humiliation.
IIt was never intended as a basis
The second exception is in the matter of giving testimony in
legal matters, in financial
I transactions. According to Islam,, such
evidence should be_given either by two men or a man and two women.
As the-Qurlan says:
"And get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if
there are not two men, then a man and two women,
such as ye choose for witnesses. " 1,
This does not have anything to do with the credibility or
dignity of wonmen. It is the Qurlan that states that such transactions
being carried out mainly outside the domain of women, it is possible
that one of them may forget, then the other one can remind her, as the
Qurlan explains in this verse:
"For witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other
can remind her. " 2
It is suggested that a woman in pre-Islamic society was usually
at her home looking after her children and running her domestic
affairs. So women were, most of the time, away from what was going on ift
the market place, its problems and affairs. It is enough that Islam
gave the woman the right to particiPate in the society through
testifying, aven in part.
The third exception is the matter of inheritance. Our discussion'
about the woman's status before Islam. in the first chapter, gives
us a clear idea about how she was. mostly, deprived of the right to have
a chance of an inheritance. The idea behind this. as we showed, was
that she was not qualified to be an heir since she could not fight either.
1. Q. 2.282,
2. Ibid ý-
a
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