Daughters of Eve

But if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own
husbands at home; for it is a shame for a woman to speak in
assembly.”
1 Corinthians 14:34-35
Isl\m, however, was adamant from its dawn that knowledge is the
birthright of every human being, male or female. The Messenger of
All\h r, without discriminating between the sexes, said, “Seeking
knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim.”
Ibn M\jah
In fact, women were praised for speaking out and asking questions, as
`¬’ishah y once said: “The best women are the women of the An]\r;
modesty never prevented them from acquiring deep knowledge of the
religion.”
al-Bukh\r|
The fifty-eighth s[rah of the Qur’\n is called al-Muj\dilah, which
means “She That Argues”. The background to the revelation of this
chapter is that a woman named Khawlah bint Tha`labah came to the
Messenger of All\h r to complain that her husband had said to her at a
moment of anger: “You are to me as the back of my mother.” This was
held by pagan Arabs to be a statement of divorce which freed the
husband from any conjugal responsibility but did not leave the wife
free to leave the husband’s home or marry another man. Khawlah’s
point was, since he had not said the word divorce, why should this
statement have such an effect? The Prophet r, however, could not
legislate without Divine Command, and since nothing contradicting
this custom had been revealed, he maintained that the time-old law
still stood. Khawlah kept arguing her point with the Prophet r in an
attempt to save her suspended marriage. It was while they were both
engaged in this dialogue that S[rah al-Muj\dilah was revealed, a
whole chapter abolishing this cruel custom and ruling in the favour of
Khawlah. The s[rah opens with the words:
27