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Gender Roles In Islamic Culture

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Islamic culture is in accordance with the Qur’anic teachings, which sees a male and a female not as a duplicate of each other but as a complement based on the feminine/masculine polarity (Pharaon, 353). This idea of “neither can complete without the other” formed the basis of the Islamic gender role: men oversee women. Qur’an reads, “Men are to oversee women Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded” (Quran 4:34). This notion of gender role affects various areas of women’s life, such as education, employment, inheritance of a property, freedom of marriage, dress, etc. For example,

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