Introduction
With new developments in the era of globalization, women are caught between today's need as career women and fulfilling 'traditional responsibilities' as a child, wife and mother. Women nowadays need to be 'superwoman' to confront the challenges of the new millennium. They have to face a varieties of complex problem. Most of the latest writings related to women issues are written by Western feminist. Women emancipation activists are committed to the feminist ideologies that are mostly dependent on logical thinking and local state of affairs. They fight for justice against cruelty, which occurred due to the belief system surrounding their life and worked hard, to uphold justice in the system, which was already weak. Some found their way out, which turned out to be difficult, by setting up a new belief system with new values. Unfortunately, some of our own small group of women's activists were also involved in the same struggle without realizing the difference in socio-cultural background and system in the country. Some even regarded men as the main cause of the weaknesses of the system.


To answer these questions, the first part of this working paper is to discuss the different sects of women emancipation movement which exist now. Part two will analyze how far feminism ideologies have influenced the movement in demanding women's rights in the west. In this discussion, the writers analyze the history of the movement to enable the readers to have a better understanding of the reasons underlying the movement. Part three concerns women's status in Islam and emancipation trends that exist in Islamic countries will also be discussed. Part four will discuss women's emancipation in Malaysia before arriving at the conclusion in the final part.


2. Western Feminism Trend

The basis of Western feminism trend is about opposition to the theories based on 'misogyny' that is hatred towards women. Plato (427-347 AD), a famous philosopher, in his first book, 'The Republic' which was written between year 332-3 AD, perceived women as weak and belonging to lower class as revealed in the following statement,

"The great mass of multifarious appetite and pleasures and pain will be found to occur chiefly in children, women and slaves amongst free men so called in inferior multitude"

Even though in his book Plato explained that women needed to be treated equally with men, the statement was found confusing and dissenting when he expressed that women are not
part of the philosopher king's group because of their negative attitude towards knowledge. While Aristotle 384-322 BC condemned Plato's view about women, family and property he also considered women as second-class citizens. According to him, men are different from women because of their higher intellectual capability compared to women and slaves.

The relationship between man and woman is described as follows:

"The relation of male to female is naturally that of the superior to the inferior- of the ruling to the ruled"

This was these famous philosophers' opinion about women. We were amazed that during the height of modern learning period; Plato and Aristotle could still hold such opinions. These ware proven when early theories on women's weaknesses were developed during the Middle
age era by the Christian priests such as Augustine (354-430 Be) and St Thomas Aquinas (122774 BC). Women were blamed for causing Adam, a man, to be expelled from heaven for succumbing to Eve's temptation and eating the forbidden fruit. Aquinas stated that women are less important than men because their only role is to produce children. Middle age theories emphasized women as being:

"Lacking in judgment and reason clnd sometimes vain, duplicitous, capricious, reductive weak minded, generally inferior and often downright evil"

That was how shallow his opinion was towards women. It was obvious that his view contradicted his own religion because Mary, Jesus' mother, was also a woman. The question then is; Is Marya part of this inferior and unintelligent group?

Even though the opinions of the Christian priests contradicted the teachings of Jesus, the church institution has inculcate the belief that women are the source of all sins and ought to be avoided should one needs to be close to God. A person is said to have a high degree of piety if he is willing to avoid women and marriage, as sex is considered dirty. The theories brought by the church institution however spread out during the 16,17,18 and 18 centuries, when famous philosophers in the west such as Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), John Locke (1632-1704) Rousseau (1712-1778) strengthened the belief that men should be given the authority because he has the strength and a strong will, whereas women are weak and incapable of making decision. According to Rousseau, the main role of women is to please her husband and to
produce children. He emphasized that:

"The genuine mother of a family is not women of the world, she almost act as much of
recluse as the nun in her convent".

The perception towards women does not change in the modern theory ideology. Hegel believed that due to the immature and imperfect nature of women, they should not be given the authority to rule. The post-modern theories also held similar belief.

The situation have created a feminism trend which originated from women's right theories
and later developed into feminism ideology that flourished at the end of eighteenth century which was strongly supported by women whose rights have been violated.

Naturally, when human are oppressed, they will eventually arise against it. The word feminist was first used formally in 1894 in England. It was used by Charles Fourier earlier in France. The first woman who focussed on women's right article was a French writer named,
Christian de Pisen (1364-1430). She was then succeeded by Mary Astell (1666-1731). Their footsteps were followed by others from various fields, however, their arguments were more general. The main principle was not clear. Opinions about women's right and emancipation movement have developed under Liberal, Socialist, Marxist and Radical schools of thought. The writer will discuss these trends with regard to the history of feminism movement, with the hope to obtain the reasons underlying each event, in order to understand the issue within the context of when, how and why it happened.

2.1 Liberal Feminism Trend

This trend focused on emancipation movement to claim its. equal rights and opportunity in every discipline. It emphasized the concept that women as society member have power. Followers of this trend stated the necessity to emancipate women from personalized surrounding to society surrounding. This understanding is based on equal rights because male and female have the same ability to think. The mind power has overcome everything including God's power, because during the seventeenth century was the Age of Reason, where the strength of mind power was utmost important. Therefore discrimination in education between male and female in Europe and America was condemned and critics. They insisted equal rights and strife in terms of education were also given to women. Catherine Macaulay, (1731-91) in her book, "letter of education (1790) described female condition due to the discrimination in education practiced during the period. She also suggested equal opportunities be given to men as well as women but also men should be trained about women's traditional of various responsibility. Because women receive equal education standard with men they suggested man to share household tasks and involve in taking care of the children. However this belief consist of various opinions. Some of them assumed marriage as prostitution without fee and others assumed justice exist if household duties were shared equally.

'Vindication of Rights of Women' a reference book for the feminist was written by Mary Wolisstore (1759-97) emphasized women's right that should be equal to men and her critics towards Rousseau made her work important for feminist.

During the industrialization era, women were confined at home like the bird in the cage. If women were to work, their pay were way below men. She describes how the rights for
education for women who denied that lead to neglecting the intellect. She also explained that if men were to be treated like women during the period, their intellect development were hinder. The understanding impetuously develop and after a century it was strengthen by writings from John Stuart Mill (1806-73) Harriet Taylor and Elizabeth Cady Strantoon (18151902). They emphasized the same concept. In the 19th Century, witnessed feminism battle demand changed to movement in form of education, law and politics. Extremely great campaign was done to obtain women's rights to vote. Besides producing articles related to the matter, they were actively involved in supporting women demand for equal rights in education and jobs. They also wanted reformation in the divorce law and child custody. And also acknowledge ownership property for married women. In the battle to emancipate women, Stanton condemned religion in his book, 'The women's Bible' where in his opinion religion was misused by men to exploit women. He has written a lot of articles about women and issues related to women's sufferings and actively involved with the movement. When he died in 19902, most
of his battles related to law reformation were entertained by the government except the voting rights, which was then passed during the twentieth amendments to the American Institution in
1920. Another opinion by famous philosopher, John Stuart mill, was said to be influenced by Harriet Taylor a feminist who wrote -Enfranchisement of women'. He respected women. At that time, in Britain, women and slaves were weak. Opportunity to obtain status on their own effort does not exist. Women did not have entity in the society. Woman did not have her own identity and her identity depends on the male in her family, to her father if she is not married and to her husband if she is married. If she is born in the royal family, she has high status and she will be honored if he has husband was designated. A custom practiced till today. In the pre-modern society, the status in general is derived status and not from their own achievement. Thus women
depend on men to determine her status in the society. This dependence also exists in other matters especially in economics aspect. They do not have rights to own property. Wages obtain from their work were taken by the husbands as they do not have rights to own, including their ownself. Mills think any form of discrimination including law should be abolished so that women are treated equally in the society. Given a choice to work, Mills think that if a woman is married, she should be a full time housewife. This opinion was clearly indifferent with Tailors as he pointed those women's rights to work to help increase the family's economy. In his comment on Mills view, cool assumed that Mills equal gender concept is based on greatest happiness for the greatest number and not on individual happiness.

The liberal feminism trend later develops into modern liberal feminism in America. Betty Friedan, in her book, "The Feminism mystique" question a statement that has long been in women's thought where happiness can only be achieved when one became a wife or mother, insinuating that these responsibility were actually burden to women. Due to this idea, they did not work. But spend most of the time taking of their home He thinks women should be involved in outdoor activity but he did not suggest any ideas if problem arises when women work.

Olin tried to solve the problem by relating justice in the family and in the society.
According to his explanation, children will not appreciate justice in the family institution itself. To solve the matter is by having children care centers and provided by the government in order to have quality supervision and justice. However this view also has problem. It might not be practical as the suggestion is far beyond reality.

2.2 Marxist Feminism Trend

Marxist believed that the criteria for determining dominance/control within the family and society depend on economic standing/status. Engels argued that the distribution of work between genders is unbalanced that it burdens the women, in which they are viewed as belonging to the proletariat class and the men to the bourgeois class. Women are perceived to be working for the benefit of the men, which is similar to the predicament of the working class working for the rich who holds and controls the sources of production.

August Babel pointed out that women become powerless because their authority has been taken over by men. Therefore, to liberate women from the control of men, they have to join outside workforce. They have to be economically independent in order to be liberated. However, working mothers are also faced with issues such as child-care and children therefore have to be sent to communal child rearing centers to be looked after. Household chores can be divided through a system of payment/ a fee system. Babel believed that women could never be emancipated unless there is equality in status between men and women. Thus, in order to gain independence, capitalism has got to be strongly rejected/resisted.

Marxist ideology/trend gained the support of many German women. Among the famous ones are Clara Zetkin (1857-1933), Rosa Luxemburgh (1871-1919) and Marx's own daughter Aleanor Marx Aveling. In Russia, Lenin's wife Nadezhda Krupskaya introduced the theory of Marxist feminism as a solution to the women's problems in Russia. Similar to her friends who believed in the theory, it is their involvement in the resistance against the class system that will lead to women's emancipation. Lenin also sympathized with the position and problems faced by the women in Russia, as was reflected in his statement;

"As long as women are engaged in housework their position is still a restricted one. In order to achieve the complete emancipation of women and to make them really co-equal with men, we must have social economy, and the participation of women in general productive labour. Then women will occupy the same position as men."25

However, his statement was only an expression of sympathy and like other communist
leaders, no convincing effort was carried out by him to put women on a par with men.

Alexandra Kullantai (1873-1952) came forward to mend the status of Russian women
when he was elected Minister of Social Welfare. He brought many changes and law reformation pertaining to the status of women in the family, as well as obtaining government assistance in ensuring there was grant/concession for maternity leave and childcare. As the leader of women sector (Genotdel), he attempted to bring about awareness in women of their rights and to assist them in claiming them through educational campaigns and the setting up of childcare centers. Unfortunately, Genotdel was abolished by Stalin in 1929 on the grounds that women's problems in Russia have long been resolved.

Kullantai was said to be more radical than the original belief of the Marxist regarding family, childcare and the responsibilities of motherhood. He suggested that the responsibilities of motherhood be shared in society. This way, a mother can share her maternal disposition with other children apart from her own. The same goes to other traditional domestic chores such as cooking and running household errands.

The trend of modern Marxist on the other hand was more liberal whereby various solutions were brought forward to resolve the impending problems of women and family. The responsibilities of women were never acknowledged during that time (and probably nowadays too) because they were considered trivial and not important at all. All household chores and child-care are time-consuming tasks, therefore unless women are relieved of these responsibilities they can never be free/emancipated. Equal job opportunities can never guarantee the real liberation of women; in fact women are burdened with double workload i.e. household chores and outside work. Dallacosta suggested that in order to achieve liberation, women do not have to take up another profession because they can be productive at home, therefore any tasks, which are carried out at home, have to be given payment.

2.3 Socialist Feminism trend

Feminist trend based on socialism are seen as a way out for those who think that the Marxist ideology did not bring about any solution to the issue of women emancipation. The socialist feminist argued that economy is the basis for/of development. Similar to the Marxist ideology, they argued that the liberation of women from economic independence is the pre-condition to women liberation. Marriage is seen as a form of prostitution and is an institution that enslaves women. Professionalism is seen as the only way of achieving liberation. The capitalist system and patriarchy are perceived as the main obstacles and thus have to be strongly resisted.

Alison Jaggar proposed the concept of "alienation" in analyzing women's issues. She argued that women have been ignored/disregarded in all aspects, up to the point where they themselves tend to disregard their own presence. They put on make-up, dieted, and dressed up for men and not for their own satisfaction. They even compete for men's attention. During pregnancy, women are also disregarded in the decision over the number of children, whether to have one or several children, to get pregnant or otherwise or to abort or keep the child.

We can see that women, in any culture, are beautifully made-up to attract the attention of men. Her ears are pierced and adorned with accessories made from metal, bronze, silver, gold, crystal or diamond. As for the Africans, since modern accessories are limited, women's upper front teeth are removed as one way of beautifying themselves. Their lower lips are inserted with clay plates and decorated in order to tempt and seduce the men. There are those who learn to cook, as it is said that 'the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach.'
These are the values that are perpetuated in society that has resulted in mental and physical insecurities. This problem still persists until now whereby we see women competing to make themselves more attractive through a variety of methods and becoming the victims of capitalists due to their superficiality. Anything considered attractive by the men will be snapped up within minutes. As an example, the promotion of 'wonderbra' in London and other places in the world received huge response which saw hundreds'of women queuing in front of stores to buy the item in order to avoid early disappointment. Such is the effect of lost self-identity.

2.4 Radical Feminist Trend

The 20th century saw a radical and revolutionary struggle of women that demanded a review of the role and rights of women through the structural reformation of society. Radical feminism believed that biological revolution is necessary in order to abolish the concept of biological family and reproduction. Patriarchal system is considered as a method of male-domination in marriage and therefore has to be abolished. This trend emphasized the importance of receiving equal treatment between genders. Their fight however inclined towards class struggle.

"Both the early and the contemporary feminists, have engaged in a fundamental reexamination of the role of women in all spheres of life, and of all the relationships of men and women in all social, political, economic and cultural institutions. Both have defined women as an expressed group and have traced the origin of women's subjugation to male defined and male dominated social institutions and value system"

Radical feminist trend perceived women as second-class citizen. Reproduction, technology and biological functions are said to play important roles in the issue of women emancipation. Therefore women have to be independent and should not rely on men, not just economically but in all aspects of life. According to Simone De Beavoir, the qualities of women have to be sacrificed in order to attain humanity.

Marriage is seen as ineffective as well as restricting the movement and development of women. Married women are considered to have surrendered their independence to their husbands without receiving anything in return. To him these women led an empty and meaningless life. He cynically viewed the happiness gained from motherhood and insisted that the responsibilities of motherhood restrict the freedom to do the things women want. His argument that women will be more perfect with the removal of these womanly qualities however faced a lot of disapproval.
According to the radical trend, one of the ways to achieve equality is through the law system. Discrimination against women via the law system was addressed and eradicated. Among the efforts are to oppose the use and circulation of pornographic materials, the legitimization of abortion, awarding child custody to homosexual couples as well as other rules that are against the constraints of religions and cultures.

The debate on the theories and western feminism schools of thought clearly demonstrates the basis of their struggle i.e. the concept of gender equality in every aspects of life. It relies on the rights and roles of women in society. However, we must be critical of some of the arguments put forward even though they are said to be fighting for the rights, which have been taken away from women. As revealed by Rendall who defined feminist as;

"To describe women who claimed for themselves the right to define their own place in society, and a few men who sympathised with that claim"

These trends in fact play a major role in the destruction of morale and societal values. For example, Marx urged women to abandon traditional responsibilities and to freely mingle with men, leading to a sexually uninhibited society. Sexual freedom was strengthened by an economic situation driven by capitalism, a system which does not prioritise marriage and gives the freedom to women to get married or otherwise as marriage is perceived as a form of imprisonment. Women are urged free themselves from any type of relationship - religious, moral and cultural.

Casual social relationships are the norm of western lifestyle. Contraceptive pills and methods are forms of sexual revolution for women. Family institution is no longer important and family members can no longer live in harmony. The damages, which have been imposed on society, can never be rectified if these trends are strongly supported which can consequently lead to the creation of other radical ideas and trends.

Radical trend on the other hand have deviated from the true basic struggle of women. We do not know how far or how strong the support is for the ideology due to the fact that marriage institution still exists, despite however, the high number of co-habiting couples. There are those who practice 'trial marriage', also not to mention those who have experienced painful separation and have decided to settle down with a partner of the same gender. These homosexual couples have demanded the rights to child custody, to get pregnant and to conceive via a 'sperm bank' whereby the identities of the donor and buyer are kept secret to avoid future

demand of custody of the child. Sex is perceived as a biological activity. Divorce rate is rapidly rising. There are couples who change partners to avoid boredom. Open marriages are rampant because the concepts of sex and morals have been isolated/separated from one another. Couples are bound by lust and not love or faith. Unless this trend is stopped, divorce may not be an issue in the future because the concept of marriage wi II cease to exist.

When biological function and reproduction have reached technologically advanced stage, there are demands on the monetary rights of surrogate mothers, the rights to conceive grandbabies, to choose the gender of babies or to abort unwanted foetus. All these actions are based on the freedom to do whatever they please to their bodies. Major campaigns have been carried out by certain groups at the International women Conference in Beijing to acknowledge these issues. This trend continues to be practiced throughout the world. To stop these radical beliefs and practices, we therefore have to revert to the rules and guidelines that are suggested by Islam.

3. Islam and Women

The al-Nisaa surah as the title mean literally, discusses a lot about women's affairs. It is the fourth of 114 surah compiled in the Holy Quran. It is the sixth surah revealed to the prophet in Madinah after the surah al-Fatihah, al-Anfal, ali 'Imran, al-Ahzab and al-Mumtahanah. Since it was revealed in Madinah, that was after the hegira of the Prophet and the Moslem from Mekah to Madinah, it was then known as madani. This surah was also known as surah al-Nisaa al-Kubra or surah al-Nisaa al-Tula. These names were given to differentiate it with surah al Talaq, which is known as surah al-Nisaa al-Qusra, because this surah also talks about women's and their affairs. However, the discussion is not as much as that of the al-Nisaa. Other than the two surah, there are other surah, which also talk about the same theme. Those are surah alFatihah, al-Maidah, al-Nur, al-Mujadalah and al-Tahrim.

Not all the verses in the surah al-Nisaa talk about women and their affairs, this is because only about 25% of 176 verses of the surah talk about that aspect. However, the discussion of many of the verses on women is in the context of household. Among the aspect which were discussed are on the creation of man and woman from the same entity (verse 1), the permission to practice polygamy (verse 3), dowry (verse 4), distribution of inheritance (verses 7, 11, 12, 176), the guilt of adulterers (verses 15-18), individual's right (verse 19), women who are forbidden to be wedded (verses 22-27), the place/position of men and women, the obligation to provide maintenance and the method to disciplined unfaithful wives (verse 34), appointment of an arbitrator/mediator for household in crisis (verse 35), reminder of woman's right (verse
127), reconciliation in a household (verse 128), fairness amongst wives (verse 129), and divorce (verse 130). The rest of the verses discuss the social guarantee under the shade of Tauhid and honourable moral (verses 36 -42), warning towards the enemy of Islam (verses 44-56), Islamic ruler (verses 57-68), war (verses 69-74), hypocritical/munafiq group (verses 86-91) and etc.

From the verses, which talk about woman affairs, verse 34 seems to be referred to quite frequently by people especially when they talk about the limitation of women action and their involvement in everyday life. (The meaning of) The verse referred to is:

"Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has made one of them (men) to excel the other (women) because they (men) spend (to support them} from their means... "

From the verse, the word Qawwam from the verse "al-Rijjal Qawwamuna 'Ala an-Nisa" is the main reference of discussion. Furthermore, there exist many variation of translation with respect to this verse. Among the translations, which are quite popular for this verse especially for the meaning of the word, Qawwam is guardian and protector. This would mean that the translation would be: "Men are the guardians/protectors of women." As for Dr. Abdullah @ Alwi, verse 34 of the 4th surah is the evidence that men are the protector of women. He of the opinion that this situation arises because men have the strength and other special privilege. So as other translation such that of M.Zafruliah Khan "Men are appointed guardians over women, because of that in respect of which Allah has made some of them excel on others, and because the men spend of their wealth" the same meaning can also be found in the translation of Maulana Ahdul Majid "Man are overseers over women by reason of that wherewith Allah hath made one of them excel over another, and by reason of that which they expend over another, and by reason of that which they expend of their substance...". Whereas Pickthal said, "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women)...". As for Wherry liMen shall have the pre-eminence
above women...". As for Irving liMen are the ones should support women since God has given some persons advantages over others, and because they should spend their wealth (on them)..." In Pimpinan al-Rahman, "Men are the leader and guardian who are responsible to women, because Allah has excel men (with several privilege) over women, and also because men has spent (by giving maintenance) part of their belonging."


However Amina Wadud did not translate the word Qawwam to any particular meaning. On the other hand she let the word remain as it is, that is "Men are Qawwam 'ala women, (for
the basis) of what Allah has fadda/a (preferred), some of them over others..." As for Amina Wadud, Qawwam can only be obtained when they (the husbands) have carried out their duty and responsibility, that is to provide maintenance for their wives. Because of that, a male child is given twice as much inheritance as that given to a female child, because they are given a duty to provide for the people under their care. This meant that verse 34 should be read with the understanding that the privileges given by Allah to men (husbands) are due to duties and responsibilities they have to bear. But not from the point of view of their creation, this is understood from the commentary made on the verse. For instance, commentaries such that of al-Zamakhsyari, al-Fakhrurazi, Ibn Kathir, al-Maraghim al Jassas, Tabatabai, al Zuhayli, and many other who have the opinion men are the leader of women. The differentiation between their commentaries is whether the leadership is in the context of household or beyond it. As for Tabatabai, men leadership and superiority over women is not just limited in the realm of family but it goes beyond to the realm of society. Furthermore added Tabatabai, the privileges (faddala), which were mentioned in verse 34, is seen from the perspective of physical and mental strength. So as the commentary of al-Jalalain, the privileges is seen from the point of view of religion, witness, territory, jihad, Jumaat Prayer, congregation, prophets, and ruler where all of them are men. They are also allowed to wed four women and even more when they are in paradise, but this privilege doesn't exist for women, and divorce and also legally remarry are all in the hand of men. Looking at the commentary of the verse, it is not surprising to find writings, which portrayed every man as mentally superior to women. For instance, Md Saleh Hj. @ Ahmads aid that "Men are the leader of women, because Allah has made half of them (men) excel over the other half (women) in terms of mental
capacity..."

Commentaries and translation which portrayed men being more superior physically and mentally than women have been doubted by Azizah al-Hibri who said that "However, this interpretation... is (i) unwarranted and (ii) inconsistent with other Islamic teachings. The interpretation is unwarranted because there is no reference in the passage to male physical or intellectual superiority". However, there are commentators who explicitly specialized the meaning of leadership only in the context of household. Such as al-Tabari who of the opinion that, since men those are the husbands are obligated to give maintenance to their wives and to give dowry to them thus Allah has excel their position over their own wives. This mean that the meaning of the word qawwam in the verse is also leader and protector but in the context of household. In either word, leadership and protector are those who are responsible toward the people under their care.

Maulana Abdul Majid said that "...A Qiwam is in the parlance of modem sociology, a protector or guardian of the family, and this is a position to which man is by his very nature and constitution entitled A connected results of male superiority in strength, activity and courage is the element of protection in male love, and of trust on the side of the female..." On the other hand should these men, i.e. the husbands runaway from carrying their responsibility, thus they are not among the leader and protector of their household. This is because the duty of being a leader is only when the husband carry out his responsibility. So as to any men doesn't have any relationship with family duty and responsibility, thus they are also not considered as men who are the leader and guardians of any women what so ever.

As for Rashid Reda, the privilege is not inclusive and the usage is general between men and women but among certain groups. Thus men from these two types are not eligible to receive the status of Qawwam, which is stated in the verse 34. It is clearly proven that the status is closely related to duty and responsibility and it is not to lessen to any degree the statusof any women.

This leadership in family is seen from the story behind the revelation of the verse. This verse was revealed when there was a problem within a household. It was narrated by Muqtil that Sa ad bin Rabi', one of the leader of al-Ansar has badly beaten his wife due to nusyuz (refuse to obey the husband). His father in law has launched a complaint to the Prophet, hence the prophet to decree, that which means she may avenge her husband beating. Before she had the opportunity to avenge the beating, the prophet called her back and decree that the archangel Gabriel has delivered to him the verse ""al-Rijal Qawwamuna 'Ala an-Nisa". With the revelation of the verse, the sentence of avenging beating from a wife to the husband is thus lifted. The prohibition seems to show that Allah recognizes the privilege of the husband due to many family responsibilities that he has to bear. This is why a wife is obligated to be obedience and respect her husband due to the position of the Qiwwam. The prohibition to avenge the beating also shown that as a leader, beating is not a solution to a problem. On the other hand a leader is someone who is intelligence and knows how to educate and a person who bears family responsibility fully. It is clear that this verse portrays a picture that a mutual respect between husband and wife is important in a household.

3.1 The relationship between al-Nisaa verse 34 with jurisprudence

Since this verse is closely related to the issue of leadership, which has been discussed earlier, in the discussion of women's leadership this verse has been referred to widely. This verse has been used as the proof to prohibit women from being a leader. Among the reasons is that nationhood affairs is more complex than that of a household. In addition to that, men have the qualification in managing both the nation and the household. Men also were given one advantage over women and that all economic management were also their responsibility. However, as for Mohd Shafie Ngali, the question whether women can be the leader of a nation. On the other hand he discussed the question by examining the evidence from a hadis, which was narrated by Bukhari. This means that the verse is not use as an evidence to prohibit women from being the leader of the nation.

Whereas in the question of being a judge, the verse has been used as an evidence to prohibit women from holding the post. Furthermore, among other reasons is that the mind of women are considered shallow. For instance Ibn Qudamah has said that one who would be a judge need to have a strong mind and intelligence, also able to control one's emotion. And as far as he concern these characteristics do not exist bay a woman. However, according to Sharifah Hayaati, she considered the accusation that women are weak and shallow minded are blunt, unfair and bias. She questioned whether those characteristics exist in men. It is also the opinion of Khalijah M. Salleh. "However I would say that if we have a good understanding of the Quran, we realise that Allah does not in any way discriminate the intellectual capacity of a man from that of a woman..." There is possibility that the accusation of women's shallow mindedness is due to culture of that time and the local society.

3.2 Surah al-Nisaa verse 34: It 's implication on the society

Since this verse has been understood as saying that men are leaders to women, thus the society today rejected the involvement of women as leaders. This denial does not only occur in the context of the nation leadership but also in the arena of common post. For instance the study done by Rashila Ramli, she found that a factor, which hinders women from participating actively in politics, is of religious (Islam) argument. This situation getting more obvious when those having Islamic education background dominated the arena of politics and administration. For instance, the involvement of Moslem women who have tertiary Islamic education background as policy maker are still lacking in many institution, this is the result of the understanding of verse 34 of surah al-Nisaa. Furthermore in Malaysia itself there is no woman being elected as Mufti and Qadhi. This situation seems to occur due to Islamic education, which has been inculcated earlier that men are the leader of women and have the privilege not just in term of physical but also mental and value. This has thus influence the perception of the society as a whole that Moslem women are prohibited from being leaders. Thus situation has getting more obvious when the new syllabus for Syariah 2 in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia stated that" this sentence explain to use that a leader must be a man. This is because a man many privileged bestowed on him by Allah.

The privileges mentioned by Allah in the Quran are not inclusive privileges such that we are saying that men have privileges over women in all aspects. Understanding such as this does not portray the real spirit of al-Quran.

However, the commentaries which have been made were suitable with the situation at that point of time where many women were still ignorance and not many went out of the house to get involve with social activities. There was opinion such that of Syed Qutb and also Muhamad Muhamad ai-Madani who said that the privileges do not make men more honourable or more perfect than women. On the other hand the privileges are to show that the actual responsibilities that must be borne by either men or women.

3.3 Women emancipation and Islam

Women have long been enjoying good position when Islam rejected the injustice towards women during the era of ignorance. The honour given to women as human being is guaranteed by Allah with its own laws and regulations. The rights of a wife to own property and to use her own property directly are also totally guaranteed. No one could stop women from doing anything which have been allowed by Islam, even there are punishment that would be fallen onto anyone who are against the rules. Allah stresses this matter in His decree that means:

"And whosoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and transgresses His limits, He will cast
him into the Fire, to abide therein; and he shall have a disgraceful torment"

Other than that the principal of equality with men as human beings is also guaranteed Allah has decree in sural Ali-Imran which means:

"So their lord accepted of them (supplication and answered them), "Never will I allow to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female. You are (members) one of another..."

Islamic scholar interpreted the verse as a guarantee from Allah on the deed performed by human doesn't matter what their sex is because both (men and women) are human, there is no difference between the two may it be in terms of their faith and practice. The honour is also given to wife in a family where Allah said that it is not permissible for men to inherit women by mean of force. This matter is prohibited because long ago according to some Arab tribe during the period of ignorance when somebody dies, the eldest son or other members of the family may inherit the widow. Men also prohibited from make it difficult for women by repossessing some of what have been given to them. Husbands are proposed to inter-mix with their wives in a good and proper manner. Even though the husband is not in a good term with his wife, he still have the responsibility and must treat her properly because the Quran said, even though the husband doesn't subscribe to something, maybe Allah would make it his welfare.

It is clear in Islam that assurance is given in order to protect the position of women from all angles, economic, feeling or even social position so that women will not be bothered while carrying out their responsibility. However, there has been transgression of these rights by Moslem themselves in the name of Islam. When these rights have been violated, then justice needs to be upheld. This matter happened indirectly within Islamic countries, which proclaim that they perform Islamic laws. In many circumstances women have been denied the right to get education even though Islam has make it compulsory for men and women to pursue knowledge. The same is true of the opinion that prohibit women outside the household because it is said it is not favoured by Islam, unless it is an emergency, whether it is got something to do with individual or society. Due to these constraints, there exist several women emancipation movements in some of the countries and as the movement in the west, the struggles to uphold the justice also have several different trends.

3.3.1 Islamic trend

In the world of Islam, generally the movement to improve women position (this movement is different from Western emancipation because it is based on the true Islamic principles) evolve slowly during the era of ignorance of Islamic people who considered women as men sexual object. The ignorance existed not only before the arrival of the prophet but also after the Islamic glorious era, where at that time the Moslem has rejected and push aside Allah's law and got caught up in their desire and fantasy, and this was where the fall of the Moslem began. This movement began with economic and socio-politics reformation. Jamal ai-Din Afghani (1838 - 97) one of the reformist in the world of Islam stated that women have the same mental power as men but if it were lower it was due the process of education. In many cases, according to him are due to the result of the culture and surrounding factors where men are given greater opportunity to pursue knowledge whereas women are kept in the house to look after the household and the children. It is therefore, the difference in the mental capacity are not due to biology but surrounding factors. If men and women were given fair chances, both would achieve the same level intellectual. AI Afghani also stated that women should not be prohibited to hold any post outside of the household, furthermore the country needs them.

Muhammad 'Abduh (1849-1905) also carried out several reform which included social reform to uphold women rights and their position by emphasizing women's education. He felt that the Moslem would not be able to get themselves out of the backwardness and ignorance should half of the population which made up of women are still illiterate. The teaching of Islam make it compulsory for men and women to pursue knowledge, however the teaching is pushed aside by the Moslem themselves. During the fall of the Moslem, the women are kept in the house for reasons of security and to safe guard the women's self-respect and they were thus denied from knowing the development of the outside world. Unfortunately this matter is still prolonging up till now in some of the Arab world.

The effort of Abduh to liberate Islam women through knowledge has been opposed intensely by famous Islamic scholars and the patrician. According to this section, educating the women is one way to instil evil elements into the society, which at the end would destroy the society itself. Only men who are responsible to decide the direction of the society. The opposition showed that conservative is so powerful towards Muhamad Abduh reform effort, which was considered by Abduh as their misunderstanding of Islam. He believed that Islam equal rights to both men and women.

3.3.2 The Western trend

At the same time, Islamic women emancipation movement used the Western model, which was believed to have existed Arab counties especially in Egypt from 1875 to 1941. As for this section, the modernization process means taking anything from the West because West symbolizes development. The West has become the model because the Arab countries at that time were colonized by the Western power. Taha Hussien in his statement on modernization stated;

"In order to become equal partners in civi/isation with the Europeans, we must literally and forthrightly do everything that they do; we must share with them the present civilisation, with

all its pleasant and unpleasant sides, and not content ourselves with words or mere gestures. Whoever advises any other courses of action is either a deceiver or he himself is deceived"

Dr. Yusuf Qardhawi rejected the West as modern on the other hand defined the term modern, as "A person must live at his time and century with respect to thinking, attitude, values,

conduct and the world's view, in term of winning and losing in the arena of competition. It must participate and plunge into the activities of the society. To be in motion, to take the step and to think just like them. It cannot live in isolation with memory, thought, imagination, customary, values, greatness, confidence, and belief of the past at a certain pint of time in the past history is no longer suitable at the present time. He stressed that live should be compatible with the contemporary situation and condition.

Unfortunately the scholars at that time are too backward. In the glorious age of knowledge and the obligation in the pursuance of knowledge despite of sex preferences, University of alAzhar one of the oldest Islamic universities in the world took about 57 years after Aduh's reform effort, opened its door to Women. It was due to Shayk al-Azhar, Mahmud Shaltut, a famous Islamic scholar who is the proponent of women's rights in education and politics. He has established a Kulliyah al-Banat al-Islamiyyah in the year of 1962 where women were allowed to pursue formal education which was the first in the history of Islam in Egypt. The insistence has to be made because of the realization that there were Moslem men and women who had received formal education from the Western institution because Islamic institution did not open any space for its women to pursue knowledge there.

If one should contemplate that the struggle of Moslem women movement is actually more towards the fulfilment of their rights. In other words, the movement demand their right because Islamic laws have actually decided those rights. Their struggle is more towards fulfilment and implementation of their rights.

Due to the Western education received by the Moslem women, they too got influence by the emancipation movement western style. When they imitated the West, they did not think of the differences in terms of socio-culture and religious background, which were definitely difference. The proponent of women emancipation movement also see themselves as the spokesperson of the new emergence of women who were Western educated where most of them were of high middle class income group and somehow they have abandoned the practices of Islam.

Looking at these phenomena, Abduh had tried to bring Islam to the centre stage as a way out to the problems faced by women in world of Islam. Unfortunately the intense opposition from the conservative sect has made his followers got so frustrated and turned to be an ardent follower of Western Women Freedom Movement. This can be seen from the writing of Qasim Amin, where she defended the rights of women such as asking for the equal opportunity in the pursuance of knowledge. Unfortunately she was accused as zindiq and other accusation, which has, really broke her heart thus made her a pure secularist and has proposed that women be free from the confinement of the traditional values and custom.

Honourable efforts have been launch to free women from the confinement of tradition. A seminar on human rights in Islam has been organized in Kuwait in 1980 which has declared several important items such as the freedom of women in Islam to possess properties and to position them at par to men such that the community would be develop and prosperous. In that seminar also women's role in the pursuance of knowledge is recognized and the state should develop educational programs for Moslem. The seminar also called on Islamic counties to confirm the rights of women in Islam and their roles in the society. The rights included the right to pol itics, the right to votes and voted upon and to participate in the process of decisionmaking. Islamic countries were also suggested to come up with legislation to guarantee the
rights of woman as written in the Quran. The seminar also asked the Islamic countries to accept and confirmed the international convention related to women's right as long as it did not disagree with Islam.

4. Emancipation Movement in Malaysia

Malaysia at one time was a country, which based on agriculture and in the farmer community, Malay women were accustomed to be active helping the family in the activity - together they went to the farm and work on the family land either cultivating padi or tapping rubber trees. In term of the tradition, Malaywomen have never been disregard in the society. Together they put their effort working with the family and did not just confine in the house. Only those who were not married were confined.

History has proven that Malay women have working together hand in hand with men to develop this country R.O Windstedt stated that Malay women have long been free before the arrival of the Western colonist and this proved that there were no Western influence prior to this. A western researcher, Heather Strange in her study of Malay women in Terengganu has found that 91 percent of women there involved in agricultural activities and did not confine in the house. They also have their own income, but they still respect their husband as the leader of the household.

Because many Malaysian women involved in earning the family income, there has been law based on the custom that is common property that is should there be a divorce, the property that were collected during the marriage would be distributed between the husband and wife. This unique custom does not exist in the law of any other society. According to Prof. Tan Sri Ahmad Ibrahim, this particular originated from Malay custom.

It is clear from the discussion above that from the point of view of history Malay women has long been involved with the society which is difference from Arab society and Western society. The tradition continued up till today only the type of works that are different. It was because of that the education of Malay women at that time emphasises more on the household affair and the education of the children such as sewing, cooking and children education. It is clear that the education at that time emphasises on women traditional responsibility.

As for now a lot has changed, many women have filled in the places in universities in fact women academic achievement at the institution of higher learning are also excellent. Even though there are more women in the field related to social science and less in the field of Science and Technology, the positive development in this discipline would open more opportunities for women to be involved in this and other field especially information technology. Even though women are lacking in technical and vocational field, their involvement in this field should be given attention by the educational policy maker especially when looking at the change of the economic structure nowadays which have changed from agriculture to production sector.

The education issue is not a big issue as compared to the West and Arab countries. Malay young ladies were allowed to study at religious school only that they were not allowed pursue knowledge far away from the family on the basis of security rather than discriminatory. The process of indoctrination as desired by the English failed at the earlier stage as stated by Roff in 1905

"The natives are as apathetic as ever regarding secular education, though they will send their children miles to learn to recite the Koran. There is a well-patronised Koran school at Lipat Kajang, to which youth flock from allover the country. There is annually an exodus of youth to the district of Petani dan Kedah to seek that religious instruction which is not, apparently,to be found to any extent in Pahang"

Even though the British considered the Malays' action as negative they actually wanted their success in India to be repeated here as an example as stated by Lord Macauty;

"We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern- a class of persons, Indians in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion, in moral and in intellects.

Malay women also involved directly in politics such as their involvement in the formation of Angkatan Wanita Sedar (AWAS). Furthermore since 1918 Sayyid Shaykh al-Hadi, a former al-Azhar in 1918 has encouraged Malay women to continue their study and contribute in the development of socio-politics and considered their involvement as being allowed by Islam. Even though the effort halted in 1952, the Islamic scholar of al-Azhar University has produced a fatwa, legal ruling according to islamic law, that even though women have the right to receive education and go out for work, they were not allowed to be a member of Parliament. The effect of this fatwa was that Singaporean women were prohibited from being active in politics Many Islamic scholars in Malaysia accepted the fatwa cautiously and had different opinion. This was because many Malay women since century long have participated in society, to move backward was difficult. However in 1953, the chief justice of Alexandria has withdraw the fatwa but he gave a condition that women could participate in politics but they should not neglect their responsibility as wives and mothers.

After independent, our women were still active in political parties especially when UMNO's women and Muslimat council of PAS encouraged women active participation in political movement. History has also shown that women are faithful supporter and the backbone of any political party. However, women ardent involvement doesn't get due recognition because women involvement at the higher level are limited. Even though they have asked for a higher percentage, alas their request are yet to get any respond. Women representative in the lower house and upper house need to be increase because the ratio in the lower house now is 1 woman to 24 men. So as the number of women in the cabinet and women in diplomatic department.

In term of women workforce within the year 1970-1990, Malaysian women have an
excellent achievement The development of educational facilities and equal opportunities which were given to both women and men in education has opened up greater opportunity for women in this field When women received formal education, they have greater chances and have positive outlook. Higher education would also open opportunities for them to gain skills in any particular fields and improve their income. Industrialization process and it development have encouraged the participation of women in economy and workforce. It was also true with the implementation of the New Economic Policy in 1970, where they were more Malay women from rural areas to participate in industry. So far more than 47 percent of women involved in the workforce compared to 84 percent of men. The question now is it is not the number of women involves in the activities but what should be of concern is to upgrade women's status in the workforce. As examples, women job in production enterprise only focus on some particular industries only such as electronics, garment, food, rubber and plastic materials. Other than that, women usually occupy the places as production operators only the posts of supervisor are usually occupy by men. So as the other working enterprises.

There are efforts on the part of the government to get women total involvement where the ministry of rural development is responsible via the New Economic Policy to eradicate poverty and to minimize racial differences. The Agriculture Ministry also has many projects, which involve women. The National Agriculture Policy in 1984 has tried to improve the income of the rural community. KEMAS through its project focuses on family development and efforts to increase income. However, these projects are tailored to focus on women basic duty as housewife. Prof. Jamilah of the opinion that the approach taken by the government is one of welfare. Women were only involved as receiver and not as an active participant in the process of development.

So as the involvement of women in other field for the purpose of developing the country. Moreover women are protected in terms of maternity leave, medical leave, and emergency leave. Malaysian constitution also upholds women's right in many fields. That's why we see women involve themselves in all sorts of works.

Women conditions in Malaysia are far different from women in Arab countries and also the Western women. Even though there are discriminations, but they occur indirectly and not because men considered women as weak but because of women basic responsibilities as a wife and mother. Malaysian society are still holding firmly to Islam where women realize their responsibilities as wife, mother and any women who prioritise career over family are considered insincere by the society.

In this decade, the development enjoys by Malaysian should be shared with women. In a speech officiating the first Malaysian Moslem Women Organization Seminar in 1975, the late Tun Abdul Razak, stated that;

"...Dalam usaha kita berbakti bagi memberi makna kepada kemerdekaan yang kita capal itt; kita juga semestinya merakamkan ucapan terimakasih kepada kaum wanita yang telah bangun bersama-sama dengan kaum lelaki mengorbankan masa dan tenaga bagi memastikan kekayaan dan kemajuan negara..."

According to Prof. Nik Safiah, the above quotation has shown clearly the position role of Malaysian women in the 20th century that is a situation that can be proud of. This situation is difference from the struggle of the Western Woman Emancipation Movement, which always in turbulence due to collision among classes which was the result of the dark ages and industrial revolution. The history of the Western women and Malaysian women is very difference thus it is not suitable for us to imitate what the West has brought.

After independent, the country has achieved a lot of development and women were not forgotten. Health level, education and the standard of living have becoming much better. A much better Health care system has been developed for rural area. It is clearly shown that all Malaysian enjoys the product of development. The Malaysian government since 1975 has recognized women contribution in the development of the country and help to make our women develop more. In 1976, the government has established "National Advisory Council on the Integration of Women in Development" (NAClWID) the membership come from the representative of many women association, experts in women affair and community leaders whose function is as main advisors and consultants to many development issues. A secretariat on Women Affair (HAWA) has also been established in 1983 to coordinate and carry out policies and projects for women besides supervising the development of women's bodies and associations in Malaysia. Other than that their duties are to collect information and pinpoint issues, which related to women in every ministries.

Through out the eighties, the government has appreciated the contribution made by women to the development of the country. This appreciation can be seen in Malaysian Third Plan (1975-1980) and women and development issues have been entered in Malaysian Sixth Plan (1991-1995). The only question arise was to what extend has Malaysian women developed. That was why Dr. Siti Hasmah said that any effort to improve women's position from the law point of view cannot be consider as one of women freedom movement.

If there were women association in Malaysia, which influenced by the Western radical movement, many of their demand usually didn't get any supportfrom because the local society is still holding on difference values compared to the Western society. For example, the request to be married with the same sex or requesting a tougher sentence to the guilt of wife "raping", or considering marriage institution as an institution which doesn't bring any benefit to women or children only burden women are views of the minority which needed to be amended so that they won't be cancerous which would wipe out the harmony of the society. Efforts to upgrade the status of women should continue because even though women are not second-class citizen, the existing discrimination might be the inheritance of the old views, which are no longer suitable in the society, which has gone beyond the modern society and now in the era of high technology society.

Prostitution. They also need to learn from the experience of other countries to progress forward for the sake of goodness and improving the status of women globally.

Dr. Yusuf Qardhawi has suggested that we should understand the era that we are in now in details, truthfully and in-depth. We have long left the age of materialistic thinking in the eighteenth century, therefore the trend of Western emancipation movement, which's still upholding the materialistic thinking is obviously out of date and backward. They forgot that the ideas of "faithful thinking" which are blooming and presently dominating the intellectual thinking. There are also some women association which following the development in the West and would also want the same development to happen here in Malaysia. For these people we would like to propose to them that the world doesn't just made up of the West, in fact it is much larger than that, even though we agree that the West does have quite a strong influence over the international arena. At the same time, we do not say that everything bad comes from the West. However we would like to iterate that the custom of Malaysian society is very different from that of the West. Furthermore, Western laws and civilization only concern the individual rights, but the responsibility of the individual is not a concern at all.

So as the emancipation movements that have been influenced by Marxist ideology should realized that Marxism has long been defeated and lost in its own birthplace. This thinking trend, which rejected religion, obviously could not hold on. Even though it was said that religion is only a myth crafted by the feudalist and the capitalist to make the worker daydream so that they forgot the misery of live, the fact is human does need God. So, any women emancipation movements in Malaysia which still following the Western emancipation trend are actually ignorance in evaluating the current situation. If they really want to be the protector of women's fate, they should open up the self, eyes and thought to accommodate all the problems and all the difficulties which dash against the people not just the women. They must find the integrated solutions, which are suitable with the situation. This is the attitude, which is requested by Islam from the champions of the truth because Islam is always relevant and relevant at any place and time. The prophet has decree that;

"A good mukmin must recognize and understand his era and able to protect his tongue and work for its betterment”
http://www.bernama.com/events/ulama/rpp.shtml?pp/pe2002_7