One of the first revelations of the Qur'an is that women are enjoined with men to seek knowledge. Prophet Muhammad said that gaining knowledge is incumbent upon every Muslim, whether male or female, and that the injunction was put into full practice at the time of the Prophet. Women were heavily involved in the great educational campaign in Medina. The Prophet's wife Aisha was a foremost authority in Qur'anic commentary, law and prophetic traditions.

Men and women are equally expected to fulfil all religious duties and women are included in the final, ultimate reward, "Whoever does an atom's weight of good, whether male or female, and is a believer, all such shall enter into paradise" (40:40)

The Qur'an clearly states that women are not to have a place lower than men in society, within the confines of the home, and in particular, within marriage, "And for women are rights over men, similar to those of men over women" (2:26). At the time of the Prophet and thereafter, women were active participants at all levels of community affairs — social, political, religious, educational and intellectual. This can still be seen replicated at various levels of society in different Muslim societies today.

Islamic law embodies a number of Qur'anic reforms that significantly enhanced the status of women. Contrary to pre-Islamic Arab customs, the Qur'an recognised a women's right to contract her own marriage. In addition she, and not her father or other male relatives as had been the custom, was to receive the dowry from the husband (4:4). She became a party to the contract rather than simply an object for sale. The right to keep and maintain her own dowry was a source of self-esteem and wealth in an otherwise male dominated society. Women's right to own and manage their own property was further enhanced and acknowledged by the Qur'anic verses of inheritance (4:7, 11-12, 176), which granted inheritance rights to wives, daughters, sisters and grandmothers of the deceased in a patriarchal society where all rights were traditionally vested solely in the male heirs. Similar legal rights would not occur in the West until the nineteenth century."^[29]

In addition to these rights, women had no financial responsibilities in the family. She could keep and invest all her assets.

In stark contrast to the global norms of the Century and the current negative imagery, the Qur'an provides women with explicit rights spiritually, intellectually, socially and economically equal and sometimes superior to those of men. Islam goes a step further and transcends the gender argument and sees both men and women as human beings completing each other in their natural disposition just as God has intended, "The Believers, men and women, are protectors one of another: they enjoin what is just, and forbid what is evil: they observe regular prayers, practise regular charity, and obey God and His Messenger. On them will God pour His mercy: for God is Exalted in power, Wise." (Qur'an, 9:71) In this view, neither has either significant disadvantage or advantage. Each gender has strengths and weaknesses. Only the communion of the two would produce a complete humanity.

So what went wrong and why are women in Muslim countries having serious problems or are deprived of those very rights given to them by the Qur'an? The main reason is that what we all too often see are problems that are characteristic of the Third World which are commonly and incorrectly associated with the doctrine and practices of Islam itself. As a result of the catastrophic consequences of Western Colonisation, the complete infrastructure of the Muslim world was destroyed without a suitable replacement. This has caused tribal customs to take hold rather then proper law and the teachings of Islam. Since proper educational institutions were also made dysfunctional and in many countries extreme secular governments, dictators and socialist regimes stopped religious education. As a result, uneducated, uncultured and immature men started to use their physical dominance to oppress women

[29] John L. Esposito, "Islam: The Straight Path", , Oxford University Press, 1998, p 95