Can someone explain.....

[Thatcherite]

Why Islam is against education for females? I know that religion generally has some strange ideas but most of them can be traced back to some sort of logical reasoning. So what is the "reasoning" behind this concept?

[Brenden]

Because women are second class citizens to the menfolk - in other words chattel - bought and sold at an early age in marriage.

[Mosaic]

Islam is not against education for females. The taliban and other extreme interpretations of islam are.

[sandyRoe]

In a primitive society, and not just Islamic ones, there might be a feeling that there's not much need for education in the kitchen or while looking after children.

[Mosaic]

Sounds very like 1950s Co. Mayo sandy!

[hc4361]

It isn't.
Some Muslim countries are, for many reasons including lack of resources; lack of female teachers to teach girls in countries where men aren't allowed to; in countries where education is not free parents may not have the means to pay for all their children to be educated; marriage and pregnancy at a very young age means girls leave school much younger than boys...

In other parts of the world, Muslims value education very highly and girls as well as boys get excellent education at an advanced level.

There are other cultures and religions that encourage girls to leave school before secondary school, such as the Amish.

[sandyRoe]

Mayo's come a long way since John Wayne showed the world how women were treated in the film, The Quiet Man.
or has it?

[VHG]

To be fair, we are not that far from it beng the case in the UK.

My first wife's mother, who was born in the 1920s, is probably the cleverest woman I have ever met, but her parents would not let her go to university because she was a woman.

Beatrix Potter, who wrote the Peter Rabbit books, also studied fungai (mushrooms and toadstools etc) when she was younger.

She wanted to present her findings to a scientific group in London, but she was not allowed to because she was a woman. A man had to give her presentation, while she sat in the audience.

And in the late 1800s and early 1900s women had to fight and go to prison to get the vote. Some women in prison were force fed as they refused to eat to get more publicity.

And women played football in England up till 1922 when it was then banned by the men at the FA. The ban was in place for 40 years.

So I think we have to be very careful when we critisize another country or religion for their treatment of women.

p.s. I realize shooting that young girl in the head is far more extreme than what we in the UK did, but we still treated women very badly, for which as a man I feel rather ashamed.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.faithfreed...em/Women_in_Islam.htm

This piece written by a Muslim, goes a long way to explain Islam's attitude towards women, and it is not pleasing reading.

[jno]

my father went to secondary school, but my aunts were sent to work in the match factory at 13. That was in the depression and resources for education - in families and in the government - were limited. None of them were Muslims, as far as I know.

[maggiebee]

I get really irritated about generalisations where religion is concerned. I lived and worked in Albania for a year. The population of Albania (when I was there) was 70% muslin, 20% Orthodox and 10% Christian.

There were 6 daughters in the family I stayed with - all very forward looking and certainly not second class citizens.
Uliana works for a large pharmacutical firm
Teuta works for a large Italian firm
Fato is a Judge in the capital Tirana
Rhudi lives in Italy with her husband and children - she also worked for a large Italian firm before marriage.
Albana lives in the US with her husband and family - she was an artist in Albania.
Klodiana (my second daughter) is a GP and has also worked in Germany.

The family are very close knit and take care of each other. No grants for University so the family club together to help any member of the family who needs it. I also helped Klodi with her accommodation when she was at Tirana University. I have remained firm friends with the family and visit Albania once a year while keeping in touch with them all through Facebook.

I might add that they despise radical Islam and want nothing to do with it.

Here endeth the rant!!

[anotheoldgit]

jno

/// my aunts were sent to work in the match factory at 13. ///

You say they were not Muslims, but were they English?

[jno]

no. Do you think it would have made any difference, back in the 1920s, if they had been? (see also VHG's post).

[sp1814]

maggiebee

Funny isn't it?

I think that some people like to think in broad stroke generalisations because it's easier to understand the world that way. Others (like yourself) understand that Islam is a multifaceted religion, much like Christianity, and likewise has extremists and moderates.

Just look at the number of Muslim women in this country who are actively encouraged by their families to enter higher education!

[youngmafbog]

Probably so they are easier to control and manipulate. As it tends to be the extremist nutters who are against it, along with freedoms of any kind, any education of half the population would be a danger to them.

I'm sure the liberal appeasers, many on this site, will welcome the move to allow then to force women out of school along with the implementation of Sharia law very soon in this country.

[anotheoldgit]

jno

/// no. Do you think it would have made any difference, back in the 1920s, if they had been? (see also VHG's post). ///

I asked that because I didn't think that English girls were allowed to work in factories at the age of 13, during the 20s, and VHG's post never made any mention of it either.

[Kiki-frog]

It's as Mosaic says. Islam isn't against education for females. However, the Taliban, which is an Islamic organisation, is. It's quite an important distinction to bear in mind.

[boxtops]

It's not. There is nothing in the Koran which says women can't be educated - Mohammed's own wife was an educated business woman.

It's local cultures in different countries, which are very male-oriented, which is against women being educated and being brough up to have minds of their own.

[anotheoldgit]

/// Islam isn't against education for females. However, the Taliban, which is an Islamic organisation, is. It's quite an important distinction to bear in mind. ///

http://www.guardian.c...sk-arrest-ban-driving

I wouldn't have thought that Saudi Arabia was a particularly backwood country or even Taliban country.

[dotty.]

up to at least 1910 girls in many northern towns would be sent to half day working at the age of 13 with the sanction and permission of the local education board, they did half day school in the morning and half day working in the mills in the afternoon.

[Jemisa]

Educate a man you educate an individual, but educate a woman you educate a family. (My old dad always said this)

jem.