Reproductive Health and Women Rights in the Light of Qur’an and Sunnah

Abstract

This paper explores in the light of Quran and Sunnah the rights of women in regard to reproductive health and compares them with what this paper describes as patriarchal deformities of the same in many of the current Muslim societies. The study brings out the radicalizing effects of Islam on the gender relations of the pre-Islamic Arabia society where women were deprived of even the most fundamental rights like inheritance, body control, and marital consent. Both through the injunctions of Quran (e.g., 4:1, 4:7, 4:19) and through the Prophetic example of personages such as Khadijah and Aisha. Islam created a model of gender equity, with a focus on women and their rights to legal, financial and religious autonomy. But the application of cultural patriarchy and selective interpretations has blurred these principles of foundation thus resulting in systematic unequal reproductive right, such as limited healthcare opportunities and deprived of informed consent. The research uses Self-Congruity Theory (SCT) and Maqasid al-Shariah as the two theoretical perspectives through which these concerns can be examined. SCT examines the reproductive choices that Muslim women make in view of their spiritual identity whereas “maqasid” gives a foundation of rights dependent on justice “adl”, mercy “rahma”, and welfare “maslahah”. Findings indicate that the elaborate historical sources of classical Islamic jurisprudence have allowed the practice of contraception, “azl”, and conditional abortions, but such dispensations are common because they are not broadcast in the contemporary discourse. The study shows that there is an urgent necessity to reform the hermeneutics by making it inclusive and changing the policies aligned with the ethos of Islam in order to align the practices with it.