The Place of Women in Islam

An exhaustive and informative post at Sunni Sisters:

I was physically barred from entering the masjid in front of my mother by two men who explained, “There’s no room for women here. Sorry.”

“Where do the women pray?” I asked.

“They don’t,” said one. “At least, they don’t pray here.” Women were not expected to attend Jumu’ah, and if they showed up, were not allowed to enter.

Lovely.

I lived in an apartment with my family in Saudi Arabia. The building had four elevators--two main ones in front of the entrance and two small ones on the side. The women were told to use the tiny, and slow, elevators if they were alone. Once, I was waiting for an elevator (the male-only one) and when the doors opened, I entered it right away. A woman in a full abaya was in there. Before the doors could close, she quickly walked out.

That sorry mindset indirectly relays quite a bit about men:

When men say that women in the same space will create a situation of intolerable sexual fitnah for them, they are really doing themselves a disservice. They’re saying that generally speaking, Muslim men can not be relied upon to be responsible adults or conscientious Muslims.

Indeed. Though, it is the women who, no question, suffer the most:

I know some older women who never learned to read because their fathers thought it would lead to them “reading and writing love letters.” Their fathers did not “protect” their sons in this same way.