The Status of Women in the Hadith

A major duality inside Islamic doctrine is male/female. There is one set of rules for men and another set of rules for women.

There is only one area in which men and women are treated equally — both sexes will be judged on the basis of their lives on Judgment Day, but when a woman is judged, she will be judged on how well she obeyed her husband.

There is not much material in the Koran, Hadith and Sira about females. Only about 9% of the Koran and about 12% of the Sira refers to women. The overwhelming amount of the doctrine is about men. But there is more than enough in this Trilogy of doctrinal texts to govern the smallest detail in the life of a woman from birth to death.

The Hadith (Traditions) are a record of Mohammed’s words and actions and are revered as one of the foundations of Islamic canonical law. The most authoritative collection is Sahih Bukhari which is the basis for this analysis.

These statistics show the bias in the Hadith against women. There are four status categories, high, equal, low and neutral. Since “neutral” has no status, there is no reason to include it in this analysis.

High Status (Example:  praised as a mother)
Equal Status (Example:  on Judgement Day)
Low Status (Example:  told what to do)

Source documents