Time Frame

• According to Marijke Keet, an assistant professor at the KRDB Research Center at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, women's situations greatly improved during Mohammed's lifetime. However, their basic rights slowly deteriorated after his passing.
  
  

Mutual Consent

• Under Islam, a married couple is to approach decision making through mutual agreement. The bride, however, has the exclusive right to stipulate her own conditions upon their marriage contract.
  
  

Significance

• According to Quran 4:19, a husband can neither become an heir to his wife by holding her against her will, nor can he keep her under any form of constraint.
  
  

Divorce

• Islamic sacred writings teach that a woman is free to initiate divorce proceedings. If her husband is a nonbeliever, she can simply leave, and the divorce will be recognized.
  
  

Considerations

• Although the Quran generally considers women to be equal marriage partners, strict patriarchal culture, which predates the Quran, continues to persist in denying them their basic rights and dignity.