Woman are just as important as men in society. Many religions, Islam included say otherwise.
In my inhale, I read and annotated "Infidel", by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. While it's a long read, it's one I recommend for sure. Overall, it really changed my perspective on the situation of women, especially those who live in Middle East. My inhale goal was to explore texts from a point of view that wasn't mine, and my exhale goal was to create a text that uses strategies and techniques to build out my purpose and address my audience. I think I showed those two goals in both my inhale and exhale work well. Generally, I am really proud of my work, specifically how I wrote an accurate and "see both sides" argument.
According to Wikipedia, religion is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” Religion is something that in theory would make us all equal. All of us would be one, under the power of God. People that follow Islam, Muslims, aim to live a life of complete submission to their God: Allah. As a Muslim, if you fail to comply, you will be sent to hell. You are a Jew? If you don’t switch belief systems immediately you will go to hell. Any other god than Allah isn’t valid. Not proper, you’ll burn in hell. In theory, this would be a good belief system. Perfectly good for men and women? Not at all.
Why would I say this? Women aren’t considered “worthy” because they bleed from their genitals, making them dirty and unholy. It's not right for women to show any signs of their skin; it would sexually attract men and make them unholy as well. Wouldn’t that be the man's fault completely? Not at all. This is purely the women's fault for not covering themselves. At some point, even a woman's face was enough to turn on a man; make him sin. A woman’s testimony is half of a man's. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali says in “Infidel” “a woman is expected to be docile”. Being docile means being submissive and accepting instructions and control. The Quran clearly states that women are to be submissive to men. Quran 4.34: “Men stand superior to women in that God hath preferred some of them over others, and in that, they expend of their wealth; and the virtuous women, devoted, careful (in their husbands’) absence, as God has cared for them. But those whose perverseness ye fear, admonish them and remove them into bed-chambers and beat them; but if they submit to you, then do not seek a way against them; verily, God is high and great.” This statement from the holy Quran singlehandedly shows that from the start women would be lesser than men.
Women are expected to be perfectly pure their whole lives. Women are forced to mutilate their genitals. What is female genital mutilation? Otherwise known as infibulation, this is when a young girl, often even from the ages of 4-7, gets her inner and outer labia removed and then their vulva sutured. They then stitch it up with a little stick wedged inside so there would be a pea-sized hole to pee through. This is known to be a very painful procedure. But why? This was so the girl would stay a virgin or “pure” her entire life until she got married to a man chosen by her father. The man would then break the stitches, which was excruciatingly painful. This is unruly now and is illegal across Islamic countries but still, extremists exercise this process. There are more extremists than you think, and that’s a fact.
Now my point isn’t that Islam is a corrupted religion. In all truth, most religions consider a woman half of a man. The problem with any religion is the way it's interpreted. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali states in Infidel “the rigid interpretation of the Quran in Islam today causes intolerable pain for women”. It's taken too seriously. It went from covering hair to covering every inch of your body. I’ve always had the same question as Ayaan Hirsi Ali: why don’t I have to cover up, too. Don’t men attract women sexually too, make them sin? Unfortunately, that’s not how it is, it’s a stupid question because it’s a sin questioning it. In the end, this is how our world is. One gender considered under the other sent through true hell because of a holy book. It goes for every holy book. You could even rename the religion. Hislam.