Sheikh of Al-Azhar: Islam forbids assaulting women or diminishing their status

His Eminence, the Grand Imam, Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Sheikh of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, said that Islamic law is the first to be attributed to the virtue of taking precedence in the liberation of women, and the Holy Qur’an restored women’s dignity, drew the attention of mankind to their pivotal role in creating societies, explained women’s rights, and preserved their dignity, It was forbidden to attack her or diminish her status in any way.

This came in his post on the social networking site Facebook, on International Women's Day, mentioning that on the eighth of March the world celebrates women in appreciation of their essential role in the elevation of homelands and the upbringing of generations capable of building and giving, and Islam preceded this day more than one thousand and four hundred years ago. Year when it is higher than its place and approved its rights from the earliest nails, and this has been explicitly mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, as God Almighty says in verse 13 of Surat Al -Hujurat: “O people, we created you from the remembrance of you, and I have made you, and you will be blessed. Knowing, Experienced.”

From this verse it becomes clear that the criterion of distinction in Islam is based on piety and not a specific gender, color or other criteria used by extremists to divide people and evaluate them according to an external framework that does not reflect the goodness and integrity of the soul.

The rights of women sanctioned by Islam included all the stages that she went through since her birth when the infanticide of girls was forbidden, that pre-Islamic tradition known in the past before the Muhammadan message, passing through giving her the right to express her opinion on the issue of marriage, as well as ensuring her right to education.

The Al-Azhar Observatory confirmed that what we see of wrong behaviors against women is far from Islam and what it endorsed. Rather, it is the product of a wrong thought that was instilled in minds from childhood and was not corrected, just as the terrorist organizations’ exploitation of women and manipulation of their psychological and social needs shows the hidden true side of their corrupt ideology that The Observatory has always warned about it and has been keen to organize field and digital campaigns in order to refute it and expose its falsehood and malice.