Replies

Since you can't google for yourself here's one:

When the full impact of this crystallization made its mark, men suffered no conscience in parading themselves as inherently, or even divinely, superior. Gender based notions of superordination and subordination became entrenched as values and norms of Muslim society. The result of all of these is the shocking state of Muslim women in many Muslim societies today. They are abused, physically and emotionally, in the name of a supposedly divine conception of privileged authority. And none suffers more than the wives at the hands of despotic husbands. It is this condition which has led a prominent Human Rights author to observe that "In many many Islamic states, paternalism remains strong and causes cultural resistance to economic and social rights which aim at ensuring equality between men and women including equal access to education, equal pay for equal work, and above all equality in inheritance laws which severely affect the right to property. The maintenance of Shariah law, in conflict with international human rights law, constitutes one of the major systemic challenges to universal human rights in our time" (Asbjorn Eide 1995)

And

The Bitter Lament of a Muslim Woman

By Jahanara Begum

There is a villaye near Basra in Iraq. That village was well-known for supplying eunuchs for the nawabs’ harems. Nearly 60% of the young lads who were castrated there used to die. This butchery has ceased today. There are many Muslims like Idi Amin who have numerous wives but the eunuchs are no more there to watch over the women. But for us, nothing has changed. The men of our society are completely without concern for their women. By granting a few property rights they seem to think that a lot has been done for us Muslim women. What good are these property rights when our marriages are scarred with an unending chain of divorces and re-marriages? The Muslim law has, on the other hand, given rise to a lot more persecution of Muslim women. If a divorced Muslim woman files a suit for her property and alimony rights, then the Muslim court moves very slowly indeed. In the meantime, the husband can get remarried without any hindrance from our Islamic laws. The law of the land that helps women of all other communities under similar circumstances is of no use to us Muslim women because we are supposed to go by the laws of Islam only and nothing else.

Full article here