Position of Women in Islam and Sikhism: A Comparative Study

The role of woman is one of the most important controversial issues in the present socio-economic circumstances of the world. The role or status of women in all of the major faiths has become an important issue for today’s society. For many, religion is an important aspect of their lives and plays a leading part in their thought processes, decisions and way of life. This applies to men and women equally in the same way. Increasingly, women are enquiring about their position, role and importance in their respective faiths. Many want to look back to the original doctrine and see what has been said about them. The present research deals with the rights granted to woman by Islam and Sikhism. I would like to emphasize that I concerned myself only with Doctrine. That is, my concern is the position of women in Islam and Sikhism as it appears in their original sources not as practiced by their millions of followers in the world today. Therefore, most of the evidence cited comes from the Quran, the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, the Guru Granth Sahib, and the sayings of the most influential Gurus whose views have contributed immeasurably to defining and shaping Sikhism.