One of the most important rights of wife is that husband has to support her through thick and thin. If the husband does not support her, she is not obligated to fulfill her duties. Allah says in the Holy Quran:
“And upon the father is mother’s sustenance and her clothing according to what is reasonable. No person shall have a burden on him greater than he can bear”. [Surah Al-Baqarah]
Wife should be treated with care, and kindness. A husband should always listen to her. He should buy things for her that he likes for himself and keep her well. Wife has an equal status in the decision making at home. Wife has the right to do job, acquire higher education and she should not be prohibited from doing that. It is prohibited in Islam to beat your wife and it is considered bad if you do so. It is quite easy to mention the rights of wife or women in Islam but what is difficult is to follow them. We do not see many people following them. Women especially the Muslim women suffer ill-treatment. Those people who do not treat their wives or other women with respect are illiterate even after being literate.
It is not only the men responsible for the ill treatment of women but it is the women themselves not standing against their own gender. When they are playing the role of a mother in law, they forget that the women whom they are treating badly belong to the same gender they are. When they are not educated well and not equipped with the right religious and academic training, they tend to create hell for other women as well. The women do the most harm to other women so they need to wake up as well and take stand for the rights of others rather than snatching away even the right to exist.

Muslim woman are also participating with their male counterparts to
make the way of life better. For this purpose, they face pressure in
home and office as well.

Pregnancy & Maternity Leave
When a woman is pregnant, she goes through many emotional and
hormonal changes. She feels fatigued and tired. For the sake of the
family, the baby and the office she has to remain focused. In many
offices woman are not given maternity leave and they have to show
up in their offices at respective time.

Leaving the child on mercy of childminders
Muslim woman have a very close connection with their newborns
and toddlers. Sometimes they have to leave kids with inexperience
childminders. They do not take care of the kids. The Muslim woman
does not enjoy her work. She often gets pressure from in-laws and
husband to leave her job. As a reality Muslim woman, do not work
by her own choice. Usually the circumstances occur like that, she
feels compelled to work and her contribution in running the home
makes a lot of difference. There are many women, who are facing
such challenges.

Poverty, illiteracy and Fanaticism
Muslim women are lawyers, judges, teachers, hold positions in the
political parties and running NGOs or other organizations but they
have same problems faced by any other women belonging to other
religions in the world. Women are generally become the victim of
work place harassment and often they have to suffer humiliation.
Muslim women are no exception as they also are facing same
consequences and poor situations like their sisters of other ethnicity
and religion.

Almost everywhere, women are facing the injustice, male
chauvinism, dominance but Muslim women are among the biggest
sufferers. They are discouraged, underprivileged due to the thinking
of fundamentalists and so-called religious personalities, political
leaders, and last but not the least, poverty.

Society is putting more and more pressure on the Muslim woman.
They are often kept uneducated. Freedom of speech is not allowed
in many families. Speaking and complaining elders are considered
a sin. When a Muslim girl is in her teens, her parents are worried
for her marriage. In most scenarios the groom is twice the age of
bride. Islam has given the right to girl to choose her partner under
the guidance of parents. Still the Muslim girl tries her level best to
maintain the self-esteem of her parents. She stays focus on two
things that is to either compromise or sacrifice.

Some Muslim women often become a product of inheritance. Some
illiterate men and women do not want that daughters should be
given shares in their father’s property. As the mother and brothers
think that, she will get married and she will take away their wealth.
Islam does not teach this thing and forbids this greatly. The Holy
Quran also tells us that Allah commands for the heir that two
female shares are equal to one male. It means that sons share is
more than the girl is. The Muslim female even has to fight her case
often in the court.

As far as women are concerned, the social challenges faced by
Muslim or non-Muslim women are almost the same and even the
powerful and influential women of their time could not manage
to escape from that. Even in the most of the advanced countries,
the women get raped, robbed and murdered as well as forced to
adopt carnal professions is common. However, the situation seems
to be worsening for the Muslim woman in the Eastern societies as
compared to West.

Presently, Muslim women are suffering male dominating behaviours,
social injustice and neglect. Although there are emerging women in
profession like law, police, army even politics and they raise their
voices. Various organizations and NGOs are also shouting aloud but
not much is done against that. It is surprising that United Nations
have their eyes closed upon several issues of Muslim woman in the
third world countries.

Muslim women have caliber and understanding to interpret
complex knowledge. Their capabilities and skills are same as of
women in different societies. Muslim woman have good mind
and willingness to educate themselves. They are being deprived
of proper education. On national and international level, many
movements are working to enlighten the Muslim woman with
education. Religion Islam has laid a lot of importance to education.
Holy prophet (P.B.U.H) emphasized that both men and women
should get education. In one of his speeches, he told the people to
go for education even if one has to go to china. As china at that,
time was considered very far.

Some young Muslim girls reach high school. However, they get good
grades and have a strong thirst of education. They are not allowed
to study in colleges and universities. The Muslim woman need to
get engaged in business, engineering and technical fields. When the
woman will be educated, she will also participate in the economic
activity. Woman can help in increasing the per capita income of the
country.

The Muslim women are facing more challenges in world then any
other. They are least educated women in the world. Islam focuses
a lot on education and there are many Quranic verses and sayings
of the last prophet related to knowledge and the importance of
education. They should be encouraged and assisted to prove them
and their skills.

Times are changing and it has dawned upon every individual that if
he or she wants to be successful and live a happy life then there is
going to need a lot of current information and knowledge. It is just
not only the Muslim women that need to change them but also the
Muslim men who should alter in the manner of thinking they had
earlier. Remember, change never comes outside you but it starts
within you. Only you can change your thinking and then implement
the new ideas. If you are a strong believer in yourself then you will
see the changes happening around you very soon.