The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2699 page)

in this area. Thus the veil (
ij
b
), or more total covering of
chaddor
, is not required by Qur
n, which only commands modesty in dress (24. 31); the widespread practice of female circumcision is not required at all; polygamy is envisaged in the Qur’
n, but not polyandry; men may marry women of the
ahl al-Kit
b
, but women may not marry such men. In any case, the authority of men over women remains, derived from two verses in particular: having affirmed mutual rights for women, 2. 228 states, ‘But men have
darajah
over women.’
Darajah
means
‘rank’
or
‘degree’
or
‘precedence’
, and may simply be restricted to the different ways in which men and women can initiate divorce, but it is often taken in a more general sense. In another verse (4. 34/8), it is said that men are
qawwum
n
over women (because they have to support them) and that women suspected of ill-conduct must be admonished, banished to their beds, and beaten.
Qawwam
n
is usually taken to mean
‘standing over’
, i.e. having authority; but the meanings of the Qur
n are not fixed, and the word may legitimately mean
‘standing in attendance’
; and in any case, the beating cannot be painful and is largely symbolic. Even so, for many Muslim women these particular aspects of the assymetry between men and women raise searching questions about the (theoretically possible) rethinking of the meaning of shar
‘a in the spirit of Mu
ammad's own support for the worth and dignity of women. As matters stand, the experience of many Muslim women, as they report it, is one of which Mu
ammad could scarcely have approved, and which the Qur’
n did not intend.
Hinduism
The status and role of women in Hinduism are complex. At the level of home and society, they are revered, yet at the same time they are dependent on men and are to be guarded by them. In the
Dharma
stras