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| Women's Participation in
Wars
Women also fought in battles to defend Islam. War was one activity in which women of pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabia participated fully. They were present on the battlefield principally to tend the wounded and to encourage the men, often with song and verse... Some women also fought. In the Muslim battles of Muhammad's lifetime, women functioned in all three roles, on both sides -- even Muhammad's wives. These examples prove that the Prophet did not restrict women to merely wait at home for their men to return, but encouraged anyone willing to fight and work for Islam to do so. His army was an army of believers, both men and women. Clearly if women as a whole were not equal or as competent as their male counterparts, they wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to protect the security of their community and the life of the Prophet. Despite the clear examples during the life of the Prophet, soon after his death, women's role in the domain of warfare, was challenged. Umm Imara
defended the Prophet during the Battle of Uhud after the Muslims were
defeated. Umar ibn al-Khattab said "I heard the Prophet (PBUH) saying
‘On the day of Uhud, I never looked right or left without seeing Umm
Imara fighting to defend me.’" Another famous female warrior was Nasiba
bint Kaab who fought with the Prophet in the Battle of Uhud (625
A.D./ 3 A.H.) and later on with Caliph Abu Bakr in the Ridda war (632
A.D./ 10 A.H.). She was known as such a courageous and dedicated warrior
that Abu Bakr himself attended her reception upon her return to Medina. Aisha, a wife
of Prophet Muhammad, was also politically active. In the year 658 A.D. (36
A.H.) she played a major role in the armed resistance against Ali, the
fourth successor after the death of Prophet Muhammad. Aisha went to mosques and rallied people to take up arms against Ali. (Ibid). Aisha, the only woman on the battlefield, led thousands of men into the "Battle of the Camel." (Ibid). Aisha was clearly an influential leader as shown by the following statement made by Hasan the son of Ali after Aisha traveled to Basra with Talha and al-Zubayr, members of Ali’s opposition, to rally support. Hasan, in a speech made in Kufa, stated, "I swear by God, surely she is the wife of your Prophet, in this life and the hereafter. But it is a test from God to know whether you will obey Him or her." Abdelhalim Abu Shaka, The Emancipation of
Woman at the Time of the Prophet, 1990, p. 151 (citing Bukhari).
Um Saleem carried a dagger to fight in The Battle of al-Khandaq. Nusaiba bint Ka'b fought and wounded 12 at Uhud and the Prophet praised her fighting by saying "Never did I look right or left but she was there defending me and fighting before me." Nusaiba also fought in the war of apostasy under Abu Bakr. Um Al Dhouhha bint Mas'ud attended the battle of the Khayber and the Prophet gave her an equal share of the spoils to the men's After the death of the Prophet, Um Hakim "single-handedly disposed of seven Byzantine soldiers at the battle of Marj al-Saffar, as well as groups, even battalions, of women participating in the fighting." Many women among the Khawarij (the political "dissident" movement arising in the mid-seventh century) "won renown for their prowess in battle, among them Ghazala, who defeated al-Hajjaj in a duel." (Al-Hajjaj was a tyrannical Iraqi ruler during the Ommayyid dynasty.) This renown was soon overtaken by retreat
from warfare after orthodox leaders, who opposed women's participation in
battle, "killed and exposed naked the women captured in their battles
with the Kharijis [sing. form of Khawarij]--conduct suggesting an attitude
toward women on the battlefield far different from that of the first
Muslim community. The strategy was effective in leading Khariji women
eventually to withdrawing from the theater of war." Such misguided beliefs, among many, have unfortunately come to shroud the courageous and active participation of women in the early years of Islam, and have contributed to a misunderstanding of our role and status in the Muslim community today.
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