Women in Islamic societies have held many positions of political significance. The legitimacy of these positions, from a religious and cultural perspective, is debated.
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Some argue that the Qur'an gives women the right to participate in public affairs as there are examples of women who took part in serious discussions and argued even with Muhammad himself.[1] In addition, during the Caliphate of Umar, a woman argued with him in the mosque, proved her point, and caused him to declare in the presence of many people: "A woman is right and Umar is wrong".
More notability, the daughter of Muhammad known as the mother of believers was sent by her father with her for an interfaith dialogue in the city of Medinah. Aisha, the wife of Muhammad, was also reported to have said: "Never have I seen anyone resembling Prophet of Allah, in his way of speaking and talking, better than Fatimah." Some other Muslims argue that Muhammad's wife Aisha, who both took part in politics and served as a major authority on hadith, is an example of possible roles for Muslim women. Other Muslims would strongly disagree. (Aisha is seen in a darker light by Shi'a Muslims because she opposed Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali.) Other examples of possible roles include Ume Warqa and Samra Binte Wahaib, appointed heads of market committees of Medina and Mecca by Umar, the second Sunni caliph. There are few other historical role models for Muslim women as leaders. Razia Sultana was the short-lived third major independent Muslim ruler of the Sultanate of Delhi in India and the Mamluk queen Shajarat ad-Durr ruled for a few years in Egypt. One more example of a Muslim female head of state is Soyembika of Kazan, who ruled the Kazan Khanate in the 16th century.
There are many more contemporary examples of women leading Muslim-majority countries. The majority of all Muslims in the world live in countries that have, at some time, elected women as their leaders. Indeed, the three most populous Muslim-majority countries have had women as leaders:
Other Muslim- majority nations which have had female political leaders include:
Nearly one-third of the Parliament of Egypt- the fifth most populous Muslim majority nation- also consists of women.[7]
Women still face many pressures as political leaders.[8]
Some Muslim women hold important positions in some governments, political parties and corporations. A paradoxical example is the banned Islamist party of Morocco, Al Adl Wa Al Ihssane (Justice and Charity). Since the leader cannot speak openly, his daughter Nadia Yassine is the one who publicly defends the opposition to the Mudawana, government-sponsored reforms on the legal status of Moroccan women.
The circumstances, and the often explicitly non-Islamic ideology of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and the Iran-Iraq war, because of the number of men fighting, led to an increase of the role of women in the public life of the Sahrawi and Iranians.