Viability of Socio-Economic Insurance Provisions for a Woman in Islam: Focus On Mahr and Nafaqah
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Date
2016
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Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture
Abstract
History bears the fact that universally women and children are the most vulnerable members in the human society.
Notwithstanding the role of the women folk in the establishment, nurture and development of the society, gender bias
is incontestable whereby women are bedeviled with multi-farious social and economic travails. Islam took the bull by
the horn to arrest this precarious situation by according women an esteem position in the scheme of things. Whereas
a woman was considered as a mere chattel and source of sexual gratification for the man at her own expense, Islam
conceives her as a dignified personality whose integrity must be safe-guarded by the masculine gender of superior or
collateral status. This philosophy became entrenched primarily in the Islamic family structure whereby the law assigns
the superintendent position to the male as a father, brother, uncle or anyone in similar category. Moreover, in the
matrimonial setting, the husband is obligated to provide sustenance for the wife and the children. This paper therefore
researches on the competence of this arrangement in providing socio-economic insurance for a woman as the major
beneficiary of this welfare scheme in Islam. As a field and library research, the study involved interview,
questionnaires and literary appraisal. Major findings indicated that where the principles of Islam are embraced
wholesome, women were fully guaranteed of survival and protected from socio-economic menace. Apparently,
violations of the Islamic principles on maintenance of women indulged some of them in unimaginable socio economic immoralities. Hence, the paper concludes with some recommendations.