Annie Besant (1847 – 1933) was a British women’s rights activist, writer, orator, educationist, and theosophist. She is recognised as a champion of human freedom and was a outstanding author.
Annie Besant talks about the esteemed status of women and protection given to women in Islam when compared to Christianity. She says:
“It is declared in Europe that Islam sanctions polygamy, and leads to the degradation of woman. When Muhammad began his teaching, Arabia was plunged in the grossest licentiousness and sensual degradation….
It is so very easy to try to pick holes in another man’s faith, but what Westerner shall dare to speak against the limited polygamy of the East, so long as there is prostitution in the West?
There is no monogamy as yet in the world save here and there among the purer-living men. It is not monogamy when there is one legal wife, and mistresses out of sight…..
I often think that woman is more free in Islam than in Christianity.
Woman is more protected by Islam than by the faith which preaches Monogamy.
In Al-Quran the law about woman is more just and liberal.
It is only in the last twenty years that Christian England, has recognized the right of woman to property, while Islam has allowed this right from all times.”
Annie Besant quotes Quranic verses to prove her point:
“Says Al Quran:
Be ye kind to your wives; be just to them; if there is a quarrel, seek reconciliation before divorce.
The period of divorce is intentionally prolonged so that the parties may come to a better understanding in the interval.
Moreover, great respect to women was inculcated by the Prophet.
“O men! fear your Lord, who hath created you out of one man, and out of him created his wife, and from them two hath multiplied many men and women; and fear God by whom ye beseech one another, and respect women who have borne you, for God is watching over you”[ Al Quran, Chapter 4 ].
The Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Madras, 1932, pp. 25, 26