Guess who is Progressive on Women? Vatican or Al-Azhar?
From the archive (2013): Al-Azhar versus the Vatican on women’s rights — checking institutions against their reputations, empirically.
On most aspects of women’s rights, the clock cannot be rolled back. In fact, birth control and planning can be instrumental in social and economic planning.
Among the four religious power-houses that affect the social lives of 60% of humanity, the Anglican church is out front but has probably lost its way a bit. Then we have the *howzas * of Qom taking the lead on behalf of Shiite rite within Islam. And click to read how Al-Azhar is also starting to make sense. The Vatican is far, far behind.
We agree that too radical a change creates social problems and some current moral standards may turn out to be fads or outright dangerous for society in the long run. However, a woman’s ability to control her own reproductive faculties is here to stay and it is best to harness it for the benefit of women, children and society at large.
(Courtesy: Irtiqa Blog – http://www.irtiqa-blog.com/2013/04/the-role-of-al-azhar-university-in.html)