Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture

Viability of Socio-Economic Insurance Provisions for a Woman in Islam: Focus On Mahr and Nafaqah
Abdus-Sami Imam Arikewuyo, Ph.D.

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 socioeconomic immoralities. Hence, the paper concludes with some recommendations.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jisc.v4n1a5