To what extent can Muslim women be leaders? You must refer to different points of view in your answer.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2024). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] 10 marks AO1 – Knowledge and understanding
2. [1] 15 marks AO2 – Analysis and evaluation
3. [1] Mark according to the levels of response marking grids for AO1 and AO2. Answers may refer to any Islamic religious theory or teaching. Candidates may propose, analyse and evaluate some of the following arguments. All relevant arguments must be credited.
4. [1] Candidates could define/explain what they understand by the term ‘leaders’ when speaking about women. Are they referring to them as head of a country, religious leaders, e.g. Imam, or Shaykh, or just any role of headship?
5. [1] Candidates could make reference to any woman that they have studied, such as Queen Arwa or a modern woman leader to support their answers.
6. [1] Candidates could argue that Muslims find guidance from the Qur’an and there is nowhere in the Qur’an that says that women are not allowed to have a leading role.
7. [1] When Umar was Caliph he appointed Al-Shifa bint Abdullah and Samra Binte Naik al-Asadiyyah as the chief supervisors of the marketplace in Medina and Mecca respectively. They would go around the marketplace, making sure that transactions were in compliance with Islamic values and teachings. When the people in the marketplace had doubts about the legality of their transactions, they would consult them. If it was wrong to appoint women in leadership positions in the public sphere, then Umar would not have appointed two women to oversee a marketplace, which at that time was the centre of trading and interactions.
8. [1] Some may argue that the only reason that there were no women leaders at the time of the Prophet (pbuh) was because of the cultural norms and historical context of that society.
9. [1] The story of Bilqis, the queen of Sheba is mentioned in the Qur’an, and she was ruling over a country. She is shown in a favourable way, as a smart woman who accepted the message of Islam when it was presented to her. Her mention in the Qur’an could mean that women can be rulers/leaders.
10. [1] There is a general belief among Muslims that women are not allowed to rule a country.
11. [1] Many of those who reject the permissibility of women as leaders do so in reference to this authentic Hadith narrated by the Prophet (pbuh) and found in Bukhari: “A nation with a woman ruler will never succeed.”
12. [1] Some may reason that if indeed women could lead, then the Prophet (pbuh) would have appointed them into positions of power, since he did not, that means it is not allowed in Islam.
13. [1] Even during the time of some of the Four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, no woman was given a position of authority, so this can lead Muslims to think that they are not allowed to be leaders.
14. [1] A conclusion should be reached of whether Muslim women can be leaders in any field or whether there are restrictions to that possibility.