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Is it permissible to adopt Dr. Zeinab Radwan's interpretations of the two verses: "Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has favored some of them over others and by what they spend [from their wealth]," and "And if there are not two men [available], then a man and two women from those whom you accept as witnesses—so that if one of them errs, then the other can remind her," and what is the extent of validity of these interpretations?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Explicit Sharia texts have clarified that the testimony of a woman is half that of a man, and that the guardianship (qawamah) of a man over a woman is based on two reasons: Allah's favoring of men over women in matters such as prophethood, caliphate, and issues of inheritance and divorce, in addition to a man spending his wealth on a woman by way of mahr (dowry) and maintenance (nafaqah). If a man abandons this maintenance, he forfeits his right to guardianship. This favoring mentioned in the Quran is for the male gender over the female gender, and not for every man over every woman.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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