How did women's status in early Islamic society compare to the pre-Islamic era?

Before Islam, women in much of Arabian society held a precarious legal and social position: they generally could not inherit property, were sometimes treated as part of a deceased husband's estate to be inherited by his male relatives, had no guaranteed right to reject a proposed marriage, and female infanticide was practiced by some tribes out of preference for sons or fear of poverty and disgrace. The Quran directly condemned this last practice, describing the shame felt by some fathers at the birth of a daughter (16:58-59). Islam's arrival brought sweeping legal changes: women became guaranteed heirs under fixed inheritance law (4:11), gained the right to independently own and dispose of property and earnings, required their consent for a marriage to be valid, and gained rights to receive a dowry directly for themselves rather than their family. Women's spiritual standing was also affirmed as fully equal to men's before God, with identical religious duties and identical reward for righteous deeds (33:35). While pre-Islamic Arabia was not uniform in its treatment of women, Islam's legal reforms represented a substantial and, for the era, remarkable expansion of women's rights and protections.

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