Ethics of Motherhood: A Comparative Approach Between Islamic and Feminist Thought

The physical and psychological developmental differences between men's and women’s nature are with good reason. Women’s integrity lies in moving towards what their nature and disposition dictate. Islam considers motherhood, and its particular ethical criteria, to be one of the greatest manifestations of female integrity, and nurturing the new generation to a woman’s most significant task. Parallel to the Human Rights Movement in the West and the Industrial Revolution, another movement – “Feminism” – began to achieve women’s rights and establish equality between men and women. This movement, through its discrepancies, has become an all-inclusive ideology with orientations. Based on their fundamental ideas and philosophies such as individualism and sexual freedom, feminist extremists consider motherhood to be the most important factor in the suppression of women. According to them, patriarchy has dominated history, science, and society while women’s status and unique characteristics have been ignored. Through criticizing traditional ethics, they have strived to find new approaches so that at the same time as flattering and attesting to the superiority of feminine characteristics, they could spread them through general ethical solutions for society. One of their targets in the field of ethics is the ethics of motherhood; they attempt to establish the benevolent and nurturing nature of motherhood as a social blueprint for all human interactions. Islam deems faith, purity, patience, sacrifice, etc. to be virtues essential to motherhood and considers mothers’ bosoms to be the primary and most important factor in conveying values to the new generations.