Islam and women

Delauren wrote: This is something that really makes me both interested and puzzled, the view on women in Islam. Myself lives in Sweden and it isn't uncommon for me to hear how badly women are treated within Islam, yet there are Swedish women converting to Islam, I have heard two very different sides of how women should be treated within Islam, the reason Swedes claims they are treated badly is because "they have to wear Hijabs!" ( tough i guess they mean the headscarves ) and are viewed as less worth then the men, and compare that to the Swedish women who are allowed to show their hair and are, at least according to law, equally worth to men ( tough a lot of Swedish men still look down on women ). From a documentary I saw with Muslims living in Sweden a man pointed at a women wearing Abaya ( I'm sorry if it isn't called Abaya, what i mean is the black long dress that covers everything but their face/eyes, might be Chador I mean? ) and said that men respects her, they don't look at her, they don't talk to her etc, which sound strange for a Swede like me, how would it be respected to not be talked to? At the same time, I've also heard that women have the opportunity to choose if they want to be part of Islam and if they themselves choosed this life, then by all means. I do not believe that just cause our views are different it means yours are bad, I am merely trying to understand the truth behind what I suspect to be propaganda spread by hostile people aswell as the difference in views, if Swedish women who are used to living with their hair loose etc, choose to convert to Islam and wear headscarves, I highly doubt it is as bad as people are trying to make it seem, I've read too that young muslim women are going against wearing headscarves, what I've read about the Hijab is that both men and women wear them and they need to be modest in eachothers company, women wear headscarves and men has to lower their gaze ( which I think some Swedish men should learn... ) I am trying to puzzle togheter pieces of random information so I will be happy to hear what the true views are on women in Islam.

         I used to stayed in Egypt about one year and found that really worst is not HIjab and this External form which can Warn young men that You must not harass this woman, otherwise every Muslim man passing by will teach you.To make matters worse, women must rely on male guardians like fathers and husbands. They cannot choose occupations, where to stay, no children, no partners they like, and no money. In the long run, women lose all their survival skills and skills, are disconnected from society, and even ask their husbands to accompany them when shopping. This is very common in more conservative countries. Egypt is relatively good.
       But in most cases, Arab women do not need to do heavy work, because the Qur'an stipulates that husbands should treat their wives well and cannot abuse their wives. Therefore, the lives of Arab women are not as miserable as the outside world thinks.
       On the contrary, the hardest hit area is India. I don’t need to say much about India. If you can, I hope you will pay more attention to the situation of Indian women. Indian women do the complicated work and eat the worst food, but suffer the worst persecution. And all this, there is no religion to restrain and guide the behavior of those men.
      In a sense, the Quran is great, because the Quran restrained the abuse of women by men from the beginning.

hope this will help.
                                                                                                                   yours   atliniamena