I am not a Christian so I can't speak on Christianity but, in the case of Islam, this simply isn't true.

Islam believes men and women are not the same, that they have different roles and responsibilities in life, but that they are, fundamentally, as humans, equal.

(Going to share a few extracts from Islamic texts below):

"But whosoever does good works, whether male or female, and is a believer, such shall enter Heaven, and shall not be wronged even as much as the little hollow in the back of a date-stone" [Quran 4:125]

- Paradise was laid beneath the foot of the mother, not the father.

- A man came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Messenger of God! Who among the people is the most worthy of my good companionship? The Prophet said: Your mother. The man said, ‘Then who?' The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man further asked, ‘Then who?' The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man asked again, ‘Then who?' The Prophet said: Then your father. (Bukhari, Muslim).

- The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “I urge you to treat women well.” (Narrated by al-Bukhari, 331; Muslim, 1468)

- "Fear God in your treatment of women." - Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

- The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “The best of you is the one who is best to his wife, and I am the best of you to my wives.” (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 3895; Ibn Majah, 1977; classed as sahih by al-Albani in Sahih al-Tirmidhi)

(I have shared the above deliberately. If women were truly inferior, there would be no need to stress the importance of being good and kind to them. And there certainly wouldn't be any reason for God to take men to task for ill-treating the women in their lives.

As Muslims, the number one thing you're supposed to shoot for is paradise. And - because it's heaven - it's the best place you could possibly be. The pinnacle of divine creation. Otherwise it wouldn't be heaven, would it? The symbolism of Islam laying all that beneath the foot of a woman speaks for itself.)

Some thoughts of my own:

- This notion that Islam sentences women to a life locked inside the house simply isn't true. Women have the same rights to education and work as men (The Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) first wife was a wealthy businesswomen and another was one of the greatest scholars in Islamic history. I doubt there are many civilisations who had (and encouraged) similar female achievements over 1400 years ago.)

- God commanding women in the Quran to cover up cannot be labelled or misconstrued as 'inferiority.' This, like many things, is personal between the woman and God. No man is allowed to force her to do so.

"There is no compulsion in religion" - Quran (2:256)

(The instruction to men to lower their gaze comes before the instruction to women to cover up. So even if a woman chooses not to, the buck stops with men.)

- There are certain men who bend Islam to exert control over the women in their lives, but that's because they're small and weak men. If they were born in another part of the world, they'd find something else to achieve the same ends.

- Women are also left better off financially. As a wife, your own money would be yours and your husband's money would also be yours. It's not the same the other way around.

- Like men, women have freedom of expression, can call people to Islam, can own property, can buy and sell, inherit, and give charity etc. No one is allowed to take a woman's wealth without her consent.

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Side note - I really enjoyed your piece. Takes some bravery to write something like this nowadays.

Best,

Sikander