Another issue in which the Qur’an and the Bible disagree is the issue of women bearing witness. It is true that the Qur’an has instructed the believers dealing in financial transactions to get two male witnesses or one male and two females:

“…and call in to witness from among your men two witnesses; but if there are not two men, then one man and two women from among those whom you choose to be witnesses, so that if one of the two errs, the second of the two may remind the other…” (2:282).

However, it is also true that the Qur’an in other situations accepts the testimony of a woman as equal to that of a man. In fact, the woman's testimony can even invalidate the man's.

If a man accuses his wife of unchastity, he is required by the Qur’an to solemnly swear five times as evidence of the wife's guilt. If the wife denies and swears similarly five times, she is not considered guilty and in either case the marriage is dissolved:

“And (as for) those who accuse their wives and have no witnesses except themselves, the evidence of one of these (should be taken) four times, bearing Allah to witness that he is most surely of the truthful ones” (24:6).

“And the fifth (time) that the curse of Allah be on him if he is one of the liars” (24:7).

“And it shall avert the chastisement from her if she testifies four times, bearing Allah to witness that he is most surely one of the liars” (24:8).

“And the fifth (time) that the wrath of Allah be on her if he is one of the truthful” (24:9).

And were it not for Allah's grace upon you and His mercy- and that Allah is Oft-returning (to mercy), Wise!” (24:10).

“Surely, they who concocted the lie are a party from among you. Do not regard it an evil to you; nay, it is good for you. Every man of them shall have what he has earned of sin; and (as for) him who took upon himself the main part thereof, he shall have a grievous chastisement” (24:11).

On the other hand, women were not allowed to bear witness in early Jewish society.1 The Rabbis counted women's not being able to bear witness among the nine curses inflicted upon all women because of the Fall (see the “Eve's Legacy” section). Women in today's Israel are not allowed to give evidence in Rabbinical courts2. The Rabbis justify why women cannot bear witness by citing Genesis, 18/9-16, where it is stated that Sara, Abraham's wife had lied.

“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There in the tent,” he replied. One of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son.” Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, just behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, and Sarah had stopped having her womanly periods. So Sarah laughed to herself and said, “Now that I am so withered and my husband is so old, am I still to have sexual pleasure?” But the LORD said to Abraham: “Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I really bear a child, old as I am?' Is anything too marvellous for the LORD to do? At the appointed time, about this time next year, I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son.” Because she was afraid, Sarah dissembled, saying, “I didn't laugh.” But he said, “Yes you did.”“

The Rabbis use this incident as evidence that women are unqualified to bear witness. It should be noted here that this story narrated in Genesis, 18/9-16 has been mentioned more than once in the Qur’an without any hint of lies by Sara:

“And certainly, Our messengers came to Ibrahim with good news. They said: Peace. Peace, said he, and he made no delay in bringing a roasted calf” (11:69).

“But when he saw that their hands were not extended towards it, he deemed them strange and conceived fear of them. They said: Fear not, surely, we are sent to Lut's people” (11:70).

“And his wife was standing (by), so she laughed, then We gave her the good news of Ishaq and after Ishaq of (a son's son) Yaqoub” (11:71).

“She said: O wonder! shall I bear a son when I am an extremely old woman and this my husband an extremely old man? Most surely this is a wonderful thing” (11:72).

“They said: Do you wonder at Allah's bidding? The mercy of Allah and His blessings are on you, O people of the house, surely, He is Praised, Glorious” (11:73).

“So when fear had gone away from Ibrahim and good news came to him, he began to plead with Us for Lut's people” (11:74).

“Has there come to you information about the honoured guests of Ibrahim?” (51:24).

“When they entered upon him, they said: Peace. Peace, said he, a strange people” (51:25).

“Then he turned aside to his family secretly and brought a fat (roasted) calf” (51:26).

“So, he brought it near them. He said: What! Will you not eat?” (51:27).

“So, he conceived in his mind a fear on account of them. They said: Fear not. And they gave him the good news of a boy possessing knowledge” (51:28).

“Then his wife came up in great grief, and she struck her face and said: An old barren woman!” (51:29).

“They said: Thus says your Lord: Surely He is the Wise, the Knowing” (51:30).

In the Christian West, both ecclesiastical and civil law debarred women from giving testimony until late last century3.

If a man accuses his wife of unchastity, her testimony will not be considered at all according to the Bible. The accused wife has to be subjected to a trial by ordeal. In this trial, the wife faces a complex and humiliating ritual which was supposed to prove her guilt or innocence (Numbers, 5/11-31):

11 Then the Lord said to Moses, 12 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him 13 so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), 14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure— 15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah[a] of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.

16 “‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. 17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. 18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. 19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse[b] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”

23 “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. 24 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. 25 The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. 26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial[c] offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. 27 If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. 28 If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

29 “‘This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband, 30 or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her. 31 The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.’”

If she is found guilty after this ordeal, she will be sentenced to death. If she is found not guilty, her husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing.

Besides, if a man takes a woman as a wife and then accuses her of not being a virgin, her own testimony will not count. Her parents had to bring evidence of her virginity before the elders of the town. If the parents could not prove the innocence of their daughter, she would be stoned to death on her father's doorsteps. If the parents were able to prove her innocence, the husband would only be fined one hundred shekels of silver and he could not divorce his wife as long as he lived:

“If a man takes a wife and, after lying with her, dislikes her and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, 'I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,' then the girl's father and mother shall bring proof that she was a virgin to the town elders at the gate. The girl's father will say to the elders, 'I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. Now he has slandered her and said I did not find your daughter to be a virgin. But here is the proof of my daughter's virginity.' Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, and the elders shall take the man and punish him. They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the girl's father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl's virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of the town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father's house. You must purge the evil from among you” (Deuteronomy, 22/13-21)

• 1. Leonard J. Swidler, Women in Judaism: The Status of Women in Formative Judaism (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976), p. 115.
• 2. Lesley Hazelton, Israeli Women. The Reality Behind the Myths (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977), p. 41.
• 3. Matilda J. Gage, Woman, Church and State (New York: Truth Seeker Company, 1983), p. 142.