One point in which the Quran and the Bible disagree is the
point of women bearing witness. It is true that the Quran has instructed the believers
dealing in financial transactions to get two male witnesses or one male and two
females (Qur’an 2:282). However, it is also true that the Quran 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 Quran 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 (Qur’an 24:6-11).
On the other hand, women were not allowed to bear witness in
early Jewish society. The Rabbis counted women's not being able to bear witness
among the nine curses inflicted upon all women because of the Fall. Women in
today's Israel are not allowed to give evidence in Rabbinical courts. 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. 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 Quran without any hint of any lies by Sara (Qur’an 11:69- 74, 51:24-30) .
In the Christian West, both ecclesiastical and civil law debarred women from
giving testimony until late last century.
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 (Num. 5:11-31) .
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
onher 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)
