Islam does not confine women to the home. Rather, even if women wish to go the mosque for all five daily prayers, their husbands are not permitted to prevent them. The Holy Prophetsas said:
If the wife of anyone of you asks permission to go to the mosque, he should not forbid her.
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 67, Hadith 171)
Do not prevent the maid-servants of Allah from going to the mosque.
(Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 152)
After fulfilling their primary responsibilities, women and men are not only permitted but encouraged to pursue other interests. Some people interpret the teaching of the Holy Quran:
And stay in your houses with dignity.
(33:34).
To apply to all women. However, the Promised Messiahas explained that this applied only to the wives of the Holy Prophetsas (Siratul- Mahdi, vol. 1, p. 766).
Women are not confined to the home or compelled to stay in the home, but their primary responsibility is in the home. The reason this objection arises is that some people perceive the role of the stay-at- home mother as inferior. However in reality, as Theodore Roosevelt said:
When all is said it is the mother, and the mother only, who is a better citizen even than the soldier who fights for his country. The successful mother, the mother who does her part in rearing and training aright the boys and girls who are to be the men and women of the next generation, is of greater use to the community and occupies, if she only would realize it, a more honorable, as well as a more important position, than any successful man in it… The good mother, the wise mother… Is more important to the community than even the ablest man; her career is more worthy of honor and is more useful to the community than the career of any man, however successful, can be.
(To The Delegates to The First International Congress In America on The Welfare of The Child, Theodore Roosevelt, March 10, 1908)