Women Under Sharia: The Harsh Reality Behind Islamic Law

Former CIA officer Clare Lopez exposes how Islamic doctrine enslaves women—and why its influence threatens the West.

Since 2015, the Virginia Christian Alliance has closely tracked the rise and impact of Islam across the globe—publishing over 175 articles on its theological, legal, and cultural dimensions. You can explore that full collection there.

Yesterday, Shenandoah Christian Alliance contributor J. Jeff Toler offered a sweeping analysis of the clash between Western civilization and Islamic ideology in They’re Coming to America. His essay explored the philosophical and moral roots of that conflict—the Golden Rule versus dualistic ethics.

Today, we take a closer look at how those same doctrines play out in real life. In a recent presentation hosted by Chris Wright of Liberato.us, Clare Lopez, a 20-year CIA veteran and national security analyst, exposes the realities faced by women under Sharia.

What Is Sharia?

Lopez explains that Sharia—literally, “the straight path to God”—is more than a set of religious precepts. It is a total legal system derived from four main sources:

The Qur’an (Islam’s holy text)
The Hadith (sayings of Muhammad)
Sirat Rasul Allah (pdf) (biography of Muhammad)
Qiyas (judicial reasoning by Islamic scholars)

While many in the West assume Sharia applies only to personal faith, Lopez reminds us that it governs every aspect of life—political, civil, familial, and criminal. “Sharia is obligatory,” she says. “Its obedience is required for all Muslims everywhere, for all time.”

Doctrine, Not Culture: What the Qur’an Says About Women

In a detailed walkthrough of Islamic sources, Lopez shows that the oppression of women is not cultural accident or extremist misinterpretation—it is rooted in Islam’s own texts. Among the examples she cites:

Surah 2:223: “Your wives are as a tilth unto you. Approach your tilth when or how you will.”

Women are viewed as property—fields to be used at will.

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Surah 2:282: A woman’s testimony in court counts as half that of a man’s.
Surah 4:3: Men may have up to four wives—and as many concubines or sex slaves as they please.
Surah 4:34: “Admonish them, then leave them alone in their beds, and beat them.”
Surah 65:4: Allows marriage to girls who have not yet begun menstruation.
Surah 33:59: Commands women to cover themselves lest they “be molested.”

“These are not fringe interpretations,” Lopez says. “They are the core of Islamic law, codified in Sharia, and still taught in Islamic schools and universities—including here in the United States.”

From Doctrine to Practice: FGM and Honor Killings

One of the most disturbing realities Lopez highlights is the persistence of female genital mutilation (FGM). Under the Shafi’i school of Sunni jurisprudence, it is considered obligatory; in the other major Sunni schools, it is permitted or encouraged. A federal case in Michigan in 2017 brought the issue into U.S. headlines, though the charges were dismissed on technical grounds.

Similarly, honor killings—murders of women by male relatives for perceived moral offenses—are not aberrations, Lopez notes. They are permitted under Islamic legal texts such as Reliance of the Traveller (section o1.2), which exempts a father or grandfather from punishment for killing his offspring.

She cites the case of Yaser Said, an Egyptian immigrant in Texas who shot his two teenage daughters in 2008 for having American boyfriends. Convicted years later under U.S. law, Said still acted, in his mind, under the legitimacy of Islamic law.

Women Under Sharia Worldwide

Lopez provides sobering snapshots of what Sharia enforcement looks like across nations:

Iran: After the 1979 revolution, women lost basic freedoms. The 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini—beaten by “morality police” for an improperly worn hijab—ignited the Zan, Zendegi, Azadi (“Woman, Life, Freedom”) protests that continue today.
Afghanistan: Under Taliban rule, girls are barred from school, women are forced into burkas, and public life for females has collapsed to seventh-century conditions.
Egypt: Coptic Christian women are kidnapped, raped, and forcibly converted, with police and courts turning a blind eye.
India: So-called “love jihad” campaigns involve Muslim men abducting and coercing Hindu women into marriage and conversion.
Europe: Decades of unchecked Islamic migration have produced rape gangs in Britain, Sweden, and elsewhere. Even now, whistleblowers like Tommy Robinson and outspoken figures like Elon Musk are drawing attention to the West’s denial of this crisis.

Sharia vs. the U.S. Constitution

Lopez concludes with a warning. America’s First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion, but the Founders never envisioned a religion functioning as a rival legal system.

“When the framers wrote of freedom of religion,” Lopez explains, “they meant prayer, worship, devotion—not the imposition of an alien system of law.” Article VI of the Constitution—the Supremacy Clause—establishes that the U.S. Constitution and laws derived from it are the supreme law of the land. Sharia, as a binding legal code, cannot coexist with it.

She cites Dr. Stephen Kirby’s book, Islamic Doctrine vs. the U.S. Constitution, which explores this conflict in depth.

A Call to Awareness

Clare Lopez’s message is stark but necessary: Sharia law is not a private faith practice—it is a comprehensive system of control, incompatible with human liberty and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Her ongoing “Women Under Sharia” reports at Liberato.us document these abuses in detail each month, while here at VCA, our mission remains to warn, inform, and awaken the Church to the truth.

As Proverbs 29:2 reminds us: