Zakat and gender dynamics: empowering women through zakat

Zakat is an obligation for Muslims that meets the necessary requirement, to perform as well as Muslims that fulfills the condition to become the zakat obligatory. This obligation is mentioned in the Qur’an, hadith and conventional fiqh books. In this era, the new social paradigm needs to be understood well in order to improve the social welfare that includes everyone. This is due to the fact that zakat is seen as it’s only limited to meeting the needs of Mustahik when in reality it can give more than only meeting temporary needs. Women play a big role especially in the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMEs) sector. However, their contributions are not as much appreciated with their success as women don't have the easy access to formal financial financing where only 27% are reported to be receiving the formal financing. This is evident that by having a productive zakat with a fiqh social paradigm, it can help to realize the issue of gender inequality in the economic field considering how zakat shouldn’t be taking sides based on gender as it doesn’t align with shara’. Zakat management institutions' role to give public awareness on zakat are crucial so that it is more understood with the new paradigm in order to not eliminate its true virtues. Women's involvement in zakat is low compared to men as zakat are relatively always related to men. The lack of knowledge of zakat within the women community needs to be built, so that they understand how their participation could give benefits as mothers, companions to their husbands, as role models as well as to educate their children.