For the original question, I have no problem with my wife studying before or after marriage. I would encourage it. We need our sisters educated and informed because they're the ones who'll play a major role in raising the next generation of Muslims, keeping them locked at home is impractical and honestly, quite dumb. We need sisters educated and working in professions so they can, at the very least, tend to the needs of the other sisters in the Muslim community.
I remember hearing in a lecture long ago where the speaker said something really precise. He said: "
The Companions were more liberal than the conservatives of today, and more conservative than the liberals of today." Meaning, they were somewhere in the middle between the two extremes that we have today. We need a balance and an informed outlook at the current society, and need to apply the Islamic rulings in accordance. We can apply 'blocking the means' principle of Fiqh and make our societies ultra-conservative, but that's impractical, especially when living here as a minority. Our sisters deserve education and they deserve to move forward. I have not yet heard from one scholar who is familiar with the West and has grown up here and in touch with the Muslim communities and is also Islamically learned who says that sisters ought to be locked at home and that their place is the kitchen, and until I do, I'd consider anyone propagating such a biased look as out of touch with reality.
I think the fitnah out there is more for the men than the women. It's the men that are more easily found messing around. I think we can trust that our sisters are not naive and know the right from the wrong enough to go out and be active in the community. We need mothers and wives who are educated and in touch with the society for them to raise children here.
