Muslims: My dad doesn't like me applying for jobs outside of my hometown...?

Religiously speaking, as a Muslim girl do I have to listen to him?

I've tried to keep him happy, I studied what he wanted, I studied where he wanted. But it's at a point where my family is on the path of recommending arranged marriage (which I don't want) and working as a "normal Muslim woman" would, not on bridges or travelling the world by myself (my work is highly male dominated).
I feel I limit my potential and I'm compromising my happiness, but at the same time good Muslims are supposed to respect their families. My family tells me I wouldn't be happy if I just follow my impulsive emotions, and that I should listen to wiser older people instead to make my life easy.

What do I do? This doesn't seem fair.

Religiously speaking, as a Muslim girl do I have to listen to him?

I've tried to keep him happy, I studied what he wanted, I studied where he wanted. But it's at a point where my family is on the path of recommending arranged marriage (which I don't want) and working as a "normal Muslim woman" would, not on bridges or travelling the world by myself (my work is highly male dominated).
I feel I limit my potential and I'm compromising my happiness, but at the same time good Muslims are supposed to respect their families. My family tells me I wouldn't be happy if I just follow my impulsive emotions, and that I should listen to wiser older people instead to make my life easy.

What do I do? This doesn't seem fair.

Religiously speaking, as a Muslim girl do I have to listen to him?

I've tried to keep him happy, I studied what he wanted, I studied where he wanted. But it's at a point where my family is on the path of recommending arranged marriage (which I don't want) and working as a "normal Muslim woman" would, not on bridges or travelling the world by myself (my work is highly male dominated).
I feel I limit my potential and I'm compromising my happiness, but at the same time good Muslims are supposed to respect their families. My family tells me I wouldn't be happy if I just follow my impulsive emotions, and that I should listen to wiser older people instead to make my life easy.

What do I do? This doesn't seem fair.

Since you're saying religiously speaking . . . You obey him no matter what. The only instance you can challenge him on his orders are if what he is saying goes against any islamic rules and in this case, it doesn't. Sure it's harsh but that's the religious aspect. In terms of marriage, you can also reject his choice of marriage partners for you as many times as you like so you don't have to pick someone he wants. You're perfectly within islamic limits to disagree with him there.

Also, there is no halal alternative to marriage for muslims, there is only arranged marriages. We shouldn't get that confused with forced marriages though (these are anti-islamic).

Also, since you wanted religious advice, it's not permissable for you to be working in a mixed environment anyways. The only jobs halal for a woman are jobs which do not involve any mixing of the genders. If there ever was an exception for this, it would be if something had happened to you and you nor your parents or future husband can provide food, a home and clothing for you where it may become okay for you to work in a mixed environment considering you obey all islamic etiquettes in hijaab and in general and that you try and avoid mixing at all costs.

I am SO sure that you may disagree with a lot of these things but this is the religious aspect.

Religiously speaking, as a Muslim girl do I have to listen to him?

I've tried to keep him happy, I studied what he wanted, I studied where he wanted. But it's at a point where my family is on the path of recommending arranged marriage (which I don't want) and working as a "normal Muslim woman" would, not on bridges or travelling the world by myself (my work is highly male dominated).
I feel I limit my potential and I'm compromising my happiness, but at the same time good Muslims are supposed to respect their families. My family tells me I wouldn't be happy if I just follow my impulsive emotions, and that I should listen to wiser older people instead to make my life easy.

What do I do? This doesn't seem fair.

Sometimes it's best to take their advice?

Surely my choice of public friends, my choice and location of studying and all the childhood choices were made by them? How much am I supposed to listen to? Everything? At least I can choose where I work?!?!

May I ask what background this is? Like sunni/shaafi/shia/wahhabi etc? As I've seen societies of religious Muslims who's Imam does give them more freedom so long as the behaviour is correct?

I hope that cleared things up.

The Prophet Muhammed peace and prayers be upon him said that there will be 72 different sects in Islam. And only one of them will go heaven. So this is from a Sunni Muslim perpective. Shia aren't Muslims. And don't anybody reading this go giving me that difference of opinions rubbish and say that all opinions are valid because only one group will be going heaven and it's either Sunni or Shia and all the evidence says that Shia aren't even muslims.

Wahhabis and salafis are the same thing. They're not extremists as some people believe. All it means is that they fight against innovation in religious beliefs and they only deal with the authentic ahadith and the correct interpretation of the Qur'aan. They're part of the sunnis.

Shaafi is one of four accepted schools of thought in sunni Islam that has their own set of views. The differences of opinions of these 4 schools are valid as they all have their own valid evidences. These differences are not in beliefs but over little things like slight variations in the prayer. They all respect each others' opinions as they all provide valid evidence.

For the laymen (the people who aren't scholars), they should follow the teachings of any one school of thought because they do not have the time to study so extensively. Wahhabi/salafis tend not to stick to one school of thought but mix and match between the schools with the strongest sources of authentic information and there's nothing wrong with that either.

I hope that cleared things up.

Since you're saying religiously speaking . . . You obey him no matter what. The only instance you can challenge him on his orders are if what he is saying goes against any islamic rules and in this case, it doesn't. Sure it's harsh but that's the religious aspect. In terms of marriage, you can also reject his choice of marriage partners for you as many times as you like so you don't have to pick someone he wants. You're perfectly within islamic limits to disagree with him there.

Also, there is no halal alternative to marriage for muslims, there is only arranged marriages. We shouldn't get that confused with forced marriages though (these are anti-islamic).

Also, since you wanted religious advice, it's not permissable for you to be working in a mixed environment anyways. The only jobs halal for a woman are jobs which do not involve any mixing of the genders. If there ever was an exception for this, it would be if something had happened to you and you nor your parents or future husband can provide food, a home and clothing for you where it may become okay for you to work in a mixed environment considering you obey all islamic etiquettes in hijaab and in general and that you try and avoid mixing at all costs.

I am SO sure that you may disagree with a lot of these things but this is the religious aspect.

Ok
I think I'll go down the less aggressive and more accepting path of being less religious as your ideology doesn't work for me.
Thanks for the info though

What do you mean it's not permissible for her to be working in a mixed environment...

Men are the sole source of income and it's their job to make the money for the family. Women's role is to bring up the children properly and look after the house and family. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule for example imagine the husband cannot work or is not earning enough to get by and there are NO other sources of income. As an absolutely last resort, the woman may work but it has to be in a segregated enviroment.

Also, Islam does encourage women to become nurses and doctors but so that they can help women who need medical help because women would prefer a female doctor and so forth and they again shouldn't be in a mixed environment. There are also other lines of work which women can get into which are suited for them but anything along the lines of business, retail, and engineering and the like is completely unacceptable for the woman because it would involve a great deal of mixing with the opposite gender. These are fixed rules.

People try to argue a lot against this, muslims and non muslims alike but islamic rules were already set in stone so if they don't like this rule and can't accept God's ruling, they're free to leave the religion. Noone's forced to stay or convert because there's no compulsion in religion.