The issue of status of women in society has always been in limelight for one or other reason. In recent years, politically motivated western media has tried to project women in Islam as marginalised and underprivileged. Of late, the Hijab (Veil, the dress code of Muslim Woman)) has come in handy to defame Islam. They depict Hijab as symbol of subjugation of women. To comprehend the ground realities, we must go through the pages of history and also take stock of the modern day society.
Women in ancient Greece were of three types – the prostitutes who were for men’s satisfaction only, the mistresses who looked after the body and health of their lords, and the third group was the wives whose duty was to bear and bring up children and look after them.
In Rome , a married woman and her property passed into the control of her husband. He had full right of passing judgement on her and could even sentence her to death. She was not allowed to take part in any civil or public affairs; she could not be a trustee, a witness or surety. When her husband died her sons or in-laws, especially brothers-in-law, had the legal right over her.
In Slavonic tribes wives were killed after their husbands’ funeral in order to share their fate. This reminds us of the Sati in India where wives were burnt alive together with their dead husbands. In Slavonic society, virginity was considered to be a disqualification as a result a girl had to resort to prostitution. The birth of a baby girl was a disgrace and she was buried alive, a practice quite common in pre-Islamic society in Arab.
In ancient China , when a girl attained maturity, she hid herself in her room to avoid facing others and she died unlamented. The birth of a baby girl is considered a disgrace even today in civilized societies resulting in innumerable foetal killings.
WOMEN IN OLD TESTAMENT
Old Testament verses present women in the most evil image; they are shown as the source of deception, which led to the calamities of mankind. Eve was blamed as the one who persuaded Adam to eat from the forbidden tree with the result that Adam and his progeny were banished from Paradise .
According to the OT, women have been punished for the sin of their mother, Eve, by carrying the burden of pregnancy and the pains of childbirth.
“16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (Genesis 3: 16).
IN CHRISTIANITY
St. Paul , the real founder of the current form of Christianity, regarded women as temptresses. He laid the entire blame for the fall of man and the genesis of sin on women:
‘Woman is a daughter of falsehood, a sentinel of Hell, the enemy of peace; through her Adam lost Paradise .’ (St, John Damascene, p. 79)
‘Woman is the instrument which the Devil uses to gain possession of our souls.’ (St. Cyprian, p, 79)
IN THE QUR’AN
Such blames contradict the Qur’anic concept of the responsibility of people’s actions, regardless of their sex, male or female. As a matter of fact, the Qur’an never blamed Eve alone for eating from the forbidden tree.
“So, he (Satan) misled them (Adam and Eve) with deception…….” (Al A’raaf: 22:23)
The Qur’an emphasises that each person is ultimately responsible for his/her deeds.
“No person earns any (sin) except against himself (only), and no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another”. (Al-Anaam: 164).
Contrary to the Biblical teachings, the Qur’an doesn’t view childbirth and pregnancy as punishment for women but rather as an honourable duty that the mothers should be appreciated for. “And we have enjoined upon man (to be dutiful and good) to his parents. His mother bore him in weakness and hardship, and his weaning is in two years- give thanks to Me and to your parents,- unto Me is the final destination.”(Luqman: 14)
Now let’s have a look on feminist movements (the so-called saviour of women), their achievements and failures.
The feminist movement, also known as the Women’s Movement and Women’s Liberation, campaigns on issues such as reproductive rights (including abortion), domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. The movement is generally said to have begun in the 18th century as people increasingly adopted the perception that women are oppressed in a male-centred society. Regardless of the very tiring efforts by Western women to win and secure their rights, recent statistics and academic research expose only frustrating results of molestation and discrimination against women and children. The aforesaid problems are the result of the unjust competition between men and women in a male dominated work environment. In modern societies, a woman is honoured when she performs the functions of a man while she is also supposed to take care of household affairs. The result is that the role of the two sexes in contemporary societies has become totally confused.
Now let’s examine the present status of women in the so-called modern societies in advanced countries today.
The call of liberation and economic independence led to illicit sex relationship between men and women due to mixed education and employment opportunities. Social functions and courtship before marriage in semi-nude fashion and mixed social functions which include drinking, drug-taking and dancing has become the order of the day. This has included the widespread use of contraceptives, sterilisation, and abortion to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The poison of pornography is spoiling innumerable young minds through internet across the globe. Unlimited personal freedom has resulted in great damage to nations on the whole, and to humanity at large.
According to the National Opinion Research Centre (1995), 25% of American married men and 15% of married women had sex partners, from one to six, beside their spouses during the past twelve months. (Reported in The Macmillan Visual Almanac, 1996, p.104)
In 1990 alone about 67% teenage births were to unmarried mothers; this is excluding abortion. What is more disastrous is that in the majority of teenager births, the mothers are left alone to carry the financial and emotional responsibilities of raising the newly-born babies. Macmillan Visual Almanac (1995) reported that 70% of American boys had had sexual intercourse before the age of 18, while 56% of the girls had lost their virginity by that age. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stated that reported sexual harassment complaints by female employees were 10,578 cases during the year 1992. In 1993, the number increased to be 12,537 cases. (The Macmillan Visual Almanac, 1996 p.37)
The problem is not only restricted to the USA , but rather a global one especially in societies that put no restrictions in men/women relation. According to a recent report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), entitle ‘Combating Sexual Harassment at Work,’ November 1992, thousands of women are victims of sexual harassment at the workplace in the industrialised world every year. Between 15-30 per cent of women questioned in surveys by ILO say they have been subjected to frequent, gross sexual harassment. Of all the women surveyed in the United States , 42% of women reported some kind of sexual harassment. The report included countries like Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom where the Labour Research Department made a survey in 1987 in which 75% of women responding to the questionnaire reported that they had undergone some form of sexual harassment in their workplaces. (The 1994 Information Please Almanac, InfoSoft Int’l, Inc.)
According to the Centre of Health and Gender Equality (CHANGE) for Population Reports, 25% of women in Australia reported sexual abuse in the year 1997. The same percentage was reported in Switzerland during the year 1996. In Costa Rica, 32% of women surveyed reported some form of sexual harassment, while 8% of women studied in Malaysia reported that they had been sexually harassed.
This is a glimpse of the journey women have taken in the so-called modern societies. In the name of exercising freedom and enjoying equality, women have received nothing except humiliation, distrust, disgrace, torture and trouble. They came out in the market, put on shortest possible clothes and mixed freely with men where they encountered ogling eyes, molestation, and rape. Their own near and dear ones are found to be the rapist in most of the cases. The sense of freedom has escalated women’s ego so high that to compromise is considered mean, and very petty matters lead to divorce. Neither the son listens to the parents nor the espouses listen to each other. If the father slaps his son for his wrong, the son calls the police and gets his father warned and arrested. The very fabric of society is ruined and the most important unit of society. Family is overlooked and destroyed. Such is the society where one feels suffocated. This reminds one of W.B.Yeats’ poem The Second Coming:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
The most suffering lots are the ‘women’, and the ‘children’. The woman suffers maximum because she holds the attraction of men as long as she is young and has the charm; the moment she loses it, she is cornered and then begins her real traumatic life. Neither the husband nor the former sex partners hold her in esteem. Even the children seem to overlook her. At last, she is bound to go to Old Age House where she leads her life in extreme frustration. Human being is not a machine but a human who has senses, feelings and emotion. At last, he or she needs a house and someone to look after and care, someone with whom he or she can share moments of love and mutual trust. But Alas! This is missing.
Islam gives respect to women at every stage. It gives them respect as daughter, as daughter-in-law, as wife, as mother and at her old age as grandmother and great grandmother. As she grows older, she gets more respect and breathes her last at home in peace, love and care among her own kith and kin, and not among hired servants.
Let’s have an account of the children in such a society. Children born with drunkard parents seem to exhibit hyperactivity, emotional disorders and many kinds of learning disabilities. Since the day they are born, they are brought up in the guidance of maidservants and are deprived of motherly care, love and guidance; they are exposed to artificial love and care extended by the paid maid. This has a great impact on their personality. Grown up in such a society, they develop a materialistic approach where emotion finds no place and all lead their individual lives.
All these problems originate from the fact that women neglect household affairs and mix freely with men.
The question rises, is this freedom in tune with Christian teaching or women in Western society have simply gone astray?
In a saying recorded only by Matthew among the four canonical gospels Jesus is reported to have said:
You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery”. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matt 5:27-28)
In the third century, Tertullian, in his famous treatise ‘On The Veiling Of Virgins’ wrote, “Young women, you wear your veils out on the streets, so you should wear them in the church, you wear them when you are among strangers, then wear them among your brothers…” From this it seems that wearing a veil out on the streets was a very common practice among young Christian women. Jewish women covered their heads and Jesus does not anywhere condemn the practice, which establishes that he took the practice for granted. The canon law of the Catholic Church today requires women to cover their heads in church. And they are found covering their heads both on the streets and inside the churches.
Bringing women out of the houses and making them wear mini skirts is never an honour granted to them, rather humiliation thrust on them. “In history the ages of disintegration were usually the ages in which women left the home. In fifteenth century Greece, the high point of classical history, women stayed in the home.” Prof Arnold Toynbee (World Review, March 1949).
Separation between men and women, which Islam recommends, is a solution to all social and moral problems discussed above. The hijab or veil guards women against the wild gazes of the opposite sex giving them a sense of protection, security and dignity. In the Qur’an hijab is mentioned only in connection with chastity. Its purpose is simply to stress and promote sexual purity in the society. It also helps men to control the temptations of their lower instincts.
Michael Nazir-Ali, Britain ’s most senior South Asian clergyman has said that British Muslim women should be legally barred from wearing the veil in public. Regardless of any propaganda by the religious leaders or politically motivated Western media, women across the world are found coming to the fold of Islam in record numbers. The Daily Mail, Dec. 2, 1993, p. 39, reported that more than 20,000 Britons were estimated to have accepted Islam as their way of life by that time. On being asked why they accepted Islam, one of them reported that “becoming a Muslim has transformed my life and brought me a lot of peace and contentment. I don’t see what I’d done as going backwards, I see it liberation. ”
Recent sex scandals involving the Whitehouse and subsequent public reaction show that universally-held values of modesty and marital control over sex are fast corroding here. Muslim women with hijab are silently giving the message to the West and to the world at large that these values are indispensable.
[The writer is Lecturer, Community College, King Khalid University ,Abha, KSA]