One wonders what terms like woman emancipation and feminism have a relevance in an Islamic State? Islam is a religion which gives prime importance to justice. It preaches compassion, tolerance and sympathy for all, irrespective of gender, caste or creed. When the world was ruled by barbarism, Islam uplifted humanity from the abyss of savagery.
In pre-Islamic Arabia women could be inherited by relatives of their husband when the latter died, whether they liked to marry them or not. Islam stopped that practice and other similar ones which reduced the status of women in society to that of animals, or inanimate objects which could be inherited. Girls were buried alive because they were considered a burden for the family as well as for the society. Islam gave woman the right to live not merely to exist!
Islam tells us that a woman deserves respect just as a man does. She deserves all the respect for just doing what she as a woman can do her best. That is why as a mother she may have to be respected by her son three times more than he respects his father, but as a wife, she has to obey her husband within certain limits. A mother doing her duty properly may be no less in the eyes of God than the head of a State doing his part well.
A women’s role as a daughter, a sister, a wife is no less important than man’s. It is obvious that men are inherently better than women in some spheres of life, just as women are better than them in several other spheres. A woman’s role as a mother is one for which she is most suitable by her nature.
Unfortunately, modern society is haunted by an unfounded disdain for this role that women are not just machines to produce babies we often hear nice, young ladies crying out. In the world of high fashion, where smiles are affected and love is pompous, genuine respect for life is becoming dangerously remote.
A man who saves one life in his lifetime does almost enough to justify his own, in his world. Giving birth to life and nursing it is sublime. A woman does it, she gives birth. She becomes the instrument of God’s benevolence as the Creator. Her existence would truly be noble even if her role were confined to just that a woman’s contribution in multiple roles is simply undisputable. In her company, man finds an escape from all the harshness of life. In her dependence, he finds a reason to live and hope. In her purity, he sees his honour, in her love and loyalty he revives his strength.
Family is the basic unit of any society. Woman has not been forbidden from helping her family financially, just as the husband has not been forbidden from helping his wife in her duties after having fulfilled his responsibilities. Providing for the family is the husband’s duty, not wife’s except in unusually circumstances.
