We are back to square-one again. In last Friday’s NFB, the broken record
of gender equality in Islam is re-run in an article. So, to complete the
picture, tiny fatemolla is re-running the broken record of the other side of
the same coin once again.
How many times it has to be pointed out that whatever is mentioned in
that article is correct, very correct and absolutely correct, but incomplete?
How many times it has to be shown that there is another side of the coin?
How else I will be able to make it clear that, of course there are hundreds
of beautiful, sweet and good words in the Qura’an/Hadis about the
gender-equality? And how many times life has to show us that the reality is
absolutely opposite, according to the same Islam? How many more oceans of
tears of our own sisters will be needed to open our eyes, hah?
Some scholars write about what they see in Book. Some write about
what they see in life. Some look at both. Lots on this other dark side
are posted with lots of solid examples from the Qura’an/Hadis/Sharia showing
the insult and devastation of women’s lives. Injustice of divorce-process is
discussed in “The Silent Genocide”; the inhuman cruelty of “Hila” is
shown in “I Apologise” and “Mister Hila Mia” in NFB. We saw the
good words in the article. Now let us look at the Qura’an./Hadis. There are
2 approaches there towards the issue of women’s rights. One is a set of
advice/instructions the other is laws/rules/legislation. In thousands of
similar articles/books, only those good advice/instructions are highlighted.
If those were followed even partially, the world would be a paradise.
But as men have tremendous interest on the body and property of women, men
continuously violated those advices. In case of conflict of interest,
advice without backing of law has to fail. Try it with a kid and chocolate and
you will know. There is no “Check & Balance” in Islam to apply
those advices. Mention of punishment after death never worked there.
If it did only advice would do, we won’t have/needed legal Islamic
punishment right in this world for theft and adultery so people in general are
forced to refrain from them. But there is absolutely no legal punishment in
Islam for the violators of the equality. You cannot expect all men to be of
high rationality, morality and kindness like yourself. There are bad guys
around. You cannot give a legal authority to anybody and everybody
without checking his/her morality and purpose. But Islam granted it strongly
to all men on all women without ensuring the morality of men. An authority by
law is very strong like the license of a pistol. Would you give it to
everybody without checking? Surely not.
Almost all the rules/laws of Islam are extremely anti-women today. Almost
in every step of life Muslim women are deprived and tortured in the name of
Islamic laws. Life proves it everyday in our own courtyard. If anybody
is interested, we can separately discuss the aspects of marriage, divorce,
inheritance, witness, and sex etc. in every detail to show this clear cruelty,
which does not need a big head to understand. This cruelty is the result of
the desperate efforts of our Maolanas to complicate the simple “Siratul
Mustakeem” for hundreds of years. My main focus is, our Maolanas MUST come
up with visible and clear laws/rules to punish the violators of those good
advices mentioned in the Qura’an/Hadis about gender-equality. But can
they do it? Possibly not. Because there are inherent blockage in
the same Qura’an/Hadis. I cannot believe my own eyes when in Sahi Bokhari
I see so many Hadises so much insulting and torturous to your and my mothers,
daughters and sisters.
Here comes the riddle again. If Islam is so anti-women today, why it
gave so much of dignity and right to women before 1400 years which were
unthinkable at that time? (Not to kill newborn daughters, rights to own
property, to retain father’s name after marriage, to enjoy her income as she
wishes, to deny marriage with any unwanted man, etc.) Islam could easily
have allowed the same torture and insult to continue against women, which was
the norm of that time! I will come up with the answer latter.
Today the reality conclusively proves the painful failure of the
gender-equality of applied Islam. I can not imagine how men and
women can be equal if Sijda was not only for Allah, wives would have been
asked to observe Sijda to their husbands. This Hadis alone must be a
definite eye opener. There are nasty ones too. If a woman offered one of
her breasts to be cooked and the other to be roasted, she still will fall
short of fulfilling her obligations to her husband. Oh, what a husband is,
then? A semi God? Forget it! Look at The Qura’an, the
practical inequality starts from slave girls (Sura Muminoon 5,6 and Ma’arij
29, 30) to Prophet hood (Ana’am 10 and Nah’l 44). For Prophet hood, some
translations used “Mankind” in place of “Men”. Please check
yourself what is in the Arabic text. Of course people are there to
“defend” these with lots of “if”s and “but”s . And that is
the life-force of this inequality. There is strong logic for those who
believe that Man is the supreme of creation, all the rest including women are
created only to serve him. That is why when a mother teaches the Qura’an to
her kids; sometimes we hear the angry protest, “Allah Ka Paak
Kalaam Aworot Se Sikhata Hay ?”.
What is wrong with us? Why we cannot hear the cry of pain of our
own mothers, sisters, and daughters and defend this clear inequality in
practical life? Are sexual lust, property, and power/authority so
important that we have to “save” some words of the Book at the cost of our
dear women? What makes us think that the whole world is fool and this cruel
cunning game will not be caught? Can’t we share all those
marvels of life, sunshine, moonlight, rainfall, dignity and property equally
with our own mothers/sisters/daughters? Does it really increase quality our
lives? No, not at all. In fact it reduces the quality of our
own lives.
There are only 2 choices. Our Maolanas have to make clear laws of
punishment for violating all those good words of gender-quality in Qura’an/Hadis.
Or we face the cruel wheel of time and history; the writings are already on
the wall. Life is not a solo song; it is a rich
chorus with both male and female voices to enjoy the divine pleasure of a much
richer life equally, together.