Women's Rights

O, Dear Sister...

From the issues that you hear about a lot in our communities and maybe you are working for is what is known as “Women’s rights”.

With no doubt, the gracious Islamic religion has given all the people their rights, and legislated for them their laws, and specified the good from the bad for all the human kind, males and females, what benefits them and what doesn’t... even if enemies denied this.

So it is natural for Islam to have given the woman all her rights... and there is no need to keep on repeating this phrase that we hear a lot.

But the danger from which you should be warned against is:

Some of the people in our societies and surroundings imitate the west’s culture, style, knowledge and sayings... maybe without them feeling it!

Or they want a stage to speak out from or a title to hold... so they find “women’s rights” as a suitable savior.

1- It is your right to be astonished when you hear them calling out for the women’s right in education!

So tell them: when was education for women forbidden, for us to demand it?

While, when it was forbidden and fought against in the west, it wasn’t only forbidden for women but also for men! So why are we judged for their acts?

And let us suppose it was “forbidden” or there were remarks on it, from the Muslims’ view in their countries, it wasn’t on education itself, but on the method or content... if it trespasses the Islamic borders.

And this was, is still, and will stay always as long as God’s legislations exist...

And who is the “believer” who has the guts to contradict that, God forbid us, whatever the subject was.

2- It is your right sister, to question their demands for your right in employment!

Tell them: when was the right of employment for women prohibited? And who banned her from working?

Doesn’t our history witness that women can work if they wanted, when they wanted... and this is what we see from our past, present and in our villages…

However, if it was meant the methods and types of jobs... Alterations have happened on both men and women and the entire human being... as the concept of “employment” and its evolution and methods changed… What do men and women have to do with that?!

And if others have prohibited women from working, do we get the blame for others mistakes?!

However, if the “prohibition” was, in certain cases, to preserve the women’s dignity, honor, humanity and reputation... This is infact the woman’s right, and this is requires.

Moreover, the distinction in the salary, medical insurance, and other privileges among men and women is truly a western scheme, which does not exist in Islam. So who dignified and honored the woman more Islam or the western “civilization”?

3- It is your right sister, if they demanded your right of investing your money with full power, to smile with astonishment for such a demand!

Because women are free to invest and spend their money, heritage, gifts, salaries, belongings,... and it is no one’s right to forbid her from that, or force her for what he wants, whether a husband or other...

She has her own will to spend, give, donate... and the interdiction on women’s money is just a western custom...

And if a man tried to plunder her from her right in investment, he’s judged as if another woman tried the same, as injustice, regardless male or female.

And what has Islam to do with this? Is there one Islamic casuistry which prohibits women from investing her money and where is it?

4- Dear sister, it is your right to find it strange when you hear them talk about forcing girls to marry a specific man, and that she hasn’t seen him before the wedding night, and that she doesn’t know him… to other stories and riddles.

Is there any jurisprudent that plundered the women their right in choosing their husbands, and to say: Yes or No, and that the legal marriage certificate is done without her consent...?!

If this supposedly did happen in certain tribes and families, know that it is an ignorant tradition... Strange!! How Islam is blamed and judged for it, when as Islam evolved it worked to demolish it.

5- And sometimes they struggle for “women’s rights” because her husband hits her!

Grace the Lord, what does religion have to do with that, and this happens in the “developed and civilized” countries more than in our countries.

Doesn’t America have the largest percentage in hitting wives in the world, and it is the “civilized” country of the new international regime?!

Doesn’t it happen in a larger percentage and in more dangerous and brutal methods... In Germany, Russia and others?!

So, why do they continuously blame the “eastern community”, ‘the eastern woman” and “the eastern man”?!

And perhaps this is an indirect preterition to the religion, history and inheritance of that community... from the crusades and the malevolent.

﴾vehement hatred has already appeared from out of their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater still﴿. The Family of Imran-118

O, Dear Sister...

What is being aroused under the title of “Women’s rights”, as discussed above, shouldn’t make you surrender to it, imitating by following it others, even on the account of your religion.

Infact, these issues and others, are displayed against God’s book and His Prophet’s supplications; what they accepted, we consent to with pride, and what they refuse, we abandon with honor.

And we don’t accept a religion other than God’s religion.

O, Dear Sister...

My honorable sister: if something devious happens in our society, or injustice or corruption, we have to cooperate and work together side-by-side to mend it, prevent it or drive it away.

And this is our duty and obligation, since our dear Islam defended the human, granted him, raised him, exalted him and charged him with duties, without discrimination between the man’s “camp” and the woman’s “camp”.

Injustice on the society is injustice on everyone, and “what women suffer from in our societies isn’t separated from what men suffer from”, as they both suffer equally from extorted or diminished rights, which are the result of the direct or indirect domination of the enemies on our capabilities and our custodians...

So all the “just people”, men and women, are obliged to refute the “unjust people”, men and women.

As God Al-Mighty made the just people enemies with the unjust people and didn’t make women enemies of men.

However, if misconduct or aggression happens, it is out of weak faith and commitment, and its resolution is in the propaganda to Islam and encouraging people to embrace it.

“And Islam did not experience, in its history, a special case concerning women” and it did not follow the disruptive method adapted in the western scheme…

Islam treated the woman as a human, as a responsible and charged creature, and it didn’t differentiate between them and men, in any responsibility or duty, and it didn’t direct her as an independent creature...

Women’s rights in Islam are part of the people’s rights, whether men, women, children, boys or girls.

O, Dear Sister...

Isn’t it time to end the disputes about issues hidden behind the motto of “women’s rights”... End the disputes, not only out of concern on the Muslim woman, God bless and protect her, but also in justice to Islam which receives a great deal of calumny, slander, and injustice... even with indirect measures, for their inability to directly assault Islam.

For so long we have heard that the qualities of the “liberated” woman is not to marry at an early age, not to give birth to many children, she’s the one who her husband cant have control on, who goes out of her house whenever she wants, and she’s the one who is liberated from her husband’s predominance as she isn’t a main in the house!!!

Their motive from such mottos is to confute Islam... in addition to accusations and delusions which Islam is innocent of, as the wolf is innocent of the blood of Jacob’s son.

O, Dear Sister...

There is an issue which perplexes and puzzles me; I haven’t found a solution for until now!

Why don’t the strugglers for the “women’s rights”, if they were honest, defend her at least publicitly, by banning all the hackneyed forms and types of “Beauty pageants and contests”?!

And why don’t they confront the cheap fructification of the woman’s body in the media, and the disgraced photos, the impudent celebrity aggregations, the wide spread corruption, and the increasing insolence and augmenting insults?!

So, if such offences weren’t from the “woman’s rights”, why are they silent?! While actually, some signs indicate that they are supportive, and sometimes participants and planners who hasten towards them!

And the media and assaults are a fair and true witness.

However, if such acts were out of “women’s rights”, just honestly inform us.

And then, for every event, there is a discourse.

Woman’s Employment

O, Dear Sister....

As previously mentioned, it was clearly stated that you can work, and no one can prohibit you, unless God’s gracious legislations does.

But for your benefit, I wish to reflect your attention to the following:

1- Your job shouldn’t affect your respect and composure... Because many of you fall into unwanted troubles, and only some of you are the ones who are able to speak powerfully, due to certain special aspects in them.

2- Your job atmosphere should be equipoised, because the companionship and associations can have very dangerous consequences.... on your hereafter and faith, even if it wasn’t apparent in our clamorous life, in which we live ﴾They know the outward of this world’s life, but of the hereafter they are absolutely heedless﴿. The Romans-7

3- You are much greater than relinquishing what you were brought on from faith, as some did sadly to win a great but transitory offer, whatever the surrounding stresses or offers were.

So how is faith sold? God forbid you, ﴾And they sold him for a small price, a few pieces of silver﴿. Yusuf-20

4- Don’t forget your duties and obligations towards your home, children and husband... because their loss is your loss before all.

And all the jobs that you may have, however “great” they were, someone else can do them.

But your family’s affairs can’t be done by anyone but you, even if you had the assistance of servants and maids... as everything from you and from your own hands revives the sense of compassion and tranquility to your husband and children.

Can anyone other than you accomplish this? It is recommended to refer to "The Suggester of Evil Thoughts" pgs 148-149

5- Any job goes and comes, changes and transforms, improves and worsens.... while the family, children and husband, don’t endure bargains and threats.

6- The western woman’s materialistic view of everything including marriage, divorce, expenses, and household... isn’t your model, since you are first a Muslim, second a Muslim, third and for ever a Muslim.

7- By preserving your husband and children, you preserve Islam and the society, and by neglecting them you harm Islam and the society... even if your salary was huge!

8- There is a widely-spread misunderstanding of the concept of the “working woman”, which is given only to the “productive” woman who works outside her home and takes a salary.

Based on this, the woman who cares for her home and family is “unemployed” because she isn’t money “productive”!

And this reminds us of those who said that “praying” is a “waste of time” and delay of production, and so is fasting... because such issues weaken the national economy!!!

And these people neglected that the family mistress is a productive worker, with no doubt; infact, she works even more than those outside the house.

And it isn’t necessary that “work” be for a salary or a personal materialistic outcome; otherwise, where is the volunteer work, contributions and good deeds, all done to acquire God’s consent?!

9- Motherhood, which is for no one but the mother, and only the mother, is the milestone for building a human and humanity...and a good woman.

* Book: O, Dear Sister. By Sayyed Sami Bin Hassan Khadra.