Epigraph:
“But whoso does good works, whether male or female, and is a believer, such shall enter Heaven, and shall not be wronged even as much as the little hollow in the back of a date-stone.” (Al Qur’an 4:125)
Diversity and Modesty among Muslim women. The Muslim Times’ (TMT) collection on women’s rights
Source: Huffington Post
By Bina Shah; She is a writer of English fiction and a journalist living in Karachi, Pakistan. She is the author of four novels and two collections of short stories
Junaid Jamshed, Pakistani pop singer turned Islamic preacher, landed himself in hot water when he recently made misogynistic remarks on television. Erroneously trying to prove that women do not have an independent status of their own in Islam, he said, “Hazrat Maryam’s (Mary’s) name has been solely mentioned in the Holy Quran and that too because of Hazrat Isa (Jesus). Other than that, no other woman’s name has been quoted in the Holy book. Also, Allah doesn’t like it when a woman’s name is mentioned in the Quran.”
A “Ban Junaid Jamshed” movement sprang into life on social media within hours of the remarks being reported. Angered Pakistani women are urging people to boycott Jamshed’s commercial ventures, which include a butcher shop and a clothing line.
Sadly, many people in the Muslim world share Jamshed’s attitudes to greater or lesser degrees; literalists and the orthodox everywhere use the Quran and Hadiths, or sayings of the Prophet, to justify their misogyny, interpreting allegorical scripture with malicious literalism. They twist and distort the scripture’s meanings, intent and context, until the true meaning of those verses has been obliterated. They disregard the fact that those verses pertaining to men and women were meant to introduce a balance between the sexes in a paganistic Arab society that had no concept of harmony and cooperation between men and women.
Muslim societies have long been the battleground for a conflict between classical patriarchy and the revolutionary spirit of early Islam. The pre-Islamic environment of 7th century Mecca, with its tribalism, lack of law and order and constant warfare, was strongly male-dominated. The advent of Islam challenged the status quo and sought not only to introduce a new kind of social order but to limit the excesses of Meccan society, which directly harmed women and girls — abolishing the custom of burying baby girls at birth is one of the best examples of this spirit. Early Islam sought to elevate women and define them as independent agents possessed of free will, responsible for their own actions and imbued with certain rights over men (just as men are imbued with complementary rights and privileges over women).
Categories: Asia, Muslim World, Pakistan, Women, Women In islam, Women Rights
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