Political Rights of a Woman

According to Surah Tawba, Ch.9, Verse No.71, ‘The men and the women they are friends (supporters) of each other’.

Supporters not only Socially - even Politically – Politically, men and women should support each other.

Women can even take part in law making.

And according to the famous Hadith in which Hazrat Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), he was discussing with the Sahabas, and considering putting an upper limit on the ‘Meher ’, since young men were discouraged from getting married - a lady from the back seat she objected and said When the Qur’an says in Surah Nisa Ch.4, Verse No.20 that… ‘you can even give a heap of treasure, a heap of gold in ‘Meher’, when Qur’an puts no limit on ‘Meher’, who is Umar to put a limit (may Allah be pleased with him).

And immediately Hazrat Umar (peace be upon him) said… ‘Umar is wrong and the lady is right’.

Imagine, she was a common lady - If it would have been a famous lady, the name of the lady would be mentioned in the Hadith.

Since the Hadith does not mention the name of the lady, we can understand that the lady was a common lady.

Means, even a common lady can object to the ‘Khalifa’, the head of the state.

And in technical terms it would be called that – ‘she is objecting to the breach of the constitution’,- because Qur’an is the constitution of the Muslims - That means a woman can even take part in law making.

Women have even taken part in the battle fields

There is a full chapter in the Sahih Bukhari mentioning women in the battle field - Women gave water - they give first aid to the soldiers.

Because the Qur’an says ‘Man is the protector of the ‘Woman’.

Under normal circumstances, the women should not go to the battle field. It is the duty of the man.

Only when required, under necessity are women allowed - and they should go to the battle field if they want.

Otherwise you’ll have the same position as you are having in the USA.

Women in USA are Not Safe

In USA women were allowed to join the battle since 1901 but they were not allowed to take active part - They only played the part of a nurse.

Later on after the ‘Feminist Movement’ had started in 1973, the ‘Feminist movement’ demand­ed – ‘Why aren’t women allowed to take active part in the battle field?’

So the American government allowed women to take active part in the battle field.

And according to a report of the Defense Department of America, which was released on the 23rd of April, 1993 it said that, ‘90 people were sexually assaulted in a convention, out of which 83 were women and 117 officers were charged with in disciplinary action’. Imagine in one convention only, 83 women sexually assaulted.

What was the crime of those 117 officers?

They made the women run and they snatched at their clothes. They made them parade absolutely nude without even covering the genital parts. They were made to have sex in public.

Is this what you call ‘Women’s rights’?

If you think that this is what is ‘Women’s right’, then you can keep your rights to yourselves. We do not want our sisters, our daughters our mothers to be sexually assaulted.

And there was a uproar in the parliament and the President, Bill Clinton - he himself had to apologize publicly and he said, ‘Necessary action will be taken’.

And you know when politicians say ‘necessary action will be taken, what happens.

So Islam allows women to take part in the battle field only when required.

But there also they should maintain their Islamic dress and the Islamic ethics, and their modesty.

USA Has One of the Highest Rates of Rape

United States of America is supposed to be one of the most advanced countries of the world. It also has one of the highest rates of rape in any country in the world. According to a FBI report, in the year 1990, every day on an average 1756 cases of rape were committed in U.S.A alone. Later another report said that on an average everyday 1900 cases of rapes are committed in USA. The year was not mentioned. May be it was 1992 or 1993. May be the Americans got ‘bolder’ in the following years.

Islamic Law Let's Women Breathe Easily

Consider a scenario where the Islamic law is implemented in America. Whenever a man looks at a woman and any brazen or unashamed thought comes to his mind, he lowers his gaze. Every woman wears the Islamic dress as mentioned in Quran. After this if any man commits rape he is given capital punishment. I ask you, in such a scenario, will the rate of rape in America increase, will it remain the same, or will it decrease?

If Islamic law is implemented in any part of the world, women will breathe easier.

Conclusion

Before I conclude, I’d like to give an example.

As I said in the beginning of my talk, Islam believes in equality between men and women - Equality does not mean identicality.

Suppose in a classroom 2 students, student ‘A’ and ‘B’, during an examination both come out first - Both secure 80% marks - 80 out of 100.

When you analyze the question paper, the question paper has 10 differ­ent questions, each carrying 10 marks.

In question 1 student ‘A’ got 9 out of 10, and student ‘B’ got 7 out of 10 - So in question 1 student ‘A’ was higher than student ‘B’.

In question 2, student ‘A’ got 7 out of 10 and student ‘B’ got 9 out of 10 - Student ‘B’ was higher than student ‘A’ in question number 2.

In question 3 both of them got 8 out of 10, both were equal.

So when we add up the marks of all the ten questions, both student ‘A’ and ‘B’ got 80 out of 100.

So in short, student ‘A’ and student ‘B’ are over all equal.

In some questions ‘A’ is higher than ‘B’, in some questions ‘B’ is higher than ‘A’, in others both are equal.

In the same fashion, taking the example that since God has given man more strength - Suppose a thief enters the house will you tell, ‘I believe in women’s rights - I believe in women’s rights’ - will you tell your mother, your sister and your daughter, to go and fight the thief?’

No, but natural you’ll fight him - If required they may interfere - Under normal circumstances since God has given you more physical strength, you have to go and tackle the thief.

So here, in physical strength, man is one degree higher than the woman

Let us take another example where it comes to respecting the parents - The children are supposed to respect the mother 3 times more than the father (as mentioned earlier).

Here the women have one degree higher than the men - Over all both equal

So Islam believes in equality, not identically - Men and women are over all equal in Islam.

This was in brief, the highlights, of ‘the Women’s Rights in Islam’.

After this what the Muslim society did is different - Many of the Muslim societies did not give the women their rights and they deviated away from the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

The Western society is largely responsible for this - because of the Western societies, many Muslim societies have become over protective, over precautions and have gone to one extreme and deviated away from the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

On the other extreme, some of the Muslim societies turned to the Western culture, and followed their culture.

I want to tell the Western society that if you analyze the women’s rights in Islam according to the Qur’an and the Sunnah - you will realize it is modernizing and not outdated.