At other times they had been thought of as being nothing more than a
mere slave; in other instances, they were considered as the superior sex and the concept of ‘female domination’ of society was brought forth as
the ideal notion! In regards to each of these views, it can be said that all
of these extreme interpretations have had immense repercussions on
one another.
In today’s society, especially in the Western societies, or those who
emulate “The West” and claim to follow democracy, we see the same
sorts of discussions in regards to women.
During election times, politicians realized that they needed to gain the
vote of the women, as men and women tend to vote in similar patterns;
in addition, the capitalist system heavily required that women enter the
workplace - especially considering the fact that most often, women are
paid less than men and are given less opportunities than men to excel in
the work environment. As well, the entire system of marketing and
advertising which makes up a large part of the political and economic
propaganda also requires the use of women [to market and sell their
products].
It is due to all of these reasons that in their speeches, various nations
continuously “defend” women’s rights and do their utmost to elevate
the character of women; however in their practical actions, we don’t see
any attempt in sincerely and honestly working to elevate their honour
and status; thus the women of today have been caught up in many levels
of frustration and disappointment – the same things which they were
also deprived of in the past.
This same thing can also be seen when you wade through the religious
texts in which some groups maintained women’s rights as merely
slogans to promote and defended them due to some act of pretension;
______________________________________________________________
The Wicked Woman - Part 7: “For from garments cometh a moth, and from
women wickedness. Better is the churlishness of a man than a courteous
woman, a woman, I say, which bringeth shame and reproach.” (Eccles. 42:13-14)
they interpreted the religious texts in such a way as to paint a picture
that a majority of the women would relate to and would – albeit in a
dishonest way – show the women as having some predisposition [which
they do not possess].
The sermon narrated above and other similar limited statements which
are contained in Nahjul Balagha have not remained un-touched from
being discussed and commented upon.
Sometimes, the chain of narrators (sanad) has been called into question,
and sometimes the explanation of the text has been discussed such that
the smallest amount of filth of weakness can be attributed to women.
Another one of the plots has been to go to an extreme (in discussing
this sermon) such that some state that women in general are the complete totality of deficiencies and incompetency!
However, in the midst of this discussion, there are two things which we
cannot deny – the first is that this sermon was delivered after The Battle
of Jamal and we know that the person who was at the center of that war
was the wife of the Noble Prophet - Àyesha who had been
encouraged by two companions of the Prophet - namely Talhaa and
Zubayr and in an unprecedented move entered the battlefield, resulting
in the spilling of the blood of many innocent and uninformed
individuals. Some scholars state that the number of people killed in this
one battle exceeded 17,000!
Indeed it is true that after the army of Àyesha , ÓalÎa and Zubayr lost
the war, this wife of the Prophet expressed her remorse (at what she had
done), and that the Commander of the Faithful Ali , simply due to
the respect [which he had for] the Prophet honorably returned her
back to Madina, however the ill-effects which this war left on the
Muslim society will remain forever in the annals of history.
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