The Problems Facing Modern Civilization

Sexual permissiveness has become such an all-pervasive feature of modern life that the forming of sexual relationships before marriage has become a commonplace, the current philosophy being that advance experimentation is a better and safer way of choosing one’s partner for life. Pre-marital encounters between men and women are, therefore, marked by the same openness and lack of inhibition as those which take place within the sanctity of the marriage bond. This runs counter to nature itself. In fact, deviation from tradition has created problems which have become insoluble in the present-day social set­up. The very intractability of these problems has led to a general reappraisal of sexual permissiveness. Even those who were the greatest champions of permissiveness as a way of life are now beginning to turn against it. A survey, carried out in America on more than 1400 college students aged 18-19, reveals that young women are more attracted to male virgins than they were 10 years ago.21 The New York psychologist, Mr. Srully Blotnick, whose company carried out the survey, said: “The male virgin may not make the best lover, but usually he’s eager to learn — and he’s the safest.” The safest, that is, from the risk of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Mr. Blotnick said it was the risk of sexually-related diseases that makes the male virgins so attractive to women. His latest survey showed that 22 percent of college women now want their next lover to be a virgin, compared to just nine percent 10 years ago. This same report was published by the Hindustan Times under the title, ‘Male Virgins in Vogue.”22 At the outset of the women’s liberation movement, virginity as a condition for marriage was ridiculed, more particularly as it was an obstacle to sexual licence. It was depicted as a preposterous concoction of the religious imagination. But experience showed that such a condition was not the result of a misconception, religious or otherwise, but a biological imperative: insistence on virginity is the only way to ensure that a married couple will be free of deadly communicable diseases. Whereas virginity had before been just a matter of a religious commandment, it has now been reinstated as the sole basis for a healthy marital relationship, what an amazing proof has been provided by human experimentation of religious command­ments having a basis in reality. If, even after this, man does not give the divine shari’ah the importance which is due, it will be out of sheer caprice, or willful misinterpretation of the facts rather than a realistic approach. THE PROBLEM OF CHILDREN BORN THROUGH ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION The goal of the feminist movement was to make women equal to men in every respect. But this did not happen in practice. The feminist movement has completely failed in achieving its real objective. An American lady, Ti-Grace Atkinson says: “There is no movement. Movement means going some place, and the movement is not going anywhere. It hasn’t accomplished anything.”23 Due to this experience, feminist extremists in western countries demand a complete withdrawal from dependence on men, including sexual ties. Village Voice columnist Jill