3. WOMANHOOD IN ISLAM

3. Womanhood in Islam ~ 45 ~ to drive the animal on faster, forgetting that this would cause undue discomfort to his passengers. So the Prophet said to the camel driver: “You have glass cases there. Be gentle with them.”39 39. Al-Bukhari, Sahih, Kitab al-Adab, (Fath al-Bari, 10/454). MODERN RESEARCH In recent times, it has been accepted as fact, on a purely academic level, that fundamental, inborn differences do exist between men and women. A detailed article on the status of women in the Encyclopaedia Britannica includes a section on “Scientific Studies of Male-Female Differences.” Here the author points out physical differences in the respective constitutions of the male and female of the human species. “With respect to personality traits,” he writes, “men are characterized by greater aggressiveness, dominance and achievement motivation, women by greater dependency, a stronger social orientation, and the tendency to be more easily discouraged by failure than men.”40 40. Encyclopaedia Britannica (1984), 19/907.