CONCERNING WOMEN

Male and female brains operate differently at a molecular level, the research team reports in a new study of a brain function involved in learning and memory, responses to stress, etc. For 20 years, Woolley actively avoided studying gender differences in the brain until her own data showed her that differences between females and males were real. “Being a scientist is about changing your mind in the face of new evidence,” Woolley said. “I had to change my mind in the face of this evidence.” “We are not doing women—and specifically women’s health— any favors by pretending that things are the same if they are not,” Woolley said. Currently a lot of research is focusing on these differences. Science has supported the religious concept of men and women being different, as being the right one. Still the allegation continues to be made that Islam has ‘degraded’ woman. The Islamic concept of womanhood considers the two genders as “equal in respect but different in roles”. It is very unfortunate that well-read people have said that religious laws pertaining to women were socially reactionary. Such remarks are made so indiscriminately and so frequently that it is time one considers the possible root causes. One of the root causes is that the results of research on the differences between man and woman have remained only as academic. These findings need to be transformed into a popular intellectual revolution. The social penetration of these ideas will have to take place on a very large scale. This is not far fetched since modern science has provided all the arguments in its favour. It is only a question of engaging wholeheartedly in the dissemination of those findings. Men and Women Equal in Respect, Different in Role The term ‘gender equality’ was used for the first time in Europe in the late nineteenth century. To begin with, it was used only to argue for women’s right to vote. However, it later came to be adopted for general use to describe the equality of both sexes in every respect. Anyone who studies the Islamic concept of womanhood will know that Islam considers the two genders as “equal in respect but different in roles” .