WOMANHOOD IN ISLAM

WOMANHOOD IN ISLAM Totally Misunderstood A N anthology of the Quran prepared by English orientalist Edward William Lane (1801-1876) was published in 1843. It carried a foreword by way of introduction to Islamic teaching, which inter alia, stated that “the fatal point in Islam is the degradation of woman.” This ill-considered observation gained such currency that it was commonly repeated as if it were an established fact. Almost a century and a half has elapsed, but this conviction has only deepened. It has even been quoted as if it were gospel truth by a prominent person in one of the court cases. To interpret the Islamic concept of woman as “degradation”, is to distort the actual issue. Islam has never asserted that woman is inferior to man: it has only made the point that woman is differently constituted. Suppose a doctor tells his patient that his eye is a very delicate organ of the body, to be treated gently and with great care, unlike his fingernails, which can be cut and filed if necessary. The doctor’s instruction does not mean that he is degrading the eye vis a vis the nail. He is only pointing out the difference between the nail and the eye. If all laws in Islam are based on this fundamental reality that men and women are of two different genders, it is because their distinctive differences are established biological facts. This being so, male and female spheres of activity cannot be one and the same, whether in family or in social life. There must necessarily be differences in the kind of work that they do, and also in their places of work. All scriptures have held the same concept of woman without its ever having been doubted. In modern times it has been challenged by the women’s liberation movement, which holds that men and women are alike in every respect and that both should, therefore, be given equal opportunities. This movement first reared its head in Britain in the 18th century, later spread across Europe and America. In 1772, the momentum increased with the publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Women, written by Mary Wollstonecraft. The author asserts that women should receive the Islam has never asserted that woman is inferior to man: it has only made the point that woman is differently constituted.