Women's status in Islam

Women's status in Islam

Sir,-Addressing the Bar Council of India convention recently on the Uniform Civil Code, former Supreme Court Chief Justice Y.V. Chandrachud reportedly confessed to having "gone out of his way" to invoke Article 44 in the judgement in the Shah Bano case to remind the Government of its constitutional allegations to implement a uniform civil code in the country. But he has yet to offer one more apology. It concerns the remark he made in his judgement on the status of women in Islam-a remark in which he has likewise "gone out of his way" considering that it indispu- tably casts aspersions on Islam itself. He alleged that women had "traditionally" been subjected to unjust treatment and that the "fatal point in Islam is the degradation of women". To support this he quoted Manu's dictum that woman did not "deserve independence" along with an observation allegedly made by the Prophet of Islam that "woman was made from a crooked rib and if you try to bend it straight it will break, therefore, treat your wives kindly". While Manu's dictum bears out his statement, I must point out that he has badly misquoted the Prophet. Nowhere in the Hadith (Prophet's sayings) is it stated that woman was made from a crooked rib, this being an ancient biblical version of God's creation of human life. The word 'rib' was used by the Prophet in a purely metaphorical sense and his actual words were: "Woman is like a rib, if you try to straighten her out, it will break, so treat her kindly." Presumably the Prophet, with his understanding of human nature, had a fine intuitive grasp of the fundamental biological and psychological differences between men and women, particu- larly the latters' fragility and passivity-and, for this reason, found it necessary to admonish lesser men to treat their wives kindly. I fail to see how "the degradation of women" can ensue from such an injunction - Yours etc.' WAHIDUDDIN KHAN President, The Islamic Centre, C-29, Nizamuddin West, New Delhi-110013. Hindustan Times, 27 October 1986