Real freedom of women

Islam declares women as precious jewels and grants them inestimable wealth of virtue, decency, greatness and majesty.  To protect her honor and chastity, Hijab has been ordered and she is ordered to veil herself, so that this precious jewel is not blemished with voyeurism.

 

Alas!  Instead of appreciating and applauding this precious gift of Islam, from some quarters movements are being started against the veil and vile efforts are being made to malign the concept of veil in Islam.

 

Some materialistic people and others who have nefarious aims oppose this.  In the present situation, it has become a very concerning matter.

 

Is this ‘freedom’?

 

Today in the name of equality and independence, women are being led to believe that their stay in the house is akin to being imprisoned in 4 walls with iron chains.  They are persuaded that they should leave this “imprisonment” and walk alongside men and become equal partners in each aspect of life.

 

With these tempting slogans, woman has been removed from the peaceful and chaste atmosphere of the home and they are brought out onto the roads, markets, clubs and parks.  Various exhausting works in the offices and call centers have been assigned to her.  She has been reduced to a means of fun in shops and hotels and an advertisement of various products to the point that the woman on whom Islam had placed the bejeweled crown of greatness and majesty, who had been given the garment of modesty and other great qualities, who had been given the robe of honor of chastity, alas!  This same woman has been reduced to a showpiece and a toy in newspapers, TV, internet and other media.

 

They have been exposed in theaters, parks and clubs and have been made a source of sexual anarchy and a means of fulfilling the base desires of the flesh.

 

It is doubly unfortunate that she has been made to do all this in the name of women’s freedom.

 

When the woman stays in her own house like a queen and takes up the responsibilities of caring for her husband, children, parents, brothers and sisters, then it is labeled as an imprisonment, but when the same woman goes out of the bounds of modesty to cook for other men, clean the rooms of non-Mahram people, serve unknown people in hotels and airplanes, welcomes customers in showrooms and supermarkets, gathers their necessary items, obeys the whims and caprices of the superior officer in offices, then it is called freedom and honor!

 

If somebody sins considering it a sin, then it is only a sin.  However when women are exposed in the name of freedom, then the magnitude of the sin increases greatly.

 

And Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) knows best.

 

Mufti Syed Ziauddin Naqshbandi Qadri,

 

[Associate Professor of Islamic Law, Jamia Nizamia,

Founder/Director, Abul Hasanaat Islamic Research Center]