On Woman!

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, long before the dawn of the earliest human civilizations, when our new species descended from the apes, there had been a division of labor. Man became the hunters and woman stayed behind looking after their children. The only reason for this division of labor was this undeniable nature of woman that she was a mother and the infant depended on her.

What we see today in this dear world of ours is a result of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. Man turned physically stronger. Woman became more mentally mature. Civilizations grew. Cultures flourished. Religion became the cornerstone of proud societies. And today we face the evil side of these outcomes as much as we face the positive sides.

While it is true that men and women are not equal in all aspects and fundamental differences exist, it is also true that times have changed and the present structure of civilization demands equal opportunities for both men and women. It has only been recently realized that the female kind too are human beings with feelings and deserve more respect than man for they bear the seeds of our future generations in addition to being capable of serving humanity on a par with other men. It was not until the end of the Dark Ages of medieval Europe, that the western people started talking about human rights and the liberation of woman. A rapid decline of religious preoccupation was witnessed in people as atheists grew in number during the nineteenth century. In the late twentieth century Europe went so far as to spring into existence something called the Sexual Revolution. In the meantime, the Orient still lingered in darkness and woman continued to be treated as mere instruments of pleasure and were tortured brutally without any sign of mercy or compassion. The condition still prevails in many of the Muslim countries today. The non-Muslim countries are no exceptions either, although they have recently started to reform and move towards modernity.

It has been a male dominated society for quite a long time. Woman became objects for man to own. They were locked indoors like furniture in the house when men left for work. They were used for pleasure and household chores, then tortured at will, beaten black and blue, and sometimes murdered. It was all fair to society because women were possessions of men and the latter could do anything with them as he liked. It was a society where great thinkers like Aristotle believed woman to be an inferior species than man, who could own and use them at his will. And religion was woven in such ways to give pride to woman in being subjected to man, and religion encouraged such atrocities among men because religion was written down by the hands of men for their own profits.

I do not intend to belittle or insult any Prophet who walked on the face of earth for the sake of humanity. Rama the noble king of Ayodhya taught men by example the grace and victory of truth and justice. Moses led the entire nation of the Children of Israel out of slavery and hardship from the Pharaoh of Egypt. Jesus came unto earth as the Prince of Peace teaching men and women the power of love. Muhammad was sent as a mercy to mankind, whose mission statement was to build a nation where a beautiful young woman laden with jewelry will be able to travel alone long distances without any fear. However men have always gone astray after their Prophets left them and returned to their evil ways. They played around with the Scriptures, changed their meanings to suit their needs and invented lies against God to lead men away from truth and justice. Man fabricated religion with his own hands and this has brought down a plague on all of mankind that perhaps haunts even the angels of God. Evil is rampant today. Injustice is proud God-service. Women are raped, murdered and burned in the name of God, and people crowd together and watch the tamasha without even a sign of disgust.

Not long ago, there was the Sati system in India where women were burned alive with their dead husbands. The widows that lived were treated worse than dogs. They were confined in rooms to remain in seclusion, denied good food or even full meals, denied good clothes and other amenities of life, rebuked and tortured as if they were untouchables. It was better to be dead than to live as widows in India. The birth of a girl child was considered to be a curse. These infants were then murdered mercilessly. Many a times they were sacrificed before altars in temples. I would not mention about the practices of mentally sick priests or men who claimed divinity and their nasty rituals with women. Child marriage is still practiced openly in India although it is constitutionally banned.

Koheleth narrates the Ecclesiastes of the Old Testament. Agreed that he speaks great words of wisdom that man should try to learn, but when he speaks of woman, I must say he is being prejudiced against them. For instance he says, “I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare... While I was still searching but not finding, I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.” (Eccl. 7:26-28) In another context he says, “No wickedness comes anywhere near the wickedness of a woman... Sin began with a woman and thanks to her we all must die.” (Eccl. 25:19,24) You can see the grudge that this man bears against woman. Even St. Paul speaks in a severe tone about woman in the New Testament, “A woman should learn in quietness and submission. I cannot permit a woman to teach or have authority over man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.” (I Timothy 2:11-14). In another place, Paul tries to reason that women must veil their head, and to enforce this he goes so much as to command that the woman who does not cover her head must have her head shaved. (I Corinthians 11:6) And in Ecclesiasticus 22:3 we read that the birth of a daughter is a loss. Believe me there are numerous other citations as such that undermine woman and preach against them. Myths are forged to give a divine connotation to the subhuman treatment of woman. More evil goes in the name of God than any other name in this world.

The extremist Muslims are known for their barbaric ways. Women are mostly stoned to death without fair trial in a court of law. A man can marry up to four wives at a time, and have extra concubines too. A man is even permitted to involve into temporary marriages for a few days. For they say they are only following the Sunnah (lifestyle) of the holy Prophet. (What a blasphemy!) So there is nothing wrong in it. However in some places the woman is supposed to guard her eyes even from looking at another man unless he belongs to her household. Otherwise she will be accused of adultery and stoned to death. You can find the clergy with the closed Quran on one hand and an amulet on the other, screaming repeatedly with others “Allaho-Akbar” (God is great) while public prosecutions of these victims take place. Women who are raped keep silent because their plea is almost always turned back on them and they are proven guilty of fornication or adultery.

Hardly any Muslim reads the Quran with understanding. It is only supposed to be recited properly, with or without understanding. The ordinary Muslim depends on the clergy for his religion who in turn relies on the Shariah laws derived from Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) which again in turn is almost fully based on Hadith which is nothing but baseless hearsay about the sayings of Prophet Muhammad collected almost two hundred years after his death. This turning away from the Quran and falling for fabricated Hadiths has caused the decline of the once glorious Muslim community. For instance, Sahih Bukhari (the most famous and revered collection of Hadith) reports the Prophet to have said, “The best man among my followers is one who has the greatest number of wives.” (Bukhari, Book of Nikah, Vol 3) On the other hand, the Quran teaches that the best of man is he who is best in conduct. (Ch. 49, V. 13) In another place, the Prophet is reported to have rebuked women as being deficient in intellect as well as religion, for which he saw them entering Hell in large numbers. (Bukhari, Book of Menstruation, Vol 1) On the other hand, the Quran teaches gender equity and good will towards women as in Ch. 4, V. 34:

“Men are the protectors and supporters of women. They shall take full care of women with what they spend of their wealth. God has made men to excel in some areas and women to excel in some areas. Righteous women are obedient to God's Ordinances and guard the moral values even in privacy, the values that God has commanded to be guarded.”

And the Quran also says this in Ch. 4, V. 1:

“O mankind! You have a common origin. There was one entity of life that divided into two, male and female. Eventually, numerous men and women came into existence on earth. Be careful of your duty to God in Whose Name you expect rights from one another, and reverence the wombs that bore you. God ever watches you!”

The Shariah laws must be banned in every country. The State government must take total control over all jurisprudence. The community of women must be educated and made to stand on their feet in society. No one can help people if they do not learn to help themselves. Woman! Raise your damn voice and claim what is rightfully yours. To keep silent during injustice is again injustice.

Much is left unsaid if I have to end here. This discussion can go on for several pages. But I must end here.