WILAYAH NEWS VOICE OF THE GLOBAL AWAKENING
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Women’s Rights (“O My Sister”)
O my sister… among the matters you often hear about in our society, and perhaps even strive for, is what is called “women’s rights.”
There is no doubt that noble Islam has granted all people their rights, legislated rulings for them, and clarified what is good and what is harmful for all humankind—male and female—what benefits them and what does not… even if enemies deny this.
It is only natural that the religion of Allah, Blessed and Exalted, has given women their rights… and there is no need to repeat this phrase that we hear so often, every single day.
However, the danger that must be pointed out is this:
Some among us imitate the West in its concepts, methods, and slogans—often without even realizing it!
Or they seek a platform to stand on, or a banner to carry… and so they find “women’s rights” to be a convenient cause.
1. It is your right, O my sister, to be surprised when they demand the “right to education” for women!
Say to them: When was she ever prevented from seeking knowledge that we must now demand it?
When knowledge was restricted and fought against in Western lands, it was not only women who were deprived of it, but men as well! And what do we have to do with their actions that we should be held accountable for them?
Even if, hypothetically, there were restrictions or issues in some Muslim lands, these were not about knowledge itself, but about the method, manner, or content—if it crossed the limits of Islamic law.
And this has been, remains, and will remain so long as the law of Allah exists.
What believer would dare oppose that—God forbid—no matter what slogan is used?
2. It is your right, O my sister, to question their demand for the “right to work” for women!
Say to them: When was a woman’s right to work ever prohibited?
Who prevented her from working?
Does not our history testify that women have worked whenever and however they wished? This is evident in our past and our present.
If what is meant concerns methods or types of work, then change has affected men and women alike. The concept of “work,” its development and forms, has changed—what does that have to do with being male or female?
If others have prevented women from working, should we be judged for their wrongdoing?
And if, at times, certain restrictions were meant to preserve a woman’s dignity, honor, humanity, and chastity—then that is precisely part of women’s rights, and is what is required.
As for discrimination in salary, health insurance, or authority between men and women—this is purely a Western approach, with no basis or trace in Islam.
So who has honored women more: Islam, or Western “civilization”?
3. It is your right, O my sister, to smile in astonishment when they demand a woman’s right to manage her own wealth!
A woman is free to dispose of her wealth, property, inheritance, gifts, and salary. No one has the right to prevent her from doing so or to force her into what he wants—whether a husband or anyone else.
She possesses full autonomy in spending, giving, donating, and gifting. Any restriction on a woman’s wealth is a custom foreign to our religion and history.
If a man attempts to deprive a woman of financial independence, his action is injustice and aggression—just as it would be if another woman did the same. It is oppression, regardless of gender.
What does Islam have to do with this? Is there even a single legal ruling that prevents a woman from managing her own wealth? Where is it?
4. It is your right, O my sister, to be astonished when they speak of forcing a girl to marry someone she has never seen except on her wedding night, and whom she does not know—along with other rare stories.
Which jurist in history ever stripped a woman of her right to choose her husband? To say “no” or “yes”? To have a marriage contract concluded without her consent?
If such things occur in some tribes or families, they are ignorant customs—strange indeed that Islam should be blamed for them when it came precisely to abolish them.
5. Sometimes they defend women’s rights because a husband beats his wife!
Glory be to God—what does religion have to do with this? Such things occur in the lands of “civilization and progress” more than among us.
Is not the United States said to have one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the world, though it is the land of “civilization” and the “new world order”?
Does this not occur in greater numbers and with more brutality in Germany, Russia, and elsewhere?
Why, then, is the blame always placed on the “Eastern society,” the “Eastern woman,” and the “Eastern man”?
Perhaps it is an indirect attack on the religion, history, and heritage of this society—by those who harbor hostility.
“Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, but what their breasts conceal is greater.”
(Qur’an, Aal ‘Imran 3:118)