| |
Whenever the topic of Islam is brought up
among Westerners, it has been my experience that the first
objection that immediately springs into their minds is:
"But women are so extremely oppressed in Islam." And,
"But women are second class citizens in Islam." For
example, they see that Muslim women usually observe modest
standards in their clothing and they automatically equate their
modesty with oppression. They appear to feel that freedom is in
some way directly proportional to how little clothing one wears,
and that oppression is directly proportional to the degree of
modesty one exhibits in their clothing. Although this topic does
not directly relate to the main topic of this book, still it
seems inevitable to touch on this subject even if only very
briefly due to it's importance.
The problem is twofold: First of all, those
people who make such objections usually only have a very
superficial knowledge of what the true teachings of Islam, and
secondly, they do not realize what The Bible requires of all
believing women.
Many non-Muslims feel sorry for any Muslim
women they see adorned in their modest clothing. They feel that
they are deprived the freedom to roam around in more scant and
revealing clothing. Anyone who lives in a manner other that
which they have become accustomed to is seen by them to be
oppressed and forced to live in this manner. There are certain
tribes in the Amazon jungle, in Australia, and in Africa which
have become accustomed to walking around in a simple g-string
around their waist. What would the people of the West say if
these people were to condemn the Western habit of
"forcing" their women to wear "excessive amounts
of clothing" and to demand that all women in the west
immediately stop wearing anything but the simplest g-string
around their waist? What if they were to say that the Western
society should immediately stop unjustly persecuting their women
and preventing them from freely roaming the streets wearing only
a pair of socks? They would say that the people making these
demands have no morals or shame. Philosophers would have a field
day with such a question.
What if someone were to claim that it was
immoral, discriminatory, and unjust to separate men and women in
different public bathrooms just as it is not just to do so with
blacks and whites. What if this person were to then call (in the
interest of equality, fairness, and constitutional freedom of
course) for a merging of men and women's bathrooms into one
"unisex" or "equal-opportunity" bathrooms
for both men and women? Once again, the philosophers would have
a field day. Anyone who follows the news will see that this may
indeed be where the USA is now headed. In the New York Post
(31 Aug. 1994 or a little before) it was reported that women
have now won the right to appear topless in the New York subway
system. Where will the USA be a few years from now? That is
anyone's guess.
Who has the power to determine what is decent
and modest clothing? Who is to determine what is decent and
modest behavior? Muslims assign this right to God alone. This is
the essence of "Islam." "Islam" means
"The submission to the will of God." What God
commands, a Muslim does. They do not demand that God justify his
commands before they accept them. Once they have verified that a
command is indeed from God then they abide by it without
hesitation.
We can indeed find this lesson in the story of
Adam. In the Islamic version of the story of Adam (slightly
different than that of Judaism/Christianity), Adam and Eve
were created by God, educated, clothed, and then allowed to
inhabit heaven. They were told by God that they could have
anything their hearts desired except they must not eat from the
tree. Out of envy, the devil encouraged them to eat from the
tree and told them that it's fruit would make them angles or
immortal. They ate from the tree and immediately, their bodies
were revealed to one another, so they took to scooping up the
leaves off the trees in order to cover themselves. This is when
Allah sent them down to earth. What mankind learned from this
lesson is that just because a person does not know the wisdom
behind a command of God, and others tell him to disobey it, then
if they do not abide by it, by the time the reason for the
command is made apparent to them it may be too late.
Fig. 15 Example of dress worn by a
Christian nun.
Compare it with how Muslim women dress
today
Well then, what is the Biblical view on these matters?
Actually, even in this day and age there still remains traces in
Christianity of the common ancestry with Islam with regard to
the accepted norms of modest dress for Christian women as
ordained by her Creator. In the above figure we have an example
of the sort of dress codes observed by Christian nuns. We are
strangely amazed to find that it is almost the striking
similarity it bears to the sort of outfit which most Muslim
women wear. Why is that? Well, although there are quite a number
of very pronounced differences between Biblical and Qur'anic
laws in this regard, let us start with the Biblical view:
What the New Testament has to say
"Let
the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority
over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in
the transgression." [1 Timothy 2:11-14]
"As
in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain
silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must
be in submission, as the Law says. Let your women keep
silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to
speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also
saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask
their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in
the church." [1 Corinthians 14:33-34]
"But
every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were
shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn:
but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her
be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head,
forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is
the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman: but the
woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but
the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have
power on her head because of the angels." [1 Corinthians
11:5-10]
"Judge
in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God (with her
head) uncovered?" [1 Corinthians
11:13]
What the Old Testament has to say
"And
the man (Adam) said, The woman (Eve) whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I
did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that
thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and
I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou
hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above
every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust
shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto
the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy
conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy
desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee." [Genesis 3:12-16]
"Speak
unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived
seed, and born a MALE child: then
she shall be unclean SEVEN DAYS; according
to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be
unclean. And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall
be circumcised. And she shall then continue in the blood of her
purifying THIRTY THREE days; she
shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary,
until the days of her purifying be fulfilled. But if she bear a FEMALE
child, then she shall be unclean TWO WEEKS,
as in her separation: and she shall continue in the blood of her
purifying SIXTY SIX days." [Leviticus 12:2-5]
"And
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".
[Ecclesiastics 7:26-28]
"And
if a woman have an issue (her period/menses), [and] her issue in
her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and
whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. And
every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be
unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be
unclean. And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes,
and bathe [himself] in water, and be unclean until the even. And
whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his
clothes, and bathe [himself] in water, and be unclean until the
even. And if it [be] on [her] bed, or on any thing whereon she
sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the
even. And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be
upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed
whereon he lieth shall be unclean. And if a woman have an issue
of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if
it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the
issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation:
she [shall be] unclean. Every bed whereon she lieth all the days
of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and
whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness
of her separation. And whosoever toucheth those things shall be
unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe [himself] in
water, and be unclean until the even. But if she be cleansed of
her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and
after that she shall be clean. And on the eighth day she shall
take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them
unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation. And the priest shall offer the one [for] a sin
offering, and the other [for] a burnt offering; and the priest
shall make an atonement for her before the LORD for the issue of
her uncleanness." [Leviticus 15:19-30]
In other words, the Bible teaches us that:
- Women should learn in silence and subjugation.
- Women should not teach.
- Women should not have authority over men but should remain
silent.
- Adam
and Eve
were not equal in sin. Adam was not deceived but Eve was.
- Women are commanded to be under obedience to men. God
ordained that men shall for all time rule over women
- Women must keep silent in Churches. It is shameful for
them to open their mouths therein. If they have a question
they should ask their husbands before going to church and
then their husbands will ask for them in the church.
- A woman should neither pray nor profess with her head
uncovered.
- If a woman prays with her head uncovered
then she might as well shave her head.
- Man was created in the image and glory of God, and Woman
was created in the glory of Man, thus Man must have power
over her.
- Any woman who delivers a male baby shall be unclean for
one week. But any woman who delivers a female baby shall be
unclean for TWO weeks. Thus, females make their mothers
DOUBLY unclean as compared to males.
- While it is possible to find one upright man in every
thousand, it is impossible to find even one single upright
woman in every thousand
- Woman is a snare, her heart is a trap, and her hands are
chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but she
will ensnare the sinner.
- If a woman had her period and touches a chair or a bed or
anything else then that item immediately becomes unclean.
Anyone who then touches those things shall also become
unclean. They must then bathe themselves and wash their
clothes because they have touched an item that a menstruous
woman has touched.
What the canonized saints of Christianity said about women:
"Woman is a daughter of
falsehood, a sentinel of Hell, the enemy of peace; through her
Adam
lost paradise" (St. John Demascene)
"Woman is the instrument
which the devil uses to gain possession of our souls" (St.
Cyprian)
"Woman is the fountain of
the arm of the devil, her voice is the hissing of the
serpent" (St. Anthony)
"Woman has the poison of
an asp, the malice of a dragon" (St. Gregory)
St. Tertullian, while he was talking to his 'best beloved sisters' in the
faith, he said, "Do you not
know that you are each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age:
the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the Devil's
gateway: You are the unsealer of the forbidden tree: You are the
first deserter of the divine law: You are she who persuaded him
whom the devil wasn't valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so
easily God's image, man." Once again, St. Augustine
wrote to a friend, "What is
the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother, it is still
Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any woman."
Centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas still considered women as
defective, "As regards the
individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the
active force in the male seed tends to the production of a
perfect
likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman
comes from a defect in the active force or from some material
indisposition, or even from some external influence."(all these quotations can be found in Karen Armstrong's book, The
Gospel According to Woman, London: Elm Tree Books, 1986, pp.
52-62. See also Nancy van Vuuren, The Subversion of Women as
Practiced by Churches, Witch-Hunters, and Other Sexists
Philadelphia: Westminster Press pp.28-30.)
Orthodox Jewish men in their daily morning prayer recite
"Blessed
be God King of the universe
that Thou has not made me a woman." The women, on
the other hand, thank God every morning for "making
me according to Thy will" (Thena Kendath,
"Memories of an Orthodox youth" in Susannah Heschel,
ed. On being a Jewish Feminist, New York: Schocken Books, 1983,
pp. 96-97)
According to the Jewish Talmud, "women are exempt from the
study of the Torah." In the first century C.E.,
Rabbi Eliezer said: "If any
man teaches his daughter Torah it is as though he taught her
lechery" (Leonard J. Swidler, Women in Judaism: the
Status of Women in Formative Judaism, Metuchen, N.J: Scarecrow
Press, 1976, pp. 83-93)
According to Rabbi Dr. Menachem M. Brayer (Professor of
Biblical Literature at Yeshiva University) in his book 'The
Jewish woman in Rabbinic literature', it was the custom of
Jewish women to go out in public with a head covering which,
sometimes, even covered the whole face leaving one eye free
(Psychosocial Perspective, Hoboken, N.J: Ktav Publishing House,
1986, p. 239). He quotes some famous ancient Rabbis saying, "It
is not like the daughters of Israel to walk out with heads
uncovered" and "Cursed
be the man who lets the hair of his wife be seen....a woman who
exposes her hair for self-adornment brings poverty."
Rabbinic law forbids the recitation of blessings or prayers in
the presence of a bareheaded married woman since uncovering the
woman's hair is considered "nudity" (Ibid., pp.
316-317. Also see Swidler, op. cit., pp. 121-123). Dr. Brayer
also mentions that "During
the Tannaitic period the Jewish woman's failure to cover her
head was considered an affront to her modesty. When her head was
uncovered she might be fined four hundred zuzim for this
offense." Dr. Brayer also explains that veil of the
Jewish woman wasn't always considered a sign of modesty.
Sometimes, the veil symbolized a state of distinction and luxury
rather than modesty. The veil personified the dignity and
superiority of noble women. It, also, represented a woman's
inaccessibility as a sanctified possession of her husband (24.
Ibid., p. 139). It is clear in the Old Testament that uncovering
a woman's head was a great disgrace and that's why the priest
had to uncover the suspected adulteress in her trial by ordeal
(Numbers 5:16-18).
St. Tertullian
in his famous treatise 'On The Veiling Of Virgins' wrote, "Young
women, you wear your veils out on the streets, so you should
wear them in the church, you wear them when you are among
strangers, then wear them among your brothers..."
Among the Canon laws of the Catholic church today, there is a
law that require women to cover their heads in church (Clara M.
Henning, " Cannon Law and the Battle of the Sexes" in
Rosemary R. Ruether, ed., Religion and Sexism: Images of Woman
in the Jewish and Christian Traditions, New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1974, p. 272.).
Some Christian denominations, such as the Amish and the
Mennonites for example, keep their women veiled to the present
day. The reason for the veil, as offered by their Church
leaders, is "The head
covering is a symbol of woman's subjection to the man and to
God" : The same logic introduced by St. Paul in the
New Testament (Donald B. Kraybill, The riddle of the Amish
Culture, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989, p.
56.)
Russian Orthodox women are expected to wear a head covering
when in the church. Most don't outside of it in America, but
many in Russia and many other eastern Orthodox women all over
eastern Europe, Greece, and the middle east do wear scarves on
their heads all the time when in public.
These are only a small sampling. For many more similar
quotations please obtain a copy of the 70 page book "Women
in Islam Versus Women in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition: The
Myth & The Reality," By Dr. Sherif Abdel Azeem, World
Assembly of Muslim Youth.
Continuing, according to the Old Testament, a childless widow
must marry her husband's brother, even if he is already married
and regardless of her consent, so that she might bear a child
from him (Genesis 38).
Further, according to the Bible:
"If
a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married
and rapes her
and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty
shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated
her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives" [Deuteronomy 22:28-30]
One must ask a simple question here, who is really punished,
the man who raped the woman or the woman who was raped? What is
to prevent someone from finding the best looking woman in town,
raping her, telling everyone about it, and then having the
courts force her to be his wife for the rest of her life?
According to Numbers 27:1-11, widows
and sisters don't inherit at all. Daughters can inherit only if
their deceased father had no sons.
According
to the Encylcopaedia Britanica, "Christianity
did not bring a revolutionary social change to the position of
women". Indeed, "in
the world of the early church, women were held in very low
esteem, and this was the basis for divorce practices that put
women practically at men's complete disposal".
See also the article titled "Women
in Islam".
|
Source:
Taken from "What
did Jesus really say", by Misha'al ibn Abdullah
(http://wings.buffalo.edu/sa/muslim/library/jesus-say/ch15.html)
e-mail: prince_zedz@hotmail.com
© 2001 (Zed).
All rights reserved.
|
|
Contents
Home
Common
links
Is
the Bible God's Word?
Divinity
of Jesus Christ
Divine
Sonship of Jesus Christ
The
Trinity
Crucifixion
Or Cruci-Fiction
Muhammad
(pbuh) in the Bible
Atonement
and original sin
Paul
and his teachings
Al-Qur'an
- A miracle of miracles
Proof
of Prophethood
Miracles
of Muhammad (pbuh)
Mercy
for all creation
Jesus
(pbuh) in the Qur'an
View
and read about miracles in nature
Women
in Islam
Other
articles
Links
Islam
and Christianity Forum
|
|
