Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Women - where do they stand today


Written by Heena Kausher Ansari • August 09, 2008

As a 6th grader in school I was taught in history class about one among various superstitious practices followed in India. A lot among them turning to social evils and targeting the weakest, the one such, which I remember was Satipratha. I was told it was practiced under Hinduism. As a kid just learning differences between religions I went back home and was proud to confirm from that such practice was never ever followed in Islam.

Little I knew then that its not the religion, not the time (Sathipratha was followed long back) not the man made boundaries on land, but the mind set, the thinking, the understanding of a man dominated society and its product man to rule over the fairer sex. For if it was supposed to be a reason among any of the former arguments then the case of Zarina and alike cases must have not occurred.

To people not so keen with news, it’s a case about a Pakistani 18year old married girl who suffered acid attack by her neighbor. An attack which did not stop from melting her eyelids, lips, face, shoulder, chest, but melted her beauty, her life, her hopes and questioned her existence as a free human.

Woman, the fairer sex, before the name changed was referred as the weaker sex who is also commonly used as synonym.

Why is it so, why has it always been a male dominated society. Many ‘whys’ are not answered and so we turn towards God and its religion for replies.



So talking about Zarina’s case, was that Islam taught us or is teaching anywhere? No. Going back in time, it was only due to Prophet Mohammed S.A.W that the heinous crime of killing girl child was aborted in Arab, after people accepted Islam as a way of life.

Islam is and has always been a religion which respects the status of women and encourages good treatment towards them. In fact, the heaven for which every human desire for has been told to lie at under a mother’s feet, one of woman’s various roles.

Then what is that the world doesn’t treat her so, if not equal and more important why is it so that the world thinks and blames Islam for designating woman a lower status than man.

It’s the “ignorance’. Ignorance against the laws of humanity, the philosophy of ‘live and let live’ and on top of all the understanding of Islam and its teaching.

One remarkable fact to note is that all such cases arise mostly and majorly among poor and uneducated class of people. People who are mostly at a loss to know what the religion or in fact the whole of humanity teaches them and expects them to act so.

Poor girls like Zarina are hardly imparted any education, written or oral so withdrawing every possibility of making a future by earning money. The only future they have is under a man, his name as his daughter, wife or mother and the only education they receive are the guidelines from their grandmothers, mothers, aunts and sisters to keep quiet and to accept any and all of such barbaric treatments.



They are kept away from the so called ‘modern education’ so as not to make rebels out of these innocent hearts. A girl finally turns to a pitiable soul, who having no education, no money, a family (mainly children) to feed and a heart filled with motherhood can’t leave her husband.

It’s again not their fault, with a viewpoint as theirs. It seems all tolerable to accept these hateful treatments. They are in need to be educated about the legal rights prevalent in the country and the rights which the religion bestows them with.

It’s a pity in today’s contemporary world that women have to fight for what they already deserve. Men, then also, are not ready to compromise. We read, hear and witness this brutally malicious act being repeated over and over again, only reflecting the value of women in society.

There can be many solutions for this problem. As for ignorance, solution is knowledge, for this it has to be widespread education- an education which will impart economic independence among women through employment. Other steps can be tougher laws and more importantly their strict implementation. The police investigation and the court trials should be impartial and as fast as they can be. The penalty should be no less than death for those found guilty.

Government, Muslim leaders and Ulemas should not only go on making laws or delivering speeches but instead, I hope, they be a bit practical in their sayings. Then may be, if Allah desires and all goes well, in some time we might be able to give back women their real place in society.



P.S.: This was written by me some 10 months ago...sadly women's position haven't changed much...so reposting it...as per the grammitical mistakes..ignore them..it was written in a hurry..and i dint review it ;)

P.P.S.: I wrote it after reading about Zarina's case..and it is already published on IDMV here

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Women - where do they stand today??
Zee trends, Ftv, fast and gorgeous, kingfisher calender, milan show, victoria's secret, some magazins like ahem ahem.... etc etc *including some place which i can't mention here*
Even men haven't been to many of these places!!

I dun know which is better plenty dying to become ^^^ or girls dying in rural areas.

Anonymous said...

ahm..should i change the title to majority of women????..

anyways i neither is better....both are dying because of someone's else wish....in rural areas they are treated as slaves....and those ftv models..are just slave to fashion...slave to what men want to see...and what other women want to see to please man/ attract em.....

anyways they are denied (as in case of 'normal' women) or they themselves surrender (as in case of models)their rights to the needs of OTHERS...rather themselves....

Anonymous said...

This is a worthy post at the right time.. Good job girl!

Anonymous said...

thanks :)
sadly but it was written 10 months back, but the time havent changed much..its so relevant now too...

Unknown said...

hey you keep banging your head on the wall, its secondary whether the wall breaks first or your head. anything could happen you know /)

Anonymous said...

thanks :)
well bad metaphor...but good support..i must admit...u make me think of my own write-ups :D :P

Unknown said...

i take that as compliment, thank yew :D
and you do write well, you raise the voices which needs to be heard.

Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari said...

you guys has any idea about women reservation bill?

@Gulshan
I would like to read ur thoughts on this bill as well....write what do u think ..whether it should be passed in parliament or not.

Unknown said...

Pehle se hi they get all the seats on left. Ab aur kitna milega??

Anonymous said...

@ shahanshah...i ll for sure...there too many bills about women..but what changes...nothing :(..i did mention about that domesic voilence protection bill in another post about women on this blog only...kher i ll look into the reservation bill 2 ..:)

@ Mcphisto

i want that last seat also....guys illegally sit on it :D :D
on a serious note...kya fayda agar ek ghante k liye baithne ko mie...par apne ghar me hi baithne ki fursat na ho...

Unknown said...

see guys allow girls to sit on their seat but girls don't
we did discuss about domestic violence. and kahan oe women reservation hone wala hai?

Anonymous said...

well scientifically guys have more stamina...so they should let gals sit :D :)....

unfortunately though i have seen guys sitting on last and 2nd last bench and they don't move even if u ask x-(

i guess women reservation is everywhere...i know about parliament being mentioned in the said bill..

Unknown said...

oh they should move when you ask. and lol my dad wants maya, jaya and mamta to be shot at once!!

Anonymous said...

like one of my frnd's frnd says....chennai k ladko me backbone nahi hai :P

lol...ur dad si not wrong..similar reaction here for many politician..irrespective of gender..but thats not the solution...and we do need female members in parliament.it ll b good for women....and nation...equally

Unknown said...

it'll be good to have any nice politician irrespective of gender.