Feminism In Islam Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equalpolitical, economic, cultural, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equalopportunitiesforwomen ineducationand employment. Feministadvocates or supports the rights and equality of women. Whereas Islamic feminism means is a form of feminismconcernedwith therole ofwomen inIslam. It aims for the full equality of all Muslims, regardless of gender, in public and private life. Islamicfeminists advocate womens rights, gender equality, and social justice grounded in an Islamic framework.During theearly days of Islamin the 7th centuryCE, reforms inwomen's rightsaffected marriage, divorce and inheritance.[9]Women were not accorded such legal status in other cultures, including the West, until centuries later.[10]

In the seventh century, an Arabian trader launched a revolution in social norms that was to shape a faith-based community for 14 centuries. He was the ProphetMuhammad, the first feminist in Islam. In his life and in the revelations that he began to receive in 610 when he was 30 years old, Muhammadbecame the vehicle for a religion that paid particular attention to the rights of women. as the Prophet Muhammad (S.W.A) said:

Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should not hurt (trouble) hisneighbor. And I advise you to take care of the women, for they are createdfrom a rib and the most crooked part of the rib is its upper part; if you try tostraighten it, it will break; and if you leave it, it will remain crooked; so Iurge you to take care of woman."

The Prophet Muhammad championed womens rights and supported the first female teacher in Islam,Shifa bint abd Allah. She worked as a healer and passed this knowledge as well as reading and writing to other women. The second Chaliph, Umar bin al-Khattab, appointed her as controller of the market in the city of Medina (the second major Islamic city after Mecca). She walked around town with a bull whip to keep the money lenders in line. A bull whip.

The Quran contains principles of gender equality and wider issues of social justice,The Quran and the Sunna, or the sayings and actions of the Prophet as witnessed by his companions and passed on through the ages, guarantee women life, wealth, and happiness. The Quran upholds the sanctity and absolute valve of human life and states in Surah 6: Al- Anam: 151:

Do not take any human beings life----(the life) which God has declared to be sacred----- otherwise than in (the pursuit of) justice: this has He enjoined upon you so bthat you mightuse your reason.

Before the advent of Islam, female infanticide was a practice among the Arabian tribes.Muhammadforbad it. In a chapter dedicated to women, the Quran mandates a womans right to a dowry and to a half share of inheritance that will remain in her name.According to Quranic teaching , every man and woman has the right to work , whether the work consists of gainful employment or voluntary service. The fruits of labour belong to the one who has worked for them--- regardless of whether it is a man or a woman. As Surah 4: An- Nisa : 32 states :

To men is allotted what they earn, and to women what they earn.

The Qur'an makes it clear that man and woman stand absolutelyequal in the sight of God, but also that they are "members" and "protectors"of each other. In other words, the Qur'an does not create a hierarchy inwhich men are placed above women, nor does it pit men against women in anadversary relationship. They are created as equal creatures of a universal, just,and merciful Creator whose pleasure it is that they livein harmony and inRighteousnesstogether.

In spite of the Qur'anic affirmation of man-woman equality, Muslim societiesin general have never regarded men and women as equal, particularly inthe context of marriage. Underlying the rejection in Muslim societies of the idea of man-woman equality is the deeply rooted belief that women who are inferior in creation (having been made from a crooked rib) and in righteousness (having helped the Shaitan in defeating God's plan for Adam) have been created mainly to be of use to men who are superior to them.The alleged superiority of men to women, which permeates the Islamic tradition, is grounded not only in hadith literature but also in popular interpretations of some Qur'anic passages which generally cited to support the contention that men have "a degree of advantage" over women. Of these, the first reads as follows in A. A. Maududi's translation of the Arabic text:Men are the managers of the affairs of women because Allah has made the one superior to the other and because men spend of their wealth onwomen. Virtuous women are, therefore, obedient: they guard their rightscarefully in their absence under the care and watch of Allah. As for thosewomen whose defiance you have cause to fear, admonish them and keepthem apart from your beds and beat them. Then, if they submit to you, donot look for excuses to punish them: note it well that there is Allah aboveyou, Who is Supreme and Great.29The translation makes it appear that the one who has more strength, excellence, or superiority is the man. However, the Qur'anic text does not accord superiority to men. Using an idiomatic expression which literally means "some in relation to some," the Qur'anic statement could mean either that some men are superior to some others (men or women) and that some women are superior to some others (men or women). Theinterpretation that seems to me to be the most appropriate contextually is that somemen are more blessed with the means to be better providers than are other men.Man and woman, created equal by God and standing equal in the sight of God, have become very unequal in Muslim societies. The Quran says:"They are your garments/And you are their garments"This Quranic description of man and woman in marriage implies closeness, mutuality, and equality. However, Muslim culture has reduced many, if not most, women to the position of puppets on a string, to slave like creatures whose only purpose in life is to cater to the needs and pleasures of men. Not only this, it has also had the audacity and the arrogance to deny women direct access to God. In Islam feminism does not mean men and women are identical to each other. Some argue that feminism is fallacious in nature because it seeks to equalize men and women when they are biologically, psychologically, as well as emotionally different. This perception of equality is false. Equality does not mean being identical to men. There are tasks where women outperform men, and likewise there are tasks where men outperform women. Feminism is understood to mean different things within different social structures. But unfortunately it is still presumed that all feminist movements are alike, and are seeking to eradicate male oppression in a similar way.Feminism is the radical notion that women are people. This radical notion is NOT the brainchild of the west, it is the brainchild of Islam. When Islam opposed female infanticide, when the preaching of Islam was initially funded by the business profits of a woman (Hazrta Khadija RA, the first wife of the Holy Prophet SAW), when Islam defended the right of women in inheritance, when Islam made men responsible for the women they married or had/wanted to have carnal relations with, when Islam made men own the children they sired, when Islam curtailed polygamy, etc, etc it was basically treating women like humans, like people.

The West Didnt Export It To Us:Contrary to popular belief, the so-called feminist movement is not a hand-me-down dress from the west. It is not a yahoodiyoon ki saazish. It is the weakness of our own society. It is the weakness or lack of faith on our part. There is a reason why armies used to build strong forts in the old days, you cant enter a city if it is surrounded by unbreakable walls. Our society gives women no such walls. For example;1. If a guy earns for his family, he is a good son, a good father, a good husband, a good brother. All the praises in the world for him from his parents, siblings, spouse and kids.2. 2. If a woman bears and brings up children well, thats her job. She is supposed to do it. Every penny that is spent on her, even the cost of delivering the child is counted and recorded for future reference. In all fairness, this counting is not just the mens doing, women are equally involved. No body praises her.

3. Women Are As Much Responsible For The Uprise As The Men:Its easy to think men are solely responsible for the injustice dealt to women, they seem like an obvious target. But the fact is, within the home, when a mother decides to favor her son over her daughter, she is just as bad as the father who favors the sons over the daughter. A mother has the power to raise her children with the finest values, so much so that Hazrat Ali RA advised men Dont look for a wife for yourselves, look for a mother for your children. And when, knowledgeable of this power, abuse it, it is simply despicable. No woman from the west ever came and taught the Pakistani women that it was the sisters JOB to eat only after her brother had eaten, this is our own invention. Whats worse is, when these sisters grow up, they take these very same values and put them into bringing up their own children.A Few Muslim Practices:Here are a few Islamic Rights conferred to women, as a sample of how our you feminist shoutingmeat-headswouldnt survive day if Shariat was ever implemented in this country;1. In Islam a woman is not bound to adopt her husbands name or her husbands family name. She is known by her fathers name and, like all humans, will be raised on the Day of Judgment by her fathers name, not her husband. Nuff said. (Update:Sahih Hadith mentions that people will be raised on the Day of Judgment by their fathers name.)2. In Islam, when you bring something to eat home, like customarily fathers bring fruits home, the first fruit is to be offered to the daughters, starting with the youngest.3. A womans property, inherited from her father, or built through business, or given to her as her own possession via gift, isherproperty. Her husband/father/brother/son has no claim to it in her life. If she gives part or all of it to them, that is charity on her part and she will be rewarded, but it isnottheir right. The list is pretty long, in fact books have been written over this subject.Of course, all this being said, the fact that there is plenty wrong and outright vulgar going on in the name feminism cant be denied. But just as undefended borders are no borders at all, similarly a society eon away from its own value system and in an identity crisis is easy prey. We shouldnt blame the vultures; we should blame ourselves for feeding them.The Reality Of Feminism In Pakistan The status ofwomen in Pakistanvaries considerably across classes, regions, and the rural/urban divide due to uneven socioeconomic development and the impact of tribal, feudal, and capitalist social formations on women's lives. Feminism over the years has become a pseudo-curse word in Pakistani society. The minute a woman wants her basic human rights, the same rights she sees men of her own country enjoy, she is vehemently labeled a feminist. Unfortunately, what most people fail to realise is that feminism in Paksitan is not entirely a novel concept, nor is it anti-Islamic. In fact, Islam was the first religion to formally grant women a status they had not enjoyed before and taught moral, spiritual and economic equality. There are countless quotes from prominent Islamic scholars, ahadith and the Quran itself, promulgating womens rights regarding different of life, including education, marriage and divorce. In politics, the undertones of feminist ideals have existed throughout, coming to the forefront only recently thanks to advancements in media and education. Fatima Jinnah, for instance, fearlessly led thousands of women to stand up for their well-being even before Pakistan was created. Soon after, Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan founded the All Pakistan Womens Association (APWA) in 1949, aiming to further the moral, social and economic standing of women across the country. Similarly, the Womens Action Forum (WMA) was established in September 1981, lobbying and advocating on behalf of women without the resources to do it themselves.What we need as Muslim Pakistanis (men and women alike), is to give our mothers, daughters, sisters and wives the confidence that our religion prescribes,withoutwaiting for them to ask for it, or leaving them no choice but to ask for what is rightly theirs. Only thenwould there be no semblance of this so-called feminism. We women would simply give a resounding shut-up call to anyone who told us were oppressed.

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