format_quote Originally Posted by
Ummshareef
:wa:
I really don't think they realise how happy and fulflled we are. Every time they see a woman in niqaab for example they see an object of oppression but in reality it is the western woman in her skimpy miniskirt who is the one who is oppressed. They think that we are beaten every day by our husbands but do not realise that the right to discipline his wife only applies as a last resort to save her and if it is used beyond that it is beyond the bounds of Islam. They cannot get out of their mindset that men and women are the same, whereas we recognise and celebrate the differences as a great gift alhumdulillah.
Assalaamu alaikum Umm Shareef,
(sigh) I'm afraid you are leaning into stereotypes and black and white divisions. The question was about why
some people who are
against Islam seem to be so concerned about the oppression of Muslim women.
You know, those who would oppress their fellow humans actually
love to play with stereotypes. If you start engaging oppressors in a war of stereotypes, truth and justice get lost. And humanity, as a whole, loses. And the oppressors win.
Reality is so much more shaded and diverse. A munaqqibah (a woman wearing niqab) may be very treasured by her husband and very happy. Or she might be terrorized by her husband, and unhappy. Or she may have a loveless marriage, but feel Blessed with her children. Or she may have a kind husband and be not able to have children. Or she may have an ok marriage and ok kids, and have problems with her health. Or she may love working outside of the home and... do you see? There are an unimaginable amount of different combinations of circumstances.
And the same is true of
all women,
whatever they wear,
wherever they come from,
whatever their race, ethnicity, nationality... whatever categories we tend to place people into.
When we start dividing ourselves into “us” and “them”, we are losing sight of an important point: Allah, by
design, divided us, not into only
two camps, but into a
multitude of different groupings.
Allah Tells us in 49:13
Sahih International: O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.
Actually, the words “peoples” and “tribes” could be translated differently. The first word “shu'uban” could be understood as a large grouping of people. It seems to me that it could be a nationality, an ethnicity, a large religious, linguistic or ideological group. The word “qaba'ila” is a smaller grouping. And here, I feel that it could be a minority of some kind (linguistic,religious, etc), a clan group, a social class, maybe.
Frankly, I feel that the whole “us” versus “them” idea is born of
Satanic whispering that seeks to divide and conquer
we humans.
(smile) You know, we had some tensions earlier in the year in my province here in Canada. The government tried the “us” versus “them” tactic to try to whip up support for our province to become an independent state. And Muslims were the “them”. We fought this by linking up with diverse other people. There are decent Christians (of various types), atheists, agnostics, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc... as well as various Native Canadians, English-speakers, French-speakers ...(smile) you name it, we have a few of everyone. So we sought each other out and supported one another. No, we
don't agree on everything. But we all felt that we didn't want to have a divided and unjust society (and we've known tensions between different communities in the past. And we know it isn't nice).
So we united.
(big smile) And the government and it's unpleasant allies were defeated. They suffered their worst electoral defeat in 30 years! And this in spite of the fact that the opposition party was not very popular.
And,
subhanallah!, those links and discussions have improved relations between people to
better than they were before all this unpleasantness happened.
Please, my dear sister in Islam, don't let those Satanic forces whisper to you. Do you
really agree with George Bush Jr that we can divide the world neatly into two parts?
May Allah, the One Who Gently Guides, Bless you, my dear.