Ch 3 — Women in History and Today / Empowerment of Women
Women In Islam — Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Badges mark quoted or attributed material (Qur'an, hadith, another author, an opposing view). Unbadged passages are Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's own words.
Empowerment of women cannot be achieved by encouraging them to enter every field of life. A better approach would be to increase their knowledge, skills, alertness, and awareness in their sphere of activity. The more a woman is endowed with these qualities, the more effective will be the part she plays in the activities of daily life. An intellectual woman can perform the greatest of services, whereas if she is left ignorant and untutored, she will never—even if she is brought to the forefront of things—be able to play a role of any significance. p. 94
Many women in history have never emerged from their homes but significantly influenced the outside world. The allegation that women cannot perform excellent services when confined to the house is refuted by Islamic history. Home management is also undoubtedly great work, but women can certainly perform the work concerning the outside world without putting themselves into uncongenial surroundings or forcing themselves to play unfamiliar roles for which neither training nor biology has fitted them. p. 94
It is a little-understood fact that a woman’s role does not depend on her physical environment but on the degree to which her intellect has been cultivated. To progress, it is not binding that she has to put herself into all kinds of unsafe situations in the outside world. We can understand this from the following argument. If it were put to a writer that he could serve humanity better by stepping out of his study and jumping into the boxing ring, he would surely retort that there is more to solving the world’s problems than punching people in the nose. He would point out that the intellectual can best operate in his chosen sphere and that it is not physical brashness that counts in this life but the sharpening of the intellect. Imagine a reversal of the social structure, which entails a surgeon working in a butcher’s shop, a teacher selling vegetables, etc. In each case, the change of workplace and role would render the innate and acquired skills, knowledge, and moral excellence of these highly qualified and experienced professionals useless and irrelevant. Moreover, their competence and effectiveness would be eroded by the sense of frustration and discrimination engendered by unsuitable surroundings. p. 95
Studies in biology and psychology have shown that the two genders are different in nature, each being designed for another purpose. They are endowed by nature with various capacities to play their respective roles in life with greater ease and effectiveness. p. 95
Differences in biological function do not imply inequality. Differences are meant to make both genders play complementary roles and endure life’s challenges by supporting each other with the constructive capacities for which each is best suited. It should not be looked upon as a matter of superiority or inferiority. Looking at things from a proper perspective, these differences are blessings of God. p. 95
What the world perceives as a problem of inequality when it comes to the oppression and degradation of women is a phenomenon of evil perpetrated by humans upon other humans due to the misuse of freedom. It has nothing to do with the role accorded to each gender by nature. Such evil is a part of every society. p. 96
The phenomena of oppression exist between the rich and the poor, men and women, an adult and a child, people in power and the common person, the educated and the illiterate, etc. The solution to this problem of women’s backwardness due to the lack of opportunity for progress lies in helping people change their mindsets. To this effect, there should be tremendous efforts to raise the thinking levels of the individual to overcome such negative behaviour in society. p. 96