Allah loves women more than men in these conditions, these times

Off the rack: Shackled women

By Naushaba Burney


Instead of stepping out into a brave new Pakistan, the women of this land seem to be suffering a free fall. From trying to buy discounted flour or sugar to feed their starving children to marrying for love, women tend to end up dead more often than not. As for the children of the women who got killed in a stampede or shot by a male relative in the name of honour, God alone knows what happens to them.

Doubting Thomases can look up the pages of any daily paper to find every second day several stories of women who’ve been raped or murdered for the flimsiest reasons. As for increasing instances of little girls getting gang raped and their molesters getting away with it... I don’t even want to talk about a subject that is so unbearable.

After a wonderful, safe Eid during which even the weather was pleasant, shouldn’t the nation be in a cool, calm mode. But no, people are still talking about the senseless, even stupid squabble over last month’s moon-sighting and our system of dual Eids. Since Makkah is our Qibla and the city where the world’s Muslims go for Haj, why cannot all Islamic lands have Eid on the same day, based on the moon sighting in Makkah? I guess we wouldn’t be Pakistanis if we didn’t argue and fight ceaselessly.

It’s time somebody protested over the total absence of women in the Ruet-i-Hilal committee. As I watched all those capped heads and bearded faces looking very important on TV, and together with the politicians making a hash of the whole thing, I wished a few female religious scholars could have been there to add a voice of reason.

Of course, there are women who not only cover their faces but insist on doing purdah of their voices. Reminds me of a relation of mine in the pre-partition era who, with her infant son in her lap, was being carried in a curtained palki by four men. Her husband, who was riding on a horse way ahead of her, didn’t notice when a sharp jerk to the palki caused the child to fall out.

Did the woman cry out? No, of course not, being a fervent observer of voice purdah she remained silent, prepared to sacrifice the infant over the rule that forbade her to allow strange men to hear the sound of her voice. She was lucky as some pedestrians hollered at the men jogging with the palki and the baby was restored to its mother unhurt.

At the rate we are grasping the outward rituals and formal practices and procedures of our faith and ignoring its core values women will soon be regressing to veiling their voices. Why do we feel the need to shackle ourselves more and more? I’ve been recently coming across relatively young women who are so shrouded that they are largely cut off from the world around them. OK, I concede them the right to live their lives as their consciences dictate. But dear God, what a waste! Well, at least they are not celibate like the nuns in Convent schools. But then the nuns, a disappearing breed these days, especially in the West, don’t hide their faces. And they run schools and hospitals and provide excellent education.

In case readers are wondering what core values I am talking about, let me assure them that these are much simpler than the rites and routines we proclaim. In short, we need to be good to our fellow humans, not rob them and enhance their suffering. When the flour and sugar mafia, the cement, banks and other cartels rob the poor, multiplying their suffering beyond measure, we are negating our creed’s core values. The same goes for the sales taxes which the people below the poverty line have to pay at the same rate as the millionaires and multimillionaires, while the latter cheat so brazenly on their income tax.

In India, extolled by the world as the next economic powerhouse together with China and Brazil, a growing middle class is leading to many social benefits. These include reduced gender bias, a huge increase in the number of educated women in the professions and fewer children per family.

Except for poor, corrupt and dysfunctional Pakistan, the rest of South Asia is rapidly advancing into the 21st century. As for the developed West, women there are now regarded as the economic engine of the coming era. We too can join these modern people by accepting the opportunities that our faith offers us.
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