دار محمد Daar Muhammed

I will never understand the underestimation in our community of giving women a wholesome education. Of teaching her high-quality language to learn her religion well. Of honing her skill she is gifted a knack for so that she can use it at any time she wants. Of broadening her knowledge base on various subjects that complement her knowledge of Islam. I wonder at how these things are thought of in our community when these very things secure her worldly life and her Hereafter for her. I will never understand how someone who carries the major part of the responsibility of caring for the next generation during its formative years, be it through being a mother, teacher or caretaker, is “not” in need of extensive learning and training. I wonder how building a human being literally as well as figuratively is thought of as trivial and deserving of lesser attention than, for example, building a company! I wonder how a better tomorrow is expected when the womenfolk are crippled in ways more than one. Most of all, I have never understood how the above ideas are associated with the pristine religion of Islam— the religion of Ar Rahman.

It is difficult to imagine how big of a thing those who stop women from a solid religious, scientific, and moral education must be hiding. How low their standards must be to fear a well-grounded woman. How painfully incompetent they must be to see a reading, listening, curiously learning woman as a threat to their “self-respect”. How unsure they must be of themselves that using coercive control, instead of upgrading themselves to become wiser and less shallow, is the only answer they see.

I have seen and continue to see the choicest properties, immense time and whole-hearted effort being spent on male children so that “they will have a future”. The low cost and most convenient options are left for the female child just to “pass her years” until marriage because there is “nothing better” she can do. The female child who will soon be carrying more roles than they can count with their fingers or small minds. It is a bizarre reality to witness. With all of my heart, I say, tabban to such decisions, deeply-rooted in injustice and purposeful jahiliyyah (ignorance); may they perish as they deserve to. The change has to begin with us, with Allah’s Permission. To give our girls the rights Allah gave them and make it a point to hide nothing in our beautiful Deen that will empower them to be composed, resolute and as aware as the Sahabiyyath were to raise a generation of pious Muslims as the Sahabiyyath did. May Allah bring a refreshing change in our communities that no one can stop.