Society has developed an awful materialistic perspective, which is that if girls graduate and are not hired to work for others, there will be a disaster, as their efforts during the years of study have thus proven fruitless. Also, for the sake of the job, many young men who propose to working women are declined, if marriage will be detrimental to the woman’s job. For the sake of the job, the rate of divorce has increased. For the sake of having a job where the workplace is even hundreds of miles outside of the city, the lives of many women are claimed in car accidents. For the sake of the job, many houses have been ruined and many children have gone astray under the supervision of servants. This is the outcome of the subject of work that is always revived by these materialistic people.
Dear sister, do not think that I oppose hiring women in jobs that are suitable for them as Muslim women. It is sometimes important and even necessary for women to work if no one provides for them, or if they will work to provide for their parents or family. This is particularly emphasized because of the present-day conditions of the Ummah (nation) where women are not granted what they should be under an integrated Islamic rule, in terms of being provided with an honorable standard of living, protected, and saved from working outside their homes if they are not supported by well-off guardians.
I mean to consider this matter reasonably from an unbiased Islamic perspective that complies with Sharee‘ah (Islamic legislation), not from a spiritless and irreligious, materialistic point of view. I do not mean by what I said to completely do away with women’s employment. I mean, as I said, to look at this matter in a balanced way so as to give precedence to the Sharee‘ah-approved benefits over the materialistic benefits that are backed by Western values and which dominated the minds of Western people and the minds of those who follow them.
These people also try to influence chaste Muslim women by highlighting abnormal models of women who are Muslim in general but regard life from a secular perspective that ignores the role of religion and Sharee‘ah in outlining the features of women’s conduct and morals. These models include actresses, singers, broadcasters, and women who occupy positions where they must intermix with men. In these positions, Muslim women lose their modesty by removing the Hijab (Islamic covering) even though they are commanded by the Quran to wear it in the presence of men. Allah the Almighty Says (what means): {And when you ask [his wives] for something, ask them from behind a partition.} [Quran 33:53]
These people always claim that women are oppressed and humiliated in Muslim countries. What is oppression in their eyes? Do they mean by that the traditions that are totally unrelated to Islam – the traditions that scorn women and consider them defective and make one ashamed to speak of them, as some people customarily do? Do they mean by oppression the traditions that deprive women of inheritance so that they transfer their share of wealth to their kin, as is unjustly followed in some countries? No! They do not mean such things when they speak of oppression, since they know that Islam strongly opposes these anti-Islamic traditions.
So, what does oppression mean for them? What are its examples? , The truth is that they think of oppression as preventing women from traveling alone without a Mahram (non-marriageable male). Do they mean that the Messenger of Allah, , wronged women because he commanded that? It is proven that the Messenger of Allah, , said: “No woman should travel except with her husband or with a Mahram.” [Ahmad] He was also reported to have said: “It is unlawful for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to travel for one day except with a Mahram.”
Also, they think of oppression as preventing women from entering the world of art, such as acting, singing, and playing music. For example, mass media gave us an image of the singer whose brother tried to prevent her from singing as a courageous woman who defied all people even her relatives and broke all barriers in the cause of art. Is Allah The Almighty pleased with men who entered the world of contemporary art, let alone the Muslim women who enter this immoral world?
Furthermore, they think of oppression as preventing women from driving cars even in the framework of the moral collapse that is evidenced by many young men today in the streets. Men cannot ensure that their wives who are with them in the car will be safe from these young men. Given that, how could women, who drive cars and have no one with them or have their young daughters with them, ensure their own safety? I ask Allah The Almighty to protect us all.
Any sensible person who looks at the present-day reality of young men from a rational and materialistic, not a religious, perspective will not allow his womenfolk to drive cars fearing for his honor. What if he considers this from a religious and conscious perspective as well? Those who advocate women driving cars do not intend this in itself, rather, it is the starting point that if achieved, they will ask for greater things. This and similar demands are the rights which they call for and want women to have.
I am astonished that the so-called intellectuals insist on these limited, known and repeated demands, which they endeavor desperately and repeatedly for many years to realize. I am amazed that they insist on these specific demands and, at the same time, they totally overlook the real and urgent demands of women that are sanctioned by the Sharee‘ah.
They do not call for women’s rights to an environment where they will be safer from the attacks of dissolute young people who stroll aimlessly in the markets, around girls’ schools, in the streets, as well as in parks especially on public occasions and ‘Eed celebrations. Such attacks have been increasing to a dreadful extent. They do not call for your right to this safe environment to protect you from wild herds of young men. They do not think of such attacks as a big problem, because they are mainly concerned with the real problem, which is preventing women from driving cars. This is the problem that causes them great concern.
They do not call for your right to women-only parks where Muslim women can take off their Hijab with no fear of the stares of men and where their children can play and have fun, and with that Muslim women will be given complete freedom in relaxing and pleasing their children. They do not call for this right, and they are even against the existence of such parks and stress the importance of keeping them mixed.
They do not call for your right to public libraries that are exclusive to women and children, so that mothers and their little children could go there together to learn something useful, provided that only useful materials are provided in these libraries. Also, women should be encouraged through newspapers and other mass media to visit such libraries so that they will acquire useful knowledge, learn the sublime Islamic culture, nurture their love for reading and their interest in knowledge and help their children do the same. They do not call for your right to that because they do not think this is important. What is important to them and worries them is to permit women to travel alone as a means of rebelling against religion and the orders of the Prophet, .
They do not call for finding a radical solution to spinsterhood that worsens year after year and is caused by many factors, such as greedy fathers charging exorbitant dowries.
They do not call for women’s right to good treatment by their husbands or fathers, who must not wrong their wives or daughters by, for example, unlawfully taking their salaries or doing them injustice in any way. They do not call for preventing this sort of wrongdoing, nor do they call for preventing the various types of humiliation that many women suffer at the hands of their husbands in many homes. They do not call for removing this injustice because they have more important issues to advocate, dedicate their pens to, and muster up their philosophy for, namely reconsidering women’s veil. Lengthy conversations, stilted presentations, various discussions, efforts, and juristic divergences have been contributed by them for the ultimate purpose that women should remove their face covers. They want women to uncover their faces. This is what they aspire to achieve and exert relentless efforts in its cause. They will feel no happiness until Muslim women remove their face covers. They do not pay attention even to the important public benefits of women because they pay full attention to other less worthy matters.