Gender discrimination and Islam – A Review

Talking about the Gender discrimination. first thing which comes in mind that the building of this vast universe is actually based on two human beings. They’re normally classified in two equal pillars “men & Women”. They both provide equal support to the four walls of this building to stand tall & firm. If incidentally or accidentally one of these two important basics gets damaged due to lack of being un-cared, eventually that will lose it’s strength and will fall down. 

Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression

Nelson Mandela

Traditionally in Sindh, Gender discrimination has been continuously increasing its influence, due to focusing on the importance of it’ one pillar which is men. Normally it has been found that people in Sindh prefer to lock their women in a limited boundary from physically to the morally. Their activities are limited to the four walls of the house & they are expected to remain in the house to look after the children, cooking and cleaning. Thus, the concept of Gender discrimination gets much more stronger.

But, as we see with a visionary eye, women are just different from men in terms of gender. Giving birth to a child is her sacred duty & it has found that she fulfils this duty very well. But it does not mean that women are inferior to men. As women play an ambitious role in making moral & educated society. It is a woman who gave birth to the child, like The Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H), who become the role model for humanity and all upcoming generations of the world. it is a woman from whom the process of this universe was started.

Napoleon once said Give me a good mother, and I will give you a good society

Women serve the society in several ways by adopting different shapes. Women give birth to the men in the shape of sacred relation of a mother, she serves as a sister,  as a daughter she removes the rolling tears of her father, she makes men powerful & strengthens by supporting him as a wife. 

Unfortunately, we continue to live in the society filled with Gender discrimination, where women are considered as a bitter enemy of her brothers if she demands her right from the property which is legal & religious right of every woman. Where she gets slapped on her face when she raises her voice for getting her basic rights. we live in a  society where the rope of women of a living full life is controlled by a cowered segment of our environment.

Undoubtedly, we take a breath in the air in which educating women is considered as a big crime, where the role of women in social & cultural activities is understood as a failure of a system. Where giving birth to a girl-child is considered as a big misfortune for the family. 

In Islam, there is no concept like Gender discrimination, women enjoy the greatest status & importance as men. As our Holy Prophet ( P.B.U.H) said: ” Paradise lies under the feet of mother “. The greatness of women in Islam can easily be determined from the point where our Holy Prophet ( P.B.U.H) uses to stand in the honour of his part of body daughter Hazrat Bibi Fatima ( R.A) whenever she came to pay her visit to the House of Holy Prophet ( P.B.U.H). Unfortunately, we only claim to be the strong follower of Islam, but when the matter of woman rights comes, we change our side from the teachings of Islam in the favour of women. Which is a big question mark; why?

In the light of all the above discussion, how can we give air to the meaningless concept of gender differentiation? how can we ignore the women from the world of roses? Being a member well educated & Islamic society, we should understand the importance and value of women in connection with this we should treat women equally and should give as much respect to her as Islam makes her honorable. Thus, it is our responsibility to think and act beyond the Gender discrimination, and treat men and women equally. 

Note: The author was supervised By Mr Farhan Ali Soomro (PhD Scholar) & Teaching Assistant Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur.

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