Today in some societies, a women can walk semi-naked in public, swim topless, patronize bars and clubs, smoke, drink, dance in discos, and have sex with anybody she feels like. She can even serve her boyfriend, like an unpaid prostitute, and be free to murder her unborn baby if she falls pregnant. She can also complete in the business world by using her body to promote commercial commodities. At the end of the day she will be regarded as a truly 'liberated' women!
In Islam, however, liberation of women is far more serious, noble and dignified than just the burning of bras as is done in the so-called permissive societies where the fair sex is regarded as no more than a sex object. Today the west is very quick to condemn Shariah (Islamic Law) which protect women from degradation, especially those regarding modesty of dress, purity of purpose and the intermingling of the sexes at all levels of society.
The liberation of women in Islam is far superior to Western liberation as it allows women to live with respect, dignity and equality in society. Equality does not mean aping and behaving like men or dancing to their carnal tunes; that would be an act of inferiority in the face of one's own femininity. A truly liberated woman always dresses decently and modestly. A true woman will never degrade her body and sell her dignity to the highest bidder. No woman is truly liberated if she is still the slave of her wayward conscience, bodily lust or infidelity.
Thus in Islam, women, whatever their role as mothers, wives, sisters or daughters, command respect and have a constructive role to play in society. The Hijab itself gives an aura of freedom to the womankind, facilitating their movement and protecting them from provocation and wanton greed of the human wolves. "O' Prophet! Say to your wives and daughters and the women of the believers that they let down upon them their over-garments; that they may be known and thus will not be troubled..." Holy Qur'an (33:59)
Modesty and chastity form part of the Islamic faith. The world and all things in it are valuable. But the most valuable thing in the world is a virtuous wife.In Islam, a woman has the right to own property, marry according to her choice, and if the case has gone beyond reconciliation, to divorce her husband. Similarly, she has the right to charge her husband for giving suck to their children, and raising them up. Islam gave her true emancipation long back at a time when the world was seething in darkness and women were treated as mere chattel, by the Romans, the Jews, the Christians, the Arabs and the Hindus.
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