We women are indecipherable. We abhor men who keep brooding about their sex. We keep throwing tantrums about how difficult it is being a woman, a lady, and that being the opposite sex is so much easier. But then given a chance, would any of us like to be born as a man? Would any of us like to trade the life of a woman (miserable as we tend to call it) for the life of a man (rocking as we tend to see it)? Guessing the kind of hardcore “gender-narcissists” we are, I don’t think so!
How much ever we crib about the negatives that we have to put up with, we just can’t help loving and unknowingly taking pride in the fact that we were born into this beautiful gender, and we surely wouldn't have it any other way!
There are major reasons why someone would love being a woman but here are some of the tiny little nonsensical reasons why I love being a woman.
We can order colorful, fruity and delicious drinks, with the prettiest garnishing without being stared at as an alien.
We can cry and wail and howl when we are stressed without being called sissy.
Our clothes aren't limited to shirts and trousers and our looks to stripes and solids.
We don’t have to be a freaking sports buff to get a bunch of friends.
We ALWAYS get a seat in public transport for ourselves in the craziest of times, thanks to people who made the laws!
We can be afraid of cockroaches and lizards all we want, and still not be laughed at.
We get treated like princesses on our birthdays unlike the guys who dread their birthdays, for reasons obvious. No one likes to get a black eye on their day. :P
We can see through people, and nine out of ten times, our intuitions are accurate.
We can co-ordinate an event on SMS, update an entire bunch of friends on Bluetooth and get done with our course for the test next day, all at the same time.
We can have babies. :)
We don’t have to worry about coarse mustache and beard every morning.
Lastly, we can genuinely love pink or any other bright color without being judged. :D
I indeed love being a woman. Don’t you? :D
While many of us may refrain ourselves from delving deep into matters of religion, I can’t help but dive into its intricacies. We live in a country that sees many religions, one of them being Islam. Islam dominates in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. I have pondered over Islamic culture umpteen numbers of times in my head but it took a Muslim teenage girl being shot in the head by the Taliban to finally drive me to the point of penning it down. The strong willed girl propagated education for women in Pakistan. The Taliban thought it inappropriate and shot her. The chief spokesman of Taliban justifies himself saying “A bullet had Malala's name on it, because she has become a symbol of Western culture in the area; she was openly propagating it''. He also called her ''the symbol of the infidels and obscenity''.
This is just a tiny example. Although we have many successful and outgoing Muslim people but then there are those who haven’t escaped the radar of the prowling Taliban people. Take for example Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen. These people wouldn’t have imagined getting issued a fatwa against them when writing their respective books!
Salman Rushdie had to hide under the name of Joseph Anton for 15 years. How must it feel to not being able to live with your identity for 15 years?
As a person outside of Islam, I have tried to be open about this religion. I don’t mean to criticize any religion and although I try not to think of any religion negatively, but truth be told, Islam is mired. What is the image of a Muslim woman in your mind? Oppressed, secluded, submissive, controlled by men? The rights of women are so limited that it is actually surprising. A woman's testimony in court is worth half that of a man and her independence is restricted by seclusion in the home, laws of guardianship by male kin, polygamy and unilateral divorce. She is nothing but a second class citizen who is taught to identify with the mores of male domination.
As I gather from my research, the Holy Quran gives the following quotes on women, which is more than enough to prove that Islam is dominated by misogynists:
II/223: Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate). So go to your tilth as ye will...
It clearly states how highly women are treated!
IV/34: Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them.
This quote says that men are superior to women. Secondly, you should beat and admonish women if they turn rebellious. You’re probably wondering how such a thing can be written in the “Holy” Quran, right? Well, go on.
IV/15: (For women) If any one of your women is guilty of lewdness ...confine them until death claims them.
IV/16: (For Men) If two men among you commit indecency (sodomy) punish them both. If they repent and mend their ways, let them be. Allah is forgiving and merciful.
If a woman takes the wrong path, she is to be sentenced to death, while a man should be pardoned because Allah turns forgiving in his case.
A woman isn't allowed to wear makeup, isn't allowed to speak during prayers because apparently her voice is too distracting.
Maybe the aforementioned things seem trivial to many of you, but to me even these are extreme. Many claim these early gains were thwarted by a male-dominated interpretation of the holy texts without sufficient input by women, and that the problem lies within the culture and not the religion.
Misogyny has become so endemic to Islamic societies that it's not just a war on women; it's a destructive force tearing apart their economies and societies. To bring about a change, a huge transformation is needed. According to most Muslim women reformers, the antidote to misogyny is not abandonment of Islam but sharia reforms followed by changes in culture.
Obviously all Muslims aren’t barbarians, probably not even half of them are. But if you read the Quran, you realize that it is vile and written by a woman-hating man, and to follow such a book blindly and derive your laws and rights from the very same is foolishness.
I think we've seen enough. Its time Muslim cultural attitudes and practices changed. Islamic countries (especially the ones ruled by the Taliban) need to be jolted into awareness of the harm they are doing to themselves. We don’t need any more women martyrs before the Islamic leaders gather the courage to speak out against misogyny.
