WOMAN UNDER NON
Humanity's affliction and the cause of its tragedy under the modern
materialistic culture stems from the crisis of thought, the
ideological loss, together with confused concepts and ideas, which
impose weird attitudes, limiting outlook toward things around and
rigidly defining fellowmen and society in an absurd manner.
If a researcher or an analyst casts a passing glance at the nature
and appearance of the social, economic and psychological conditions in
the contemporary ignorant materialistic culture, he will immediately
recognize the tragic pictures of human sufferings, injustice,
suppression, loss and deprivation in this complex civilization.
By tracing the origin of these social, psychological and intellectual
catastrophes to their historical roots, one may realize that these are
strongly linked to the superstitious attitudes of the history of
ignorance on this planet. They draw a sketch whose lines passing
across the dimension of the times of ignorance and cutting through the
vacuum of the contemporary period, form the biggest circle of
mankind's cultural confusion and loss, both mentally and spiritually.
They illustrate a disfigured image whose inborn nature has been
polluted, and whose life has deviated from the law of human nature and
the path of righteousness and justice.
The figure emerges of a confused personality, devoid of any
humanistic values and concepts and unable to cultivate or express its
true identity and its sound innate self.
From these concepts of distorted values and relations, stemming from
the depths of the history of ignorance and pouring into the basin of
the modern materialistic culture, the deviated theories about man.
woman, sex, family life, social relations, etc. have been formed.
The history of these concepts, values and relations presents a tragic
picture of humanity and its brutal behavior that offends the very
law of life, contrary to man's innate nature, miserably degrading the
woman to a position which does not suit her natural self and upsets
the social balance and the equation of man-woman relations.
Woman, thus, is greatly suffering from the misery of the modern
society, being maltreated by man and inhumane social laws. This has
been ever so since the primitive times up to the present modern
materialistic civilization. These man-made laws and cultures have
always viewed woman as a commercial commodity in life, a means of
pleasure, a prisoner who has no freedom and a creature who enjoys no
human merits that have been bestowed on man. Actually, she is
considered a source of evil in this world, a cause of sin, and a filth
from which one needs to purify oneself.
Historically speaking, woman has been exploited. In the past
civilizations like that of the Greeks and the Romans, she was deprived
of her civil rights and was subjected to maltreatment by her father,
brothers and her husband who only regarded her as a heavy burden, a
means of pleasure or a slave to toil.
According to Jewish concepts, deviated from the original laws of
Moses, she was looked upon as a cause of sin. The myth goes even
further, saying it was the woman who caused Adam to sin and be driven
out of paradise. The Torah - the fabricated Torah of the Jews - says:
"Woman is more bitter than death" and "the good man before God should
avoid her".
Under this Jewish misinterpretation of the divine religion of Moses,
woman is regarded as an inheritable property. The Old Testament says:
"And in all the land were no women found of so fair as the daughters
of Job and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren".
Job (42: 15)
The Jewish law further states that if a man dies without having any
sons, his widow called `Yabamah' in Judaic terminology should
immediately become the wife to his next surviving brother whether she
likes it or not, and he has to provide for her and inherits her when
she dies.
We reproduce here for the benefit of our readers, the following from
the Old Testament:
"If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child,
the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her
husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife,
and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.
And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed
in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out
of Israel.
And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his
brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My
husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in
Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.
Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and
if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her;
Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the
elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face,
and shall answer and say, so shall it be done unto that man that will
not build up his brother's house.
And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath
his shoe loosed." Deuteronomy (25:5-10)
Article No. 36 of the Jewish Personal law confirms this fact. It
says: If a man dies without sons, and if he has a full, or a
consanguineous brother, his widow is regarded as the lawful wife of
that brother. She becomes unlawful to other than him as long as he
lives, unless he releases her.
Furthermore, this religion of the Jews, allows a poor father to sell
his daughter like a slave, in order to relieve himself from misery.
In short. this distorted religion degrades the status of women and
looks upon girls as saleable commodity.
If we take a look at the Arabian society during the period of
Ignorance before Islam, it also presents a sad picture of the bitter
tragedy from which woman suffered. The Arabs used to regard woman as a
shame, and hated her existence because they feared disgrace and the
consequences of her captivity. An Arab would rather not have a female
born to him. and if born, he would not see her face. Hate and spite
overwhelmed the souls of those cruel men to such an extent that some
of them babies started walking and playing around.
As a result of this absurd and ignorant way of thinking, woman became
a commodity or a property in the ignorant Arabian society, to the
limit of allowing a son to marry his stepmothers. The Glorious Qur'an
illustrates this horrible picture of Arab Jahiliyyah, denouncing all
its customs, attitudes and thoughts about women.
"When if one of them receives tidings of the birth of a female, his
face becomes dark, and he is full of wrath. He hides himself from the
folk because of the evil of that which is announced to him. (Asking
himself) Shall he keep it in disgrace, or bury it (alive) beneath the
dust? Now surely evil is their judgement." Holy Qur'an (16:58-59)
"And when the one that was buried alive (girl-child) is asked for what
sin she was killed." Holy Qur'an (81:8-9)
"And marry not those women whom your fathers married, except what has
already (of that nature) in the past. And surely it was ever lewdness
and abomination, and an evil way..." Holy Qur'an (4:22)
As regards the concepts of the Christian Church, they are a queer
admixture of Jewish ideas and the pagan Roman state. The Church's
attitude towards woman is explicitly explained opinion of Christianity
about woman: "She is the entrance used by Satan to enter man's soul.
She pushes one towards the prohibited tree, violating the law of God,
and disfiguring the image of God, that is the image of Man."
A noted Christian scholar, says the following about woman:
"She is an unavoidable evil, a desired plague, a danger to family and
home, a murderous beloved, and a gilded calamity."
Thus, it was natural the growth of the European modern materialistic
culture to react and reject these savage, mythical and backward Jewish
and Christian concepts which for centuries had ruled the thoughts of
peoples of Europe, America and other places.
So, naturally, these misconstrued theories about sex and woman, and
her relationship to man, life and civilization, fell to pieces and
materialistic Europe consequently had to formulate its own theories to
fill the resulting vacuum. It based them on the Greek and Roman
cultural heritage on one hand, and the result of a counter-action
against woman's tragic position under the inherited concepts, laws and
values of distorted Judaism and Christianity, on the other. But sadly,
this modern theory, though calling for the destruction of those false
mythical concepts, and voicing the slogan of liberty and woman's
emancipation, actually fell a prey to its own pleasure-seeking
conscience.
This materialistic concept of pleasure, sex, enjoyment and
instinctive pursuits, advocated by the modern European culture
distorted woman's status, the concept of sex and the relationship
among man, woman and life, causing more harm than the fossil
ecclesiastic concepts and the remnants of Jewish thought. Under this
modern culture, the woman was dipped deeper into the filth of
degradation, and the claws of social tragedy tightened closer around
her neck. This trend did not give her any chance to get out of the
calamity of contempt, servitude and the state of despising her own
humanity, and she plunged herself into the anarchy of wanton
enjoyment, loss of values and the pains of family and psychological
sufferings, imposed upon her by this sick and decaying culture. In a
way, as if trying to escape from the frying pan she fell into the fire
itself.
Thus, by analyzing the status of woman in Europe, America, Japan,
Russia and other parts of the world affected by this materialistic
current, one sees tragic and painful results. At the same time, we
realize that the civilization of this ignorant man is finally going to
collapse, as its caravan stumbles on rock upon rock while passing
through the deserts of loss and stray. We recognize it to be a
repetition of what had been experienced by the past ignorant nations,
whose misery has been described by the Qur'an:
"Like those before you were mightier than you in strength, and more
affluent that in wealth and children. So they enjoyed their portion,
thus have you enjoyed your portion as those before you did enjoy their
portion. And you entered into vain discourses like the vain discourses
in which those before you entered. These are they whose works are null
in this world and the hereafter. These are they who are the losers."
The Holy Qur'an (9: 69)
Despite the claims of this culture about woman's emancipation, rights
and equality, the problems of woman, sex and her relationship with man
and society have become more complex and dangerous, threatening the
happiness of not the family alone but the society as a whole.
Actually, such claims have become the cause of woman's misery,
destroying her human nature. Figures and statistics come out everyday
with terrifying and painful facts, warning of an incoming destruction,
that forces the contemporary man to reconsider his understandings and
concepts about sex, man, woman and social relations.
In order to place before the reader a testimony a testimony backed by
statistics and figures obtained from relevant studies, here are some
examples that speak of the terrible pictures of loss and tragedy under
the modern materialistic culture, concerning family problems, such as
divorce, adultery, illegitimate children and the misery of the family
life of the contemporary man and woman.
"Al-Qabas" newspaper in its issue of 11-7-1979, reported that:
"12,713 housewives had fled their houses during the year before in
Japan, on and average of 35 housewives a day. The Japanese Police
disclosed these figures on Mother's Day, as a result of demands by
children and husbands looking for their absconding mothers and
housewives. Most of those disappearances were caused by family
disputes, cruelty of husbands and the like, the police said.
The number of housewives who elope with other men, deserting their
husbands and children, is on the increase. The police also added that
400 housewives deserted their homes because of debts."
Dr. Homer, a Swede, when asked by the United Nations to study the
status of women in Arab countries in 1975, announced: "It is the
Swedish woman who should demand her freedom, as the woman in the Arab
countries has already reached the peak of her freedom under Islam".
She added "the Swedish woman tries these days to have this year
announced as `The International Year of the Woman', and then declare
another year for the man, so that he may extract his rights from the
woman."
Dr. Homer continues in her report: "25% of Swedish women suffer from
psychological and nervous sicknesses, and 40% of Sweden's income is
spent on these diseases caused by the so-called freedom which the
Swedish woman attained and which she is practicing. In fact the
tragedy of the Swedish edge of such a terrifying and perilous
precipice."
Premarital pregnancies are at epidemic proportion in the U.S. where
adultery runs rampant. Homosexual and bisexual men and women often
openly express their sexual preferences.
With unwanted pregnancy comes the moral question of abortion - taking
the life of an unborn child.
Sexually transmissible diseases have become a world-wide horror.
A recent study reported by Associated Press showed: Four out of every
five single American women in their 20s have had sex. One in three had
lived with a man out of wedlock. One third of all these women had been
pregnant at least once, and 40% of those who became pregnant had an
abortion."
Those statistics seem to be symptomatic of the nation if not most of
the Western World.
Husbands and wives are too often unfaithful to their marriage vows.
Children learn this lack of values from parents and the cycle is
perpetuated. So once again we are faced with another problem
unsolvable at the human level.
In another report disclosing the human tragedy under the
materialistic culture, the American Association for Family Services
says: the disintegration of the family, which has reached an epidemic
stage, tops the list of social problems. Every year more than one
million persons are separated of divorced, which is seven fold higher
in percentage compared with that of a century ago.
