The Tragedy of Women

As it is well-known, one of the Arabs' worst habits at the time of Ignorance was the practice of burying daughters alive. They would bury their daughters alive because they were thought to be unable to defend the tribal interests. Such men also feared that their daughters could be enslaved by their enemies, be married to them and give birth to children. This, they assumed, would be a sign of shame for them.[1] Some others buried their daughters alive due to severe poverty and wretchedness. (6:151)[2] As a whole, daughters were received as nasty beings. They were held as a sign of disgrace. The Holy Qur'¡n describes them in the following manner:

And when a daughter is announced to one of them, his face becomes black and he is full of wrath. He hides himself from the people because of the evil of that which is announced to him. Shall he keep it with disgrace or bury it alive in the dust? Now surely evil is what they judge. (16:58-59)

Women's deprivation and conviction are reflected amply in the Arab literature of those days. It was a custom for the Arab men to sympathize with a man who became a father to a daughter. They would tell him, “May God keep you from her disgrace. May God provide you with the expenses that she would create for you. May Gay turn her bridegroom's house into grave.”

Regarding this, an Arab poet has written the following poem:

“For any father who has a daughter and wishes to keep her, there are three kinds of bridegrooms: A house where she can shelter; a husband who can keep her, and a grave to protect her; but the best the grave.”

A story is told that a man, called Ab£-°amzah, stayed with the neighbors because his wife had given birth to a girl. His wife playfully said the following piece of poetry for her child:

“What has happened to Ab£-°amzah who has left us, living with the neighbors. He is angry because I have not given birth to a son. By God I swear, it is not upon us to decide on the sex of the child. We will receive what we are given.”

This mother's speech is in fact a revolt against the tyrant social conditions prevailing over the Arab community in those days, and depicts the tragedy of women then. The first tribe to establish such a nasty institution was the tribe of Ban£-Tam¢m. It is said that upon their refusal to pay tribunes to al-Nu`m¡n ibn al-Mundhir, there broke out a severe war in which the women and girls of Tam¢m were taken prisoners. When Tam¢m's representatives went to al-Nu`m¡n's court to receive the prisoners, the women were given option to either stay at al-°¢rah or return home among the Tam¢m¢ people. The daughter of Qays ibn `ª¥im, the chief of the tribe, who was among the prisoners and had married a courtier, chose to stay at the court. Qays became utterly upset and decided to kill his daughters from then on.[3] This custom gradually became widespread and it is said that the tribes Qays, Asad, Hudhayl, and Bakr ibn W¡'il committed this crime from then on.[4] Of course, not everybody or tribe performed such nasty crimes. Some tribes and dignified people, such as `Abd al-Mu§§alib, the Holy Prophet’s grandfather, opposed it.[5] Individuals such as Zayd ibn `Amr ibn Nufayl and ¯a`¥a`ah ibn N¡jiyah would take those girls who were supposed to be buried alive due to their parents' poverty and keep them safe.[6] Sometimes, they provided their parents with some camels.[7] However, there is a lot of evidence which indicates that this keeping of such girls was common:

1. ¯a`¥a`ah ibn N¡jiyah once told the Holy Prophet that he had saved 280 girls from being buried alive.[8]

2. Qays ibn `ª¥im killed twelve or thirteen of his daughters after he had taken the decision to do so.[9]

3. In the first treaty at al-`Aqabah (12 years after the Holy Prophet’s Divine Mission) which the Holy Prophet held with some groups of Yathrib, one paragraph concerned the avoidance of burying daughters alive.[10]

4. After the Conquest of Mecca, one of the items of the treaty with the women of this city stipulated that they should refrain from killing their children.

5. The Holy Qur'¡n has condemned the practice of burying daughters alive on several occasions:

And do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We give them sustenance and yourselves too; surely to kill them is a great wrong. (17:31)

And thus their associates have made fair seeming to most of the polytheists the killing of their children, that they may cause them to perish and obscure for them their religion. (6:137)

They are lost indeed who kill their children foolishly without knowledge, and forbid what Allah has given to them, forging a lie against Allah. (6:140)

And do not slay your children for fear of poverty-We provide for you and for them. (6:151)

And when the female infant buried alive is asked for what sin she was killed. (81:8-9)