International women’s day entry

There are women, and there are Muslim women. Physically, these women are similar. We go to school, graduated and then go to work. We get married, have children and take care of our young. We go to tupperware parties, have girls day out and host baby showers for our friends. We love neatly folded laundry, clean crisp white school shirts, and the lemony smell of a newly cleaned floor. And I for one love the look of a freshly made up bed and of course the irresistible sparkle of a diamond ring. =). as long as the creature is called a woman, she is bound to love all these.

So, today is the 100th International Women’s Day. All women from every walks of life celebrate it or at least acknowledge the celebration. The celebration that women finally earned respects from men and that we were put back to our rightful place; beside the men not below them, as equals not as servants. It’s a breakthrough from traditions that we women were allowed to go to school, to learn and have a career. But do we know what women’s day really is? It’s a day to commemorate total freedom for women. Not just to be recognized as equals, but to have a say in choosing the government, to have a say on when to get married rather than to be forced into one and to be given a chance to run a government and become a prime minister. All these rights that were once considered as  “none of our businesses”, were given to us due to the work of feminists 100 years ago…

But before long, the feminist movements started to realize that women, by nature will always have one weakness. We are tied to our family. Once we have offspring, we all decided (or are expected) to give up everything and devote ourselves to raise our family. So in science, women find their freedom, their total freedom in the form of  the contraceptive pill. The pill allows women to gain ‘equality’ with men. Finally women can be with as many men as they want without consequences, without the risk of getting pregnant. Finally, women and men are “real” equals. not only that we are capable to think, act and perform like men, we too can be as reckless as them… Really people, are we well and truly that shallow? They said women have nine desires and only one intelligence… but if this is what reflects our intelligence then, I feel sorry to all of you “women”.

I hate that when I say “happy International women’s day,” I am partially supporting the “free sex for women” part of the deal… So I say, we Muslim women should give different definition to International women’s day.

1400 ++ years ago, when Islam returned to the world, Women had been liberated from every kind of oppression put down on us by men. We used to be treated as their belonging, an asset that they can “will” down to their children when they’re dead. A son can inherit his mom from his father and create an offspring with her.. how disgusting. There was a time when we were made to wear revealing clothes to entice men, forced to dance with our hips moving to music, how disgusting. There was also a time when a family would advertise to the village that their daughter has come of age and that anyone who desires her can come and “play” with her. So naturally, all men in the village will visit the girl’s chamber and sleep with her. when she gets knocked up and delivers her child, who ever the child resemble the most, will be the father, how cheap… In the old days, women were treated this way because they were weak. They could not physically work as hard as men, nor could they defend themselves. So they gave themselves to be their “slaves” rather than to be forced to live on the street. and men in turn treated them like their properties. Women were of no difference from their farm animals in the ranch and we were  also of no difference from the furniture they have in their living room.

So, 1400 years ago, all these were abolished and women were once again being put side by side with men. Rasulullah’s wife, Sayyidatina Khadijah was a successful business women. We also have Sayyidatina Aisyah who was well learnt and highly educated, we have women who helped with the development of Mecca, we have women who joined the Muslim army as attending nurses, women went out to attend lectures just like any other men, we have Muslim women scholars and philosophers and many more. Allah had already defined freedom for women. Even the hijab is in fact very liberating. If Muslim women truly observe the proper Islamic dress code, they will feel very liberated from the constant need to check their appearances in the mirrors. When all women dressed humbly, the most outstanding amongst them all are the ones with the best brain, not the ones with the longest legs or the deepest cleavage.

So today, I feel the need for Muslim women to stand together and give a new definition for this International women’s day. And the new definition is all about being a women as intended by Allah, the Almighty. May Allah bless us women with the best blessings and grant us happiness and freedom for us to be the best that we could be in this life and in the hereafter, InsyaAllah. Ameen.

Love, Ana