Author: Aburian
Backgrounds and factors of the emergence of “feminism” Part (2nd)
A review of the history of the West and the conditions of women’s lives during it shows the foundations and contexts of the formation of the “feminism” movement, and by studying the conditions of women in Western and Arab life before Islam, the causes of the emergence of this theory will be better clarified for us.Political, social and economic developments throughout history have had a direct impact on women’s personal, social and even family life.
Studying the history of these developments and transformations in women’s lives provides a more realistic picture of the roots and causes of the emergence of feminism, which can be effective in finding the roots of feminists’ ideas and practices, and it becomes clear to readers how feminism came into being.Now, with the evidence of history and the study of women’s lives in different nations, we find out what is the cause of feminism.
At the beginning of the Greek age
At the beginning of the Greek age, women were in the lowest position in all social spheres, and it was the man who climbed the steps of advancement one after the other, and men were legends and heroes.
A woman’s duty was only to give birth to a healthy child, and if a woman gave birth to a thin or weak child, then her sentence was to die, and for this reason, women who gave birth well were hired.
In “Athens”, a woman was like a common commodity that was bought and sold in the markets and was deprived of the rights of citizenship, she was not given anything from her inheritance, she had no place in the education campaign and she did not have the right to own anything and was under It was a man’s command, and in case of the husband’s death, he would be under the control of his father and brothers, and his guardian would marry him to anyone he wanted, and he was not allowed to touch his property without the permission of his guardian, and whenever his guardian wanted, he could marry her from his wife. separated
The progress of Greece
At this stage, women put aside their modesty and hijab and mingled with men in meetings and seminars, and gradually lust prevailed over the people of Greece, and evil women gained a high and lofty position, which had no history before, and the residence of these women It became a gathering place for writers, poets and philosophers; To the extent that a woman was not satisfied to spend more than one night or two nights with a man. Immorality became common, and the Greeks fell in love with beautiful faces and became fond of women’s bodies, to the extent that they made idols completely naked; Therefore, marriage lost its importance; Because they were friends with anyone they wanted without any fear and socialized with each other 1.
Women in Romania
Romanian civilization was also a follower of Greek civilization and they had the same treatment as Greeks with women. Therefore, in Romania, the woman did not have any dignity and in the Romanian law, the woman was like a commodity that was at the disposal of the man and he dealt with her as he wished.
The patriarchal system, which was famous among the Romanians, had given all the authority to the man and no one shared with him in this important matter, and the woman, whether she played the role of a wife or a daughter, had to follow the head of the house, who was indeed the father. .
After the birth of the child, the father was not obliged to accept it, and the child was placed in front of him after birth, if he hugged him, it meant accepting it, and thus the child became part of the same family, and if the father of the family did not accept it. They would take the child and leave it in public places, and whoever wanted to pick it up, otherwise the child would die of hunger or thirst, or from extreme cold or heat.
The head of the family had the authority to add or remove anyone he wanted to the family through buying and selling, and after the death of the father, the sons would sit in place of the father and become the head of the family, and the women of the family would be under the leadership of the son of the family; A man was allowed to treat a woman the same way he treats slaves, animals, and undead. Even one of their religious communities approved that a woman does not have a soul and will not be eternal; But it is necessary for him to perform his acts of worship. They thought that women were evil and it was obligatory to stay away from them, and they said that women are evil and evil and have no control over their femininity, and it is necessary for her not to eat meat, not to laugh and not to talk because it is tempting.
In Romanian law, being a woman meant incompetence and backwardness; A woman had no right to employ anyone, or to testify, to sign a will; He did not have the right to inherit land and the one who was allowed to inherit was a man; Because the man was responsible for guarding the border and ensuring the safety of the children and defending them; But woman was created to keep house and take care of children.
The head of the house was the owner of all the furniture in the house and no one else had the right to possess it, and he even had the authority to marry sons and daughters to him.2
The position of women among the Persians
Persian women were not in a better position than their counterparts in other civilizations; As the Persians accepted after long discussions that women are also human beings; But it was created for lowliness and humiliation. They were created to be in the service of men and under his command and to deal with him as the man’s heart wanted and even to issue his death sentence.
In Persian religion, a man could marry his sister, daughter and mother. He was also allowed to have two sisters in his marriage at the same time.In Zoroastrian law, a woman could choose men as her friends.Marriage and hijab were mandatory for upper-class women, and women were only allowed to go out in “kajavehs” and were not allowed to sit in the same assembly with men; They were not even allowed to meet their father and brothers; But the poor section of the society were allowed to go out and explore and make friends.
Women in Indian society
Women in Indian society were in extremes; He was humiliated and mean; She did not have the right to be independent from her father, husband and children, and when one of them died, the woman was attributed to the close relatives of these people, and she was deprived of the rights and benefits of property and inheritance, and until the last breath of the man, the woman was his property.
The ancient scholars believed that a person cannot achieve knowledge until he separates himself from all family ties.
And the woman before them was the material of sin and the secret of moral and spiritual backwardness and there was no good hidden in them; As mentioned in Shariat Manu: “And death, hell, snake venom and fire are better than women”.
He also mentioned: “It is necessary for a woman to talk to her husband humbly and address him as her lord and master, and walk at a distance from him and not talk to him or eat with him; Rather, let him eat what he left behind.” [Source: Same 9-11]
Women in Chinese society
Women were also humiliated in Chinese society. In the old letter of one of the women of the wealthy class, which depicts the condition of women of that period, it is said: “We women are the lowest of the human race, and it is necessary that the lowest duty should be ours.”
One of the cases in which you can understand the inferiority of women in Chinese society is the Chinese proverb that says: “Listen to your wife and do not acknowledge her”. [Source: same11]
The position of women in Jewish communities
They accused the woman of being behind the first disobedience; The disobedience that happened in heaven; There, the Almighty Allah forbade Adam and Eve not to eat from this tree, and Iblis came upon them in the form of a snake and deceived Eve, and Eve was also deceived and ate from it and gave it to Adam. As a result, it caused them to descend from heaven.3
It is stated in Sefer Takwein: “Allah Almighty asked Adam, did you eat from the tree that I advised you not to eat?”
Adam replied: The woman you had placed with me, she gave it to me and I ate it too. Then the Lord asked the woman what did you do? The woman said: The snake tricked me and I ate too. So God said to the woman: “Always suffer the pain of childbirth and be fond of men, and he will rule over you.”4
Adam was free from this sin and Eve was the cause of it, and for this reason, Allah Almighty imposed pain during childbirth on her as a punishment.
And according to this baseless belief, they took a position towards the woman and considered her lower than the man and attributed all the deviations to her, and the woman had no right to divorce her husband.
In the distorted Jewish law, it is stated that: if a person died, while his wife did not give birth to any children, his widow automatically became the property of her husband’s friend or his brother; It didn’t matter if the woman was satisfied or not; It didn’t matter if the maintenance of this woman was his responsibility or not. And if this woman died, that man would inherit from her and the first husband’s name would be given to her first son, and this son would inherit his mother’s first husband, and this son would be attributed to the same first husband and not to the current husband. Since the position of women in the Jewish system was extremely inhumane and the Jewish religion had been seriously criticized by world critics for this reason, since the beginning of the 1980s, reforms were made in Jewish religious organizations in favor of women; Women gained the right to read the Torah in synagogues; However, religious positions are still reserved only for men and only men can be teachers.
These materials were a part of the conditions and position of women in the Jewish religion and we saw how the human dignity of women was trampled on in a catastrophic way and they were pushed aside in an insulting manner.
Therefore, in the Bible and in the story of creation, woman is mentioned as an agent of the devil in misleading man, and for this reason, she deserves the punishment and curse of God. [Source: same 16-18]
A woman in a Christian society
Christians had many sayings that were mixed with insulting women, and they considered women as a source of evil and harm, and they considered her a danger to the home and family, and they argued with each other whether women are human or non-human?! In the end, they came to the same conclusion that it is human; But they still believed that women were created to serve men.
The relationship between a man and a woman was considered impure and should be avoided. Although this relationship was through a legitimate marriage and formal contract. For this reason, men were encouraged to avoid marriage.
They hated women; Because they believed that women are one of the causes of sins and lead to sins.
They used to say: “Anyone who wants to reach high levels should stay away from women” and that’s why they considered celibacy and non-marriage as a sign of high morals and believed that a person who does not marry has morals and is pious.
They considered family life to mean backwardness and inferiority, and they believed that anyone who wants to live a good life should refrain from marriage and not marry at all.
They tried their best to make people pessimistic about marriage and family relationships.
Until 1805 AD, according to English law, a man could sell his wife, whose value was valued at sixpence.
In 1931 AD, an English man sold his wife for five hundred pounds, and the man’s defense lawyer said in his defense: “English law allowed a man to sell his wife a hundred years ago; Even the English constitution has set his price at six pence; Provided that the transaction is done with the consent of the woman.
Woman from the Arab point of view of the Jahilit period
Women were deprived of many human and social rights during the period of ignorance before Islam:
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A woman did not have the right to inherit, and the Arabs said: “One of us will inherit who carries a sword and a gun and defends the integrity and honor of the region”;
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A woman had no rights over her husband, and the number of divorces was not certain, and the number of wives had no definite limits; Even one man could marry several women and if a man who had several wives died; The older son was more deserving than others to marry his father’s wives, and he considered his stepmother like the rest of his property, an inheritance left by his father!;
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During the period of Jahiliyyah, a woman’s period was one whole year, and women mourned their lost husbands in the worst and most ugly way; During the period of Idda, a woman wears the worst clothes and lives in the worst house and abandons make-up, cleanliness, and the use of perfume, does not apply water to her body, does not cut her nails short, does not remove her excess hair, and does not appear in public. And in this way, he would sit in mourning until the end of the year, and after one year was over, he would come out of the house of mourning with the ugliest appearance and smell and go on with his normal life.
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Among the Arabs of the Jahiliyyah era, there were various types of corrupt marriages that were common among many tribes; Including:
A: A group of men would have sex with a woman and that woman was allowed to attribute the child born to any of those men she wanted;
B: A man wanted his wife to have sex with a specific person from the heads of the tribe and people who were known for bravery in order to give birth to a brave child like that man;
D: Shaghar marriage, which means that a man marries his daughter or sister to another man, on the condition that he marries his daughter or sister; without either of them setting a dowry for the woman; Because they considered a woman to be a man’s property, and a man was free to do the same with a woman, who was considered one of his property, as he interferes with his other property.
But the advanced Arabs, such as Quraysh, married at that time in the same way that Muslims marry today; who first proposed to the woman and her dowry was determined and the marriage was performed. Islam also established this type of marriage after its emergence and invalidated other cruel methods such as: forcing women to marry people they did not want, or preventing marriage, seizing, or not giving a woman’s dowry, etc.
Burying girls alive in ignorance
During the Jahiliyyah period, Arabs considered girls to be unsightly and unlucky, and they buried their female children alive out of fear of disgrace.
Islam eradicated this bad habit and the Holy Qur’an depicted this practice in the worst way and said about the Arabs of the Jahiliyyah era: «وَإِذَا بُشِّرَ أَحَدُهُمْ بِالْأُنْثَى ظَلَّ وَجْهُهُ مُسْوَدًّا وَهُوَ كَظِيمٌ (58) يَتَوَارَى مِنَ الْقَوْمِ مِنْ سُوءِ مَا بُشِّرَ بِهِ أَيُمْسِكُهُ عَلَى هُونٍ أَمْ يَدُسُّهُ فِي التُّرَابِ أَلَا سَاءَ مَا يَحْكُمُونَ (59)» [Nahl: 58, 59];
Translation: “And when one of them was given the good news of the birth of a girl, his face would turn black and be filled with anger, rage, sadness and grief; [from his own people and tribe] because of this bad news that was given to him, he hid himself; Should he accept this shame and keep the girl or bury her alive in the ground? What a bad judgment they made!”
And even more than this, God has condemned this ugly act of the Arabs and has said: “Wadha al-ma’awudah su’lat (8) with any sin of killing (9)” [Takwir: 8, 9]; Translation: “And when a girl who was buried alive is asked, for what sin was she killed?” [Source: same 20-27]
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Zaino, Mohammad Jameel, Islam and respect for women, translated by: Mohammad Gul Gumshadzehi. P.: 10 [Electronic version]
