I came from a purely Hindu family, and I always grew up feeling that we as women were always to regard ourselves as beings who were to be married off, have children and serve the husband - whether he was kind or not. We were also taught that if a woman was widowed, she would always have to wear a white sari, eat vegetarian meals, cut her hair short, and never remarry.
Moving to England to study, I thought that here is a country which gives equal rights to men and women, does not oppress them and gives each the freedom to do as they like. As I started to meet people and make new friends, learn about this new society, and go to all the places my friends went to in order to “socialise” (bars, dance halls etc.), I realised that this “equality” was not as true in practice as it was in theory.
Outwardly, women were seen to be given equal rights in education, work, and so forth, but in reality women were oppressed in a different, more subtle way.
When I went with my friends to those places they hung out at, I found everybody interested to talk to me and I thought that was normal. But it was only later that I realised how naive I was, and recognised what these people were really looking for.
I soon began to feel uncomfortable, as if I was not myself. I had to dress in a certain way so that people would like me, and had to talk in a certain way to please them. I soon found that I was feeling more and more uncomfortable, less and less myself, yet I could not get out. Everybody was saying they were enjoying themselves, but I don’t call this enjoying.
During this time I had not thought about Islam, even though I had some Muslim acquaintances. But I really felt I had to do something, to find something that I would be happy and secure with, and would feel respected with. Something to believe in that is the right belief, because everybody has a belief that they live according to. If having fun by getting off with other people is someone’s belief, they do this. If making money is someone’s belief, they do everything to achieve this. If they believe drinking is one way to enjoy life then they do it. But I feel all this leads to nowhere; no one is truly satisfied, and the respect women are looking for is diminishing in this way.
When I came to Islam, it was obvious that I had finally found permanent security. A religion, a belief that was so complete and clear in every aspect of life. Many people have a misconception that Islam is an oppressive religion, where women are covered from head to toe (this is in fact for modesty as it says in the Quran), and are not allowed any freedom or rights. In fact, women in Islam are given more rights, and have been for the past 1400 years, compared to the only-recently given rights to non-Muslim women in some western societies.
Muslim women have the right to inheritance; they have the right to run their own trade and business; they have the full right to ownership, property, disposal over their wealth to which the husband has no right; they have the right to education, a right to refuse marriage as long as this refusal is according to reasonable and justifiable grounds and the Quran itself, which is the word of Allah, contains many verses commanding men to be kind to their wives and stressing the rights of women. Islam gives the right set of rules, for men and women, because they are not made by men, but made by Allah; hence it is a perfect religion.
I did not accept Islam blindly, or under any compulsion (indeed, the Quran says “There is no compulsion in the acceptance of religion...”): I accepted Islam with conviction. I know what the other side is like, and I know that I have done the right thing. Islam does not oppress women, but rather Islam liberates them and gives them the respect they deserve. Islam is the religion Allah has chosen for the whole of mankind.
Those who accept it are truly liberated from the chains and shackles of mankind whose ruling and legislating necessitates nothing but the oppression of one group by another and the exploitation and oppression of one sex by the other. This is not the case of Islam which truly liberated women and gave them an individuality not given by any other authority.
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