Foreword
To The First Edition
Superiority of one sec over another
is a peculiar factor in the history of human beings; it is unknown among animals and
birds. This fact in itself is enough to lower the estimation of human existence.
Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the superiority is claimed on the basis of sheer
accident of birth, for, after all, women were not given the chance to choose their sex. In
other words, women are looked down upon for a crime they never committed.
The situation is
tragic enough. What accentuates the tragedy is that the subjugation of women is justified
and rationalized in the name of Islam. This means gagging of all the criticism.
The need of the
hour is to bring about the true position of woman in the Quranic Social Order. This is the
object of this booklet. Therefore, I have included in it the speech I delivered at the
Tolu-e-Islam Convention in the year 1961 on the “causes of woman’s subjugation”.
The situation that has since aggravated on the Pakistani scene, and the issues that are
eternally raised in the name of Islam have been dealt with in the succeeding articles.
I hope this
attempt will prove useful.
- S.A.
- 26-B, Gulberg,
- Lahore, October, 1964
Foreword To The Second
Edition
It is a truism that old ideas, attitudes, habits and
institutions die very hard. There is a gap of several generations between the idea or
attitude adopted and its actual implementation by the society as a while. But even this is
conditional, that is, provided the attack on the old idea and attitude is carried on
relentlessly and continuously, or else even the earlier attempt will lapse-Hence the
raison d’etre of this second edition.
In the foreword
to the first edition I have mentioned the “situation” that had “aggravated
on the Pakistani Scene”. This was with reference to the adverse reaction of a
regressive section of our society to the promulgation of the Muslim Family Laws of 1961.
Actually, opposition to these laws has never abated. The sword of Democles hangs over it
all the time. The situation today is worse than it ever was, for while in the early
sixties the opposition was from a private section of the society, now in 1980 that very
section speaks from a position of authority. Therein lies the real threat to these laws.
Unfortunately, many educated women do not even know what they will loose if such a thing
actually happens that is, if these laws are abrogated. Extracts from these laws,
therefore, are being printed as Appendix II.
The fear of
loosing these laws does not complete this dismal picture. To put women being the “chadar”
again is another attempt to push her, and thereby the whole society, into the Dark Ages.
However, public opinion has protested and a spate of letters have poured into the national
press. A sample of some letters to the editors against the “chadar” are being
printed as Appendix III.
Besides, in this edition two more articles are being added, written
between 1964 and 1970, courtesy the “Ravi”, Government College, Lahore and
“The Pakistan Times”, wherein they were first printed.
This booklet
will act, I hope, as a handbook of ready reference for women who wish to safeguard their
rights and live on a human level.
- S.A.
- 93, Jail Road,
- Lahore.
- October, 1980.
Foreword To The Third Edition
It is intriguing to note that my
foreword to the first edition was preceded by a grave threat to the Muslim Family Laws.;
the foreword to the second edition was preceded by the Hadood Ordinance; and now the third
edition is preceded by the Shariat Bill and the impending Obscenity Bill. Indeed, this
related a story of an all-round regression.
Perhaps the
worst thing that happened to Pakistan was Ziaism, whose touch has withered away whatever
gains the Muslims had made in the past century. In a decade of dictatorial rule, after
having hijacked the country with the gun of the armed forces, he dug in so deep that he
himself proudly claimed that whether he was on the scene or not, his measures would
survive. Also, once while addressing the maulanas and the mushaikhs, he announced the
favor he had bestowed on them by placing them on a high pedestal, whereas formerly they
were an ignored section of the population. The logical sequel to this is that today we are
face to face with theocracy, a form of government that the Quran abhors and primarily aims
at its abolition.
In a regressive
and theocratic scenario, the biggest victim is the woman. This is no ordinary statement,
for there is a powerful think-tank behind it. The “spiritualism” of priest craft
is generally sex-obsessed, (my conviction is that a sex-obsessed individual alone opts to
don the priestly mantle!) but the implications of the Hadood Ordinance, the law of
evidence, its opposition to the Muslim Family Laws, the idea of a separate women’s
university, the Shariat and the Obscenity Bills, chadat and chardivari are sinister. All
these are clever moves to humiliate women; humiliated women destroy the family units and
that is just another way of saying that the nation is dead.
To the priest all this makes no
difference. As long as they can exercise thought-control over their followers, they can
strike a bargain with the Caesars, the nimrods, the Sultans and Shahnshahs, the British
Emperors or the Gandhis and Nehrus of Bharat.
In this
background, what has worried the women most is surah 4, verse 34 in the Quran. A dialogue
I had with Mr. G.A. Parwez on this concern of women became the subject matter of an
article. Another article on the family unit and its various facets became a major
preoccupation with me based on tragic results of our traditional pattern of family life.
Both there articles are being included in this edition, courtesy “The Nation”
wherein they were first printed. At the end some comments are added under the caption
“ Miscellaneous”.
However, often
explanations, claimed to be in the light of the Quran, provoke people, especially women,
to wonder as to why are they nagged by so many varied interpretations. Many are alienated
and perforce with to go secular. They have a good reason for saying so, but this is
exactly where the Mullah triumphs. This may sound strange but it is a story by itself. In
order to allay some of these genuine feelings of alienation, I am including my article
“Quranic Approach towards Change” as appendix IV first printed in “Talu-e-Islam”
of January 1990.
This third
edition again is a small effort to ward off the python that is poised to swallow us all.
But eventually, the inexorable Laws of Nature will give us what we deserve.
- S.A
- 26-B, Gulberg 2,
- Lahore.
- April, 1992.