Causes of Woman’s Subjugation

Woman Recreated

by Miss Shamim Anwar

Causes of Woman’s Subjugation
[Paper read at Tolu-e-Islam Convention on 8th April 1961]
This afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen, I shall place before you some very practical propositions regarding this eternal, (what I choose to describe as the) “Woman’s Question”. The subjugation of women has been the theme of many a cook, and the fact that women even today are merely a dim travesty of what they might be, is now universally recognized. What provokes my curiosity is as to when, how and why women became subjugated. What are those factors that have created and perpetuated a margin between the potential development of her personality and individuality and her actual animal existence? Why has the woman not been able to cross this margin? This is the question that has always worried me. Whatever I have learnt and discovered so far I shall attempt to present before this august assemblage most humbly, but frankly and uninhibitedly.

Woman, by virtue of being the female sex, has been bestowed upon by Nature an important biological function, namely, the perpetuation of the human race. In this role she inevitably becomes incapacitated for a considerable period of time. This incapacity means that she has to depend upon someone for her self-preservation, someone who is never incapacitated and disabled as she is. This someone, in the Nature’s scheme of things is the man. It is to this man that the woman has to look up to for her daily bread, a garment to cover herself, and a roof on her head. To be dependent in this manner is to be absolutely helpless, to be helpless is to be exploited.

For sheer self-preservation and above all, the preservation of her children, the woman suffered it all until this relationships dependence and dominance became a universal and a rigid pattern. In the course of time this pattern came to be looked upon as a very “normal” and “natural” one, for man seems to be so constituted that if anything is practiced by the majority and practiced for a long time, it is regarded as the right thing, and any opposition to it is “abnormal”, “unnatural” and of course “wrong”.

From the above we deduced that one factor in the subjugation of women is economic dependence on man. This factor becomes clear and understandable when we analyze the background of the two types of tribal organization, matriarchal and patriarchal. There have been instances when a really healthy woman did not feel the necessity of confinement. Before and after the birth of her child, she continued to work along with the men folk. Secondly, in some areas of the world, struggle for existence has been comparatively easier, so much so, that women have been able to share equally with men their economic pursuits. These places have witnessed the birth of matriarchal societies. But the places where these factors have been non-existence, emerged the patriarchal form of society of course, the patriarchal societies have been found in a majority, but the very fact that a few matriarchal tribes did exist, proves beyond doubt that once the economic dependence is removed, woman has a better chance of realizing her womanhood, and she can live as she ought to live. This is true not only of relationship between men and women, but also between men and men. Those who have monopoly over wealth, be they feudal lords, or capitalists or big business, have invariably exploited those who depend on them economically. The feudal lord exploits the toiling farmers, the capitalists his famished workers, the master in the house dominates the domestic servant, the boss bullies his immediate subordinate, the wealthy nations crush and repress the backward and poor nations, and man subjugates the woman. The kings too found in this economic factor a master plan to maintain their kingship. All that they had to do was to reduce the common man to poverty, and this make him busy in eking out his living.

It is interesting to note here that in this economic struggle and the emergence of the rich and poor classes, women became in the economic terminology, a class by themselves.

However, the story foes not end there. Having once enjoyed the power to command and domineer, neither the ruler of the ruled, nor man, the master of the woman, cares to give it up. If only the position of the patriarch, the king and the man, gained through economic control, be justified, they could rule forever. The justification was easily obtained. The custodians of the man-made religions declared that obedience to the king’s will is obedience to God, and that woman, being the cause of Adam’s banishment from paradise, is the source of all evil*. The question of reforming and improving her does not arise, became being born of Adam’s ribs she will break if attempt is made to straighten her. The woman’s bondage thus received a religious sanction. The idea of her being inferior because sacred, and as such it could not be touched. Furthermore this sacrosanct character made its way into secular literature, where in the form of idioms and proverbs, it gained ground in the minds of the people. Without any hesitation and any qualms we today talk about the educated women being “intellectual monstrosities”, of her being “sweetly unreasonable”, and we believe that “women should never be trusted”, for “frailty-thy name is woman”.

The impact of this centuries old experience and development has convinced woman herself that she is inferior to man. Indeed, it is this conviction of hers that constitutes the biggest hurdle in her emancipation.

Ladies and Gentlemen—bear patiently with me, for the end is not yet! Even if we do manage to secure economic security for the woman and prove to the people rationally that she is not inferior to man, it will not completely solve the “Woman’s Question”, for after all said and don’t, she is still a woman.

Unfortunately, in the course of the development of its culture and civilization, mankind evolved unhealthy and unnatural notions about sex. The origin of this development can be traced to the ancient times, when the realization that God has no parents and no children, that He was neither begotten nor does He beget, let the people erroneously to the conclusion that perfection and goodness is devoid of sex. This idea reached its culminating point in Christianity. The theory of Immaculate Conception, the virgin birth of Jesus, and the unmarried life that Jesus life, all proclaim the sinfulness and evil of sex. And then—wasn’t Eve who at the instigation of Satan tempted Adam to partake of the forbidden fruit so that they could achieve immortality through their offspring’s? Consequently, every child is born with the original sin, and faith in the “purity” of Jesus alone can wash it away, and the ideal man is he who can escape the woman—the temptress.

One by-product of this attitude is that the woman has come to be associated wit sex alone. All other attributes are denied her. The fact that a man cannot talk to a woman as he does to another man is the result of this attitude. Indeed! There could be no deeper humiliation than to be made to personify something that has already been stigmatized and condemned. I am convinced that as long as sex is considered dirty and sinful, a woman will never be respected. Man has shown respect only to those women with whom he cannot have sexual relationship. These women are his mother, his sisters, and his daughters.

These are the hard and unpleasant facts that we must face. There is no escape from them. A woman is born a woman, and she has to die a woman. Birth is the determining factor. A Shudra might one day be born a Brahman even after 34 corores of births and rebirths. But “all the king’s horses and all the King’s men” cannot change a woman into a man.

Here is a challenge of the “Women’s Question”. This challenge can be met by the Quran alone. It is only the Quranic social order that guarantees the fulfillment of the basic need of every individual. It leaves no scope for one man to dominate another simply because he is in a position to fling to him a morsel of food. Each individual gets his requirements as a matter of right and not on the chance emotional bouts of charity and favor of a philanthropist. The future of the woman therefore lies in the Quranic Nizam-I-Rububiyyat, that is, the economic security to all, for to be secure is to be free.

Furthermore, the Quran breaks down one by one the citadels of man-made religion by proclaiming to the world that there is absolutely no difference between a man and a woman. In Surah4, Verse 1, the Quran says: “Both male and female were created out of one single life cell.” Again it is stated: “Both men and women are honored and respected. All the children of Adam are respectable.” (17:70. “Both men and women are worthy of heavenly life on the basis of their actions and deeds.” (3:194). “Husband and wife have equal rights and duties.” (22:28). “Women can perform all those duties which men perform.” (33:35). All these Quranic verses make it amply clear that neither on the bases of birth nor on the basis of rights and duties can man claim superiority over woman. There is only one difference (not superiority) between a man and a woman, that is, the biological function of reproduction (Surah 4, verse 34) and indeed it is ridiculous to allocate exclusive characteristics to men and women on the basis of this biological difference. Hence there are no such things as masculine tastes and feminine tastes, masculine habits and feminine habits, masculine interests and feminine interests, and masculine talents and feminine talents. There is only one adjective for all tastes and habits—the adjective “human”. Here it may be argues that what we observe today is contrary to this description. There are definite and exclusive feminine interests. This is true. But “femininity” is not inherent in woman as a woman. At a certain stage in history, as pointed out earlier, woman was reduced to a certain position, and the characteristics resulting thereby were passed on from generation to generation, so much so, that they today appear as peculiar to women only. The purpose of my address to you is to help you to penetrate through the mist of the past.

Above all, the Quean has wrought a fundamental revolution in the attitude of mind towards sex. In Surah 30, verse 21, the Quran describes the relationship between husband and wife as that of companionship and love. It is a mutual feeling of restfulness and comfort. In this one verse alone the Quran has ripped off all taboos and stigmas and reinstated sex to its proper role. The woman is no longer an object for the gratification man’s lust but complementary to him.

Such are the Quranic values. Considering what the woman has undergone in the past, and is undergoing today, she has an extra responsibility for her own sake to leave no stone unturned to establish the Quranic social order, for in this social order lies her hope and her future