Quran 24:30 – Co-education And Lowering Gaze
In the name of Allah the most knowledgable. As I see it. I have had the opportunity to live in 3 different cultures in my lifetime. I lived in a country where I was not even a second-grade citizen. I couldn’t see directly in the eyes of the person talking to me because I was not equal. The reason there was racism where I had to take my gaze away or lower my gaze. Then I had the opportunity to live in a country where Islam was practiced traditionally. What I mean here is that a Muslim should never look into the eyes of another woman because it is impiety. Keeping your gaze down was a sign of respect being given to another woman. The reason in this country was high morals. Then I moved to a country where gender equality is of prime importance. I had an experience during my interview for a job. My interviewer was a woman and I did not look into her eyes at all thinking that I was exhibiting high morals. What I realized that not looking at the person talking to you was not high morals rather it was bad manners. It portrayed a person of lesser confidence, inferiority complex, and simply rudeness. The context of a gaze is primarily the mind. The mind creates and sees what it thinks of. If the mind is pure the gaze will be pure as well. I think that looking into the eyes of a person is equivalent to recognizing a personality, respecting a person, accepting their identity. When I look at another woman I see another person, not a different gender. Scientifically speaking, Studies show that making eye contact helps people to remember what you say and do. In fact, when you couple eye contact with body language, it makes them pay even more attention to you. Maintaining eye contact also encourages people to be more honest with you. And that can be a big advantage when you’re building a relationship with someone. If you want to know what kind of emotions someone is feeling, looking into their eyes can give you a lot of information. It’s pretty hard to lie with your eyes. Maintaining an appropriate amount of eye contact (that doesn’t mean staring) is beneficial to any relationship, including those with children, friends, colleagues, and clients. A comfortable gaze is approximately 3 seconds long and at 9 seconds it starts to become uncomfortable. The problem in the mind, with a gaze, that looks at another woman is an objectification of a gender. That woman is not just an opposite gender, that woman is an entity, a thinking mind, a person. When seen that way there will never be a problem when talking to another woman. I think that is what the Qur’ān is trying to tell us. And that is what Ghamidi Sahib is also trying to tell us. The culprit is not the eye it is the mind behind the eye. The mind does not need the eye to create sensuality. In the end, I think we can behave differently in different contexts. We can lower our gaze in countries where that is considered good and we can look into the eyes of a person in countries where that is considered good. Now talking at a different level, if we were to communicate to present our religion, propagate our Islamic philosophy, we will have to use the norms of that society. Looking at a person shows confidence, creates a connection between brains and then it easy to state your point of view. Islam is the religion of fitrah and revelation. There is so much evidence that eye contact is vital for human communication. Hence, the divine religion cannot go against the fitrah. That is just what I feel. I will share the scientific perspective only, as religious perspective is well known. Stay blessed, always. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190108-why-meeting-anothers-gaze-is-so-powerful