The Half-Naked Feminism
By: Humaira Wajahat
Tags: Islamophobia, Feminism, Propaganda, Pakistan, Islam

The obscene photoshoot in front of Quaid’s portrait fixed by @Noxious_Numaira

Féminisme

Once upon a time, in the year 1837, Charles Fourier, a Utopian Socialist and French philosopher coined the word “féminisme”. From the year 1872 till 1910, this word quickly grasped the attention of society. The deprivation of Women’s rights in the west served as fertile grounds for the cause and so it spread like wildfire in France, Netherlands, Britain, and the US. Later, this word became a movement in the West, known as “Feminism”.

J. Howard Miller’s “We Can Do It!” poster from 1943 (Wikipedia)

With this in mind, we also find views such as those of Phyllis Schlafly, an American attorney, activist, and author who says, “The feminist movement taught women to see themselves as victims of oppressive patriarchy… Self-imposed victim hood is not a recipe for happiness”.

Today social media serves as a gate for all these foreign influences into the Pakistani society. Social media has become an ultimate battlefield for information warfare. From politics, religion to sports we see everything “Pakistani” being discussed, debated, or abused. Among these topics, Women’s rights often referred to as Feminism tops the list. Generally, with an overwhelming amount of information being bombarded on the society on daily basis, we must carefully study both sides of each story to understand its potential causes and effects on our unique soil.

Ella Whelan, assistant editor at spiked, a political commentator on TV and radio, specializing in the relationship between free speech, feminism, and women’s liberation said the following on this subject, “Feminists believe that women should be protected from certain aspects of public life, including speech… Feminists do not want to engage in aspects of life they disagree with. Instead, they want to silence what they don’t like through censorship and criminalization. Feminists believe that women need protection from words. Finally, contemporary feminists do not believe that women are independent, free-thinking individuals. Feminists promote a cliquey, sisterhood mentality, but not through a collective and positive sharing of ideas. They’re the kind of group you’d encounter at school who would shun you if you weren’t wearing the right kind of hairband. Today’s feminism is opposed to criticism and nuance, refusing to allow women to form their own opinions or challenge preconceived ideas.” I find Ella’s views fairly accurate and in line with the ground realities of today’s Pakistani situation.

New Masks

More recently, we saw Sadaf Kanwal giving her remarks in an interview where she said that her culture was her husband. “Women are not helpless… I take care of my husband’s clothes, shoes, and food and I don’t expect him to reciprocate it but since I am a wife it is my responsibility” she said. These are interesting comments coming from a woman who has lived her life in the spotlight of Pakistani media.

So, we see that a relatively new extremist segment of our society, not covered in a veil, started attacking Sadaf for her comments. Within minutes, we saw that, instead of critical issues such as lawlessness, women’s right to inheritance, education, choice in marriage, and financial rights of women; Sadaf taking care of her husband’s shoes and clothes became the biggest problem of Pakistan on social media. Pakistani Society needs to understand its unique circumstances and not borrow a mindset from the West.

I quote here Prophet Muhammad ﷺ saying: Abdullah ibn Umar reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock. The leader of the people is a guardian and is responsible for his subjects. A man is the guardian of his family and he is responsible for them. A woman is the guardian of her husband’s home and his children and she is responsible for them. The servant of a man is a guardian of the property of his master and he is responsible for it. No doubt, every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock.”

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 7138, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1829

What Sadaf said is in line with the teachings of Islam. Taking care of spouse, be it husband or wife, doesn’t downgrade one’s status in eyes of Allah; in fact, it elevates it. Let us understand the problem at hand, further.

Cynthia Ritchie, an American filmmaker, analyst, exposes the extremism of the Desi Liberal mindset

Peace or Freedom?

Honestly, no one is free. As blatant as this claim may seem, everyone who is working, raising a family, and making ends meet understands this. No matter how much money we earn or spend we are still bound by our responsibilities, routines, and human nature. This fact has also been taught to us in Islam. With such textbook information available on the subject, we find Desi Liberals fighting a war which doesn’t exist. Consequently, we are bound to wonder if the true motivation of this borrowed movement, may be rooted elsewhere and not in human nature. I ask you, what is the meaning of liberty in different cultures and religions?

Conventionally, the word liberal is used for someone who stands for justice, equality, and rights. However, in Pakistan, this term means something different. The subcontinent was ruled by British Colonial Power for nearly a hundred years. The term Liberal in this context means everything “West” including Islamophobia and an innate hatred towards everything Pakistani. In other words, the Desi Liberals are keeping their “Master’s” agenda alive. This lot are the unfortunate remnants of the British Colonial Masters who are on a mission to mislead Pakistan.

So as expected, Sadaf’s mistake didn’t go unnoticed, and she instantly became a victim of the wrath of the Desi Liberals on social media. Homewrecker and regressive were among the many slanders hurled against her and all this was done because what she said did not, please the “Masters”.

Celebs lash out at Sadaf Kanwal for saying ‘Our husbands are our culture (BolNews.com)

There is no denial about the importance of women’s right to inheritance, security, respect and honor, education, choice in marriage, and employment. The problem of lawlessness in Pakistan plagues all the areas of our society including the cause of Women’s rights. The laws exist but the poor state of judicial system has failed the society for seventy-four years. So, it is unfair to selectively exaggerate the case of Women’s rights and portray it as an issue of misogyny when this clearly isn’t the only area suffering from the lawlessness in Pakistan.

The Pakistani law is based on Islamic Shariah Principles which gives women all the rights, unlike the West where women had to run a movement such as Feminism to get their rights. These laws include anti-harassment law, Zainab bill against child abuse, inheritance rights, education rights, marriage rights, and property rights amongst others. The Balochistan high court has gone an extra mile to say that inheritance will not be divided at all, until women get their share.

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was the first man to raise his voice for Women’s rights in Pre-Islam Arabia. In those days, daughters were buried alive and yet Islam insisted that heaven lies under a mother’s feet and that the best among men is the one who is best to their wives. Muhammad ﷺ felt no shame in equating a man’s true worth by the measure of love and care he shows to his wife.

A pilgrim uses an umbrella to protect his wife from the sun while she is praying at the Grand Mosque in Makkah. (Reuters)

The West’s Dilemma

Contrary to this, in the West women had no identity of their own, no voting rights, no property rights or inheritance till the year 1870 when finally, the 1870 Married Women’s Property Act was passed. Before this act, a woman’s best chance was to secure a wealthy husband with good property. The yardstick, therefore, was “the Men”. Coming to the sub-continent we see that the situation was no better. In Hinduism, woman is considered a burden and property which must be wedded off and given away in “Kanyadan”.

When the law of Pakistan and Islam already gives us everything and even more then what is the struggle for? Why recreate the “Master’s” story in a country like Pakistan where the problem doesn’t exist? The demand comes down to “Mera Jism Meri Marzi”, which is translated as “My body my choice” in English.

US federal judge temporarily blocks Georgia abortion law (Al Jazeera)

Islam prohibits a man and woman’s marriage without consent and establishes segregation before marriage as a discipline in the society so that all people refrain from the sins and crimes of temptation. This also ensures that our bodies remain protected, which is the first demand of the slogan “Mera Jism Meri Marzi”. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan emphasized the same fact when he advocated the importance of Pardah which is a complete code of conduct for both men and women in the society and not just a criterion for clothing or veil. Therefore, I say that the Desi Liberals are working hard to create a circumstance borrowed from the West, which doesn’t exist on Pakistani grounds.

Playing with Fire

The West, besides problems such as misogyny linked to watching porn, violence against women, objectification of women in media and in video games, not enough men willing to marry women or take responsibility for the family, and rising cases of domestic violence, has failed the legitimate cause of Women’s rights. When asked for an alternative model, the answer is that they don’t know one but it’s definitely not Islam. I find this response both Extremist and Islamophobic. Altogether when the Desi Liberals advocate this flawed ideology in Pakistan, we see they have ulterior motives to damage the fabric of an already struggling society.

Rising Islam

The United Kingdom, which is a self-proclaimed champion of women’s rights, is going through an extraordinary rise in Islam. Yvonne Ridley, A British journalist who was captured by the Afghan Taliban, says that she used to look at women in the veil as quiet, oppressed creatures until she was captured by the Afghan Taliban in 2001. During her captivity, she spat and swore at the Taliban so much that they started calling her a “bad woman”, however, they agreed to free her on the condition that she’d read the Quran and study Islam.

Yvonne Ridley, British Journalist who converted to Islam.

It’s hard to tell who was happier when she left, herself or the Taliban. She was true to her word and so she started studying Islam. She expected to find in the Quran chapters on how to beat one’s wife and oppress daughters; to her surprise, she was unable to find any of the Islamophobic propaganda which is found abundantly in the Western media and politics; instead, she found text promoting the liberation of women. Two and a half years later, she converted to Islam.

On the contrary, here is what our Desi Liberals have been busy doing:

Gharida Farooqi, a Pakistani television news anchor twists the true meaning of Eid-ul-Adha and presents an incorrect interpretation of Islam

Marvi Sirmed, a Pakistani political commentator, journalist, and human rights activist justifying illicit relationships, mixing up the case of crime and women rights, and promoting misandry

Yvonne Ridley has been on both sides of the veil and thinks that most Western male politicians and journalists who bemoan the oppression of women in the Muslim world are utterly clueless about the subject at hand. Their rants about the Hijab, child marriages, honor killings, and forced marriages are wrongly accusing Islam but their arrogance forces them not to tell the truth and carry on with the practice of mixing cultural evils with religion. Islam offers women the world and even more.

In such a case, Western men being obsessed with women’s attire exposes an underlying agenda that is being sold in the name of Feminism and Women’s rights. “What is more liberating: being judged on the length of your skirt and the size of your surgically enhanced breasts, or being judged on your character and intelligence? In Islam, superiority is achieved through piety — not beauty, wealth, power, position or sex”. Today more than ever, it is our responsibility to identify the propagandists in our ranks.

Conclusion

As Yasmin Mogahed says, “My value as a woman is not measured by the size of my waist or the number of men who like me. My worth as a human being is measured on a higher scale: a scale of righteousness and piety. And my purpose in life-despite what fashion magazines say-is something more sublime than just looking good for men.” There seems to be a deliberate confusion being spread about the definition of women’s rights and women’s freedoms under the term Feminism. Do women need to wear short clothes, or do they need the right to choose? Do they need validation from society or are they free to choose to submit in front of Allah?

Without a doubt I say here that the beauty pageant brand of Women’s rights doesn’t represent the victory of Women’s rights in Pakistan, they’ve hijacked a genuine cause and are damaging women both mentally and physically. It is up to us to choose uncontrolled freedom to do whatever we want which is a worse form of slavery, it chains us in society’s shackles and enables us to become an object of pleasure for men, or do we choose to submit our free will in front of Allah and take action and speak up for our rights and implementation of laws which already give us property rights, right to choose in marriage, inheritance and financial rights.

At the end of the day, none of us are free, and to claim such a thing would be naïve, we choose to whom we submit; the society or Allah.

As Jami, a 12th century Persian poet said:

“I said to my rose-cheeked lovely, ‘O you with bud-like mouth, why keep hiding your face, like flirting girls?’ She laughed and said, ‘Unlike the beauties of your world, in the veil I am seen, but without it I am hidden.’”

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Available at: https://www.ajc.com/news/world/what-causes-misogynistic-thinking-new-study-finds-link-with-early-exposure-pornography/SsC96R4MGfcvXzmqzkOJhL/

[Accessed July 2021].

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