Muslim Observer

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
news & views
Women’s Liberation: Beyond Feminism
By Karin Friedemann, TMO
Recently, I posted a status
update on Facebook that read,
“Men are supposed to pay for
women not vice versa in terms of
marriage living expenses. Women
income is the nest egg, u can’t
touch it. Never buy a big house
dependent on two incomes. It’s
haram.”
I was actually quite surprised
by the vitriol that ensued against
me, peppered with insults against
Islam. Minus the last two words,
my statement isn’t even remotely
religious and could be practiced
by anyone, regardless of religion.
The above statement is just logical
financial advice. Most women
have no idea that they have a
right to ask for maintenance as a
condition for marriage, and could
even write it into a legally binding
contract. Such an agreement
would be a tremendous blessing
not only for the woman but for
the financial stability of the family.
When a couple’s lifestyle is
dependent on two incomes, if one
person loses their job or they get
divorced, they lose the house. It
simply makes sense to live simply.
How does that make me “ridiculous”?
I was told by several people
that Islamic law is outdated and
Muslims need to come into the
modern century and stop viewing
women as baby making machines.
This attitude did not shift
even after I explained that Islam
allows birth control. I could understand
this reaction if I had
stated that Americans should return
to last century’s America,
where a woman had to get her
husband’s permission to open a
bank account, and her property
automatically became his property
upon marriage. Obviously, a
jobless housewife of any religion
will have limited freedoms. But a
woman with her own income and
a separate bank account, whose
husband pays all her bills, has unlimited
options! Why are people
so frightened by a woman with
unlimited options?
I knew a Pakistani woman
who was a fashion designer in
New York, whose husband would
not allow her to pay for any
household expenses. She told me
all her female co-workers were
jealous of her because whenever
they got paid, they had to hand
over their paychecks to their husbands.
The happy couple delayed
parenthood for some years. When
they decided to have children
it was a good situation for them
because the woman had plenty
of self confidence about her ability
to exist in the world as an independent
person, plus they had
good savings which enabled her
to stay home with her children.
Contrast with a memory
seared into my mind where a
Christian woman relative of mine
was getting chest pains and stomach
aches because she dreaded
her job so much, where she was
treated abusively. She was sobbing
and crying at length, saying
she wanted to quit her job but her
husband said nothing. I asked
him, “Why don’t you sell this
house and get an apartment so
she doesn’t have to be trapped in
such stress?” He brushed me off,
saying, “Oh she just likes to complain!”
How is this not female
slavery?
Nowadays a woman who financially
supports her husband is
considered a “good wife,” while
a woman whose husband supports
her is treated with derision
by society, which views the only
choice of female importance as
the abortion option. The “power
couple” with the big house and no
children might throw great parties,
but when a wife is obligated
to earn her keep in a relationship,
full-time motherhood is not a
choice.
Ironically, one woman who
was bashing Islam mentioned
that while she was happy to have
a good career, and she was willing
to use her money to support
a family, she was having trouble
finding any man even willing
to get her pregnant, a problem
which worried her greatly due to
being over 40. Many men just
don’t want the responsibility of
a family anymore, when it’s so
common to live with a woman
like roommates.
New York Times article
glimpses America’s role in creating
the leader of ISIS—the violent
Islamic group “redraw[ing] the
map of the Middle East”—and
confirms the line by English poet
W.H. Auden: “Those to whom evil
is done Do evil in return.”
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “was
a street thug when we picked him
up in 2004,” said an anonymous
Pentagon official quoted in the article
published Sunday. American
forces “picked up” al-Baghdadi,
then a “hanger-on” in his early
30s, the paper reports, in a raid on
a home near Fallujah “during the
turbulent 2004 offensive against
the Iraqi Sunni insurgency.”
“It’s hard to imagine we
could have had a crystal ball then
that would tell us he’d become
head of ISIS,” the official added.
The Times states in a crucial
For the classic liberal feminist,
career gives a woman status,
and without status, a woman
isn’t worthy of respect. These men
speak of “partnership” but there
is no choice for the woman if she
wants to work or not. The woman
who chooses to stay home is spoken
down to with mockery and derision,
not by her husband, but by
society. Feminism so interpreted
is just a more modern way to treat
women as chattel. Since children
are now regarded as a burden and
not valued by society, women are
now only valued as financial assets
of the man, as someone to pay half
his bills.
At the end of the day, only
women with money have legal
rights. Women have to choose between
having legal rights or having
children nowadays - unless they
follow the Islamic model. What
is ironic is that those who angrily
cling to the concept of the “power
couple” as if it was the “correct”
way to live are the over-40 set.
Among young people, the
Asian influence in the public
school system is resulting in more
family oriented thinking US high
schools, even among non-Muslims.
Not that it is the norm, just
passage:
At every turn, Mr. Baghdadi’s
rise has been shaped by
the United States’ involvement
in Iraq — most of the political
changes that fueled his fight, or
led to his promotion, were born
directly from some American
action. And now he has forced a
new chapter of that intervention,
after ISIS’ military successes and
brutal massacres of minorities in
its advance prompted President
Obama to order airstrikes in Iraq.
Mr. Baghdadi has seemed to
revel in the fight, promising that
ISIS would soon be in “direct
confrontation” with the United
States.
Still, when he first latched
on to Al Qaeda, in the early years
of the American occupation, it
was not as a fighter, but rather as
a religious figure. He has since
The Muslim Observer
3
Imam Salie
that is a norm. Young ladies now
have a choice. This was unheard of
in previous decades when having
a boyfriend defined a girl’s social
status. Young people now have a
more clear idea of what they could
gain if they stay away from boys
and concentrate on their studies.
This new generation of women,
entering professional jobs with
their virginity intact, has a lot
more negotiating power than any
other generation has had in history.
It is wise to learn what a woman
can ask for in a marriage contract,
including the right to expect her
husband to support her, regardless
of her income. How she uses her
money is her choice. Now that’s
feminine progress!
The New Iraqi Monster America Helped Make
A painted portrait of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Photo by Abode of Chaos (CC BY 2.0)
declared himself caliph of the Islamic
world, and pressed a violent
campaign to root out religious
minorities, like Shiites and Yazidis,
that has brought condemnation
even from Qaeda leaders.
The paper goes on to state
that Baghdadi grew up in a poor
community of Sufis—a strain of
Islam known for its tolerance—
in a farming village near the
town of Samarra. He went on to
become a mosque preacher and
earn a doctorate in Islamic studies
from a university in Baghdad
in the 1990s, during which time
he became radicalized. Iraqi
scholar Hisham al-Hashimi, who
researched Baghdadi’s life, says
Baghdadi’s views hardened over
a period of five years he spent in
an American detention facility.
Monster, p. 15