1) Young Muslims - The Message

Muslim support for breast cancer research is not unprecedented.Teams like the Phoenix, Arizona based "Muslim Women Race for aCure" have joined the Susan G. Komen Foundation's annual 'Racefor a Cure' marathon. El Buri registered her group, "National PinkHijab Day" with the Komen Foundation this year, and the groupraised over $900 in donations. National Pink Hijab Day gained itsmomentum with the help of the online social networking website,Facebook.com. The group has grown to over 7,500 currentmembers from the United States, Canada, and Australia."I didn't expect it to grow so big," exclaims El Buri. "My intentionwas to just lend a helping hand to the cause against breast cancer."October is breast cancer awareness month in the United States.Why does Islam degrade women by keepingthem behind the veil?The status of women in Islam is often the target of attacks in thesecular media. The ‘Hijab’ or the Islamic dress is cited by many as anexample of the ‘subjugation’ of women under Islamic law. Beforewe analyze the reasoning behind the religiously mandated ‘Hijab’,let us first study the status of women in societies before the adventof Islam.1. In the past women were degraded and used as objects oflustThe following examples from history amply illustrate the fact thatthe status of women in earlier civilizations was very low to theextent that they were denied basic human dignity:1.1 Babylonian Civilization: The women were degraded and weredenied all rights under the Babylonian law. If a man murdered awoman, instead of him being punished, his wife was put todeath.Young Muslims, What they should know about Islam Page - 141