Islam's Reformers .pdf

aby-girls die seven years later than baby-boys among all whodie in childhood. The reason is that the possibility of death ofthe prematurely born baby-girls is 50 percent less than that ofsuch baby-boys. Within the first month after birth, the death ofbaby-boys is 50 percent more than that of baby-girls. Of thebabies that die within the first age, 75 out of 100 are boys.“During the period of growth, girls grow more rapidly, beginto speak earlier and, up to a certain age, develop more quicklythan boys. The ratio of boys to girls who die between the agesof 5 and 9 is 2. Between the ages of 10 and 19, this ratio is1.45.“In all age-groups, the number of men who have heartdiseaseis more than that of women. In the critical period of theages between 40 and 70, two out of 3 deaths of heart-diseaseare men. Ulcer, cancer, pneumonia and tuberculosis are morecommon among men. Women’s cancers, for example, of wombor breast, are more easily cured than men’s cancers of lungs,stomach or prostate.“May be women catch many more kinds of diseases; buttheir diseases are less mortal. It is found out that men andwomen more easily catch 245 and 120 out of some 365 kinds ofdangerous diseases, respectively.”On Rajab al-fard 5, 1404 (April 18, 1983), Hürriyet, a dailypublished in Istanbul, reported: “According to the official resultsof the census, the ratio of widows to widowers in Istanbul is17:4.” This means that the number of widows is four timesgreater than that of widowers.Another evidence showing that women are more numerousis that there is an enormous number of women who live onselling their honesty. It is obvious that such women arenumerous especially in advanced countries. If a married orsingle man who cannot help having intercourse with such awoman marries her and spends his money for her home insteadof paying it to her for dishonesty, will it be bad? Religionreformers or progressives cannot say, “It won’t be bad, it will begood,” for they want women to remain in a status that wouldalways keep them prone to supersedure. Those who dislikemarrying more than one must be those who are afraid that notmany women will remain for them to amuse themselves with.If they say, “Man’s view of the women with whom he has- 121 -