Do You Remember a Time when Muslim Sisters were Really Empowered?
Bismillah ir-Rahmaan ir-Raheem. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.
Do you remember a time when you struggled to pray 5 times a day at home or at work? Your families discouraged you as they feared that you were becoming too religious and your bosses made you feel uncomfortable about praying even in unused rooms during your breaks but it was your Muslim sisters who empowered you to speak out for what is right and to fear Allah the Creator and not His creation.
Do you remember a time when you struggled to wear your headscarf, your jilbab and your niqab? Your families and your community called you an Arban, a Molviani or a Wahaban but your Muslim sisters empowered you to stay firm against their 'insults'. You were afraid to turn up to work with your jilbab instead of a skirt and blouse but your Muslim sisters empowered you to not fear the loss of your job as rizq is from Allah.
Do you remember a time when you struggled to marry someone who you would be intellectually and ideologically compatible with: someone who shared your love of Allah, His Islam, His Messengers and His most devoted servants? Your families emotionally blackmailed you so that you marry someone of their choice but your Muslim sisters empowered you to stand your ground so that your spouse and father of your children would share the same values as you.
Do you remember a time when you struggled to have a wedding day that Allah would be pleased with? Your families and your community tried to force you to abandon your modesty, remove your hijab in front of non-mahram men and play music in the background but your Muslim sisters empowered you to challenge their ignorant ideas so that you didn’t lose Allah’s blessings on one of the most important days of your life.
Without intending to insult our families and communities (as maybe they did what they did due to ignorance of our religion and not necessarily because they wanted to hurt us) that was a time when it was easier to distinguish friend from foe. They dressed differently to us and were interested in different things so it was easier to struggle against them and side with our empowering Muslim sisters.
But how times have changed!
Now being empowered is to delay our prayers or join them together for the sake of our studies or work.
Now being empowered is to abandon our modesty by modifying our hijabs to be trendier, modern and urban chic and by revealing our adornment on social media, YouTube and even on TV.
Now being empowered is to follow Shaytan’s footsteps by working and studying with non-mahram men and travelling for miles without a mahram.
Now being empowered is to replace the background music at our events with our Muslim sisters singing Bollywood songs, playing the darbuka, swaying their hips and shaking their bottoms and bosoms in front of other women. It’s as if awrah doesn’t exist between women. It does. Dancing was something that even our ignorant families and communities frowned upon. Do you remember the time when they would make you forward the dancing scenes in Bollywood movies? Only the most westernised or shameless families had the audacity to include dancers at their weddings and other functions. But now our Muslim sisters are telling us that it is allowed! But what does it say about the state of our hearts and our iman if we prefer the immoral entertainment of the idol worshippers to the simple entertainment of the sahabiyat: the duff with halal anasheed.
Today it is our Muslim sisters who we are struggling against but it is all the more difficult as they look like us and make Islam their identity and goal like we do. Their indifference or harshness towards our advice and their determination to change our understanding of Islam is worse than the emotional blackmail that we endured from our families and communities as then the difference between the truth and falsehood was clear and that made our struggle easier. Yes, some may be ignorant and well-meaning but many are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
These ‘empowering’ Muslim sisters are in fact ‘enslaving’ us to our whims and desires. This fake empowerment is in fact enslavement. Whereas before we were empowered even though the world felt like a prison, as it should do for believers as mentioned by our beloved prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), now we are enslaved even though the world feels like paradise where the clothes, jobs, relationships and entertainment that we desire are all permitted.
There WAS a time when Muslim sisters were really empowered.
Wal-hamdu lillahi rabbil 'alamin (Dec. 2018)
Umm Hafab
Muslim News