A really good piece on how a society without Islam views a woman and the way she is exploited to meet economic gains. Also highlights how Islam would deal with the issue of women and the preservation of her honour.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'Ala protect our sisters from changing themselves to please others. The use of skin lightening cream is prevalent in the Asian subcontinent, where due to social pressure and advertising women that are dark are forced to use such products to change their appearance for a short while to fit in.
Such products are found to be dangerous in some cases damaging faces, and ongoing skin problems. Such problems exist due to two reasons:
1. The existence of a social norm that women and mothers believe potential suitors want girls with fairer skin (which is true due to many men watching films, advertisements and the like and get a perception of their ideal woman). The ugliness of black has been ingrained into the mindset of people in places like Bangladesh that it is on the point of extreme racism and hatred for anything black. Historically throughout the World the black and being black is deemed ugly and dirty and white and being white is deemed beauty and accepted. Br Malcolm X wrote many a time about this phenomenon whilst in prison even looking it up in the dictionary the word black and finding shocking statements in reference just to the word.
2. Advertisements and TV are on 24 hours a day blasting the image that fair skin is great, how many adverts on Bangladeshi TV do you see dark coloured Bengali women rather you see fair skin Bengali or Indian women flashed on our screens. Multi-nationals know the power of advertising and the weaknesses of its consumers so it will tap into this and sell products via the means it deems fit, and using women's fear of beauty insecurity it can push these products and millions will fly off the shelf. To sell cars, samosas, rice, drinks, women are used to sell the product. In Bangladesh you will have car shows with women models and every year a famous soap brand (Lux) will sponsor a model show all this to manipulate sales of the products.
Islam and the state on the other hand will offer some of the following solutions:
1. It will ensure the message of what men should look for in a wife is sent out so it minimizes the need for men to see and marry only for a women's looks, the state will educate from a young age the following Hadith in men:
Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi was sallam) said, "A woman is normally sought as a wife for her wealth, beauty, nobility, or religiousness (adherence to Islam), but choose a religious woman and you will prosper. " (Muslim) And he said, "A woman is married for four things, i.e., her wealth, her family status, her beauty and her religion. You should marry the religious woman (otherwise) you will be a loser. "(Bukhari) And he said, "The whole world is a provision, and the best object of benefit of the world is the pious woman. " (Muslim)
2. The state will ban such multi-national companies that use advertisements which mislead the people, plus ban the ones that are immoral and obscene.
3. The state will ensure the rights of the Muslim women are fulfilled and protected so advertising that manipulates women as sex objects will be banned.
4. Islam has prohibited every man and woman from pursuing occupations which endanger morals and cause corruption in society. Hence the woman is prohibited from performing jobs which aim to exploit her femininity. Raf'ib. Rifa'aa (ra) narrates:
“The Prophet [1] forbade us from the earnings of the slave-girl except that which she earned with her own two hands.”
Rasulullah sallalahu alayhi wassalam said indicating with his fingers to mean baking, spinning yarn, and engraving. So the woman has been forbidden from working in shops where the aim is to attract customers because of her sex or to work in embassies, consulates and other such places in order to use her femininity to realize political objectives. She is also prohibited from working as an airhostess in an aeroplane or other occupations where the woman works with the intention of using her femininity.
No comments:
Post a Comment