On women & Islam

I came across this video on twitter and was just floored watching it. I had watched a bunch of videos of Habib Ali Al-Jifri, a very knowledgeable Islamic scholar speaking at various engagements in GB last week, but missed this one- the gem of them all. 

I don’t think I have shared too many of these types of videos on this blog, lord knows I watch many of them, ah. This one I thought should be viewed, widely. I very much appreciate the universality of positive, inclusive and uplifting messages, wherever they may be found and I hope my readers or anyone who comes across this can do so as well. Specifically as this video can offer some clarity about Islam’s position on women, to Muslims and others alike, I do hope you’ll have a look. If I can offer some cultural/religious context for this video and the wider discussion about women's rights, etc, I am more than happy to do so, on request :-)

The profoundness of Habib Ali’s words are simple.

It is unfortunately not as common a phenomenon  to hear learned members of the Muslim community speaking as clearly, inclusively, and decisively against the oppression, abuses, & relegation of women in the community. There are still an incredible number of scholars that are raising the prominence of this issue, to be clear.

Habib Ali lays it out very clearly for anyone who may be confused about justifying the treatment of women as second-class citizens/worshippers.

• No matter how many acts of worship you perform- you may fast all of Ramadan, pray/meditate into the night, but at the end of the day if you do not treat women as full and equal members of your communities/societies, the worship you participate in is in a word, meaningless.

• We have a communal obligation to prevent and take action to eliminate the mistreatment of women. Not doing so is tantamount to sinning. Tantamount to sinning.

• You may judge a health of a community by how it treats its female members. Read this again slowly...

• Muslims need to stop hiding behind the claim (however true it may have been), that historically when Islam came, it had liberated women, because saying this is meaningless in a world where women are so vastly oppressed- often while Islam is falsely used to justify this oppression in Muslim-majority countries. Think bans on women working, driving, leaving the house without 'permission', participating in sports, viewing sports, etc!

It is kind of ridiculous that such a simple clarification even has to occur. It is a sign of how bad things really are that what should be common-sense is widely UN-common.

#enoughsaid