Women Rights in Islam –Array (4) the Daughter's Rights

                                                                                         

The position of daughter in pre Islamic era:

The history of human civilization bears evidence that woman was regarded as a personification of shame, misdeed and evil in the world. The birth of a daughter was embarrassing to her family and her father could not raise his head for the dishonour that such girl would be expecting to bring it disgracefully.
This merciless tradition was widespread all over the world. The intellectual scholars and the top religious leaders were disputed for generations about the question whether God had granted women a soul like man!
In Hinduism, the woman stood debarred, from being educated in the Vedas.
Buddhism did not recognise salvation for one having sex relations with woman.
Christianity and Judaism looked upon woman as the source of all the evil committed by man in the world.
In Greece, housewives were entitled to receive no education, nor training in culture, nor social rights.
The condition in Rome, Iran, China, Egypt and other centres of human civilization was not very different.

Back to the pagan Arabs, the heartless tradition of dispose of daughters by killing them had become widespread and a routine deed among them.
The Arabs used to make deep graves in the desert and put their daughters in such graves and burry them alive by sands and stones.

The girl in this case was called in Arabic "Almoaw-oudah "which means "the daughter which is buried while she is alive".
How the Quran did forbid this antihuman custom?

The Quran did it using five Arabic words:

"When the "Almoaw-oudah" is questioned for what crime she was killed" (Surah 81:8 9)

That's means in the afterlife:
"When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned for what crime she was killed".
(Surah 81:8 9)

Slaying of daughters is such a dreadful crime that on the day of Judgement, Allah would not even talk to their murderer. Allah would simply take a testimony of the girl who was buried alive and would punish her murderer very ruthlessly.

When the Arabs heard this verse, they cried and stopped immediately this anti-human tradition.

It would be a very promising human success and achievement if it is the only evil custom that had been forbidden by Islam.

However, Still the Arabs customs about girls ruled but in another way. Although they stopped the bad tradition of "Almoaw-oudah "; however, they generally did not like the birth of daughters and preferred having boys instead.

Herein, the Quran personalizes this Arabic first choice:

"When news is brought to one of them, of (the birth of) a female (child), his face darkens, and he is filled with inward grief! With shame does he hide himself from his people, because of the bad news he has had! Shall he retain it on (sufferance and) contempt, or bury it in the dust? AM what an evil (choice) they decide on!"
(Surah 16:58 59)

The Qur'an draws a very dramatic picture of the pagan Arabs on the birth of a daughter. According to the Qur'an, if any one of them receives the news about the birth of a daughter, his face turns black and he is furious. He keeps himself away from his people because of the `evil news'. He asks himself: "Should I put up with this insult and keep up with it or should I bury it alive." The Qur'an declares their thinking as evil and brought to an end this nasty custom.

Also, Some Arabs used to kill their daughters because of the poverty and they could not afford spending on them.
Also, the Quran stopped this custom and forbid it:

"Kill not your children for fear of poverty: We shall provide sustenance for them as well as for you: Verily the killing of them is a great sin". (Surah 17:31)

The daughters were considered to be an economic load and the poor families used to dispose of them by killing them. The Qur'an made the infanticide a great sin and commanded the parents not to do so, since Allah who provides them sustenance would also provide for their children.

Generally, the Quran told the Arabs that there is no difference between the birth of boys or girls because it is the will of Allah to give the parents boys or girls.

"To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. He creates what He wills (And plans). He bestows (children) male or female according to His will (and Plan), or he bestows both males and females, and He leaves barren whom He will: For He is Full of Knowledge and Power". (Surah 42:49 50)

For that reason, no body should feel embarrassed of or offended on the birth of a daughter; neither should he hold responsible his fortune or anybody else for causing the birth of daughters.

Birth of a daughter is a blessing according to the Prophet of Islam
What did the Prophet Mohammad say about daughters?

 "Whoever maintains two girls till they attain maturity, he and I will come on the Resurrection Day like this; and he joined his fingers."

 "Whoever suffers for any thing on account of these daughters and (still) treats them with kindness, they will be a shield for him from Hell."

 "If anybody has got a female child, and then does neither bury her alive, nor treats her unjustly, nor prefers his children (meaning male children) to her, Allah will admit him in Paradise."

 "Shall I not teach you the best form of charity? (maintaining) your daughter who has been returned to you, who has got no earning member except you."

Then listen to how the Prophet Mohammad used to deal with her daughter "Fatimah":
"Whenever she came to him, he used to stand up for her and then take her by the hand, kissed her and would make her sit in his seat."

In addition, Islam gives the daughter her lost Rights:
e.g., her parents can not marry her to anyone without her own consent; she has the rights for education and she is a complete member in her society etc.

Moreover, the Prophet Mohammad gives us a golden advice to rise up our kids when he said:

"If your kids (boy and girl) become mature, do not let them sleep together in the same bed".

If we apply such an advice, many of the domestic girls' abuse would have been avoided.

About the author:
Safaa Abdel-Aziz
Co-Chief Editor,
October Weekly Magazine,
Cairo, Egypt.


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