Women's Work: Contrasting Viewpoints of Islam and the West - I

27/05/2014| IslamWeb

A caller to the way of Allah The Almighty narrated,

"Our neighbor is an old lady who is more than seventy years old. We feel sorry for her when we see her going in and out [of her house] alone, with no one from her family to help her. She is used to buying her food and clothes with her own income. Her house is quiet, because she is the only one living there, and nobody knocks at her door. This old woman had been observing our close-knit (Muslim) family. She was highly impressed by the way the father treated his sons, how they gather around him when he enters the house, and how the woman dedicates herself to the service of her husband and house.

The poor woman was always comparing her condition and ours. She recalls that she has sons and grandsons, but doesn't know where they are, nor do they pay her a visit.

What saddens her all the more is that she may die and be buried or cremated any time without their even knowing it, nor would they care (even if they knew). Her house is the result of her [earnings from] lifelong drudgery. She was mentioning to my wife the difficulties that Western women face at work and at home. She once said to her, 'The woman in your countries is a queen, and if it had not been too late for me, I would have married a man like your husband and lived exactly as you live.'"

This is a fact realized by everyone studying or working in Western countries. However, the people who want to imitate every aspect of Western life without reservations, and the magazines and newspapers that speak with admiration about the Western woman, her fashion trends and work ethic, still exist in our countries. It is through these people, magazines and newspapers that the idea of women going out for work invades our countries, under the name of equality with men, and under the pretense that Muslim women are wronged, as if Islam does not esteem women and the West does.

For over a century, the West has involved women in every field of work, with no regard to social, educational and ethical considerations. As a result, the West now suffers from the bad consequences of this involvement at social, economic, moral and health levels, all of which have sounded the alarm bells in their countries. Families have disintegrated, adultery has increased, and orphanages are full of abandoned children, who are born to lead an immoral life just like their fathers. To summarize, the West is now reaping nothing but what it has sown.

What do discerning people in the West say after seeing the evil consequences of calling for mixing between men and women, after approving of the woman being in seclusion with a man, and after a century has passed since they applied this system? What is the opinion of the first women who went out for work? In order to study the magnitude of this issue through numbers and statistics, we refer here to a report of the European Council, issued on 15-8-1420 A.H., titled 'Population Growth in Europe in 1999', which numbers 500 pages and includes forty-six European countries, approximately 811 million people and their growth in the recent decades.

The report confirmed a number of facts, including:

- The number of marriages decreased all over Europe except in four countries that witnessed a slight increase in the past two years.

- About fifty per cent women of child-bearing age in the countries of northern Europe registered official marriage contracts in comparison with the past years in which this rate was 90 percent. This indicates the decline in the official rate of marriages over the years, and that women are turning away from it to form relationships with men outside marriage.

- Births out of wedlock have increased all over Europe, especially in the northern countries. For instance, 66% of births in Iceland, 50% in Denmark and Norway, and 40% in France are out of wedlock. The population in Europe nowadays is on the decline, as it is below what is called "the continuation line" because of the shortage in births. The birthrate in Europe is 2.1 children per woman, keeping into consideration that people engaged in illicit sexual relations do not want children.

(To be continued)