There is a saying, Man proposes,
God disposes. But my
better experience shows that God gives Man Robs. That is , Allah
has made no distinction in the general life of male and female--
both are equally bound to seek food, drink, sleep, etc. necessary
for animal life. Islam also teaches that male and female
are equally bound to say their daily prayers five times,
and so on.
Our great Prophet has said Talibul IIm Farizatu
ala kulli Muslimeen o Muslimat ( i.e. it is the bounden duty
of all Muslim males and females to acquire
knowledge). But our brothers will not give us our proper
share in education. About sixty years ago, they were opposed to
the study of English even for males; now they are reaping the
harvest to their bitter experience. In India almost all the
doors to wealth, health, and wisdom are shut against Muslims on
the plea of inefficiency. Some papers conducted by Muslims may
or may not admit this but fact is that the inefficiency exists
and stares us in the face. Let me also venture to say that it
is so ,for children born of well educated mothers
must necessarily be superior to Muslin children, who are born
of illiterate and foolish mothers. The late lady Shamsul Huda
by way of conversation often used to say that the Muslim
public abused her husband because he had given certain high
posts to Hindus ignoring Muslim claims. But they failed to see their
own fault that such and such Muslim gentlemen were really unfit
for the posts.
It is an Irony of fate that the Hindus, who are bound by
their cartload of shastras to treat women like slaves and cattle
and to get their daughters married before they are hardly above
their girlhood, i, e, within ten years of age, are , as, a
matter of fact, allowing the greatest liberty to their
womenfolk and giving them high education. They are trying to get
law passed against child marriage raising the age to
sixteen years though their pundits are loud in proclaiming the
attempt as 'unworthy of a Hindu" and they are devising
means to popularize widow marriage, heedless of their Pundits,
who quote shastra's saying not only should a woman refrain from
marrying a second time but she should reduce her body by living
only on fruits, roots, flowers, etc. after her husband' death.
On the other hand, while Islam allows every freedom to women
( so much so that a woman cannot be given in marriage
without her consent of free will, which indirectly prohibits
child marriage ) we see people giving away their daughters
in marriage at tender ages or giving them in marriage without
their consent. Many a time a bride bitterly bewails her fate on
being compelled to marry a bridegroom whom she knows to
be a drunkard or an old man of sixty, but marriage
celebration proceeds despite her silent protest. And so
called respectable families in our society take pride in
preventing widow marriage, no matter whether the widow be a girl
of thirteen of seven years of age!
The worst crime which our brothers commit against
us is to deprive us of education. There is always some grandfather or
elderly uncle who stands in the way of any poor girl who might
wish to be educated. From experience we find that mothers
are generally willing to educate their girls, but they are
quite helpless when their husbands and other male
relations will not hear of girls attending school. May we
challenge such grandfathers, fathers of uncles to show the
authority on which they prevent their girls from acquiring
education? Can they quote from the holy Quran or Hadis any
injunction prohibiting women from obtaining Knowledge?
We Know there are Mussalmans of advanced ideas
who are anxious to give their daughters a good
education but for want of a suitable high School for Muslim
girls they cannot have their wishes fulfilled and so they
groan under the wretched social system. Why cannot the
public of Calcutta support one ideal school for Muslim
girls? Such a high English school with boarding accommodation
and hostel, which can supply the demands of all the
different classes of people high and low, is
very badly needed in Calcutta. On our part we are willing
to convert this school ( we mean the Sakhawat Manorial
Girls' School) to that ideal one provided we get public
support and money enough to meet the cost of
up keep.
Published
in December 6, 1927. Translated
by Bangla Academy.
