Page 254 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

woman, and that led to this blind, superstitious belief putting
down deep roots; so much so that most Muslims have regarded that
kind of twisted logic as legitimate.

Under this foul way of thinking, women have been forced to ful-
fill the ignorant concept known as "a woman's duties" toward their
husbands even if they are deeply unhappy with those husbands'
appalling behavior and lack of moral values. They have been
despised and mistreated, and the precious few rights they enjoyed

have been restricted to the point of irrelevance. The idea that they are
second-class and feeble entities condemned to oppression has been
imposed on them by force, and that perspective has become institu-
tionalized in Islamic societies.

For centuries, nobody stood up and said, "There is no such way
of thinking or belief in the Qur'an. Men and women are equal. God
bestows wide rights and freedoms on women in the Qur'an." On the
contrary, for centuries, the mentality of superstition has imposed

non-Qur'anic practices on some ignorant Muslims through a variety
of falsehoods spoken supposedly in the name of God and the faith,
such as, "This is what the faith commands. God and the angels will
curse those who do not do it. Such people will be sinners. They can-
not earn God's approval or enter paradise." The characters of most
Muslim women have been annihilated by husbands brought up with

the teachings of the fanatical mindset because in the religion of the
fanatics, women have no choice but to obey their husbands and do
whatever they want. The great majority are not allowed to read,
work, enter into social life or even so much as look out of a window.
Therefore, since they are made physically and psychologically

dependent on their husbands, and since the customs and traditions
that prevail in that segment of society also nourish the fanatical
mindset, it is next to impossible for women to free themselves from
that repression.

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