Page 328 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

ous responsibility is imposed directly on men. In this way, women,
who are more susceptible to pressure, are protected from this unwel-
come duty.

According to this verse, only if two men cannot be found, but
one man is available, is the condition imposed of "one man and two
women." In this way, a woman is not left on her own in the face of a
risky situation involving financial self-interest and calculations, such

as borrowing. The possibility of a man and a woman ending up op-
posed to one another in the event of an adverse situation arising is
thus avoided.

For example, let us imagine there is a misunderstanding con-
cerning the amount of the loan or the method of repayment. If the
two witnesses were to give different testimonies, the woman would
end up lining up against the man, and in that circumstance when one

of the two is definitely lying, she will come under intense stress and
pressure. God has prevented women, whom He places under protec-
tion against all external pressures in the Qur'an, from being exposed
to such a state of affairs. The presence of a second female witness to
support her will eliminate that pressure. In the event that one man
and two women are witnesses, when the number rises to three, the

responsibility will be more widely distributed and the stress of bearing
witness will be reduced. So people with ulterior motives who want
to bring pressure to bear will have to deceive two out of three people,
not one out of two parties, and that will make their pernicious task

much harder.
It is a well-known fact that responsibilities concerning money,

especially in today's societies, are matters where one person can easily
slander another, carelessly launch accusations against the other side
and leave the other party under a cloud of suspicion. The precaution
taken against this represents a guarantee for women in many respects.

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