The modern world has managed to convince us women that things are their opposites. Our priorities have been turned upside down. Our values are in disarray.
We’ve been taught that our greatest natural assests (our femininity, softness, nurturing) are actually our greatest liabilities, and that we need to ruthlessly suppress our natures in order to be more aggressive, abrasive, competitive.
We’ve been taught that our greatest protective allies (our male kin: fathers and husbands) are actually our worst enemies, and that instead of welcoming their protection, we need protection from them.
We’ve been taught that our happiness and freedom come from outside (the workplace, the streets, the public sphere) and that anything else is our prison (the home, the family, the private sphere).
We’ve been taught that our worth and self-esteem and self-respect come from our financial stability and material possessions, and that our internal stability and intangible qualities don’t matter.
We’ve been taught that accepting money from our boss at work is empowering, but accepting money from our husband at home is demeaning.
We’ve been taught that our roles as professionals and consumers are prestigious, and that our roles as wives and mothers are pathetic.
We’ve been taught that our modesty and chastity are hindrances and hangups holding us back, and that we need to be bold, daring, risque, flirty, and promiscuous to be truly ourselves.
We’ve been taught that a boyfriend is our fun, but a husband is our rapist/ jailer.
We’ve been taught that the home is our cage, and children are our shackles.
We’ve been taught that our femininity is a weakness, and our strength is basically an adopted psuedo-masculinity.
We’ve been taught that obedience to Allah or to the husband is brainwashing, but obedience to the CEO and our secular friends is critical thinking.
We’ve been taught to trust fully in “the system” laid out by modern secular governments, but to be mistrustful of the system laid out for us by our Creator.
RELATED: Confessions of a Muslim Ex-Feminist
My dear sisters, protect your hearts and minds from the warping of the modern world.
It’s time to flip the script. And see things as they really are.
اللهم أرنا الحق حقا وارزقنا اتباعه، وأرنا الباطل باطلا وارزقنا اجتنابه.
“O Allah, show us Truth as Truth and guide us to follow it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and guide us to avoid it.”
Assalamu Alaikum. Nice short listing of things women have to reevaluate . Nice it was published during Ramadan . It’s important women, Muslim women, and all women accept that being a woman is not to become an imitation of a man. We may at times need to use some “male traits” but not at the expense of suppressing our traits we naturally excel in or ruining our lives with. Family is more important than a gold watch.
The greatest irony is that the feminist movement is the greatest expression of mysogyny, so much so that a supreme court candidate doesn’t want to define what a woman is
Many Men equal femininity to weakness.
That’s why many women are becoming more masculine.
Don’t know if Daniel or you read these comments but great article sister I’m now going to proceed to hit a few people in my life in their egos with this.These are things that men and women in their marriages and families should communicate about to keep tensions and all sorts of unhappiness away.You and your husband have been blessed with a way with words Alhamdulillah.