Last night, i was reading Yasmin Mogahed’s book: “Reclaim Your Heart”. An utterly beautifully written piece. I got to a chapter, she named “women’s status”. I was quite eager to read that chapter, because everything about the book is just so aesthetically pleasing.

But then I was a bit disappointed, maybe because i had high hopes for it or it was because of what her idea of “feminism” which sounded a lot like the mainstream feminism that’s being sold by tweeps on social media.

Anyway, just like how people on social media have a flawed narrative of feminism, so was hers. And i was disappointed that she saw feminism in the same light as others. It just goes a long way to show how uninformed most of us are about the whole concept of it.

In her book, she describes how feminism is about females wanting to be like males. Or as she put it; females using males as a standard. Contrary to popular belief, feminism isn’t about anything like that.

If anything, when you study the advent of Islam, and how Islam came to present day Saudi Arabia, you will notice that Islam is actually a religion that practiced its own form of early feminism.

But feminism remains the same, no matter how hard misogynists on twitter or any other social media try to twist it, feminism is about women having the same privileges as men do.

Before the advent of Islam, a period we refer to as “Jahiliyya period” in Islam which means “the year of ignorance”, it was a year in olden days Saudi Arabia, where women had absolutely no rights. They were treated as mere commodities. Women were inherited. They were buried alive.

There are even verses in the holy Qur’an that highlight the peak of how females in general were detested then;

Verse 57-58 chapter 16;

“When news is brought to one of them (of the birth) of a female (child), his face darkens, and he is filled with inward grief”

58. “With shame does he hide himself from his people, because of the bad news he has had! Shall he retain it on(sufferance and) contempt, or bury it in the dust? Ah, what an evil (choice) they decide on”

From the verses above, we are given an insight into the dilemma that an Arab man more than 1400 years ago faced. That when he is given the news that his “bearer of children” has given birth. He is filled with disgust when he is told it is a female? Whilst for males, they rejoice.

The advent of Islam, was what gave females their human rights more than 1400 years ago. I believe this is the mere reason why there are muslims nowadays that pose as “muslim feminists”.

Feminism is all about how society has made women to believe they are less humans. Which is a narrative that for some it was outwardly spoken while for others-even more distasteful acts;it was ingrained in a woman.

Feminism is all about females having an equal recognition in the society. Females are not competing with males. They do not want to be as strong as a guy. Or put on clothes like guys. Or get hair cuts like guys. It’s about acts way more serious than that.

It is about females having equal pay for doing the SAME job as males. It is about females being able to STUDY. to go to school. Which is still something we battle with in this very 21st century. It is about males taking responsibilty for atrocities like rape. And the females not being blamed for it; because they wore clothes too tight. Or whatever.

It is about society not pinning the blame on females for a failed marriage. Or even worse, a woman is blamed for her husband’s illegitimate affairs outside marriage. It is about a female having to express herself without coming off as being “nonchalant”. It is about males coming out to own responsibilities for when a female gets pregnant out of wedlock. You see when a woman gets pregnant out of wedlock it is normal for us to simply pin it on the female alone, forgetting the male that was involved in it.

These are the few things feminism is all about. Females don’t want to be like males. Who would want that? Females are comfortable being females. They just want to be treated as humans.

To put this message across, i purposely made this short. But there is so much more that needs to be said about this controversial topic that men on social media seem to cringe at, each time it’s mentioned.

P.s my DM is open for further discussion.