Comparison of Women's Rights in the East and West
Uploaded by Zeenat on Dec 08, 2002
Woman—to many, she is God’s most complete creation. She symbolizes independence, love, caring, gentleness and intensity – both in love and in hate. More intelligent and emotionally stronger than man, why as she been called Adam’s better half?
Undoubtedly women endure much more pain than men do. I challenge any man to go through even half the pain a woman goes through during labor. Margaret Thatcher, Benazir Bhutto Indira Gandhi have shown that women can rule a country even better than men… and maybe even the world!
However women have not been treated nicely by men all throughout time. They have been denied their rights, their opportunities. It is commonplace, happening on a daily basis in offices, sports, factories, schools and entertainment. As much as I hate to say it, the eastern countries in particular have been the ones to do this more than they’re western counterparts.
I feel the most alarming cause for concern in the East is that families feel that girls shouldn’t pursue higher education. Most scholarships, in fact 99% of them are awarded to boys. The common excuse is that girls are made to be housewives and mothers. Reasonably and honestly speaking, this is true. Motherhood is something that God has blessed only females with. But this doesn’t mean that girls should be totally ignorant about the world, current affairs, and history. God has revealed in the Holy Quran, “Seek knowledge from thy cradle to thy grave”. He has not added “this pertains only to men”. So, one does not have the excuse of religion for forbidding girls to study. Religion encourages it. In fact Prophet Mohammed has said “Read even if takes you to China”. This is without discrimination. Girls who are well educated make better wives and mothers than uneducated women. That way, a lot of people would benefit from a girls’ education!
However, what does not get assurance is that fact that so many girls in India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and many more eastern countries are having to give up their ambitions, simply because their parents feel that girls should be married and mothers by the age of 18. It is not only education where girls are forced to take a backseat in the East. The inequality spreads to many other things too.
Such as rape. More than half of the total rape cases go unreported. This is because the victims do...