Firoz Bakht Ahmed is a commentator on social and educational issues. He is the son of adopted son of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. He can be reached at firozbakht@rediffmail.com.
By Firoz Bakht Ahmed
More than half a million Muslim clerics sacrificed their lives for India during the various phases of the great 1857 revolt - a fact almost buried like the mutineers themselves. These Indian freedom fighters came from the same madrasas that have been under scanner all over the world since 9/11.
In 1997, I was witness as well as part of the grand celebration of India's completion of 50 years of independence. Not one word was mentioned during that event about the role of the ulema and the madrasas in the battle against the English. It was hurting. Celebrated Punjabi litterateur Kartar Singh Duggal says in his autobiography that the Indian maulvis were one with the pandits on the issue of retaining the age-old Indian traditions - both Vedic and Islamic.
Relates Maulana Umar Gautam of Madrasa Markaz-ul-Ma'arif that madrasas are a legacy of the Mughal rule when these "institutions of higher learning" were set up to promote both religious and scientific knowledge. In the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, as the English call it, the madrasas had become hubs of nationalism and had to bear the wrath of the British.
The madrasas remained the hub of the anti-British movement even later.
It is to the credit of the Deoband Madrasa that an Indian government in exile was formed in Kabul on July 9, 1916 after Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi was sent there on a special mission. Maharaja Pratap Singh was the government's "president" and Sheikh-ul-Hind Maulana Mehmood-ul-Hasan the "prime minister". Maulana Barkatullah Bhopali and Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi were its ministers.
According to the account of Dilli Urdu Akhbar, 222 ulema were arrested including Sheikh-ul-Islam Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani, Maulana Waheed Ahmed Faizabadi, Maulana Aziz Gul and Hakeem Sayeed Nusrat Hussain. They were sent to Malta via Cairo by a ship Feb 21, 1917 and released June 8, 1920. There were many who were there for the whole of their life.
Members of the Khilafat Committee issued a favour supporting the non-cooperation movement in July 1920. The fatwa, published in the Aljamiaat Urdu daily of Delhi, was signed by 500 ulema declaring the British government as 'haraam' (prohibited by the Sharia). This implored the Hindus to start the Shuddhikaran movement to oppose the English.
The service rendered by madrasas to the country and the Muslim community is an established fact. In India, these madrasas have played an important role in protecting human, Islamic and social values. These institutes have also played an important role in survival of Islamic practices -- dissemination, publication of Islamic literature, protection of Islamic faith and development of Islamic culture and civilization besides contributing in the development of the country.
According to Maulana Azad's Al-Hilal, Hazrat Alif Mujaddid Sani, Maulana Ajmal Khan, Maulana Syed Ataullah Shah Bukhari, Allama Anwar Shah Kashmiri, Ashfaqullah Khan Kakorvi, Maulana Imam Bakhsh Suhbai, Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Shah Abdur Rahim Raipuri were all madrasa products who fought the English tooth and nail.
Who can forget the sacrifice of Bahadur Shah Zafar, who became the symbol of Hindu-Muslim concord? Can one forget Muslim women like Chand Bibi, Begum Hazrat Mahal and Begum Zeenat Mahal who rather than being raped at the hands of the English went down fighting the English?
The first and foremost entity to foresee British plans to enslave India was a product of these very Islamic madrasas - Shah Waliullah Muhaddis Dehlawi. He was a great saint as well!
States the Savera Urdu monthly of Lahore that Shah Waliullah Muhaddis Dehlawi saw the destruction of country with his own eyes. He deeply studied the conditions prevailing in Europe and Asia and laid down certain reformative ideas for future government with a view to banishing the British from India.
He started a movement for this and made madrasas the centers of national movement. In 1731, the plan for the country's freedom was prepared under the leadership of Shah Sahab and ulema like Shah Abdul Aziz and Shah Rafiuddin.
The true heir of Shah Saheb's legacy and his ideas, the Imam-e-Hurriat, Shah Abdul Aziz Muhaddis Dehlawi, raised the banner of revolt against the British and gave a fatwa that the country had been enslaved and it was the duty of everyone to undertake jehad for freedom.
After this declaration of jehad by the Imam-e-Hurriat, the scholars of religious madrasas made the freedom of the country the mission of their life. From 1818 to 1831, under the leadership of Syed Ahmad Shahid Barelwi, who was brought up by Shah Abdul Aziz Muhaddis Dehlawi, a group of ulema toured the entire country extensively.
In 1831, while fighting the British at Balakot, leader of the Hurriat Caravan, Syed Ahmad Shahid, and his true follower, Ismail Shaheed, laid down their lives and attained martyrdom.
Their deaths turned the freedom wave into a storm.
(Firoz Bakht Ahmed is a commentator on social, educational and religious issues. He can be reached at firozbakht@rediffmail.com)
Some time ago, Indian Muslims were in the centre of yet another needless controversy over their presence in the Indian army. Let alone the army, they lag behind in all fields, from the academic, administrative and judicial to medical, engineering and management. The community lacks the motivation to stride ahead as they feel that they will be discriminated against because of their religion in any case.
The reality is that the Muslim academic record is far too poor. Since their institutions of higher learning have been neglected and are cut off from the mainstream, they produce students who are misfits in the modern world of information boom. Though Muslims comprise 15 per cent of the country’s population, their achievements have never commiserated with their numbers. Even in Aligarh, once a centre of advanced learning, Muslims are seen languishing in ghettoised slums, with literacy rates plummeting. If the nation’s literacy rate is 63.07 per cent, Muslims are way behind at 41.27 per cent. According to surveys carried out by Friends for Education, only 21.66 Muslim women are literate as against the 40.54 per cent among non-Muslim women.
Not more than 2 per cent Muslims are in government jobs. Of the 479 judges at an all-India level, only 30 -- that is, 6.26 per cent -- are Muslims. In the IAS, Muslim constitute a mere 2.27 per cent. Of the 3,284 IPS officers, just 120, or 3.65 per cent, are Muslims.
As far as the Muslim representation in the central government ministries is concerned, the figures are shocking. In the Home Ministry, of the 59 secretaries, joint secretaries, directors, advisors etc, the percentage of Muslims is 0. In the Ministry of Labour, of the 12 officers, none is Muslim. In the Power Ministry, of the 44 officers, none is Muslim. Similarly, of the 38 officers in the Personnel, Public, Pension and Grievances Ministry, not one is Muslim. The Defence Ministry has 100 officers and none is Muslim. Of the 107 officers in the Finance Ministry, the Muslim percentage is 0 again. The External Affairs Ministry has 47 officers and none is Muslim. Of course, the HRD and Information and Broadcasting Ministries do have an officer each out of 26 and 33 respectively, which makes their representation 3.44 per cent. There are other ministries without a single Muslim officer. Of the total 426 officers in all the ministries, only nine are Muslim, which means a meagre 2.11 per cent.
On the electoral front, we find that despite constituting about 20 per cent of the population in Uttar Pradesh, 17.4 per cent in Bihar, 14 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 65 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir, 14.2 per cent in Karnataka, 11 per cent in Himachal Pradesh, 15.8 per cent in Gujarat, 12 per cent in West Bengal and about 9 to 10 per cent in the remaining states, the Muslims have not really mattered. They are just vote banks for political parties.
There are various reasons for the backwardness of Muslims. Because of their leaders and the petty politicians who represent them, Indian Muslims live in a system of unofficial apartheid. Hindus and Muslims have developed separately, very often wholly ignorant about the other. This ghetto existence has allowed the rise of a class of political middlemen who serve as interlocutors between the Muslim masses and the rest of Indian society.
The sad educational record of Muslims in India will be a perennial source of trouble. Muslims have low school enrolments and suffer a high dropout rate. There is a yawning gap between the Muslims educated in modern classrooms and their more numerous counterparts who are educated at madrasas, khanqahs, Urdu medium schools or simply not at all. This gulf has widened rather than diminished over time.
The Muslim leadership has lost its voice and utility. Most of the leaders are brokers who play the politics of vote banks to acquire State patronage for themselves and their coteries. Their obscurantism is taking the community backward. They are characterised by petty mindedness and a narrow outlook so out of tune with reality as to be irresponsible.
The rest of the community gains little except some rhetorical lip service about its social and economic needs and many exhortations about the will of God. Instead, Indian Muslims are all identified by the actions of clerics and ill-educated youths, whose militancy has done little to free Muslims from the begging bowl.
Recently a Muslim politician from Uttar Pradesh offered anyone who brought him the head of the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Prophet Mohammad Rs 51 crore and the murderer’s weight in gold. I wish he had offered this sum for a medical or engineering college for Muslims.
By Firoz Bakht Ahmed
Qalam (a reed pen) no more seems to be mightier. The might of Urdu calligraphers is put to ultimate test not by the sword but by what the calligraphers at the offices of Urdu newspapers Rashtriya Sahara, Siyasat, Inquilab, Qaumi Awaz and Nai Duniya call "bijli ka qalam" (electric pen, referring to the computerised type-setting).
A computer might be a blessing for others but it has impoverished a whole range of beautiful designs - a whole artistic heritage. The onslaught of the Urdu fonts software has thrown these calligraphers out of gear putting their existence in jeopardy.
Not very long ago pages of newspapers and books were written in beautiful hand. Every time an artist put pen to paper, a letter was deftly carved and with each one having its own individual shape and curvatures, it seemed so alive! The major styles of calligraphy are basically three - Arabic, Persian and Kufic. The designs though are umpteen like Asloob, Tughra, Suls, Aseer, Riqa, Ghalib, Nataliq, Naskh, Manshoor, Mohaqqiq and Larza amongst others.
In this art, better known as 'khattati', words written with qalam become masterpieces adorned by measured strokes with the help of dark viscous liquid known as 'siyahi'. Since its advent, there has been no change in the technique of using the reed pen and the ink. In newspapers, Khattati-styled words are immaculately designed mainly for headings and also for the material in blurbs.
In this graceful art of calligraphy, the rhythmic intervals afford rest to the eye as it runs over the text providing a subtle pause between the forward movements of the line. There's kinetic design emphasised by several elements; altercations of the characters' vertical sections, juxtaposition of unequal spaces, groups of words in sequence or in insertion so as to create outside the bound of their assigned space, symmetry and rhythmic breaks in reading.
Calligraphy when used for routine purposes of writing newspaper reports or books is known as 'kitabat'. Urdu newspapers have tried to use some of their calligraphers but most are left in the wilderness unless they have learnt how to compose using Urdu software. One such example is Mushir from the Urdu daily Rashtriya Sahara, who has learnt the art of composing in Urdu. But all are not fortunate like him.
According to Anis Siddiqui, a national calligraphy award winner, the problem with these calligraphers is that most of them come from the madrassa background and can't cope with the latest page-making tools unless they have learnt desktop publishing under the aegis of the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) or Jaipur-based Madrasa Jamiatul Hidaya, where they are taught page-making on computers.
One can see some Urdu calligraphers fiddling with the computers - a sight full of inescapable irony where the poor katib is seen toiling away at the very instrument of his destruction.
The computer's takeover of page-making at Delhi's most Urdu dailies and weeklies means that the fluid, stylish and pleasing alphabet has transformed into a matter of monotonous uniformity. Though the move to modernisation is time saving and deadlines are met besides the economy of space, readers generally dislike this print and font.
Dr. Hamidullah Bhatt, director of NCPUL, says that the poetry that was in calligraphy is missing. "The lively hand-written word is left a cold embittered, computerised totem," he says.
Delhi's widely circulated Qaumi Awaz has attracted some of the best talents, including famous calligrapher Jalaluddin Aslam. He laments at the takeover of the written word by the computerised one.
However, eminent calligrapher and poet Qais Rampuri, from Rashtriya Sahara, does not ascribe to Aslam's view since he believes that computerisation is bound to take over most aspects of our life and the calligraphers must not be gingery about it.
According to Rampuri, a good calligrapher does not starve as there's a lot of work even in the capital itself. But at the same time, he says that the hand-written columns have their own inimitable appeal. The aesthetic charm of an original word is always more than the technical one.
Shahid Siddiqui, editor of the Urdu weekly Nai Duniya, differs on this account. He feels that computers are better for they provide the facilities that calligraphers cannot. "If the other language newspapers are going the computer way, why not Urdu," he says.
Dr. Aziz Burney, the editor of Rashtriya Sahara, leads us to a cabin where dupatta-clad girls are busy clicking away at their Urdu software with English keyboards. "Many Muslim girls are taking to Urdu software and are earning handsomely," Burney says.
Quite strangely what appears at the screen is beauty cast in Urdu mould. Here on the English keyboard, the Urdu alphabets are of the same sound as their English counterparts. For example, 'J' is for Jeem, 'R' is for Ray and 'M' is for Meem.
Urdu software might be effective for a selected few but for those like Atiq Siddiqui of Al-Yaum - a newspaper in Saudi Arabia - who are dedicated to mastering the artistic written word, feel that the long youthful years of toil and training have given way to this hoary order of the day in the name of computerisation.
What's still worse is that the calligraphers are being exploited. In fact, they must be accorded the status of a sub-editor. The calligraphers used to be accorded a very high status during the days of Mughal emperor Akbar. In Ain-e-Akbari, Akbar is quoted as declaring to his court calligraphers, "Go on doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword!"
(Firoz Bakht Ahmed can be reached at firozbakht@rediffmail.com)
The emerging Indian Muslim changes stereotype
By Firoz Bakht Ahmed
The stereotype image of Indian Muslims is slowly changing. The 'burqa' remains, but is no more omnipresent. The madrassas exist but the educated Muslim is no more a rare commodity. And Hindu-majority India has plenty of Muslims as national icons. Meet the emerging Indian Muslim!
Wahida Prizm, the first woman Surgeon Lt Commander in the history of the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, cricketing heroes Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan, tennis star Sania Mirza and classical singer Zila Khan are just a few one can think of without effort that are changing the Indian Muslim's image.
A new class of confident Muslims has emerged, thanks mainly to modern education and the truly secular credentials of India. No wonder, the Muslim youths are increasingly challenging the orthodoxy and bigotry of an entrenched clergy.
Frankly, India's multi-religious roots, deeply entrenched in the values of secularism and democracy, have played a vital role in helping the community to prod on even after events like the 2002 Gujarat riots. Not only is there an entrepreneur class in every nook and corner of the country but a strong middle class is emerging, thanks partly to Islamic educational institutions.
The new enlightened and liberal Muslims are bursting with enthusiasm and a will to challenge orthodox traditions and norms. We have an upcoming generation that doesn't compromise with what is anachronistic. To this generation, the partition of India, which like no other event pitted Muslims and Hindus against one another, is an event that is best forgotten.
This new class lays great emphasis on education. It is strongly critical of the role of groups like the Muslim Personal Law Board and Babri Masjid Action Committee. Given the opportunity, they are ready to embrace modernity. The liberals among them are increasingly in positions of influence.
The middle class is growing and the economically better off Muslims are more visible. The overall population growth in the community is falling while the educational graph is on the rise. Educated middle-class Muslim women are breaking the stereotype and asserting themselves.
There was a time when it was difficult to find educated Muslims but today there is no dearth of them. M. Atyab Siddiqui, a leading lawyer and social activist, is a brilliant embodiment of this new class of Muslims ready to take on religious bigotry. But the community has to go a long way in its battle against the Mullahs and Imams who do not conform to modernity. And Muslims often have to walk that extra mile to overcome continuing prejudice.
Sadia Dehlvi, a woman activist, documentary maker and editor of Bano Urdu monthly, laments that the greatest tragedy of Muslims is not only their socio-economic backwardness but the churlish vote-bank politics and the politics of semi-illiterate politicians from within the community.
The matrimonial ads in some prominent newspapers reveal an interesting story. The ratio is five women to one man! An educated Muslim female wants her spouse to be better qualified than her whereas the reality disappoints her. This also results in many Muslim women getting older waiting for a better match.
Syeda Hameed, a Planning Commission member, believes that during the last two generations the status of Muslim women has improved greatly in the field of education. Today they work as judges, professors, doctors, scientists, journalists, lawyers and administrators.
No doubt there are problems like economic backwardness and unemployment, but these are issues that confront every Indian community. What is important is to look at the larger reality without putting a carpet on existing problems.
source : IANS
By Firoz Bakht Ahmed
The exposure by a TV channel of corruption in the Haj pilgrimage from India has brought to light an issue that was talked about for long by those in the know of the stink. But nothing happened. Now that the corrupt have been exposed, the authorities should sack the staff and file criminal charges against them.
In my opinion, there is a lot of corruption in the management of Haj pilgrimage. And this extends to various agencies, both in the government and private sector. This is important not only to alleviate the sufferings of the Hajis but also to bolster the image of India abroad.
Poor Indian Hajis, who often come from small towns, have over the years been hoodwinked and exploited by the Central Haj Committee and umpteen private tour operators. A complete overhaul of the system is a necessity.
For Muslims, Haj is a blessed journey to the sacred precincts of Makkah-e-Muazzamah (Mecca). It is a practical application of all five pillars of Islam and of its major ethical principles. Above all, it is a manifestation of the belief in the unity of god.
The plight of Indian Hajis is pathetic right from the start of his journey to the destination. Around 80,000 Hajis usually go each year through the Central Haj Committee. Many also go through private tour operators. A subsidized Haj tour by the Indian Central Haj Committee costs around Rs.80,000.
There has been a lot of criticism about the poor arrangements made by the Central Haj Committee in India and by the Indian consulate at Jeddah in Saudi Arab. The fate of Hajis who, desiring better facilities, go to private operators is worse. With no law to regulate such operators, the pilgrims get cheated.
There is cheating even while booking the accommodation for the Hajis in and around Mecca. A group called "Building Selection Team" selects accommodation for pilgrims in different categories.
Usually photographs of a good building with amenities are shown at the time of booking and the rates settled accordingly. But when the Hajis reach Mecca, they often find that there is a breach of agreement. The accommodation turns out to be without air-conditioners, lifts, water facility and proper toilets.
Indian Hajis have complained that the units where they are made to stay are far from Haram Sharif (sanctum sanctorum) of Mecca. The cost of the accommodation depends on its distance from Haram Sharif. The close one is to the sanctum sanctorum, the higher the cost. There are cheaper houses in hilly areas around Mecca's Ring Road but only the sturdy ones can afford this. Yet aged Hajis are put up around these hills.
It should be remembered that many of the pilgrims are poor who spend their lifetime earnings to undertake the Haj. The Haj Act that came up in 1959 when the number of Hajis was a mere 5,000 or so needs to be amended to tackle the various problems.
M. Atyab Siddiqui, a lawyer, had filed Public Interest Litigation against the Central Haj Committee for its alleged mass exploitation of Hajis. According to him, a Haji pays advance in full money for his entire journey that includes air-conditioned travel by vehicles from Jeddah to Mecca, Mecca to Mina, Mina to Muzdalifah, Muzdalifah back to Mina, Mina to Mecca, Mecca to Madina and Madina to the Jeddah airport.
What the Hajis often get are old and worn-out buses with no proper gates and windows, what to talk of air-conditioned buses. These buses literally burn in the desert heat with mercury rising as high as 50 degrees.
Air India usually arranges flights for Hajis at the behest of the civil aviation and external affairs ministries. For the last five years it has been noted that at the eleventh hour Air India hikes its airfare. Inefficiency in the Indian Haj Committee usually takes place because of the political appointments.
There is an immediate need to check the exploitative instincts of the private tour operators for whom Haj season is a flourishing business. These people have been charging 2,000 riyals for the muallim (obligatory Haj guide throughout the pilgrimage). The necessary services do not come the pilgrims' way.
Medical attention is another area that needs improvement. During the Mina tragedy some years ago, many Hajis died for want of proper and timely medical attention. The number of casualties among Indians could have been more had the Pakistani and Bangladeshi doctors not provided quick first aid. Arrangements should be made for unani and ayurveda doctors as well.
The State Haj Committees in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore or Chennai are unable to provide the Hajis even the basic needs when they reach bigger cities on their way to Saudi Arabia from their smaller towns. So the Haji becomes disgruntled even before his pilgrimage begins.
In the same manner, they are often made to stay at Saudi airports for more than 24 hours. There should be a smooth and prompt disposal. In a recent case, many Hajis got stranded for about 10 hours at the Delhi Haj Terminal because the flight was delayed. In the meanwhile they were not given food or even chairs to sit. They sat on the floor.
From the Saudi angle it becomes obligatory to be aware of the ways of life of pilgrims from different parts of the world. Large crowds at places of pilgrimage do present risks. But disasters should not claim so many lives as has happened in recent times.
(Firoz Bakht Ahmed is a commentator on social, educational and religious issues. These are his views. He can be reached at firozbakht60@yahoo.co.in)
By Firoz Bakht Ahmed
The day of Eid-ul-Fitr truly symbolizes piety, patience, fortitude and godliness. Socially, Eid reminds us of the noble human feeling to share the festivities with the poor, underprivileged, downtrodden, orphans, the neglected and the cast off besides embracing people from all walks of life. Muslims need to clearly denounce those misguided people who in the name of Islam call for the death of innocent people.
The congregational prayers and expressions of brotherhood, coupled with the distribution of poor dues (Fitra) marking the celebration of Eid, should not be seen merely as rituals but need to be understood and appreciated with reference to their wider significance, especially at this juncture.
Muslims around the world are stigmatized today owing to the so-called jehadis. Therefore through Eid Muslims should convey a message of peace and harmony. Islam considers all creatures of God as one family, of whom man is dearest to Him. As in the Vedic religion, "Nar seva, Narayan seva", so it is in Islam.
This day of happiness is also a day of introspection for Muslims who should spare at least some time to see if their actions and character can be assessed favourably in the light of Islamic teachings as to whether they have contributed to the well-being of their fellow beings, non-Muslim brethren and the nation above all.
Muslims must see to it that on Eid, though a day of happiness, there is no squandering of wealth and it is ensured that the downtrodden are taken care of. Gratitude and service to humanity are the fundamental values Islam inculcates in every person. That is why service to humanity is the grain of a Muslim.
Eid-ul-Fitr, in brief, is celebrated to express gratitude to god and the nation for enabling the faithful to observe fasts for a month in the manner of a "refresher course" punctuated with strict self-discipline and the night 'tarawih' prayers.
Merely celebrating Eid unmindful of whether the neighbour is happy or not does not reflect the true spirit. Eid is also a time to realize the urgency of fraternal bonding and the concept of inter-faith harmony that demand a meeting of hearts and minds to weld the Ummah as a cohesive and pious force.
In the present context, when Muslims are being widely portrayed as terrorists owing to the zealots, the need to highlight Islam's stress on universal brotherhood and its image as a promoter of peace and harmony is of paramount importance.
By Firoz Bakht Ahmed
Although there's a lot of wailing about the veiling of Muslim women, no one is bothered about their pathetic literacy levels despite the fact that Prophet Mohammed stated: "Talabul ilmi farizatun ala kulli muslimin wa muslima" (It is compulsory for both men and women to be educated).
A hue and cry is raised over issues like talaq (divorce), model nikahnama (marriage document), polygamy, family planning and the purdah (veil) - all issues that have been tirelessly talked over for decades without any consensus. But clerics, scholars or politicians rarely bother to promote education of Muslim girls.
The illiteracy figures among Muslim women are as high as 90 percent. The all-India literacy figure stands at 65 percent, according to a survey among 80,000 Muslim females by the Friends for Education group. The sample survey consisted of Muslim females of all ages from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Punjab and Haryana.
Figures of admission to various institutions reveal that Muslim women, along with neo-Buddhists, are at the tail end. The reasons for the dropout of the Muslim girl are varied, ranging from financial constraints, lack of interest in studies, repeated failure, mental/physical disabilities, poor teaching, shunting between different places and, of course, the failure of the much hyped National Literacy Mission and Education for All.
Abject illiteracy among Muslim women still lies at the root of the endemic backwardness of the community. More than veils, it is education that will make the Muslim women safer. A veil is a handicap to them in that they get identified as women belonging to a faith.
The hardliners maintain that veiling protects women from lecherous eyes. But if a woman is pious and faithful, she will never be affected by anything -- whether or not she puts on a hijab (burqa). At the same time, if a woman is of low morals, she will be so no matter how many burqas she wears.
If we study the condition of women during the time of Prophet Mohammed, it would be clear that they were not as suppressed as they are today. Women used to participate in wars along with men, nursing them and taking care of them on the battlefield.
Burqa, so strictly followed in many families, is in fact not an Islamic tenet. It was essentially a non-Arab practice that percolated through the Byzantine, Roman and Persian societies. Veiling was a pre-Islamic tradition that existed in Jewish and Greek families as well.
To say that Muslim women have no rights would be a misnomer as Islam has given sufficient rights to them during the days of the religion's advent. The problem is that most clerics have misinterpreted Quranic teachings with an anti-women tilt.
To the Prophet, divorce was unacceptable. He made it clear that Islam does not regard it desirable. A hadith (tenet) of the Prophet states: "The most repugnant of things made lawful in the sight of god is divorce."
However, Islam does recognise the necessity for divorce in cases where marital relations have been so poisoned that peaceful domestic life is impossible. At the same time, Islam doesn't believe in unlimited opportunities for divorce on frivolous grounds because this would destroy the peaceful fabric of family life.
Arabs were the most barbaric of tribes just before the appearance of Prophet Mohammed. They subjected women to the most heinous of atrocities. It was the Prophet who released them from all sorts of bondage. Sadly, his followers today are not emulating his example.
Eminent Pakistani poetess Fehmida Riyaz, in her book "Chadar aur Chahardiwari" (Bedsheet and the Four Walls), compared the lot of Muslim women to that of a prisoner without parole. The controversial book led to Fehmida being exiled by then president Zia ul-Haq and she lived in India from 1981 to 1988.
The Taliban regime made Afghanistan the largest prison for women. The Afghan Women's Network wrote: "We ask all the readers to tell (Pakistani) government, the UN and the international human rights organisations that Afghan women and girls must be able to leave their homes without being harassed and beaten."
The truth is that Afghanistan of late has become the new rape capital of Asia where umpteen women are raped each day despite assertions that the Taliban are the most concerned for women's safety. Let's hope that women in our community get their due.
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(Firoz Bakht Ahmed is a commentator on social, religious and political issues. He can be reached at firozbakht@rediffmail.com)