I know some of you clicked on the link with all the hate I could
ever imagine, while others clicked with sparkling eyes. It’s okay either way,
all I want you to do is to keep reading. Today, I have a little story for you.
It’s a bit educational and as you always expect from my blog posts, you’ll
always be able to know what exactly my point of view is. Let’s get started!
Our story begins in the 15th century with a European
poet called Christine de Pizan when she decided to defend women through her
writings. She was a historiographer who advocated for women's equality. It
shows in her “The Book of The City of Ladies” that she tried to portray women
more positively.
In the 19th century, women’s voices rose. What they
asked for is pretty simple. They wanted to have proper education like men. They
wanted to be able to vote and have buildings just like men. It’s nothing much,
right? They only sought equality.
After that, feminism kept getting more followers. More women
wanted to have their rights. They didn’t think of men as revivals (they’re
not), they, again, simply sought equality. A woman in the past could have been
doing the same job as a man, but still the man would get a bigger salary. It
isn’t fair at all, right?
There are a lot of misunderstandings about feminism for both men
and women. For example, some people think that feminism equals man hating.
Surprise! It does NOT. Of course you can be a feminist and a man hater as well,
and I know for sure it’s because of some painful experiences you had. To be
fair and square, bad people exist in both genders, so I hope you take your time
healing till you actually realize that you only hate some people and not the
whole gender.
The second thing is, seeking equality does NOT mean men and
women are the same. We are not the same. Men and women are supposed to complete
each other and live in harmony. A man should be proud of his masculinity and a
woman should be proud of her femininity. The thing is, we’re humans. No matter
what your gender is, you have the right to get proper education, have a job and
vote. Feminism also educates people on domestic violence and sexual harassment.
Women should never be silent about it just because her society told her to
shush.
I saw some people saying that feminism is different from women’s
rights in Islam. Well, it’s not really different. If you read history, you’ll
find out that there were a lot of working women in the prophet Muhammad
(PBUH)’s era. For example, his wife Khadija. Islam took good care of women
since day one. One of
the prophet’s instructions was to “be gentle with women”. He didn’t say women
in the original hadith, he compared women to a pure glass made out of silver,
which means in Arabic that women are pure and precious.
It does not make you less of a man if
you helped your wife with the housework. She wasn’t born to stay in the kitchen
and clean your bed. She has her own life. And if you have kids, let me remind
you that she didn’t have them all by herself. She shouldn’t be bringing them up
alone. An absent father due to work isn’t a good father because she probably
works as well.
And ladies, men are not our rivals. I know that in our society, we still don’t feel safe while walking in the street. I even once had a kitchen knife in my bag for a whole week, I was around 15 that time. I know that our society is still forcing us to wear whatever they want not what we want. If they see a woman wearing niqab, they’d ask her to take it off. If they see a woman wearing a bikini, they’d ask her to cover herself up. They even deal with the victims of sexual harassment as criminals.
From now on, let’s stand together till the day feminism succeeds to protect
every woman’s rights in our society.
The thing is that the term itself hasn't been used properly for many years.. I totally agree with everything you wrote but a very large sum of poeple who call themselves"feminists" and "advocates of women's rights" just do this to justify their messed up actions and ideas. Many start being "activists" and "feminists" just to attack religion, ignore and justify crimes against men and lower punishments for women who commit the same crimes (as done with Johnny Depp if you followed his case) and a lot of males just do some sweet talking(under the name of defending rights) to attract girls xD. When you observe the bigger picture of these people it's kinda stupid and ironic tbh. They ask for things that eventually cause them to be hated and have less rights. And again this is different from what you mentioned - but sadly enough, it happens.
ReplyDeleteأكتب كومنت طويل عريض وفالآخر يتحط anonymous 🙂
DeleteI agree that this is why feminism is getting so much hate these days. The reason why I chose to write about it is because I saw a lot of people misunderstanding this term. I hope I made it a little clear that the term itself isn't bad at all.
DeleteI actually reread the blog post and some other things and I'm starting to think the term itslef is wrong XD. Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of "equality".. equality literally means that man and women should have equal rights and duties. And as you said: men and women are different and complete life together. So feminism demands equality which is unfair because men and women are different... Sooo actually now I refuse the term itself.. But everyone should have his OWN rights and carry out his OWN duties, be it a child, a woman, a man or any other unknown species living among us.
ReplyDeleteyou can not isolate the term feminism from its historical context: the feminism movement started in the beginnings of the 20th century, in those days women had no rights to vote and earned half what men would earn in the same job, so equality in this context means that women have same rights as men when they deal the same circumstances, for example men do not get pregnant XD, so they do not need a meternity leave,in this example equality does not apply. Nowdays, for example, women earn 70% what men earn and possess only 10% of leader positions in companies according to statistics, so feminists fight for women rights in work and in other areas of life. that does not dictate that women and men should be treated blindly equaly.
DeleteHello again! First of all, I'm so glad that you "reread" the post. It means so much to me!
DeleteSecondly, you're 100% right that everyone deserves equal rights. But I don't agree that the term is wrong, not at all. Can you tell me who gets married when they're kids? Only little girls do. Have you ever seen a married 12-year-old boy? Well unfortunately I've seen a lot of married 12-year-old girls..
Although we're different, we deserve equality. At a time, women were underestimated. They were the weaker group, so some women decided to stand for other women to get their rights. At a certain time, everyone got their own rights. Everyone that is not a woman.. So it was normal for feminism to show up.
First of all I'm glad that this conversation continued this way :D.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm still building a point of view these days so I'll talk about what I know uptill now. Feminism was normal to show up that's 100% true and yes women are facing a whole lot of inequalities and problems up untill these days and everyone that denies that is a blind person. But "feminism" didn't stop at the point of just demanding rights, they passed this to the point that "everything a man can do I can do better" and "a woman must work and should never accept to stay at home and take care of her family and have a quiet life, she must prove herself, totally depend on herslef and there's no man that can be trusted" and that's the point I disagree with. Every person should have proper education that's correct. A man must work and provide everything his family needs and should treat them as Islam ordered; with love and mercy. A woman as well must get education. She should have equal earnings at work, but only if she herself wants/needs to work and get money, not because society obliges her to do that. See the difference? Imagine going to work 8 hours a day - just because society tells you to do so - then getting back home to find your kids that need care and love, the type of them that only a mother can provide. Out of your own opinions,do you think many women keep that work-life balance?
From where I'm standing I can say that some women do, but only a small percentage. The rest "imagine" that they do; you'll always find them and their kids having a messed mental health. And the results of this aren't immediate so this situation doesn't change. And this is clearly seen in Western societies. So is a father not guilty of this too? He's just as guilty as anyone. But the impact of a mother on her family is much greater than the impact of her husband. I read something saying that if a man read a book it's as if a person read it, but if a woman read a book it's as if all her family read it. So am I saying that woman should stay at home as salves just to hear orders and supply her family's needs without anything for herself? No, no and a thousand no كمان ��. That's one of the reasons that feminism started in the first place XD.
So..
Both men and women should have their rights and duties and this is achieved by education. And sadly enough, the only type of education that we truly need isn't taught at schools or universities. So what do I think should happen? We should stop relying on man-made rules and movements and ask a few question; why are we here on Earth, why did Allah create us and what are we supposed to do in this life? And truly understand the reason behind every obligation. Because all man-made laws, movements and opinions are flawed, this is undeiable. And feminism originated in Europe and America at a time when women lived unbearable life. But in search for equality and freedom they did many things wrong as well.
And again I totally agree with what you said, but that's not the only face of feminism.
There's also a person named إياد قنيبي, he made many videos about such topics. You can check on him if you want to..
ReplyDelete