Thursday, March 19, 2015

The Shah and I

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/social_sector/Women_in_the_Muslim_world_taking_the_fast_track_to_change?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1503


Alhamdulillah my UNESCO talk went well at Ibnu Sina conference room at Econs.I got my boys (some 20 or 30 of them..definitely more than the ladies..about 10-15 gals/women of various nationalities). They had posters all over the campus rupanya.For a club so young, the event was well-organised.

Dr Shah Jani, a bright young scholar from Quran and Sunnah Dept was the other speaker.He was supposed to be the first speaker but I asked if I could speak first (cos' I had a pgrad class to rush to).The Shah wanted me to speak first too cos' I would be talking about achievements and challenges of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action for the last 20 years and to chart our own status in the Muslim world.It worked well cos' Dr Shah spoke about women's empowerment from the Islamic perspective.

Listening to him made me wonder where he came from.He said he would encourage his wife to find faults with him so that he didn't think he's perfect before Allah (berdosa besar if that happened, he said).He must be told where he erred so he could be a good husband, father and a human being.Yes! Amazing isn't it? He encouraged his wife to speak against him.Haha.On polygamy, he reasoned why would men want to start on the premise of wht was haram (zina..konon takut mendekati zina so mesti kawin lain) to reach what was halal.He said he saw too many children from polygamous marriages who ended up as drug addicts cos' the men were not involved in raising the children.

Kan? Dia bukan dari planet ini! But I love his mind.A sincere believer.
And I never heard of the prophet's female companions.Selalu ustaz2 cakap male companions je.The Shah related stories of our Prophet's female companions who went to war with him..protected him and were in the public space and not kept at home to wait on children.If they qualified, they went.

Kan? Seronok dengar cerita2 mcm ni.
A lady came to me and told me she found my talk inspiring and the organisers said pls come again.I'm disappointed that no one took me to war over the child marriage thingy but they agreed on my caution that giving access of education to women should not mean forcing them to work in the droves.Let them decide whether they want to work, work from home or just work for the family.We do not want women to be handmaidens to capitalism..there ought to be a work-life balance.2010 UNESCO report found out that there were 13 Muslim countries which had more female scientists than in the US and McKinsey's report this year found out that an overwhelming increase in no. of Muslim women working.That will change many things.

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