Women empowerment has become the widest slogan of today’s world. Not only the feminists stand for it, but everyone seems to speak about it or should we say, promote the revolutionary dialogue. Albeit, when it comes to the girls’ education and its significance, most of the time we are spoken stereotypical remarks by the very people who were once observed promoting the “gender equality”. A woman comes across these absurd remarks on daily basis. The common expression through which we all might have gone through is “Hey, what’s the point to study when in the end you’ll be managing house chores?”
This is our credulity that we think our society has changed, people are groomed, and the educated urban areas have abandoned the stereotypical naïve ideas. But this is not the case. Instead, the literate people still discourage the higher education for girls as well as the primary or secondary education to some extent. Indeed, it is a condemn-able and mournful thought existing in our society. In their view, spending money on girls’ education is nothing but a waste of money. However, they neglect the fact that, it is the woman who brings up a child, who takes care of him, who teaches him the roots of everything. It is she who builds the manners in him, who accustoms him with the values, the culture, the language and most importantly, the ethics. The women are the ones who generates the youth in a society, who prepares them well to be able to stand and carry the nation towards its productivity, prosperity, and development. If a woman kept uneducated, how can we expect her kids to be groomed with the modern time? If she could not educate her kid, then what fruit she is providing to the nation? What else her goal can be, if she was deprived of knowledge?
It’s a famous saying, “if you want to destroy a nation, destroy its women through deprivation of education”. Looks relatable, eh? Most of the population of our country is rural and uneducated including the women. Here, we have the outcome of it. The youth living in rural areas is getting minimum wages for their labor. Instead of getting education and serving the country through their hidden talents, they are busy in feeding their stomachs. Not that they chose to live like it, but they are unaware of the significance of education. They haven’t been brought up properly. Hence, the country gets the generic loss.
People ignoring the of status of women education are, in fact, neglecting or ignoring the teachings of Islam. The Islam never forbade the girls’ education rather it supported it by making it obligatory for them.
The hadith says,
“To gain knowledge is a duty to every Muslim male and female.”
The hadith not only binds the Muslim men to get education but equally binds the women as well. Practicing the religion requires us to be educated too. But this is not enough. The person who have the knowledge should be spreading it to the people deprived of it. The hadith is the lesson for us that if we are giving our men the education, we should be giving it to our women equally. But somehow the people, advocating the women empowerment and equality of men and women, forget their basic principle when it comes to getting higher education.
Our society, especially the unprivileged area, still considers the women sitting in their homes and spending their lives within the walls as Islam. Again, they’re being cruel towards the gender as this is not Islam. The Islam doesn’t bind them like this. The teachings of Islam are far broader than we can imagine. There are so many examples set for us among the companions of Prophet PBUH. the female companions of prophet PBUH were used to go to the mosques, outside the walls of their homes, in his life and after. His PBUH wife, Khadija RA, was a businesswoman and used to go out for trading. The Aisha RA, his youngest and most beloved wife after Khadija RA, was a scholar who was used to teach the people of Madinah. Fatimah RA, his beloved daughter, was the one who used to get the water from the well, outside her home. She was used to manage the house chores and her education. These are the best ideal for the Muslim women towards their education and career, and life.
In a country like Pakistan, where the awareness is lagging, and the concepts are all mixed up, the necessity of a movement for the cause is always the maximum. Laud to those who stand up for it and serve the country by spreading consciousness to laymen persons. Pakistan Alliance of Girls’ Education is indeed doing its best to diffuse their message in our society. Perhaps, it’s the greatest shout out for girls’ education across the country.
Ms. Salva Zaidi
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NOTE: VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THE PERSONAL VIEWS OF WRITER AND DO NOT REPRESENT PAGE
