Woman Between Islam and Western Society
2. Woman in Society
~ 89 ~
We have shown in detail, at another point in this
book, that this allegation is entirely baseless. The
facts are quite the reverse. Islam has, in actual fact,
raised the status of woman. If the truth were told,
woman’s degradation has come about at the hands
of two major civilizations, one ancient and
polytheistic, the other modern and atheistic. The
former has been culpable both in theory and in
practice, while the latter has been so in practice,
despite it’s theorizing to the contrary.
We must never lose sight of the fact that what
governed the ethics and lifestyles of ancient
polytheistic civilizations were myths. Certain highly
fanciful, but obviously baseless suppositions were
believed in as truths, and all aspects of human
existence were subordinated to them. For instance,
ancient man regarded certain natural phenomena,
such as the sun and the moon, with the awe of
ignorance, and venerated them as deities.
Conversely, he supposed certain other phenomena
to be inferior, therefore, undeserving of respect. It
was into the latter category that women fell,
possibly because menstruation and their inability to
fight alongside their men folk were interpreted in
