Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 203
203 was not safe to go hunting there , b ut that boy also liked to hunt. H e came to me and said, ‘Let’s go to my village. T here are many doves there. We will hunt them. ’ So , I went with him to his village. The Sikh boy walked ahead of me and would point to me, ‘There’s a dov e sitting there. S hoot there. ’ At that time, a Sikh woman came out and scolded the boy saying, ‘Aren’t you ashamed of yoursel f. Taking along Muslims and killing animals!’ The moment she said this, the boy stood up and very angrily said [to me] , ‘Who are you to go about hunting like that,’ whereas he was the one who took us there. Now see how that the boy only turned against us because of that woman’s comments when [before] he had not care d one bit and he had been the one to take us along in the first place. Thus, there is a forceful passion in a woman’s voice and the men hold it in esteem and show respect for it. No matter how corrupt a man is, he stands up when the voice of a woman reaches his ears. When the caliphate weakened in Baghdad and the Muslim s lost their power , the Christians formed their [own] government in Palestine. There, a woman came out [of her home] and was humiliated and dishonored by Christian [men]. She was not aware that the Muslim rule ha d ended. She said loudly, ‘ O Am ī r - ul - Mu’min ī n , O Am ī r - ul - Mu’min ī n, come to me and help me. ’ At that time, the Am ī r - ul - Mu’min ī n was in such a state that he himself was a prisoner of the opposing forces and he had no authority anywhere else other than hi s court. However, the woman was not aware of this. She had only he ard that her Am ī r - ul - Mu’min ī n had full authority. By chance, a trade caravan was passing by, headed out this way for business. T hey heard that woman’s voice. When they reached Baghdad, people gathered around them and said to those in the caravan , ‘Tell us some news. ’ At that, the people in the caravan said, ‘When we were coming from Palestine, a woman was taken prisoner by the Christians and when t hey humiliated her, she loudly said, ‘ O Am ī r - ul Mu’min ī n! I call Am ī r - ul - Mu’min ī n for help. ’ That poor woman does not even know that the Am ī r - ul - Mu’min ī n has no status or clout. He is a prisoner himself, and he has no authority anywhere besid es his court. ’ There was a courtier of the Caliph i n that group of people. He went back and narrated that incident in the court and said, ‘ A caravan has come from Palestine, where it witnessed a woman being imprisoned by the