Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 41
41 Women s hould l earn t he A rt o f Warfare After this, Hazrat Khalifat - ul - Masih II ra stated: “ Women should be acquainted with the art of warfare so that if the time comes, they are able to safeguard their dignity and when women are needed in battles, they can fight. It should be kept in mind however, that God Almighty has made men to fight , not women. Women can only participate in the battl e field when there is no man left, meaning that they have all died while fighting in the battle. At that point in time, it would be necessary for a woman to enter the battlefield. Therefore , in Qadian we trained wo men to fire a gun. During the recent riots , when Sikhs entered many of the homes , and women stood up to oppose them, the Sikhs ran away. There is great power in t ruth , and that is why each woman was able to scare away ten to fifteen Sikhs. Our women in Qadian remained a hundred percent protected - apart from those who traveled in convoys despite my guidance against making such travels and so they were attacked on their way , or apart from those who left their home s despite being advised not to. Ha z rat A ’isha h ra led the command herself in the B attle of Jamal. She fought through the whole battle. When an enemy approached her howdah [a curtained seat put on a camel or elephant] , he lifted the curtain, pe e ked inside, and announced, “O ! She is a fair colored woman. ” If it h ad been true that Ha z rat A’isha h ra did not observe purdah , then why did he discover the truth of her complexion only after lifting the curtain , although he should have already known. Types o f Purdah However, this does not me an that women should observe the sa me kind of purdah a t all time s. Islam ic scholars have argued about pregnant women who are about to deliver the child and need a doctor , whether a male doctor should be allowed to deliver the woman’s baby. Some sa y that a woman should not be allowed. A group from among th is first group s ay that if the woman does not go to a male doctor for delivery due to her observance of purdah , and consequently she dies, she would not be guilty of any sin.