Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 217
! ! 217 Holy Qur’ān and Hadith should be adopted, unfortunately no attent ion was paid to this. Regarding this matter, women a s opposed to men, a re proving to be the obstacle. Women do not have enough courage to successfully oppose old customs and traditions. Albeit at this time , we have not fully decided to what extent women should work alongside men, however this much is obvious that Islam recognizes the need for an alliance between men and women to a certain degree. Islam has prohibited the mixing of men and women to a certain extent, but according to a Hadith , if a man is riding and a woman is walking , then he should allow the woman to ride behind him. If a man can escort a woman to her home in such a manner, then how is it that men and women cannot work together in religious and national affairs? The time will come, and it will certainly come, when men and women will work together. We do not know if it will occur in our lifetime or in the future, but it will undoubtedly occur. In fact, there is a risk that if the rights which Islam has bestowed on women are not given to them, the boundaries Islam has set may be exceeded. Mothers a nd the Training o f Children In his speech, Master Muhammad Din made the point that paradise lies under the feet of the mother. Aside from p aradise of the hereafter even the p aradise in this world lies beneath the feet of mothers. Nothing influences children more than their moral and educational upbringing and th e mother is responsible for it. W omen share a major responsibility for the enormity of problems we are facing regarding education and moral training. Women claim that they are held back and are not given an y work. I am not blaming anyone, but the continuous oppression of women and their lowly state does not prevent me from stating that they themselves make no effort to lift their hands to assist us. We are not saying that it is forbidden for women to be employed or to work outside , but there is no doubt that the greater part of women’s work lies withi n the home. In Europe, where there is great freedom a nd available education , ninety percent of women