The over-materialistic Western society presents today a generation with deep mental agony and psychological imbalance caused by the negligence of their parents. Husband and wife, in that society, have fallen into competition over their duties outside home without the least concern for their offspring. In the name of sexual equality they are simply passing over their duties towards their children. Dr T Berry, the famous American pediatrician, rightly says in a recent interview in the Los Angels Time pointing out to this bleak panorama, "My own feeling is that we've pushed women too far, we've split them in two, and we have not given them back anything to support themselves on either end." Commenting on the disintegration of family structure in the in American society and the deplorable existence of women, he voices his agony, " I just think our country is in deep, deep trouble." Hilary Rodham Clinton also conceives similar view about her society and her apprehension over the American society is manifested in her book "It Takes a Village" where she offers this assessment, " The children's potential lost to spirit-crushing poverty, children's health lost to unaffordable care, children's hearts lost in divorce and custody fights, children's futures lost in an over-burdened foster care system, children's lives lost to abuse and violence, our society lost to itself as we fail our children." The following statistics is more ominous and appalling about the condition of American children as Hilary presents in her book:
"Homicide and suicide kill almost seven thousand children every year; one in four of all children are born to unmarried mothers, many of whom are children themselves: and 135,000 children bring guns to school each day. Children in every social stratum suffer from abuse, neglect and preventable emotional problems." She further says, "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matter very much."
Woman emancipation in America has been turned into its opposite direction. Here freedom of women means something ominous and something harmful to the integration of family life. Here freedom means avoiding her duties towards her children and husband as well. Here freedom of women means to fall in rivalry with men outside home retaining the home in a smoldering fire. The natural consequence of this sexual rivalry outside home is that the children are now free from discipline and rigidities of home, where parents provide for them, take care of them and give them a constant guidance to make their lives happy and smooth. But the opposite things are happening in that society and the mothers are neglecting their duties at home. In consequence, the existence of the future generation is becoming more and more hazardous. Their lives, that were meant to be spent happily under the proper care and guidance of their parents, have turned into a miserable existence.
In other words, as the parents are free to fall into competition to enjoy their lives outside home, the children are also on their own way to make up for the hiatus in their lives. Instead of filial care and love the children are being packed off to the 'farmhouse of children' which they call 'day care' and which can not fulfill the psychological and emotional needs of the children and which can not be the substitute of a mother's care. Hilary opens out her mind and admits, "My personal wish, that every child have an intact, dependable family, will likely remain a wish."
Giving the uttermost importance to the mother's being at home with her children, Dr Brazelton, addressing the woman-folk, says, "I think you are giving a gift to the child when you stay home with him as long as you can." But the reality is that the western women, in the name of liberation, have gone to such a remote haunt from their home that they have little respite to pay their attention to the family. And the unavoidable result of this inability is that almost all the American children are suffering from manifold psychological crises and that a good number of children are attending their schools bearing guns which they are targeting even to their teachers. It sounds absurd that western world are making decree that the rest of the world must emulate this very western life-style lest they should remain undeveloped (as if development means shattering the social integration?). "It is as if a person who has lost an eye to horseplay now wants anyone else to have an eye removed voluntarily!"
What the world should follow are the precepts of Islam. Without emulating the Islamic family structure the social fabric can never be retained. It is because of the importance of the role of mother in her family that Islam frees a wife from the burden to provide for the family giving the husband the full responsibility to maintain the family. To present a sweet home and to bring up an auspicious generation, there is no other alternative but to inspire the women to give proper care to her family. To the greatest interest of the family, Islam has prescribed that men be primarily responsible for the affairs outside home and women be primarily responsible for the affairs of home. This does not mean that women should be confined to the four walls of the house. Islam permits her to pursue her mundane and religious affairs outside home giving proper emphasis on her duty towards her children, husband and family. Islam prescribes the way for a woman to pursue her activities outside her home. Allah (SWT) says, "O Prophet! Tell thy wives, daughters, and the believing women that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when outside home): That is most convenient that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful" (33:59). Commenting on this verse Allama Yousuf Ali says in his Tafseer "The Holy Qur'an", "This is for all Muslim women, those of the Prophet's household as well as others. The times were those of insecurity (see next verse) and they were asked to cover themselves with outer garments when walking abroad. It was never contemplated that they should be confined to their house like prisoners." "The object was not to restrict the liberty of women, but to protect them from harm and molestation under the conditions then existing in Madina. In the East and in the West a distinctive public dress of some sort of another has always been a badge of honor and distinction, both among men and women. This can be traced back to the earliest civilizations. Assyrian Law in its palmiest days (say, 7th century BC), enjoined the veiling of married women and forbade the veiling of slaves and women of ill fame: see Cambridge Ancient History, 3, pp. 107."
by Md. Mahmudul
Hasan
Acknowledgement: Impact International, May 1998