WOMEN IN MODERN CIVILIZATION

We are now living in the 20th century at a time when technology and science are very advanced. Every day we can see new changes and new inventions. Today we live in the age of electronics. The world has reached an unprecedented stage of development. Man can communicate from one end of the world to the other without moving. He can even go to the moon and also send all kinds of craft to other planets.

The human being has made such immense progress on the material level, however it is not so on the moral level. Unfortunately, it must be said that the moral baseness into which man sinks day by day is truly shameful, even catastrophic. Indeed, man has fallen so low that he can no longer distinguish between good and evil. In all this, the woman is the biggest victim.

Very often our newspapers publish advertisements:

"Beautiful young girls who can speak English and French fluently are needed to work as waitresses in a large classy hotel. Interested parties are asked to send their application with a photo of the person at the latest..."

or

"If you are beautiful, attractive, young... and that you speak English and French well, why don't you apply to work as a waitress in our big hotel..."

Such announcements clearly show the position of the woman 'liberated' from the four walls of her home in a supposedly civilised world that claims to care about the dignity of women and to 'elevate' their status. It is easy to understand how low her esteem is when you see how her body, beauty and so on are exploited for advertising purposes, when you see how she is used as an instrument to promote trade and attract customers. A woman who allows herself to be exploited in this way, who agrees to let herself go for financial reasons, is considered civilized, while a woman who stays at home, who looks after her parents and takes care of her children, is considered backward. Alas!

In fact, the woman is called upon to use her charm, to show coquetry, among other things, in order to attract customers and then persuade them to buy. In other words, she sells her charm, her beauty, her body, just for money and to bring in more money for her employer. The more beautiful she is, the better she is paid. The more attractive she is, the more she is in demand.

This is how modern man has degenerated. Morality does not matter to him. Only money counts. His one and only concern is to inflate his bank account without worrying in the slightest about the illicit means - haraam - that are used. For him, the end justifies the means. However, for Allah Ta'ala it is quite different!

This is how the contemporary world honours women. What man worthy of the name would like to see his mother, wife, sister or daughter exploited in this way!

Islam, on the other hand, gave woman her true dignity more than 1400 years ago. Islam says that woman is not an object of sensuality to be exploited and exposed to the eyes of everyone. Islam says that the woman is 'aurah', i.e. must be hidden from the vicious and sadistic eyes of others.

[English version of " La femme dans la civilisation moderne" – Al Haadi – Vol. 1 No. 5]