Aurat means ‘woman’ in the Urdu language, while in Arabic, it means a blemish, a fault, a shame … something that needs to be covered up. Now before you build an antagonism against the Arabic language, let me clarify that Arabic does not use this word to address women. Rather, the word that is used is Nisaa, as it comes in the title of chapter four of the Holy Quran, and it is simply the opposite of Rijaal, which means men in Arabic. Why Urdu took this particular unflattering word, aurat, from the Arabic language to address women, I don’t know, but since Urdu is a mixed language and takes its vocabulary from Arabic, Persian, Hindi and English, perhaps it took some of their ideas as well. Now I do not want to go into too much depth in here about the different cultures and how each of them views women, in the past and in the present, and neither do I want to put the blame of our doings upon others. But, what I do know for sure is that, throughout the human history, women have had to struggle hard for survival, basic human rights and the right to speak out.
Have you heard the joke where a girl gets married and on the first day, when she addresses her mother-in-law with the word ‘Aunty’, she corrects her and says, ‘Its Mother’. And then she addresses her father-in-law with the word ‘Uncle’, she corrects her again and says, ‘Its Father’. So in the evening when her husband comes home, the girl decides to be smart and says, ‘Mother, father … brother is here !’ Lol … now, now, I know I must be annoying you all by touching upon the so saintly ethical family values of our society. No doubt it is very sweet to consider his parents as your own, for that is what Prophet Muhammed Pbuh has taught us,
‘Thy have three parents … thy biological parents, they in-law parents and thy teachers !’ [Reference]
Now I have checked this Hadith with a magnifying glass but I have found no indication whatsoever that this Hadith is directed only to women, but the fact of the matter is that, our society applies it only upon women. No ? How many men have you seen or heard about who call their wife’s parents, Mother and Father?
To make the martial marital law easier to preach, they have come up with a new wonderful analogy, which I am sure they think is so very clever of them to think up. Sigh, if only they would have put their brains to bring up better boys and better in-laws ! Now listen carefully. The West says that children become adults at the age of eighteen. We Muslims, hold up our holy finger and negate solemnly, ‘No, according to Islam, children become adults as soon as they reach puberty, which is in early teens …’ They are fully responsible adults now, fully accountable by Shariah and fully eligible for adult responsibilities, to the extent that they can even get married! Tut, tut, the government of Pakistan, under the pressure of the West, have set the legal age of marriage at sixteen for girls and eighteen for boys. What a pity, that our youngsters are ready for marriage but the government won’t allow them …
What about ourselves ? Are we ready to allow a newly married girl to be in charge of her home ? Are we ready to allow a newly married girl to lead her family ? Ah! But they say that by Islam, a woman cannot lead but only a man can lead. The mother-in-law is an exemption of course ! Either she is not a woman anymore and has become a Hitler by now, or some sort of Islamic twist exempts her from the ban of leadership. For the so smart theory and advice that they to give to a newly wed girl is,
‘Consider yourself a soldier who is entering an army camp. Consider the mother-in-law the commander-in-chief. Commit yourself to do her bidding at every beck and call. Then one day, many years later, you will also rise to the position of commander-in-chief and can enjoy the same powers …’
How disgusting ! You are actually preaching a cycle of abuse. Like the infamous picture of the little boy who grows with abuse and learns to abuse and metes out abuse to another little boy all over again. When the girl is legally responsible for her Salah and her Fasts and her Hijab … why is she legally not responsible for her home and family ? Why should she be shoved to become a subordinate once again after being qualified for Nikah and adulthood ? And I have yet to state the punchline of the martial marital law. Because the father-in-law is usually non-bothersome, non-interfering and easy-going with the daughter-in-law, the daughter-in-law should immediately and urgently distance herself from him so that the commander-in-chief mother-in-law can feel secure !
So what happens in the story next ? The newly wed girl gets all confused by the confusing set of laws, hears about an Aurat March on TV and sets out to join it, vaguely remembering that she is supposed to be some sort of a soldier. Hence, the aurat march !
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