3. SOCIAL NOTES

 

On the Emancipation of Women

The emancipation of women in the West, the feminist movement and the ideas backing them are not, as is falsely supposed, the result of research and knowledge, objective reasoning, intelligent construction, or a sense of justice and compassion. There was a movements to improve the rights of women but it met a great amount of resistance. Unlike Islam, equality was forced on them by events. Had social conditions not changed these movements could not have arisen or succeeded. They are rationalizations based on the following developments :-

(a) Women in their traditional role have become relatively redundant owing to the population pressure, exhaustion of resources and increasing greed for material goods, all of which lead to birth control, the reduction in the size of families. When populations were small and life was precarious owing to war and disease it was necessary to protect women for reproductive reasons. But when the population is great this value of women becomes negative, and they have to find some other role. When material desires increase then it becomes more important for women to be a financial asset, and when resources are more difficult to find and extract, then the amount of work required is greater and so are the costs and a greater labour force becomes necessary.

 (b) Owing to organization the world has become a much safer place for women. The security provided by the husband in the past is now provided by men collectively, by the State and by the increased power of its authority. Their collective strength has been turned against themselves to curb the power they had over women. Education and indoctrination have also played their part.

(c) During the World Wars when the men went to the battle field it is the women who had to produce the machinery required for war and operate the various industries. They learnt a trade. After the war there was a surplus of women who could find no mates in a monogamous society and they needed to support themselves. They entered the labour force and became habituated to it. In all advanced Industrial nations there is a surplus of women. This makes women sexually competitive and forward and necessitates a career for them.

(d) The traditional work done by women in homes, such as cooking, sowing, cleaning has been taken over by industries or reduced by labour saving devices produced by these industries. The care and education of the children has been taken over by the State, nurseries, schools and professional teachers. Women had less to do in the home and became bored. They needed to find some employment.

(e) Economic pressures have been exerted on women to leave the home in order to work in industry. Industry demands female labour not only because it is cheaper, but also because much of the work is monotonous and repetitive for which the female temperament is more suited. This labour is not unlike the type women used to fulfill for their families in homes. But it is more organized and regimented. It can produce goods much more efficiently and cheaply than it could be done before. The increase in the labour force has depressed wages and mechanization, and this itself is sufficient to ensure that the women have to go out to work to supplement the family income. Fewer men are able to support their families by themselves especially when they are required to compete with others in the amount of possessions they have. Unemployment of men aggravated by the increase in the labour force also forces wives out to work.

(f) Industrial and economic efficiency requires that most activities should be mechanized, organized, standardized, routinized so that training and control can be applied. This has simplified most work so that it is within the capacity of both sexes and persons of unequal abilities. A powerful machine is simple enough to be worked by the weak as well as the strong. Training and education enables a person of lower natural intelligence and talent to perform better than one who has not had these advantages. Division of labour and cooperation have simplified work and ensured support from others.

(g) The same factors have changed the conditions of life so that new professions and means of earning a living have arisen. A different set of characteristics is required for these. In general greater loyalty, docility, patience and the willingness to do routine and repetitive work is required. Factories, offices and shops employ mostly women for such work. The work requires less intensity but more sustained effort. The machine replaces human physical effort and intellectual work has been routinised, computerized and its products can be copied and multiplied, so that the creative work of a nation requires only relatively few people. There is, therefore, an increasing tendency of work to be channeled into emotionally and socially related functions such as nursing, catering, clerical and secretarial work and other service industries, government departments, community services and so on. The characteristics of women are more compatible with this kind of function. It is, therefore, often the case that while men cannot find employment women can. They become the bread winners in the home and the relationship between husband and wife changes.  

 (h) The educational as well as the industrial and political system were created by men to suit their own natures. Women did not develop equivalent systems to suit their nature. When, therefore, they were forced to emerge into this world they were conditioned to accept these values. A contemptuous attitude towards feminine qualities developed. They were required to develop the assertive, aggressive and competitive characteristics of men. Self-contempt, guilt-feeling and paranoia are often evident in the behaviour of women in the West.

(i) There is little doubt that the modern women is being conditioned to an unprecedented degree through propaganda; never before in history has there been such pressure through newspapers, magazines, television and industrial propaganda. The propagandists are often men and women motivated by various kinds of self-interest, or frustrated and neurotic women who have themselves been conditioned by circumstances or made a mess of their lives.

(j) Economic independence gave women political power which allowed them to influence the Law in their favour. The State has taken over the protection and responsibility for women and children away from men.

(k) Men are also husbands and fathers who wanted their wives and daughters to have certain advantages. It is unlikely that the emancipation of women could have occurred without the active support of men. Men have been silent in the face of female militancy. But this seems now to be changing.

(l) The influence of the father in the family has declined not only because their profession takes them away but also because of the economic independence of mothers and the protection of the law. Thus, both the male and the female children are brought up with a different self image than formerly.

(m) Support for the feminist movement was also gained because the freeing and financial independence of women was an advantage to men in that they were able to use women sexually and commercially without responsibility towards them. The greater stresses and uncertainties created by modern economic systems make the burden of sole responsibility for wife and children too great and many men are relieved to relinquish them. The need for sexual fidelity was often found to be an intolerable burden, frustrating and restricting. It is easier to seek pleasure or happiness elsewhere or in divorce when there are no financial consequences. Many men and women wanted freedom of sexual indulgence without its responsibilities. This was made possible by the invention of contraceptives. There is a general tendency towards the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of consequences and irksome or difficult efforts. The desire for pleasure increases in proportion to the frustrations, pressures, stresses and concentrated efforts required in life. These have increased owing to the way the industrial and social system is organized and the congestion of cities. It should be noted that the feminist movement does not only seek equal opportunities and pay, but also wishes to set aside the traditional moral code. They want all kinds of sexual freedoms and perversions, including fornication, lesbianism, abortion. They want to be paid to look after their children or to transfer the responsibility for them to the State.

(n) The Industrial revolution has had a taming, repressive and even an emasculating effect on men. They have had to conform and lost most of their independence and vigour. The emergence of women into the economic, political and cultural spheres also tends to create conditions more appropriate for them. Docility, conformity and acceptance rather than aggression, protest, retaliation and initiative are more important in modern civilization. Thus modern life favours women and may lead to their dominance. This squeezes more and more men, particularly those with more pronounced masculine characteristics, out of the system. Indeed, many of them, owing to the kind of laws and conditions prevalent, find themselves persecuted and in prisons. It is probably true to say that it is the excessively masculine conditions in some Muslim countries which leads to the civil wars and political instability there.

 

The consequences of the western idea of the emancipation of women are as follows:-

(a) It has had some beneficial effects both for women and the society as a whole in allowing women to develop and utilize their potentialities and talents. It has educated and freed them, opened out a wider world of opportunities and created self-confidence and self-reliance. Nations in which half the population is disabled must be that much poorer and backwards in every way. It has also given them an advantage over men in that they now have a choice either to follow an independent career or else to have children and remain housewives, or to do both on a part time basis. This means that they remain financially secure and can make a change if one or the other does not suit them. This choice is not available to men. They have to earn their living whether or not they like the work. They have to support a family while the wife’s income is usually an extra.

(b) There is little doubt that women have been suppressed in the past. They had, until recently, virtually no rights in the West. Some of their suffering and injustices against them have been relieved. Financial independence means that women no longer have to put up with treatment from their husbands which they do not like, and conversely that they can treat their husbands as they like. The importance of husbands as bread winners has declined. This has forced better treatment for them, from men who used to take advantage of their position because of inadequately developed moral principles, love, human compassion and a sense of fair play. But it has also caused many husbands to be mistreated by wives. A militant Feminist movement arose and there is a tendency towards a swing to the opposite extreme which was not necessary in countries where they had better respect and rights.

The psychology and behaviour of women used to be determined to a large extent by a feeling of inadequacy, insecurity and dependence on men. This was owing to several factors :- (i) That they are physically weaker than men. (ii) that they could be physiologically and emotionally exploited. (iii) that they were particularly vulnerable during pregnancy and owing to dependant children. (iv) that they were financially dependant. Owing to their role as child-bearers they could not devote themselves to a carrier and probably also did not have the physical power to compete with men in most of the work which required physical strength. (v) that women were regarded as less capable and the social and cultural attitudes restricted women to a particular role. (vi) that the community was less organized, ordered and policed and women required protectors against unrelated men.

Most, but not all of these conditions have disappeared or have been reduced. This has increased their self-confidence, opportunities, abilities and expectations.

(c) The liberation of women has probably had a greater liberating effect on men. The burden of responsibility for their women folk, mothers, wives, sisters and daughters has been lifted. They are also able to use women commercially and sexually without consequences to themselves. It has trapped and victimized many women and made them vulnerable to sexual and commercial exploitation. Many women have become wage slaves controlled by employers who have no emotional interest in them. A great number are trapped in labour which is monotonous, repetitive and sheer drudgery. This cannot be said to have liberated them.

(d) There has been a devaluation of femininity. Equality and freedom for most women means that they should be more man-like. This erodes the difference between the sexes. Likes, however, tend to compete rather than cooperate, while unlike things tend to complement each other. This has increased the conflict between the sexes and stimulated the increase in homosexuality. One of the consequences is coeducation in which boys and girls not only go to the same schools but learn the same thing, thereby deliberately eroding sexual differences. Girls are no longer instructed in the domestic arts and sciences and, therefore, have little to offer future husbands, and boys are taught nothing distinctively male and have nothing to offer future wives. Women have become militant in their desire to abandon their own in order to join the male world.

(e) Entry of women into careers meant a mixing of the sexes. The reason for limiting the free mixing of the sexes, namely sexual temptations, had to be removed. Thus equality and freedom depends on the removal of sexual morality and the wide use of contraceptives so that the consequences of free sexual intercourse can be avoided. Promiscuity, however, has weakened the link between husband and wife. It has also increased the risk of venereal diseases.

(f) The stories about past persecution, the exhortation to independence, freedom and self assertion, and marital conflicts all around them, makes many women afraid of marriage which they see as putting themselves at the mercy and domination of men. They are, therefore, often much more willing to have casual or loose sexual relationships than to commit themselves in marriage. Women, therefore, instead of identifying themselves with their biological role as mother and wife, have to find other methods of finding significance and identity for themselves, often in a career as men do. This often suits men who prefer self-indulgence without the responsibilities. This further weakens families and accounts for the soaring rate of illegitimate births.

(g) Modern education, which is career orientated and the same for both sexes, and social conditioning have also made women less interested and capable of fulfilling their natural biological roles in the more sophisticated manner which higher education should allow. It has caused women to have a low image of themselves. This leads them to deny and contradict their own nature. It also leads to some bizarre and extremist compensatory behaviour. However, only few women actually agree with the Women’s Liberation movement. Most women are forced into the labour market by the economic conditions which have been set up rather than by choice. Experiments in places such as the Kibbutz in Israel where women are given a choice has shown that they return to their traditional roles.  

(h) Financial independence has given women greater political power. This, among other things, has led to changes in the law which makes divorce easier. But as women are emotionally more unstable, particularly in situations which are biologically unsuited to them. and financial independence has made them more assertive and over-sensitive of their rights, there is greater argumentation and conflict between husband and wife. This has lead to the breakdown of marriages and families. Many women file for divorce on relatively frivolous grounds, and most of the men do so because they have become exasperated by the irresponsible and unreasonable behaviour of their wives. It has led to controversies between wives and mother-in-laws and other members of the extended family. This is the main reason why the extended family has completely broken down into nuclear families, thereby losing the support which it used to have. The nuclear family, even in the ideal state obtains its strength by being embedded in an extended family. It is evident, for instance, that a new mother does not have the experience in bringing up the child, and can obtain advice, help and even relief from older female members of the extended family. The new father can learn from other more experienced fathers about how to cope with the pregnancy of his wife and the changed situation when a child is added to his family. Unreasonableness, injustices and controversies between husband and wife can also be settled by support from them. This is no longer the case. This argumentation also affects the children in several ways. It creates insecurity and confusion in them; it erodes the position of the father who is, or should be, a source of stability and authority; and they are able to play one parent against the other. A result of this is that children have become rebellious, defiant and unruly and even violent towards parents, teachers and all sources of authority, A great number of them play truant from school, indulge in petty crime and vandalism and run away from home, causing much anguish to parents and problems for the police and social workers. This has become a major problem throughout the Western World.

(i) The purpose of marriage used to be reproduction and as a source of economic security for women. But the invention of contraceptives and the financial independence of women has weakened it. Women have become more dependant on an employer than on husbands. The status of marriage has changed. It is to be based on affection and equality. But it tends to be fickle and self-centered. The partners consult only their own pleasures and happiness without that of the spouse or even the children as they change partners. The marriage contract is little more than a commercial one where the goods which no longer appeal are discarded. It destroys the family because it separates the wife from the husband and children and brings husbands and wives in closer contact with other men and women, thereby creating temptations to set up extra-marital sexual relationships. The relationship between the woman and her employer is financially more important, often more cooperative, intimate and of longer duration, and divides the woman’s interest and loyalties. It has brought conflict rather than cooperation between husband and wife. It has created differences of opinion and interest, argumentation and tension within the marriage. Promiscuity and divorce have become commonplace. Deeper relationships have been replaced with superficial ones.

(j) Both men and women have found it difficult to adjust themselves to the change of status which the independence of women has brought. Indeed, mechanization makes men increasingly redundant, and they have not yet found a new role while a new role for women has become established. The result has been a distortion in character. The reason for this is biological. The need to ensure the propagation of their genes requires men to have a certain measure of control and authority, and women, being weaker and more vulnerable specially when they are pregnant or have small children, need to rely on the protection, support of strong and capable men. The loss of this control and support creates insecurity and great tensions within the family. Women not only react to this, but insecurity creates fear, contempt or loss of respect for men, conscious or sub-conscious. Relationships have become stormy and much more subject to irrational forces. Both sexes have become increasingly more neurotic. Divorce has become fashionable as an easy option to escape from difficulties. The properties of marriage as a force for development through discipline, modification of character and mutual adjustment has atrophied. Indeed, this has affected the attitude to the whole of life. People are no longer prepared to put up with difficulties or able to tolerate frustration, and are always looking for an easy way out. Domestic stresses have caused loss of efficiency in the work place with inestimable economic, social, political and psychological consequences.    

(k) The home is no longer a place where children find security, moral guidance and education. The schools and colleges provide only factual, physical and intellectual education, neglecting moral values and emotional development. Children grow up neurotic, inadequate and bewildered. Delinquency, crime, vandalism and psychopathy are, therefore, increasing. So are psychological and psychosomatic diseases. The transfer and accumulation of culture down the generations is hampered. A generation gap has formed. The new generation is forced to rediscover by experiment and often disastrous and irreversible mistakes, the values which many past generations of experience ought to have taught them.

But it is probably because of these facts that the sciences of psychology, sociology and education have made progress recently. It would seem that the rearing of children will in the future require considerable expertise, time and effort. One would suppose that here we have a legitimate full time carrier for women in the future.

(l) It still remains the case that women have to conform to the male image of women. It remains a fact that the strength of the reproductive urge makes the female body more attractive than her mind to most men, and this only changes with association, interaction and experience of each other. The increase in free and casual relationships, therefore, has increased this problem. Women are seen as legitimate prey by many men. When marriages have become insecure the need to attract men has become more urgent. But this image has changed. They are seldom valued for their skills, minds, virtues or personalities, but rather for physical beauty, entertainment and advertisement value. The result is that they spend a great amount of time in remodeling themselves through cosmetics, perfumes, dieting, coquetry, plastic surgery, fashions, attempting to stay young looking and in self-display. Their employment often depends on this. The interest and attention of a large proportion of women is confined to such concerns. This increased need to attract the opposite sex has no reproductive or evolutional value. It, does, however, have economic consequences. A great part of industry, materials and the work force is employed to provide these frivolous wants.

(m) Since most of the employers are men and there is often a shortage of work, a great number of women retain their position or obtain job promotion by delivering sexual favours. The achievement of academic qualifications and business success for many women often depends entirely on this. A large proportion of women in the U.S.A, for instance, pay their way through college by prostitution. Women are attracted to rich and powerful men, and this provides an incentive to men to seek wealth and power. This produces hidden polygamy without responsibilities, and has no evolutional results. A large proportion of women, both married and unmarried, practice prostitution as a career or as a sideline.

(n) Since women have entered into the male domain and have to develop the same aggressive and competitive qualities, it creates an unbalanced society in which the masculine qualities dominate while feminine ones are devalued. Thus whereas intellectual and physical development continues the emotions and feelings, having been neglected, remain primitive. On the one hand all industrial and professional activities have become progressively more formalized, subject to theory, systematization and procedures, on the other hand, there is increasing emphasis on sport and physical prowess. Personal life, however, has become more aggressive, violent, crude, and full of emotional excesses. Gentleness, humanity and compassion become less evident. There is more individualism, egotism, isolation, defensiveness, affectation, loss of spontaneity and less cooperation and affection. The character of most disciplines, even the arts and sciences, has changed. The society has become disordered, undisciplined, impersonal and yet more sentimental and irrational owing to the entry of feminine opinion into public affairs. Societies in which women gain a dominant position tend to be more materialistic, obsessional, liberal, security minded and rather cowardly, while those in which men dominate tend to be more idealistic, over-disciplined and reckless. Ideally, there should be a balance where the functions and the virtues of each, rather than their vices, are reinforced and equally honoured.

(o) As both go out to work, the stresses and strains of life have increased for both sexes, They do not find relaxation in each other, but instead find competition and conflicts. Increased stresses cause an increase in physical, moral and mental diseases. The break up of the family has caused increasing sexual promiscuity and perversions, rape, infanticide and abortion, incest, cruelty to children, illegitimacy and so on. Child neglect and child abuse have reached epidemic proportions in some so called civilized nations. The State is increasingly burdened with the care of single mothers with children and the cost of social services required to deal with all these problems. But the State can in no way become a substitute for a family. An employed worker who devotes a limited time in return for wages is no substitute for a caring full time parent.

(p) Attitude to sex has undergone a change. Its reproductive function has been separated from its pleasure giving properties and the interest in this has become an obsession. This is partly because the men compensate for their loss of position by emphasizing sexual prowess, and partly because the stresses of life have increased, and need to be counteracted by increasing pleasures. Sexual freedom has been regarded as a good thing by psychiatrists and others because it has removed the inhibitions which were the cause of much perversion, neurosis and psychosis. It is these which are regarded as the main causes of the arising of people like Hitler, institutions such as the Inquisition and the intolerance, bigotry and cruelty of the puritans which have caused a great amount of suffering, destruction and chaos in the world.

The cause of these inhibitions is traceable to the teachings of Paul (Romans 8:4-13) which dominated Christianity and led to the dichotomy between the spiritual and the physical in which the latter was regarded as something inferior to be dominated and repressed, and, therefore, to celibacy and monasticism. The result of this has been the swing of the pendulum to the opposite extreme. A study of some species of apes, where frequent and indiscriminate sexual activity prevails, shows that it is a means of communication and social unification as well as reproduction, and that the results have been the elimination of social aggression entirely. The same, it is claimed, can be achieved among human beings. It is not known whether this is a good thing since aggression is required for self-defense and also to tackle and solve problems in general. Nations in the past which grew soft due to pleasure and self-indulgence have been destroyed by other more aggressive ones, and self-indulgence, laziness, apathy, sensuality and cowardice are also side effect.

There is no indication that this sexual freedom has improved matters. Aggression has not diminished but appears to be associated much more with the promiscuous. The pressure for prodigious sexual performance has caused its own problems. Advice columns in magazines and newspapers and clinics to deal with sexual problems have proliferated throughout the Western world. In fact, this sexual behaviour in the ape is confined to its own group which has the same status as a human family. There is greater sexual freedom within marriage than there is when marriages break up. Apart from this sexually related diseases are assuming epidemic proportions. Girls and women are pressured into sexual submission or raped on a large scale. The streets and parks are no longer safe for them. Incest is rampant. Human happiness is largely connected with the proper functioning and satisfaction of the sexual impulse. But observation and studies show that sexual problems such as frigidity, impotence, fixations and perversions, and crimes related to these, have multiplied. This is due to the intrusion into sexuality of stresses derived from economic, social, ideological and psychological factors.

It was thought that the invention of contraceptives makes adultery and fornication less destructive since their consequences, the birth of a child, can be avoided. Marriage need no longer mean sexual fidelity but only a contract to produce and bring up children. This, however, has not worked. Illegitimate births, abortions and divorces have increased enormously. These sexual malpractices destroy the capacity to form deep and stable relationships. It should be noted that the idea that the purpose of marriage is reproduction only is a Christian one. The Islamic idea is that it exists for companionship and self-fulfillment. This makes a great difference in attitudes. Though sexual intercourse is seen as being legitimized only by these definitions, the Christian one could not be sustained even within a marriage. As it broke down within marriage it also broke down outside marriage. This does not need to happen in Islam.

(q) The number of illegitimate children and the proportion of unmarried mothers is rising yearly. These mothers, obviously have to go out to work to earn a living. The rising crime rate is connected with this, not only because the mothers have to go out to work rather than attend to their children, but also because the absence of a father means that the sons have no male role models and the daughters have no example of how to relate to the male. The State has increasingly to fulfill the role of husband and father. This it can only do inadequately and the financial burden increases yearly. There are movements in many countries to try to reverse these trends. It is proposed to make the parents responsible for daughters who have illegitimate children. But parents have lost control over children and the State itself has had to pass laws to deal with the neglect and mistreatment of children, thereby taking away the rights of parents.

(r) When a certain amount of prosperity and security has been achieved, as in the West, human desires seek other outlets. The driving force behind the feminist movement is usually selfishness, pleasure and self indulgence, freedom from the restriction of duties, obligations and conventions. Though the desire for self-fulfillment and the cultivation of potentialities is a laudable aim, this is often misdirected. In fact, the ambition for position, power, wealth and prestige have become their goal. The feminists never speak about love, faith, God or spiritual values, but mostly of their desires and supposed interests rather than truth or goodness. They want equality with men, not in the moral sense but economically and politically whether or not it leads to their self-fulfillment. In fact, men are also unequal in this respect, some run affairs and others are in positions of sub-ordination to various degrees. This depends on aptitude and ability. Unless, therefore, laws are passed as they would like, to ensure that there should be as many men as women in each position, women will find themselves in the inferior positions. But if such laws are passed then this would militate against economic and political efficiency. Those firms and nations which practiced it would soon be left behind those which had no such ideological prejudices.

(s) The change in the status of women has caused a change in the status of men. The State has taken over the protection and responsibility for women away from men, and this encourages irresponsibility in men, particularly as it has also taken away their rights. The State finances single mothers and illegitimate children, thereby encouraging it. Woman having become independent do not feel an obligation and duty towards husbands. They, therefore, have less to offer men. The Law is unjustly biased in favour of women at the expense of men in a number of respects. For instance, it still requires husbands to maintain wives without requiring anything from wives in return, and requires divorced fathers to pay for children without giving them any rights. Women have been given the exclusive right to kill the unborn child though the embryo is the product of both parents. The father has less rights over the child than the mother. The new status of women is maintained only through positive discrimination in favour of women. The employer is asked to employ women in order to maintain a balance between the sexes even if there is disadvantage in doing so because of her children, temperament or strength and even if she lacks the qualifications and abilities. Women can take legal actions against employers if they are dismissed. A great number of men have been prosecuted for sexual harassment of women, but this has not taken into consideration female provocation in dress and behaviour. It appears that women are not required to bear the consequences of their actions. Both are inter-connected evils, but only the one is dealt with. Where free courtship is practiced this has led to confusion due to problems of the ambiguity of signals. The reason for the imbalance in the law appears to be that women have been militant in getting the law changed in their favour but men have remained chivalrous, indulgent and protective. Roles have been reversed and women are becoming increasingly dominant.

(t) The conditions of life have to a large extent become incompatible with inherent characteristics. The deeper aspects of sexuality cease to be satisfied, causing frustration and psychological perversions. Many women have been unable to deal with their new won freedom and have gone ‘wild’, restless, neurotic, dissatisfied and unable to settle or fallen into vice traps. Others have increasingly become hard, unloving, self-centered, egotistical, arrogant, ambitious, quarrelsome, irresponsible and pleasure-seeking, and bring up their children in the same way. Most of the values on which civilizations were based have been abandoned.

Men have taken unconscious and conscious retaliatory measures. It is not an accident that in the U.S.A, where the emancipation of women has reached its highest level, there we also find the most wide spread prostitution, the greatest number of rapes and the most violence against women. Women are looked upon as play things or objects of pleasure and commercial exploitation of sex is common. Male gangs have arisen throughout the Western world in order to reassert their masculinity but not in socially useful manner. The change in roles and the prevalence of homosexuality has caused great confusion and insecurity in both sexes about their sexuality. A masculinist movement has also now arisen. The problem with this movement, as with the feminist one, is that fantasies and prejudices, rather than realities, are more important and these often bear little relationship to what is inherently natural. Some of these are quite bizarre and pathetic. As organization, control and order proceeds, a ‘masculine protest’ gathers strength which shows itself in greater unrest, revolt and disorder, and this may destroy the order creating forces or at least set a limit to them. The opinion is gaining ground that the feminist movement has created a swing too far to the opposite extreme, and that a male counter attack has become imminent. But owing to the existing economic and technological conditions this is not likely to produce constructive results. The overall effect is a sex war, conflict rather than cooperation. Order does not, therefore, arise from natural biological forces, but is imposed by authority. The conflict between the natural and the artificial increases.

(u) The educational system is based on training, regimentation, uniformity, standardization, conformity, passivity and docility because the industrial and social system in the interest of profit, efficiency and controllability requires these qualities. Since it is coeducational, it does not distinguish between the different characteristics and talents of boys and girls. The problems created by the industrial and new social system have increased the need for ever more Social Services. Increasing mechanization and organization has diverted effort from production to service industries and increased the need for management where skills in language, communication, social and inter-personal relationships have become more important and are paid more highly than physical or intellectual skills. All these are more compatible with the feminine nature and, it is not, therefore, surprising that girls often out-perform boys. It is likely that women, in the future, if present trends continue, will have the dominant position. The number of schools which cater for the nature of boys has declined and so has their development, ability and performance. Apart from showing greater individuality, initiative and creativity which is often interpreted as rebelliousness and delinquency, boys are also distracted by the presence of girls. These schools, therefore, tend to be dens of sexual promiscuity as can be seen from the number of pregnancies. Just when they are developing into adults and need it most, no guidance is available for either sex and they are left to their own devices, bewilderment and experimentation. The educational system, therefore, tends to be inappropriate for both sexes and this is likely to remain so as long as the social and economic systems, for which it caters, remains the same. Many boys, unable to conform to this system, never recover from its oppressiveness.    

(v) There is evidence to show that women are becoming more masculine and men are becoming more feminine, physiologically as well as psychologically. Women are becoming taller, their feet are becoming larger and their hips are growing narrower. Infertility and difficulties in pregnancy and childbirth are increasing. Men are becoming shorter, their chests narrower and hips wider. Their sperm count has fallen by fifty percent. Problems of infertility and impotency have increased. They have become more docile, domesticated and more easily dominated. The erosion of sexual differences leads to increase in homosexuality in both sexes. If the test of Biological fitness is reproductive ability, then these difficulties are a sure sign that something has gone wrong with man. However, population has become a problem and this may be a natural solution. Medical advances have overcome the physical difficulties by using artificial methods, but this does not solve the psychological ones. There are more cases of frigidity and psychological traumas associated with menstruation, pregnancy, birth, lactation, the menopause as well as with marriage and child rearing. Many women have lost the maternal instinct, and the abandonment, neglect and cruelty to children is rampant.

(w) A study of History shows that most Civilizations and Empires having reached their height as a result of self-discipline, have then relaxed and lost their moral fiber due to lack of challenges. Their psychic energy was frivolously squandered. It is well known that it is sexuality which is the driving force in life, and the basis of psychic energy. When the desire for sexual self-indulgence became paramount, the women then obtained greater freedom. Both sexes neglected their duties; fell into moral and sexual corruption and the civilization began to decline. Observers who see a civilization which is powerful and advanced in certain ways and yet morally corrupt often come to the false conclusion that the two must be different aspects of the same thing. It is even suggested by some people that it is only necessary to free women and industrial development will automatically take place. It is true, of course, that this releases a greater labour force, makes available more talents, and creates more materialistic motivations. But there are other factors involved and the problems caused may well militate against even this ambition. In fact a declining civilization may be at higher point than a developing one for a period.

(x) Many countries have had to pass laws against sex discrimination in the professions. That is, there is deliberate government intervention rather than natural evolution. Women have entered professions which were exclusively male in the past such as the military, police, engineering etc and many men have entered and even taken the dominant position in professions which were formerly a female domain such as nursing. This has transformed these professions to their detriment. Personal and subjective matters and sexual complications increasingly interfere with matters which ought to have no such associations. Nursing is no longer a caring profession, but an impersonal and formal one where theory is more important than practice. There is a case for female police officers to deal with female affairs and in the military, for women as nurses, but the indiscriminate use of the sexes without considering their respective aptitudes can only do psychological, social and commercial harm.

(y) The increased power of women has ensured that their ways of thinking and ideas are taken more seriously. Many women have contributed to the development of science, art, industry and politics. Many have written books on social and ethical matters. It is, however, also evident that a number of facts and ideas have been suppressed for fear of female reactions, many others have been invented or distorted to please them, and a number of ideas advanced by women which would not have been tolerated in the past because they are based on bias and selection of convenient facts, are given prominence. There is now a greater subjectivity in political and social thinking which is also creeping into science. This, however, is not always wholly bad, though it has become much more difficult to distinguish between what is good or bad. It has, for instance been suggested by some women that since violence is mainly a male phenomena, then maleness should be curbed by mothers and the state. Women, it is argued, have undergone a transformation of personality and it is time that men, too, should undergo an equivalent process in order to restore the balance. Apart from the fact that it means ignoring that the vigour, energy and aggression of men is natural, that it is necessary for all their achievements, that violence is often provoked and has a deterrent effect towards injustices, the suppression of it presumably requires castration, hormone therapy, regimentation and brain-washing, cerebral operations, induction of effeminacy and homosexuality, mass imprisonment and general enslavement.

(z) It appears that the freedom given to women has not benefited them much, but left many of them bewildered, confused, full of guilt and in a state of self-contradiction. Whereas women are said not have had any free choice in the past, having been under the domination and control of men, today it is other militant women who are exerting great pressure on them, telling them what to do, how to behave and dress and what to think. Questions are asked why, even in these days, there are only about 10% women in business and politics when they are pushed into these professions by propaganda and even government incentives and policies. Not being allowed to live according to their own nature, they are, in many ways, in a worse condition. In so far as the sexes are inter-dependant this inevitably means that men, too, are worse off. There seems to be little value in women abandoning the roles for which they have the best talents in order to take up roles which men can fulfill. Why convert women into men? This appears to be a great waste. The use of women in the entertainment industries, though a compensation, is not an adequate substitute. Indeed, it devalues them even more.

One cannot help feeling that the entire Western attitude to sex and marriage is extremely immature, ignorant, confused, perverse and frivolous. This is because it has arisen accidentally through blind forces rather than deliberately and rationally. Since sexuality is intimately connected with life it also produces the same attitude to life in general, to living beings, children and to the person. Life is a sport or pastime in which there is no consideration for human dignity and destiny.

 

In summary, a good case can be made out to show that the new conditions of life produce a new woman who is more masculine, aggressive, less able to fulfill her natural role, and produces children with psychopathic and neurotic tendencies, of low moral quality, inadequate preparation for life, and a new generation of emasculated men; their character, individually or collectively lead to the tensions within, and the collapse of family life and provokes greater violence against themselves. Though men are not blameless, having created the conditions in which they arise, their greater irresponsibility and inadequacy as husbands is also a consequence of their up-bringing. Men and women, as the Quran puts it, arise from each other.

The traditional role of woman was developed over thousands of years of evolutionary history while the new role has come into existence only within the last century. There has been no time for genetic adjustment. The result is that there is a contradiction and conflict between their inherent or biological nature and the characteristics acquired from their sociology, their essence and their personalities which leads to all kinds of tensions, malfunctions and neurosis. When the social role was in harmony with their biology psychological growth could take place within their essence. But now, though the personality can continue to grow, it must do so at the expense of their essence. Development is superficial. It is supposed that in the course of time genetic changes will take place by the normal processes of natural selection. But unfortunately this does not seem to be likely. It is true that women with the more pronounced masculine characteristics tend to be most successful in modern social systems, but they are also the ones who are reproductively most unsuccessful.

 

It is, however, necessary to add some qualifications to the above comments in order to get a more balanced view :-

1. Those who are brought up under these Western conditions will be used to them and will not see them in the same way. Most of the people, men as well as women, accept the completely different social conditions prevailing in their own countries and do not strive for the emancipation of women in the western sense.

2. The criticisms do not apply to everyone but rather to a large section of the community. It is, therefore, possible to look at other sections of a community and reach other conclusions. Nearly 50% of the population, for instance, still forms stable marriages. In the days before their emancipation the oppression and injustices women are said to have suffered also only applied to only a proportion of them, not to all. The level of education and intelligence appears to play a significant role in social relationships.

3. Women have been forced into the labour market by poverty in many undeveloped nations in Africa and Asia as well, without much talk about emancipation of women. In these countries the shortage of educated people has opened up positions for educated women from the few prosperous families. No great ideological revolution was involved in these changes and it is not purely a Western phenomena.

Life in a Capitalist Society can be described thus:- A couple gets married or lives together after a brief courtship or infatuation. They have to find somewhere to live. The price of housing is great owing to the fact that the population is large, space is small, and it is a necessity. The rich can buy as many houses they like, sometimes having several sparsely occupied ones, reducing availability for others, and can use these as a means of making a profit. The couple takes out a mortgage on a house which, together with interest, costs them three times the price of the house for the next 20 years. To pay for this the wife has to go out to work. The small children, at their most formative years, therefore, have to be placed in nurseries manned by employees who have no personal interest in them and often have no expertise either. Since the mothers have to pay for these services it would not be worth their while going out to earn money were it not for the fact that the cost of care is reduced by taking in a great number of children and employing only few and untrained staff. This, however, means that the child cannot be given personal attention. Although a great number of studies into these places show how inadequate and harmful to the development of the child they are, too much is expected from them. Laws are passed to regulate them and inspectors have to be employed to supervise them. This has to be paid for by taxes. There are never enough inspectors and they cannot be there all the time, nor do they have a personal genetic interest in the children. The carers do the job only because they themselves need the money.

It is, therefore, the economic conditions which determine both the social conditions and future psychological welfare of the community. The women are forced to earn the money in order to pay the money lender and the government taxes. In so far as they go out to earn money to improve their ‘standard of life’ they pay for it by sacrificing the domestic, social and psychological wellbeing of themselves, their husbands and their children.

4. Though some of these changes are irreversible, we must regard the present situation as a transitional one, applying to the present stage of history. Several tendencies can be detected:-

If some present trends continue it is likely that the number of jobs suitable for women will increase in the future. Women are likely increasingly to become the bread winners while men stay at home to look after home and children. Perhaps they can do a better job of this. Or men will have to change in order to take up such jobs. As the society becomes more organized, docility and conformity will become ever more important and children brought up without a male role model, a father, will be better adapted. Motherhood may become a career for some women for which the State pays. Human societies may become more like those of bees and ants which have been stable for millions of years. This is not, however, what human beings as vicegerents are required to be.

However, the progress of knowledge and education, technological and organizational changes continue to take place and these must continue to produce new social conditions. It may release human beings from dependence on factory and office and make them more independent. There appear to be three major problems, the solution of which will require great social changes:-

(a) Economic - Factories and offices are becoming even now more and more automatic, creating unemployment. This creates the problem of ownership and distribution. The pollution of the planet and the exhaustion of resources requires better management. Greater central control and wider distribution of shares and ownership will be necessary. As energy resources run out there is likely to be more decentralization and local industries and self-sufficiency will become more important.

(b) Political - All organizations have become too large, unwieldy, inefficient, remote, uncontrollable and oppressive. New modes of organization will have to be found.

(c) Psychological - Psychosis, neurosis, psychopathy, psychosomatic diseases. crime and a great number of social problems connected with these are steadily increasing and will need a solution.

It is unlikely, therefore, that the present social conditions and relationship between the sexes can continue unchanged. These developments, moreover, give humanity a greater control over their affairs and wider range of choices. This increases human responsibility and offers the possibility of constructing a much more intelligent social system.

Islam certainly supports the emancipation of women, but its view of what this consists of differs radically from that found in the West where the psychological dimension is entirely neglected and the social aspect only dimly understood. Women have the right to be respected as women, have their own important function and have the right to self-fulfillment. Emancipation is not obtained by the right to promiscuity and the emulation of men.

5. We could argue as follows:- The population expansion of living organisms, including human beings, inevitably means competition for resources. This fuels the process of evolution because those organisms which develop characteristics which give them competitive advantages will multiply and achieve dominance. It was, therefore, inevitable that Man, as the most aggressive species, should arise and achieve success, and that the male should have the dominant role. The same logic also leads to the development of technology. But this development leads ultimately to a crisis point when technology combined with human aggressiveness threatens the extinction of man, and, indeed, the whole biosphere and the planet itself. At this point the species must either destroy itself or it must become transformed. It is a testing point. The earth, we are told by the religions, will be inherited by the meek - the non-aggressive. Such crisis points are probably a universal feature applying also to other planets throughout the Universe. It would seem, therefore, that the increasing domination of women in human affairs becomes necessary and inevitable, particularly as this also involves stabilizing the population.

But this also threatens stagnation which is incompatible with evolution. Stagnant societies are replaced. Perhaps, humanity is required to expand into the rest of the Universe or take its place in a Universal community, and the incentive to do this must be retained. Competitive advantage is also obtained through increasing abilities, adaptability, versatility, cooperation and unification. Indeed, it may well be that Evolution is not the result of competition, but that competition is only one of the ways in which it is obtained, or that it is even a result of evolution. The reproductive expansion of species, their variation and development, after all, comes first, and depends on cosmic laws, not on competition.

We will, therefore, assume that what is required is a proper balance and cooperation between male and female characteristics.

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On Sexual Morality

The reason why Islam opposes free, indiscriminate and promiscuous sexual relationships are as follows :-

1. Sexual bonding, the married state, fidelity and sexual loyalty is an inherently natural state for man. There are unnatural causes for its disruption and psychologically and socially harmful consequences. There is a biological need to reproduce and protect the sexual territory against others. Sexual jealousy is a normal and deep-seated part of man and other creatures. Research has shown that there are two kinds of sperm - those which seek out and fertilize the ovum and others which do not have this function but either fight and kill or create a protective barrier against all foreign sperms. Thus nature itself demands fidelity and human legal systems which do not recognize this fact and prevent retaliation against infidelity cannot be compatible with human nature and must be harmful. Observation shows that children left to themselves form sexually segregated groups. Their psychological growth requires the influence and reinforcements provided by compatible groups. Their interest in members of the opposite sex arises only when the sexual impulse begins to develop, and then it is directed towards finding one partner with which they can form an exclusive bond. Marriage exists throughout the world in all communities and is always marked by social ceremonies which recognize and reinforce this bond.    

2. The purpose of the sex impulse is to bind the two sexes together in order to reproduce and create the conditions in which children may be reared in the most effective and efficient manner. Even the higher animals show order in their reproductive activity. Promiscuity weakens the binding force by dispersing it thinly.

3. Free sexual activity leads to incest. Fathers, sons and brothers would have sexual intercourse with the same woman, and mothers, sisters and daughters with the same man. The purpose of sexual differentiation is to create variety and vigour. This is its evolutionary advantage over simple reproduction. The study of Nature shows that it has made much effort to ensure diversification. Incest, however, leads to inbreeding and the deterioration of the race.

4. It leads to the production of illegitimate children who do not have the benefits of a stable family environment in which to develop. Two people cooperating can do a better job of parenting than one. The environment for the child becomes unbalanced if there is only one parent. The role of the mother is to nourish, while that of the father is to provide the means and the discipline. The absence of a male role model deprives both the male and female child of an example and atrophies the ability to adjust themselves to the opposite sex.

5. Promiscuity creates uncertainty. (a) Distrust is created. No man can be sure that the child his wife delivers is his. In general the effort a man makes on behalf of a child depends on knowing this. (b) The ability of the father to get along with his child depends on genetic compatibility. (c) Illegitimate children do not know their fathers. The genetic constitution of the person is, therefore, unknown. It may well be that a person marries and has children by someone in whom there are genetic defects. The propagation of criminal or psychopathic tendencies, mental or physical deficiencies and abnormalities is increased. (d) People have a desire to know their origin. Their self-image and psychological security and significance is connected with it. It is not a nice feeling that their fathers did not love and abandoned them. (e) There is also an increased possibility of incest owing to marriages between brothers and sisters.

6. Promiscuous sexual relationships mean that those who indulge in them are unable to form deep and stable relationships. People are unable to adjust to each other and the community, therefore, disintegrates into a collection of individuals. In fact there is greater sexual freedom and emotional satisfaction within a marriage then there is outside it where it tends to be only a physical relief.

7. People spend their time, thought and energy in the pursuit of the opposite sex and seducing each other without responsibility. It creates sensuality. (a) They have less time or interest for the pursuit of higher values. (b) They treat each other as objects to be used for the satisfaction of their sexual urges. This devalues human beings. (c) The decline of sexual morality is, therefore, associated with the decline of all types of morality. (d) There is psychological degeneration. Creativity, both in cultural and psychological development depends on the sublimation of the sexual impulse.

8. Body contact leads to an exchange of bacteria. In a single couple a uniform distribution of bacteria and tolerance occurs. Free sex leads to the arising of new bacteria and the spread of venereal diseases.

 

The causes of sexual promiscuity are as follows :-

1. Sexual deprivation and frustration specially in the young. Early marriages could be a solution. However, increased cultural stimulation causes the sexual impulse to develop early, while the need for education and making a living leads to the postponement of marriage. A much more responsible cultural system could reduce such stimulation, and marriages need not be postponed if no separation existed between education and industry and people could continue their education while earning a living at the same time. Travelers, sailors away from home for long periods, soldiers in wars in foreign lands, people who are constantly required by their profession to move about do not have the stability where normal family life is possible, and they take their pleasures where they can. It is, however, perfectly possible to organize life better, use self-control, and other methods of self-relief exist and are normally used.

2. The desire for variety and the relief of boredom. These could be satisfied by cultivating variety and excitement within marriage. Variety and excitement can also be found in adventure, exploration, technology and scientific research.

3. Sexual and Psychological incompatibility between the partners. This requires wiser method of choosing partners than impulse and trial and error; the existence of, and adherence to, well defined roles. It also requires the cultivation of tolerant attitudes.

4. The intrusion into marriages of extraneous factors such as economic, social or ideological considerations. This problem can be solved by creating social equality, a common, compatible or comprehensive system of ideas and values, and an economic system where great differences in wealth have been abolished.

5. Temptations. These can be controlled through rules regarding modesty and relationships, and cultural stimulants. Sexual relief is sought to compensate for great stresses and pressures, and this makes people vulnerable while others take advantage of the situation. Some people are weak and cannot say ‘no’ and others are kind and obliging in the face of someone’s need or pleading. Unprotected women, specially when young and beautiful are regarded as a temptation by all men in whom sexual vigour is strong and no moral scruples exist in societies where immodesty, fornication and low moral standards are normal. All this requires some control over the way the sexes associate with each other.

6. Adultery and fornication often take place when people are drunk, under the influence of drugs or other situations in which their control is reduced. The use of debilitating substances should be forbidden.

7. Cultural factors. In some communities the value system itself demands fornication. Men and women compete and are honoured for the number of their conquests. A value system in which such activity is regarded as immature and depraved will have the opposite effect.

8. Recent researches (see ”Dark Nature” by Lyall Watson) show that adultery is widespread among humans and in birds and other animals) for the following reasons :- The male has the capacity to impregnate many women owing to the fact that it takes only a short time to do so, and they produce sperm in abundance and throughout their adult life. Women are born with a limited number of eggs and it takes much longer to produce a child. Quantity and diversity appears to be biologically more important for men while quality is more important for women. The male sexual urge is, therefore, inherently much more persistent. Though nature has compensated for this discrepancy by making women more receptive to the male, this tends to be more an emotional than a sexual need, which is often perverted by social, cultural or domestic factors, causing frigidity. Women have two needs, security and provision for themselves and the child when they are pregnant and the child is young, and good genetic material. These two are often not fulfilled by the same male in certain societies. The rich and powerful males can provide and tend to be polygamous, but good genetic vigour is provided by someone else. Economic inequality and Monogamy has increased this problems. Women have two kinds of orgasms - intense ones which suck in and retain the semen, and mild ones which do not. The intense ones occur with lovers, thereby ensuring pregnancy. Males also have two kinds of ejaculations. More sperm is produced when less time is spent with women, and fewer sperm are produced when they spend more times with their spouses. This is interpreted as a method of ensuring that women who by their absence have had other opportunities, will become pregnant by them. However, choice depends on perception and values. It is also known that there is much sexual deception and that males and females both compensate for deficiency by increasing their sexual attractiveness. This would not work if people were not deceived. It leads to degeneration. As long as these infidelities can be concealed and remain secret no social problems arise. But today increasing freedom and knowledge have increased suspicion and weakened marital ties. It seems, therefore, that sexual fidelity can only be obtained if (a) the social conditions are such that those who have the best genetic material are also the most economically successful. (b) that the culture contains methods and laws which prevent sexual deception and indiscriminate mixing and courtship. (c) that the educational system inculcates discernment and objective values. (d) that the causes of sexual perversions such as frigidity are removed.

 

Certain difficulties with the Islamic view on sexual relations should be considered.  

1. It could be argued that everyone should have the right to fulfill their sexual needs in the same way as they have the right to fulfill their need for food and security. Though Islam encourages marriage while discouraging celibacy, it does not see sex as a purely personal matter and confines it to marriage. But the strength of the sexual impulse then often leads to self-abuse, homosexuality, rape, prostitution and other kinds of perversion as the only alternatives and these are highly unsatisfactory. Free sex appears to solve this problem theoretically. It has not solved it in the Western World. Research has shown that sexuality becomes a problem only when there is excessive artificial stimulation created by the cultural environment. This kind of stimulation is not permitted in Islam.

2. It has been argued that a person’s body is his or hers own and they have the right to do with it as they please. Then, only consent between two people is required as long as no harm is done to others. But the argument against this view is that:- (a) sexuality is connected with the welfare of the whole race. (b) Your body is not your own. It has been created by your parents and ancestors, the processes of nature, and ultimately by Allah. (c) It is not only two people who are involved. The present or future spouses and the present or future children are also involved. (d) What people do sets an example to others and affects general morality. (e) people also modify themselves by their behaviour which then manifests itself in their behaviour towards others. (f) Uncontrolled sexual behaviour is due to the inability to control oneself. It is usually based on lust and selfishness. Narrow rational arguments in favour of this behaviour is, therefore, irrelevant.  

3. The Industrial revolution cannot be reversed. This means also that the emancipation of women into the professional life, their financial independence and freedom cannot be reversed. The sexes will, therefore, mix more freely. and their competence in careers increases respect for women. Greater population congestion increases familiarity. Greater mixing on an equal basis changes the character of sexual relationships. It becomes a normal part of personal relationships. There seems to be something unnatural about the segregation of sexes. There is greater mobility due to the development of transport and communication and this makes permanent relationships too difficult. Greater variety brought about by culture and industry gives people greater choices and the desire to try them out. That which become an obstruction or barrier to freedom or the fulfillment of a career, task or desire will be and should be ignored. These arguments depend on values and priorities. Human beings can change circumstances.

4. The husband or wife who feels secure in the fidelity of their partner has no incentive to behave in a considerate manner towards them. This may well have been one of the causes of the suppression of women. Sexual freedom allows competition to flourish. All members of the same sex are rivals and try to outdo the other in their attempts to attract the opposite sex. Each partner must constantly fight off potential rivals and try to please or humour the other.  However, such competition by causing insecurity also causes tension. There is a constant threat. Attention and energy is distracted away from more useful fields. Husbands and wives often use jealousy in order to extract very frivolous advantages over each other.

5. In the past when the population was small and war and disease produced loss of life, free love was frowned on by all societies because fertility and reproduction were important. The new generation needed the secure environment of a family. In the modern world, because of excessive population, this has been reversed. Reproduction has to be curbed, and the two functions of sex, personal pleasure and reproduction, have been dissociated. However, it is not difficult to see that communities among whom the family tradition remains strong will reproduce themselves faster and more efficiently than those among whom free love exists. The latter may decline owing to contraception.

The Western attitude to sex, however, is most confusing. On the one hand there is wide-spread prostitution, sexual prowess is widely admired, men and women are constantly seducing each other in a promiscuous manner, and the cinema, television and literature are always depicting them going to bed without any scruples whatever at the shortest acquaintanceship, yet great fuss is made about rape. It is not reasonable to treat sexuality both seriously and frivolously at the same time.

In the future the size of the population as well as its quality is likely to become increasingly important. This requires several measures:- That the amount of sexual stimulation be reduced; that the children be provided stable homes in which they are brought up; that all accidental births and indiscriminate sexual relationships be controlled. Islam makes a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate sexual intercourse not only by punishing the latter, but also by requiring that fornicators should marry only other fornicators. This is in recognition of the fact that those who have a superficial attitude to sex cannot make the deep and stable relationships required in marriages. When the population problem becomes severe, it will become increasingly sensible to forbid fornicators from having children by law and even to sterilize them. They may then be left to their own devices. All actions have their consequences and the choice remains in the hands of the individual. There are two other possible solutions to the problem of sexuality.

That a community rather than a family becomes a social unit so that all the men are collectively the husbands of all the women collectively; sexual jealousy is seen as a vice; and the children become the collective responsibility of the whole community. Children accept anything they are brought up with. In many communities people accept the infidelity of their partners as normal.

That reproduction is confined to only a section of the population as among bees and ants. These would be people in whom the parental instincts was particularly strong, who had the best aptitudes, who were specially trained in the sciences and arts of bringing up children and were provided by governments with the resources to do so.

These solutions, however, seem quite incompatible with human nature and are likely to bring about harmful consequences. Adaptations of this kind require many thousands of years.

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On Social Changes in Islamic Countries

Economic, Political and even Ideological pressures are likely to lead women in the rest of the world, including Islamic countries, towards the same social conditions as those existing in the West. They, too are developing along the same lines. Women are able, required and forced, under these conditions, to find careers and become financially, politically and ideologically independent of men. If there is religious opposition to this development, then it is inevitable that women, forced by circumstances, will abandon religion. The collapse of Islam, as traditionally understood, will be accelerated. It is, however, suggested here that :-

(1) The prophet himself predicted that social changes would come about.

 “In these times anyone who omits to do one tenth of what he has been commanded will be damned. But a time is coming when anyone who does one tenth of what he has been commanded shall be saved.”

Thus changes can be made in the Islamic world without damnation. However, the changes should be intelligent ones. This is integral to the notion of Vicegerency and Surrender. Mere imitation or drifting by the force of circumstances must lead to disaster.

(2) Though there is certainly repression of women in Islamic countries, this is not because of Islam, but rather because of ignorance, misunderstanding or neglect of it, or because of the still backwards economic, social and educational conditions. It should be pointed out that there are also a great number of formidable women who give a good account of themselves, and some dominate over their men. It is their personalities and value systems which govern the behaviour of both. It is better to regard the relative status of the sexes with respect to each other in any age as arising from mutual consent in accordance with the conditions prevailing at the place and times. The word ‘repression’ in this connection merely reflects the subjective attitude of those who are revolting. Indeed, if Muslims repress women then they have not fulfilled their obligations towards them. On the other hand the same is the case if they are over indulgent or encourage or force them into spurious kinds of freedom which flouts their welfare. When men repress women then they also harm themselves. It is usually a sign of weakness and inadequacy.

(3) The meaning and essence of Islam should not be mistaken for some of its outer forms particularly those which are connected with particular times and places. Nor is religion based on knowledge the same thing as religion based on sentimental attachment to traditional practices or prejudice.

(4) That the abandonment of Islam would be a greater tragedy for Muslim countries than the abandonment of religion has been for those who have already achieved a measure of development. They will then have removed the force which facilitated development. That this tragedy can be avoided if the religious authorities were more enlightened.

(5) That a more sensible social system adapted to modern conditions can be produced, still based on Islamic principles, than that which has arisen through ignorance and accident.

(6) The Islamic social system arose when people were relatively ignorant, uneducated and unorganized. When people become better educated, and they acquired greater self-control, sensitivity, a better sense of responsibility and self-respect, then many of the restrictions become redundant. They are not ends in themselves but means. However, experience shows that despite education, most people in the West are still incapable of behaving in a sexually responsible manner when religion has been abandoned.

(7) Sexual debauchery is not only a Western disease. It is also wide-spread in Islamic countries and among Muslims living in the West. Their social system has had some restraining effect, but becomes worthless when religion as a whole is weakened. Under such circumstances adherence to the social system is merely a question of habit not of religion, and has no spiritual value.

(8) Where women are suppressed there we have stagnation due to the lack of stimulation, challenge and incentives. A certain amount of opposition and tension is required within a society if it is to stay vigorous. Where men become too comfortable in their control over women there they become lethargic and degenerate, and the influence and stimuli which women can offer is rendered wholly ineffective. It is perfectly possible for women to achieve emancipation and regeneration through movements which assert their femininity and roles rather than to abandon them. The Universe itself arises from the tension between opposite forces as well as by their mutual adjustment and cooperation. To disable either of these is death. One of the purposes of Islam is to create balance and cooperation between the sexes and hence, in the society. It does so by enabling each to function according to their own nature without inhibiting the other. Without this there will inevitably be a constant swing from one extreme to another.   

(9) Women in the agricultural society always did work along side their husbands. It is only relatively recently with the coming of the Industrial revolution that a separation between the sexes in work has occurred. It is probably only a transitional period. Changes are likely to occur when most machines are automated, decentralization is forced by the increasing price of transportation as energy sources decline, and the work force is released from the factory and office. The invention of sophisticated small scale machinery allows the increase in independent local domestic crafts and industry. Small businesses are even now run by husband and wife together.

Apart from this, it is necessary that mankind take control not only of his environment but also of his social structure and psychological development.

 It could be argued that as long as sexual morality is maintained, then it would not matter to Islam what the structure of the society is. Or even that if the welfare of the children is the main consideration then the existence of efficient methods of contraception allow sexual freedom without endangering this aim. Morality merely requires that marriages should be undertaken and be stable only for the duration required for bringing up children. Or that if the children are brought up more efficiently by well trained professionals in institutions then no regulations governing sexual behaviour are necessary. These arguments, however, do not appear to be valid. Sexual morality certainly depends on the social structure and vice versa. The indiscriminate mixing of the sexes at work and leisure produces temptations. The use of contraceptives has not prevented illegitimate pregnancies and abortions. The rearing of children in institutions has not proved successful. The purpose of marriage, from the Islamic point of view, is not merely procreation, but the merging of lives to create love and unity. The test of what is good should be whether it has evolutionary value. The indications are that sexual freedom produces degenerative effects in three directions. It squanders psychic energy; it causes disintegration of the social structure; and it allows the procreation of a greater number of less able people. The selective process, therefore, obtains a negative bias.

 It has been argued by some people that Islam did what it was possible to do for women in the conditions which existed at the time, but that modern developments have given women far greater possibilities these days. It may also be argued that whereas Christianity has an organized Church with Priests it is able to continuously adapt that religion to the changing times, while Islam having no such organized Church must rely on teachings fixed in a book designed for a particular people in a bygone age. It is further argued that since Islam insists on the unity and interdependence of all aspects of life, but progress and rapid change in certain directions are being forced on societies by circumstances, then Islam becomes an obstruction to progress. Therefore, though Islam was in advance of its times in the past, it is now obsolete and should be abandoned.

 Though all this is true in the way it has been applied, in essence all three of these arguments can be refuted. The social conditions which exist in the world all around us, the delinquency, the crimes, wide-spread moral degeneration, cruelty and violence, the neurosis and psychosis, the stresses and strains, discontents and intolerance, injustice and conflicts, all show that no modern systems designed to deal with them exist or are effective. The unaided human mind is simply not up to the task. Indeed, many of the harmful consequences on the thinking, motivations and actions of people remain unknown because the distorted mind is unable to see them. This being the case human modifications of old religions must also necessarily be ineffective. On the other hand, the possibility of progress is built into Islam. It is a mistake to regard it as teaching only at one level. It is like a ladder, which though it has a fixed shape, it is still possible for people to climb it. But it may not be possible to get to a higher rung, or even to see that rung, unless one first climb to an intermediate one.

According to one counter-argument Islam is concerned with spiritual and moral matters rather than with social, economic and political ones, and ought to be separated from them. It is, therefore, perfectly possible to maintain the spiritual aspects whatever social changes may take place. The fact that women take up careers like men should not invalidate the moral teachings. This is only partly true. Human beings are a unity such that anyone aspect affects all the others. It is not, therefore, possible to maintain one department in the face of changes in other departments of life without strengthening the former or providing some counter-balance. The emancipation of women has caused a decline in sexual morality because people did not have adequate resources to deal with the increased pressures.

An increase in freedom without an equivalent increase in the sense of responsibility, or an increase in information and technology without an increase in morality cannot be recommended. Freedom simply becomes harmful license. There must be first an intensive educational and moral development before there is an increase in freedom if disaster is to be avoided. This is a matter of great urgency in Islamic countries because the pressures for change, both internal and external, are overwhelming. They cannot simply imitate the West without destroying themselves. A sensible policy has to be adopted.

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On the Nature of Sexuality

The Quran is constantly referring to nature and requires us to study it as a source of not merely facts, but also of values. This will now be done.

Every object or system exists in a state of equilibrium and interaction with its environment. If a change takes place in the environment then changes take place in the object so as to restore equilibrium. The object is destroyed if it does not adjust to its environment. Every system exists by virtue of the balance of forces within it which also give it persistence and resistance to destruction, and they have a measure of flexibility which allows them to adjust. They may, therefore, be said to have three things, a body, an instinct of self-preservation and intelligence. These terms can, and are here defined in a non-anthropomorphic way. The changes within the system set up processes which may create other sub-systems within them. The Universe as a whole is a system which produces sub-systems which produces other sub-systems and so on. These sub-systems may be localized parts or diffuse. For instance a galaxy is a localized part, but hydrogen gas is a diffusely distributed part of the Universe. Living organisms are also systems. But apart from preserving themselves they reproduce. They have a reproductive urge. Reproduction, however, means expansion in numbers and this itself creates changes in the environment. The cells or units so produced also organize themselves in ever more complex ways by differentiation, interlinking and various kinds of order. Unicellular organisms form multi-cellular ones, and these form herds, communities and nations which may unite still further.

The structure and behaviour of the organism is determined by the genes contained in the cells. All living things are formed of the same genetic material which in turn consists of the materials of which all other things are made. The structures, characteristics and behaviour patterns of the individual organisms are developed over a long history of evolution in interaction with the environment, and are those which provide advantages for the survival of the species as a whole. One successful method of doing this is the arising of sexual differentiation since this, by mixing genes, allows the arising of variety. Variety allows adaptation to a great many and changing environments. The arising of cooperative and organized families and communities also bestows advantages. Thirdly, advantages are provided by the constant increase in the capabilities of the organism. This includes perception, processing information, motivations and application, abilities and powers. In human communities there is a transmission and accumulation of experience and information down the generations. There is, therefore, also an evolutional urge. which is built into the Universe and may exist to counteract involution, thereby ensuring Absolute Conservation or self-preservation. Certainly, the evolution on this planet depends on the radiations of the sun, which results from a process of involution.

It follows, therefore, that:-

1. Survival depends ultimately on adjustment to the whole of reality, since all systems belong to some greater system which belongs to a greater system and so on until we reach the Absolute.

2. The underlying force within organisms is self-preservation. But it has a purpose. The biological purpose of life is reproduction, the preservation of the species. And the purpose of this is evolution, which transcends any species and could be regarded as integral to the processes of the Universe.

3. That all humanity arises from the same genetic source and is one super-organism, and that it is itself part of life in general and so on. That survival does not refer to individuals but to the whole species and beyond. The individual has a function with respect to the species which has a function with the rest of life and so on.

4. No individual is a complete being by themselves. They die out. Reproduction is a means of self-propagation. And this can only be done with a partner of the opposite sex. Completion is achieved through marriage where the characteristics of one partner are complemented and balanced by the other. It is through interaction and adjustment to each other that the individual grows and that this is transmitted to the child.

 

The human child, unlike that of animals, has a long period of immaturity during which it is dependant on the parents. This period of immaturity is a period of flexibility in which it can learn, develop and adjust itself to life. This is the main advantage human beings have over all other life-forms. It enables the development of civilizations and the continuous re-adjustment to changing circumstances also brought about by the creation of civilization.

But this helplessness and dependence of the human child requires a long period of care and education which requires security, love and a sense of significance. These are the conditions in which the learning process can take place. This is provided by a stable family life. The human being has a sex impulse which is far stronger and continuous than what is required for mere reproduction. This has to be explained. Its purpose is to bind together the parents, and the parents to the children in order to provide such stability. Marriage is a unification of lives. When a marriage takes place the unity should be such that the ego of the one includes the other. It should also include the children which symbolize and actualize this unity in a biological form.

Normal sexuality cannot be confined to the act of sexual intercourse. It contains in itself reproduction, the need for nesting or home making and the nourishing and developing of children. It is the source of life. We may, therefore, consider fornication and adultery as forms of perversion similar to homosexuality, fetishism etc. The most popular songs and poetry is about love not about sexual intercourse. It is about the re-unification of two opposite incomplete sexes to form a viable self-maintaining wholeness, a blending of lives.

Sexuality is not satisfied by the pleasures of the physical act alone. It has emotional, intellectual and spiritual ingredients. Because of its strength it produces profound psychological effects. There is a need in all human being to form an intimate union with another human being of the opposite sex to complete themselves, and there is a need for love and affection. There is the need to be able to abandon themselves to another person in complete freedom and security without any barriers created by the ego or anything else. Those who misuse it become incapable of obtaining its full benefits and satisfaction. Their frustration leads them to even greater excesses. Promiscuity tends to destroy the possibility of forming meaningful relationships. Particularly when it is based on the pleasure principle, which is thoroughly self-centered, it treats others as if they were objects to be used. It devalues life. Sexuality provides the greatest intimacy possible for human beings. It involves not only a physical union where one person enters physically into another and deposits a life-giving substance containing his very essence, but also emotional and spiritual union. The child represents the complete union of the two physically and psychologically. Marriage blends the lives together so that all the experiences of a person by which his psyche is formed, now include the other.

The lack of proper sexual satisfaction leads to loneliness, isolation, aggression, irritability, tendencies to violence, cruelty, bitterness even to the extent of paranoia, self-pity, loss of self-respect or self-value, guilt feelings, fantasies , perversions, and the need to find substitutes which, though they can be constructive are usually very destructive. A person is born through sexual intercourse, he matures when sexual activity develops, and he dies when it ceases. Sexuality is the power to create and as such it is a spark of divinity.

The characteristics of sexuality are (a) bonding, (b) intensity and (c) creativity. Sexual energy may be misdirected through other faculties. It may, for instance, produce fascination or attachments, fantasy and fixations in the intellect, fanaticism, ambition, intolerance, fetishism, sadism, masochism in the emotions, and irritability, tension and loss of control in action. It could form attachments not to a person but to objects or ideas or institutions which then cease to be means to an end and become ends in themselves. It can also form attachments to the persons own body and senses, thereby, creating the pleasure principle. Here the pursuit of pleasure itself becomes the goal rather than pleasure being the index or side effect of the fulfillment of a function. In either case the biological purpose is defeated, and its evolutionary value lost. The causes of this perversion lie in the way society is organized and educated, and what kind of economic and cultural influences affect a person. Sexual intercourse ought not, therefore, to be treated lightly. It is life itself.

This is why Islam arranges conditions in which sexual opportunity within marriage is maximized while outside marriage it is minimized. Celibacy is not encouraged.

 

 Let us consider what marriage does.

 Sexuality has three levels.

1, At the physical level its function is reproduction.

2, At the Social level we can see that:-

 (a) the whole of the economic system, industry, commerce and finance is geared to supply the needs of the family and home rather than individuals.

 (b) The Society is bound together by a network of marriages. The basis of human society is not the economic system or the self-preservative instinct as supposed by Marxists, but sexuality as we can observe by studying any mammalian herds. A marriage is a joining together of two lives, but it also creates a new knot in the social network. It joins together families as well as the generations, ensuring the spatial, temporal and qualitative continuity of the Society and life itself. In so far as all societies divide vertically into hierarchies inter-marriage create a continuity. Class stratification occurs only when barriers are set up. National and race differences arise in the same way. This forms the basis of all conflicts. Marriage creates the proper conditions in which new human beings are born, brought up, formed and educated.

(c) the cultural system is primarily designed as a means of educating the family, specially the young, and transmitting the experiences of peoples down the generations. Even if it is meant for entertainment. People need to relax and even education is most effective when it is packaged in an interesting and appealing manner.

 3, At a spiritual or psychological level, development is achieved through the sublimation of sexuality. Creativity, which is integral to sexuality, is utilized in science, art and industry. The symbolisms of most religions give evidence of this. It is a kind of self or inner reproduction. Though it may be achieved by the repression of normal sexuality this is fraught with dangers. The sublimation of sexual energy can be achieved much more normally within marriage. Within Christianity the doctrines of Paul who exalted the spirit while pouring contempt on the flesh, a tradition of sexual repression arose which led to a number of perversions. One of the results of this repression was that it could not be sustained for long owing to the power of the sexual urge, and the pendulum, as it were, swung to the other extreme. The present sexual permissiveness with all its perversions and destructiveness which prevail in the West are the result of this. No such dichotomy exists in Islam, and it ought to create a balanced attitude.

Marriage has enormous evolutionary significance in several ways. Firstly it provides an environment in which the individuals have to learn to adapt to each other. And this environment itself grows as the children grow up. They have to learn flexibility, increasing their capacity for adaptation. The various interactions produce cumulative experiences which ensure growth. This takes place with minimum pain owing to the endurance and incentives created by love. What is learnt is transmitted to the next generation not only as experience but also as motivation. Marriages provide a discipline. Without it personality differences would lead to quarrels and separation, and this prevents maturation. There is also mutual help, cooperation, companionship, comfort, exchanges and synthesis of ideas. Though a marriage may be based on mere superficial fascination in the first instant, true love grows only gradually with understanding and tolerance. Responsibility is learnt only by having a family. After marriage the experiences of the individual which form his mind are not only associated with the idea of his own self, but also with that of the spouse and the offspring. The ego expands to include others. Through the spouse and children it can also include all those who are related to them. This expansion creates a network which is quite different from the formal superficial one created by organization and law.

 

In general evolution occurs among human beings owing to the following factors:-

(a) the selection and transmission of good genetic material.

(b) the existence of an environment which is conducive to the birth and development of children. Richer environments can sustain a greater number of children and provide them with better influences.

(c) the quality, characters and compatibility of the parents. It is not necessarily the rich and powerful who can provide the children with all their needs.

(d) the nature of the social environment. The kind of selective pressure it exerts not only on the way inherent characteristics are developed and channeled, but also on which genes are selected for reproduction.

(e) the nature of the physical environment. It affects the health and accident risks, the physical stresses and strains.

(f) the accumulation, synthesis and transmission of experience. The culture and social influences

 

(g) The value systems which affect the motivation by which seeking, selection, interpretation and organization of experience takes place and which leads people into situations and activities which determine other experiences.

(h) mutations occurring as a result of cosmic and environmental radiations, chemical constitution of foods, water and air. These may also be affected by what human beings create and do. The mutation of a gene depends partly on the nature of the gene.

(i) genetic changes may also occur due to chemical events in the chromosomes modified by the stresses and strains within the physiological system. These stresses and strains are dependant on the way of life of the individual, which in turn is dependant on the social conditions and the activities of the individual. These flow from his motives.

 

Normally, shared experiences should bind people closer together. Why then do we get casual relationships, tensions and conflicts in marriages and divorce? The reasons for this seems to be

(1) the development of self-centeredness, particularly a strong ego.

(2) economic, social and cultural circumstances which make more permanent relationships difficult. The Law itself often militates against it.

(3) promiscuity destroys the special position of the spouse and encourages superficial relationships.

(4) The interference of extraneous factors, acquired ideas and attitudes into the sexual function. In so far as the behaviour of people is not governed by common comprehensive goals, ideologies and value systems, the increase in power and variety of cultural influences also increases their differences.

(5) Erosion of well defined roles.

(6) The decline of tolerance and willingness to compromise. Men and women are different and this ought not only to be recognized but respected and allowed for.

(7) The ease with which divorce is allowed. It has become an easy option. Every little difference of opinion, frustration or problem causes people to consider it. This is particularly the case with women probably because of greater emotional instability, a greater sense of vulnerability and the fact that they are more involved with their children. People are less willing to make efforts. Marriage and family life is not valued enough.

In the past when power was concentrated in the hands of men, women were forced to tolerate anything their husbands did, and husbands did not need to consider their wives desires and needs. Divorce was not, therefore, allowed either by the culture or the Law. But when an improvement in the status of women took place, either because of an ideological change as in Islam, or because of economic changes as in the West, then divorce became allowable in order to facilitate a new adjustment. It was meant to create and protect harmonious marriages. However, the modern causes of divorce have reversed this purpose of divorce. It is unlikely, therefore, that the problems so created can be solved in a secular system which has no religion to guide mutual adjustment.

 

The Islamic solution is that

   (a) There be a common ideology, and both surrender to a purpose greater than themselves

   (b) That each partner has a well defined role with respect to each other, that they cooperate and help each other to fulfill this role.

   (c) that differences are recognized, respected and tolerated and compromises are made.

 

“O mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from the twain has spread abroad a multitude of men and women. be careful of your duty towards Allah in whom you claim your rights of one another, and towards the wombs that bare you.” 4:1

 

Sexual relationships have been described symbolically in the past, often in a much more profound manner.

The relationship between a man and his wife has been compared to the relationship between the heavens and the earth. The rain falls from the sky to quicken the earth and the sun’s rays fall into it to provide the energy. The female is the receptacle, the giver of form. The woman has always been associated with Mother Earth, the womb from which all the fruits of the earth arise. She is associated with nourishment. The male was regarded as the transmitter of the quickening power of the heavens. Both are required for every phenomena. And, indeed, evolution of anything on earth depends on what the earth provides and what it absorbs and assimilates from the higher level, the sun and the cosmos. The influences which men and women shed are not the same. In other myths the Sun and the Moon represented the male and female respectively. The sun gives us light, heat and the energy on which all earthly processes depend. The moon effects the tides, and this has affected the evolution of life and still has profound effects on it. The female menstrual cycle may be connected with it. Both bodies have physical as well as social and psychological effects. Time, for instance is measured with respect to their motions and phases.

 

The Christian Church recognized the differences when it gave the priesthood exclusively to men. This, however, has recently changed. It has not been realized that men are transmitters and bestowers of certain forces which are required by the community and women in particular, though men also require women to receive these. It is true that in the more distant past there were also female priestesses, but they had quite a different function. Their purpose was to receive certain influences. Female priesthood was usually associated with temple prostitution.

A human being has both an external or public life and an inner, personal or psychological life which is generally protected from the outside. Whereas the development of the inner life depends on selecting the influences coming from outside, the efficiency and power with which the individual deals with the outer world depends on the condition of the inner life. The wearing of clothes symbolizes this fact. It not only protects a person from the dirt and the weather but also presents a cultivated image. All organisms and even fruits have a protective skin which filters the inward and outward moving traffic of matter and forces. The development and efficient functioning of the organism depends on this. The individual is not, however, a viable unit biologically speaking as he cannot reproduce himself alone. In so far, therefore, as the true social unit is a family, it too has an outer and an inner life. The woman represents the inner life, the soul, while the man represents the outer. The inner sanctum must be kept inviolate. The proper development and functioning of the family depends on the correct separation, interaction and functioning of each of these aspects. The integrity of the family unit requires the progressive erosion of the psychological barriers between husband and wife. But each is regarded as a garment for the other. (2:187)

From another point of view, women represent sexuality, life and energy which is good and useful when controlled, but destructive and chaotic when not controlled. Man represents the controlling, ordering and disciplining factor. In general both must exist in balance. According to the Hebrew Old Testament (Genesis chapters 1 and 2), Eve (woman) was created out of Adam (man) as a helper to him. This may be regarded as having the same relationship as the Universe has to Allah. Satan was able to tempt Eve and she then proceeded to tempt Adam. The Fall of mankind is, therefore, blamed on Eve and as punishment:-

“Unto the Woman He said: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam He said: Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life...” Genesis 3:16-17

 From the psychological point of view the personality does come out of the inherent essence and should aid the growth of the essence rather than distort it by its attachment to the things in the environment. The Quran, however, puts it differently.

“But the Devil whispered to him, saying: O Adam! Shall I show you the Tree of Immortality and Power that wastes not away? Then the two ate thereof, so that their shame became apparent unto them, and they began to hide by heaping on themselves some of the leaves of the Garden. And Adam disobeyed his Lord, so went astray.” 20:120-121

There is no mention of Eve having been created from the rib of Adam. The creation and multiplication of mankind is spoken of not from a physical but a spiritual point of view. It was Adam who was tempted and both committed the error. They developed a guilt feeling as their sin became apparent to them, and they began to cover themselves, to hide themselves from themselves. They developed an outer mask or personality to cover the essence. The implication appears to be that Adam should have been in control and should not have been tempted. He was, therefore, responsible for both.

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On Marriage

Marriage, in Islam exists for three purposes - for the development of individuals, for mutual cooperation and comfort of the spouses, and for procreation, the continuity and development of the species.

There is no greater union and intimacy between two people than occurs in marriage. They share not only each others lives but also each others bodies, feelings and thoughts. This union culminates in the ultimate union, the child, in whom a genetic blending has occurred. Since Allah is Unity and the purpose of life and existence is the achievement of unity, marriages have something of the divine in them, are an act of worship and fulfill a cosmic role.

Marriages ought not to take place until the prospective partners have achieved considerable knowledge of each other’s backgrounds, circumstances, desires, ambitions, needs and expectations. It is also necessary to know the behaviour of people in a variety of situations. However, if the spouses are too much alike the danger exists that variation in the new generation will be reduced and humanity may differentiate into several species. On the other hand human beings are much more flexible, versatile and adaptable which makes great variation in character unnecessary. A degree of tolerance, humility and understanding can overcome many differences. No one is perfect, and one of the purposes of marriage is to grow towards perfection and to learn to adjust. Neither should be expected at the outset. The effect of culture and ideas is more important in an educated society. The value systems tend to be accidental, erratic and, therefore diverse when they have not been deliberately cultivated. This becomes a source of conflicts. The existence of a common and comprehensive ideology and attitude to life is, therefore, important. Sexual intimacy should not take place before marriage as this leaves people open to promiscuity. As sexual intimacy produces very powerful emotional forces which have a modifying effect on the essence of the individual - promiscuity causes confusion therein. Casual and promiscuous relationships create superficiality and self-centeredness. It is unlikely that a promiscuous person can ever form deep or meaningful relationships and can, therefore, ever obtain full psychological satisfaction and self-fulfillment. If sexual intimacy is bestowed in an indiscriminate and promiscuous manner what then does a person have to bestow on a spouse which is special? Marriage ceases to have significance and the spouse any privileges. This is not emotionally satisfying to any person.

 

Marriages should have four stages:

1. The period of Search for a partner. This may be undertaken by the person himself or by parents, relatives, friends, or by all together in mutual consultation. Marriage is the joining of families and generations. It has social significance, and is not merely a private affair concerning the individuals. This should also be a time when people undergo a comprehensive course of education in all aspects of marriage.

2. The period of acquaintance. The prospective partners should spend some time together in conversation, shared activities and situations, in order to determine each others characters and mutual interests, likes, dislikes and expectations. Each should assess the other with full consciousness of what marriage entails. Lives will be shared during which each will be at the mercy of the other. The man will enter the woman physically and she will bear their children.

3. The period of Engagement. This begins with consent to marry, which should be publicly known. Here greater intimacy may be allowed. Each should attend a course on the subject of sex and various aspects of marriage which are compiled comprehensively by experts based on research. This period ends with marriage. The act of sexual union itself may be regarded as the true act of marriage. The ceremony exists only to confirm, reinforce or celebrate it.

4. The honeymoon. The partners should have a period of time free from interferences, intrusions, distractions and anxieties during which they can give full attention to each other. They ought to spend a considerable time exploring each other physically and mentally, by sight and touch, and even by hearing, smell and taste. They should familiarize themselves with each other until all reserve, inhibitions and all barriers between them have dissolved and the isolation of the individual in his own prison is destroyed. Marriages tend to break down not only because the existence of barriers weakens the ties but also because people look elsewhere when their need for intimacy on the emotional and mental level is not satisfied.

Sexuality is an integral part of a person. Sexual intercourse should be regarded as a normal part of married life which can take place at any time of day or night. The enjoyment of sexual relationships is essential to health. and a happy life. Sexual frustrations not only cause much misery but a great number of psychological malfunctions and social disorders as we have seen. Reproduction is not the only function of sexual intercourse, and the need for sexual intimacy is not purely sexual. It is used for personal physical and emotional pleasure, as a method of communication, expressing affection and strengthening relationships, creating links and unity between individuals, families and even, politically, between nations. It may arise out of the need to relieve tensions, stresses and anxieties, the desire for comfort, reassurance, security, love and significance in the eyes of another person. It is a powerful therapeutic agent. For most people sexual relationships offer a glimpse of paradise. It may also be used for evil purposes. It is used, mainly by women, to manipulate and dominate, to obtain certain advantages in wealth or power, prestige or status, or in extracting favours or information as in spying. It is used, mainly by men, for aggressive purpose to humiliate, degrade and avenge, as in rape. Some people have extra-marital affairs to assert their independence or as a revenge against their spouses. Obviously these malfunctions should be eradicated.

Sexual intercourse has many forms. It can be selfish and inconsiderate, coarse, gentle, tender, urgent, leisurely, vigorous, superficial, deep, or sophisticated. It could occur frequently but briefly at any time of the day in any position or situation without leading to a climax. It could be routinely confined to the night and the comforts of the bed or to specially romantic conditions and situations. It could be part of the fun and games and the pleasures of shared lives. It could consist of a physical union which lasts for many hours with the minimum movement when it is only a desire for union. It could be experimental in varying positions and situations, an aid to relieve boredom and stagnation, and to stimulate interest in life and revive zest and vigour. Sex has become the subject of a complete Art and a Science just as the preparation of food has. If sexual relationships become dull and boring then the temptation to stray becomes strong, for the sake of curiosity, variety and pleasure, all being inherent impulses in man.

If Islam bans all extra-marital sexual activity, it compensates for this by creating complete sexual freedom within the marriage. Neither partner should ever refuse sexual union to the other. But each should respect and consider the needs of the other. The full enjoyment of sexual relations requires security, mutual affection, respect and trust, freedom from anxiety, fear of consequences, guilt feelings, inhibitions, reservations, and all physical, social and psychological barriers. There are several levels. Each may lead to the next, but not necessarily so :-

1. Companionship. Sharing of experiences and activities. Conversation. Discussion. Avoidance of argumentation.

2. Tenderness. Thoughtfulness and consideration. Exchange of compliments and gifts. Romantic behaviour.

3. Flirtatious behaviour. Laughing and joking. Private games. Touching and hand holding.

4. Embracing, kissing and cuddling.

5. Mutual stimulation.  Foreplay. There is available much literature, art and technology which can aid the relationship. These should not be regarded as evil or depraved devices. Nothing is good or evil in itself but only so according to context. Like anything they can be used for good or evil. A knowledge of erotic zones on the body is required, but psychological factors are also important.

6. Physical union. A comfortable position should be adopted which also allows the deepest penetration. It is not at all necessary that it should be confined to the bed or in a prostrate position. The man enters into the woman. The only union forbidden by Islam is through the anus. The husband should not enter his wife until she is fully receptive, and he can make her so through proper techniques of foreplay. Indeed, the mechanism of conditioned reflexes and association can be used to ensure that such receptivity develops automatically following a certain series of actions. No wife or husband should refuse the advances of the other. However, there are differences in the strength of the libido which must be recognized. This may not be due to inherent factors but because of the way people are brought up or particular circumstances existing at a time. There are techniques for removing frigidity, inhibitions and other obstructions through hypnosis and psycho-therapy which could be routinely applied during the period of preparation for marriage.

7. The pleasure of the rhythm and motions of sexual intercourse. Union can be enjoyed nightly or even several times a day, usually by newly weds, without motion or a climax.

8. The climax or orgasm. Each can enjoy that of the other as well as their own. The purpose of the male orgasm is to eject the semen into the woman, and the purpose of the female orgasm, not found among animals is to suck up this semen. It consists of a complete opening out, an abandonment or surrender of the female to the male. Apart from strong physiological reaction this also has profound psychological effects, particularly as it is a shared experience and creates a feeling of union, not only with each other, but often, under the correct conditions, it also provides a feeling of surrender to the Cosmic process and glimpse of paradise. The male orgasm usually takes place before the female orgasm and can be delayed by periods of rest. It is possible for the male to make the pumping movements without ejaculation. This enables him to enter sexual relationships more often. The wife can enjoy the feeling of the life giving fluid, part of her husband, deposited within her, as is later, the growing baby. It is likely that the semen is absorbed in the body and produces changes in the woman. Semen and the embryo are really foreign bodies inside the woman and would be attacked and rejected by the woman’s immune system. But it absorbs the semen and becomes modified to recognize it and the embryo as part of its own system. The greater the number of times intercourse takes place with the same person and semen is introduced the greater is the familiarity and tolerance. The result is that natural abortion and miscarriages and birth defects are reduced. This happens even when semen is introduced by oral intercourse. Changes in sexual partners upset the immune system. The semen of one man tends to fight that of another and immune system modified by one may reject the semen of another or cause problems of pregnancy. Sexual intimacy also leads to an exchange of bacteria, which are always present both on the skin surface and within people. These also modify the immune system of the stable partners but may have adverse effects in casual relationships both for the individuals and the community. Aids and other venereal diseases are examples. The immune system plays a part in the functioning of all other systems including the endocrine and nervous systems, and, this involves psychological effects.

9. Conception and pregnancy. The creation of a child which is a perfect physical and psychological blending and unification of both. The wife retains within her something of the husband.

10. The birth of the child, a new individual. The culmination of the relationship. The renewal of hope and the arising of new potentialities.

Many marriages break down because of interference by other factors such as ambitions, differences in value systems and ideas, differences in temperament, conditioning, and adverse financial and social circumstances. Much depends on the sense of priorities. If sexuality and marriage is given the value it deserves then most other factors will fade into relative unimportance. These should not be allowed to disrupt a marriage. Each partner should respect the needs and individuality of the other.

 

Marriage is in a primitive state while all other aspects of life have been modified by knowledge, technology, organization and education. It is evidence of the power of marriage that despite the pressures against it in the modern world it has not completely collapsed. There are three reasons why marriages have collapsed.

(a) In the past religion provided the rules regarding the relationship between men and women. But with the abandonment of religion came confusion and bewilderment. The sexes do not know how to relate to each other.

(b) The economic conditions in the modern age are such that women no longer supply what men need from them, and men no longer supply what women need from them. Neither gets much out of marriage.

(c) The increase in ease, pleasure and opportunities means that people are no longer willing to put up with difficulties and frustrations and always seek an easy way out.

 

The restoration of the strength and harmony of the family is the most urgent task for the modern world. This requires a program such as the following :-

1. As marriage is such a serious business involving not only the lives of the individuals but the development of the society as a whole it ought not to be left to the mercy of accident. It occupies the major part of a person’s life. It ought to be subject to research and development. A knowledge of the nature, function and relationship between the sexes is essential for a full and satisfying life.

2. The different natures and functions of men and women should be recognized, and tolerance and respect for these inculcated. Irrational and perverse doctrines, prejudices, rationalizations and ideologies which interfere with the proper functioning of each sex and the marital state must be discouraged. Tolerance of them carries its own punishment.

3. Training for marriage should take place from the earliest moment. Parents are examples to children, and should not behave as if only they were individually concerned. This, of course, requires, already well functioning marriages. Those who cannot or will not form such marriages should be discouraged from having children.

4. Education for marriage should be an integral part of the courses in schools and colleges. This should include courtship, the relationships between husband and wife, parents and children and between older and younger children, and ethics in general. There should also be adult courses to be attended by all those engaged to be married. The educational system must inculcate a proper respect for the function of sex in life. Modern sexual education, far from improving the situation, has increased the problem because it provides only factual and practical instructions and inculcates no values. This state of affairs must be regarded as absurd since this makes facts and practice valueless.

5. The attitude to sex and marriage must be changed. Marriages are not a matter of paper certificates, but of commitment to share lives. It is not merely the concern of the individuals involved, but also of the community and the human race. It is necessary to mark these with appropriate, memorable and public rituals and rites. Without a sense of the sacred this institution remains superficial. In fact, marriage has a cosmic significance and a belief in God or Allah to underline and reinforce it seems essential.

6. Sexual activity outside marriage must be discouraged through education, social organization and law.

7. The status, respect for, and the authority of the father must be re-established. This does not, however, mean dictatorship. The changed status of women must be recognized. The role of each with respect to the other must be well defined, though each ought to support and help the other in it. The rights of the husband and father have to be strengthened, and those of the state to interfere in family matters reduced. The attitude and behaviour of men is then likely to become much more responsible, and by reaction that of women also. The power and responsibility should be transferred back from the State to the family and community.

8. The social system should be so arranged that wives with children are not required, encouraged or forced out of the homes into the labour market. On the contrary it is possible for women to organize themselves to provide mutual help to each other in their own functions. All women could belong to cooperative societies which provide help and from which they obtain help.

9. The nuclear family should be embedded in a more extensive family so that the young newly weds can get the support and guidance from older more experienced members.

10. Children according to their age and sex should also be given a function and responsibility within the family. Childhood is a time for training to become an adult and does not exist for its own sake.

11. Family gatherings, councils, activities and outings should be encouraged rather than indiscriminate mixed ones.

12. All schools should be integrated into the community such that parents and teachers always confer and cooperate. The parents, themselves, may be required to take classes occasionally, and the pupils may be required as part of their training to work with parents in their work place and homes.

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On Apes and Humans

Recent research shows that genetically the closest relative of mankind is an ape known as the pygmy chimpanzee. It shows an intelligence, characteristics and differences of personalities closest to man. This ape, like others, uses tools and has a complex social and even a political system. They are said to have self-recognition. The point of interest, for the present discussion, is that this ape, like human beings and unlike most other animals is permanently ready for sexual relationships. Sexual relationships take place very frequently, are indulged in by all members, old and young, in a fully indiscriminate manner, That is, there is no pairing, but free heterosexuality, homosexuality, incest between parents and offsprings of both sexes and between siblings. Sexuality is used for purposes other than reproduction, to cement social relationships and group solidarity, and for comfort and security under conditions of stress. There is no sexual jealousy or competition and fights between males for females and no sexual taboos. The system appears to be free of tensions and neurosis. No case is known where this ape has killed its own kind. There is sexual equality and the group may be led either by male or female. Whereas orphans in other species are usually abandoned or adopted by some other female which has lost its young, here several males are known to have undertaken to care for them. The survival rate of the young is greater.

It is, therefore, supposed that this ape may represent the kind of social system which may be inherently more natural to man, and even an ideal for the future of mankind. However, this ape has not created a culture or technology, its intelligence is much lower than that of man, it has no true self-consciousness, self-censorship or self-control, and its numbers are very small, being confined to some forests in Zaire. Inbreeding, lack of challenges and competition may have caused stagnation. It may be regarded as having reached an evolutionary dead end, just as several human societies, in which similar conditions arose, also reached a dead end.

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On Violence

Though there is certainly violence against women in the East and in Islamic countries, this is probably due to lack of education, the frustrations of poverty and an economic system where women are dependant on men. These excuses cannot be advanced for the West where violence against women is also wide spread.

The reason for this may be as follows:-

(a) The system of life in the West is not suitable for men. The industrial system expects them to conform and submit to those who have been placed in charge of them. This causes much frustration and resentment without offering a means of retaliation. Men, therefore, often vent their frustration on their wives. They also try to find escape in alcohol, but this lowers their self-control and leads to further violence. Dependence on employers also creates unemployment which destroys their dignity and the male role as bread winner. Matters are made worse when increasing employment for women reduces it for men and makes them dependant on their wives. This destroys the balance between the sexes in so far as men are already dependant on their wives for children, while unemployment for women is no great disaster since they can return to their homes.

(b) Women have, under the influence of the Femininist movement become more arrogant assertive, argumentative, inconsiderate of men and irresponsible towards them. They insist on their rights without duties or constraints. They treat their husbands with disrespect and indifference; abuse, humiliate and nag them, blackmail them and threaten them with the law, divorce and financial ruin. They often regard it their right to be physically, verbally and emotionally violent against them without retaliation on the part of men. They use and exploit them for their own convenience by behaving provocatively but refuse to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Women have taken the right to take sexual pleasures where-ever they please, but often deny this right to their husbands. Whereas the new culture requires men to restrain their aggression, women are being encouraged to develop it. Male aggression, therefore, turns inwards and increasingly appears as depression and suicide. The law gives women advantages over men and does not enquire about provocation. The film industry depicts this state of affairs and encourages it. All this increases male frustration. Whereas the rights and needs of women have been widely discussed and catered for no such movement on behalf of men has taken place. It is likely that the more laws are passed to protect women the greater will be the violence against them.

(c) Respect for women remains low owing to the fact that they are widely used for pleasure as prostitutes, call girls, topless waitresses, sex and strip tease shows. They are regularly provided for entertainment as part of business or political transactions. Half-naked girls are also widely used for advertising cars and other goods. Many men require female escorts for decorative purposes. The erosion of the rights of fathers and husbands has made all women fair pray for the sexual appetites of any man. Indeed, a large proportion of women, including wives earn extra money by prostitution. In so far as women have less to offer in the way of domestic skills, companionship, love, traditional wifely or motherly virtues then their value to men will be confined to selfish sexual pleasure. All characteristics which obstruct this purpose will be sources of frustration and lead to violence.

Violence and violent crime is increasing particularly that of women. The increase in domestic violence and the violence of women who become the mothers of the next generation increases the insecurity of children who also become violent.

Women now have greater expectations and the power to fulfill these. They no longer need to tolerate men. Recent research shows that violence by women against their husbands in the West is greater than the violence of men against their wives. It affects as many as 15% of families and is increasing. Although men are physically stronger than women, they tend to tolerate this violence partly because they are ashamed to admit it and partly because in the present climate of opinion retaliation on their part puts them in the wrong in the eyes of the law, making them liable to prosecuted. The law does not recognize provocation or the violence of wives as a crime. The actual figures for such assaults are, therefore, thought to be much higher.

The reason for these assaults appears to be that women are taught to have greater expectations from men without learning about the expectations men have from women, ignorance about the real nature and relative roles of the sexes, and the immunity from retaliation which women enjoy. This violence against spouses appears to be only part of a more general problem of increasing neurosis and sexual and other perversions, including violence against children, the roots of which are the unnatural relationship between the sexes. The Law also encourages the violence of women by freeing them when they have murdered husbands or boy friend on the grounds of the latter’s violence. There is, however, no law which demands the death penalty for violence and it has also been abolished for murder. Nor does the Law ask whether the husband was provoked by the wife to this violence. Nor are husbands who murder their wives given the same indulgence. The Law too, is therefore, moving in this and other ways towards a bias in favour of women.

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On Studies of Human Sexuality

The sexual revolution in the West, the abandonment of religious morality, is said to date from the 1950s when Dr. Kinsey and others published their findings after intensive studies of the sexual behaviour of the American men and women. These showed that fornication and adultery were widespread though secret and that human sexuality had a wide range from self-abuse to various combinations of heterosexuality and homosexuality, to fetishism and sexual intercourse with animals. Although these findings were criticized on scientific grounds and originally shocked most people, these were rapidly accepted and the laws were amended accordingly. The following criticisms were and can be made :-

(a) The studies were biased, applying mostly to a particular section of the population, namely the middle classes in the U.S.A.

(b) The studies tell us only what was happening. There were no value Judgements and they did not tell us whether such behaviour was good, useful or socially beneficial. This is like making a study of criminal behaviour and discovering that most people have stolen, lied or injured others by their violence. If these facts are established then the policy would not be to accept them but to take measures to counteract them.

(c) No studies were made regarding the causes or effects of this behaviour, whether they were due to inherent or acquired factors. It is well known that the kind of social and industrial system set up in the U.S.A also produces a great amount of neurosis and psychosis as well as social problems, and this behaviour may be an aspect of this.

 (d) Man lives not only by facts but also values. Otherwise no progress or evolution could occur. It can be shown that most people live a life of poverty, disease and ignorance. This is a fact, but not a value. It is already well known that human beings have failings. The purpose of religion is to enable development.

 

Though it is always good to establish the facts so that one can deal with them, this is only one aspect of the totality which human beings have to deal with. We must conclude that either scientific studies by themselves are inadequate or else science itself which avoids value Judgements is inadequate.

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On Current Social Trends

The social changes currently taking place in the West which will no doubt spread to the rest of the world are as follows :-

The educational, industrial, cultural and domestic conditions of life are becoming increasingly disadvantageous to men and advantageous to women. Owing to the automation of factories and the shift of demand to electronic products, heavy industry is giving place to light industry and to the communications and service industries. Ease of production places greater attention on management and distribution. Greater prosperity and leisure, and the problems associated with industrial life and these changes, has shifted demand from the manufacture of material goods to all kinds of social, medical and cultural services. Positions for men trained by education and culture for work in heavy industry is, therefore, contracting, but positions for women is expanding. Heavy physical labour is no longer required even in industry. It has been replaced by sedentary work and the centers of employment are offices, shops, laboratories etc. Most work is mechanized, routinised and simplified through division of labour and organization, even in science. It requires authority, conformity, cooperation and docility.

The educational system is designed to supply workers for this situation. It also requires sedentary application to set studies rather than great physical activity or intellectual independence. Girls perform better under these conditions than boys. It has been found in some studies that given equal intelligence, the proportion of girls who go on to higher education and then to positions of greater income, status and authority is more than twice as great as boys. Of those who do not go into higher education, the proportion of boys who find themselves in the unemployment heap is more than twice as great as the girls. In adult educational colleges the proportion of women who enroll is often more than ten times as many as men.

All this has several consequences:-

In the near future it will be women who will be in the dominant position in all departments of life.

The boys and men are becoming increasingly demoralized, losing self-confidence and hope and acquire a low self-image. They feel that they are inadequate males, and often compensates for this in a destructive or self-destructive manner. The case with girls is the very opposite.

The relationship between the sexes is changing. The girl friend or wife is the one who goes to college and to work, is the bread winner supporting the boy friend or husband who has to take over the housework. It is the woman who has the say and controls the purse, and, therefore, also affects the economic and political system.

It is mainly women who sue for divorce. Many women have children without marrying and do not want to be married. Indeed, they do not want the father of the child to interfere in their lives. He has become a nuisance. This is understandable. He has no work and is at home in the way, brings in no money, is miserable and demoralized, is educationally inferior to her, has to be supported by her from an inadequate income, has no training for and often no inclination to do the housework, has to be served or considered in a life already busy with earning a living and bringing up a child, and yet may argue and obstruct her in the way she wants to bring up the child or even in the way she wants to lead her own life. He may even beat her because of his own frustrations and inadequacies.

The educational system is such that the modern woman is unable to perform the traditional duties of the wife, and the modern man is unable to perform the traditional duties of the husband. Both are, therefore, useless as wife or husband, and have little to offer each other or their children. The children are, therefore, entrusted to the education system, But it is impossible that strangers can have the same commitment, devotion or versatility to fulfill the role of the parents adequately.

The number of children who only have a mother is likely to increase. But this creates problems. The child is either neglected while the mother is at work, which leads to delinquency and many psychological, social and moral problems which must be dealt with. Or his or her up-bringing and training must be taken over by specially trained people or institutions specially created for this. It may be that professionals can do a better job than parents did in the past. However, love, morality and emotional sensitivity is learnt only within a family consisting of people personally involved. The child who has only a mother cannot develop relationships with males, and the boy has no role model and tends to grow up effeminate. The children of single parents and broken homes, therefore, also tend to reproduce the same conditions in their lives. The entire psychology of the people is likely to change in the near future.

 

Some countries are attempting to discourage single parent families through financial and legal means. But this is unlikely to work without creating even further problems owing to the existence of the causes mentioned above.

It is true that some men have adjusted and become good house-husbands. it may even be the case that they may become better at this and at bringing up their children than women were, since they tend to plan things better and apply thought, knowledge and organization rather than feelings. But the neglect of feeling is dangerous. Perhaps the new role will allow men to develop these as well, as the new role of women allows them to develop the application of thought, knowledge and organization.

There are three ways of avoiding some of the harmful developments:-

(1) That all types of work become equally available to men and women. Just as discrimination against women was abolished through legislation, the same has to be done for discrimination against men. Indeed, positive discrimination has to be introduced as it was in the case of women. However, this puts unsuitable people into positions.

(2) The educational system has to change so that it becomes suitable for the male temperament as well. This requires abolishing the coeducational system since the two sexes have different requirements. But if the work place mixes the sexes, then this creates a contradiction.

(3) The whole industrial and economic system is changed so that employment does not depend on a limited number of employers, but every person has a share in the ownership and running of Industry. The present state has been reached as a direct consequence of the dispossession produced by slavery in the past, which turned into serfdom, then into capitalist employment and then into socialism or state employment. All these disabled the individual by depriving him of personal initiative, creativity, responsibility and control. They are incompatible with the notion of Vicegerency.   

 

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The problem & its solution :-

Life has three aspects :- (a) Work and making a living. (b) Reproduction, Children and Family life, (c) Development and evolution. These are inter-connected, though one serves the next. The order of value is the reverse of the order of urgency.

While men went out to work and concentrate their attention on providing for the family, the women concentrated theirs on looking after the welfare of the family and the development of children. One of the reasons for the degeneration of Islam is the fact that mothers were uneducated and their life and experience was restricted by the veil. They could not fulfill their role in an adequate manner. Yet it is Islam which honours the mother and places high value on education and the pursuit of knowledge. In the West the problem was solved by removing the children into the care of an educational system with professional teachers. This left women free to pursue a career. But this system has created a great number of social and psychological problems. It is true that the increase in population has brought about great problems, the solution of which requires the reduction in the size of families and this also releases women from the home into industry. But the emphasis should now switch from quantity to quality so that effort should go not into producing and coping with many children but with improving their quality. This requires, is made possible by, and even made necessary by the increase in knowledge, education, industry and the complexities of life.

The Western Social system is governed by its Economic system. This requires that both husband and wife go into separate careers usually in large firms privately or state owned, thus breaking up families. The advances in technology, increasing mechanization and exhaustion of resources have reduced physical work, and the concentration of ownership in the hands of few ensures that this will cause increasing unemployment among men. On the other hand work in the service, administrative and social sphere is becoming more important and plentiful. Routinisation, systematization, organization, standardization and the need for training, social conformity and sedentary work has increased. All these factors produces more employment for women. Though it has increased the general standard of life, the increase in the work force by the entry of women, comes at the same time as the amount of real work is reduced by mechanization and automation. This ought to have produced increased leisure which could be devoted to the pursuit of higher values. But this change and even reversal of roles has produced the social, administrative and management problems which have to be solved in a formal, abstract, rule bound, mechanical and remote manner. It has increased the amount of work to be done wiping out the advantages of mechanization, and is becoming increasingly more costly. It has also proved to be an inadequate solution which does not conform to human nature or promote their welfare and development. Full employment of men could be restored if the women were taken out of the industrial system, devoted themselves to the social work. This would then remove the very problems which require the employment of these women in the formal Social Services.

The question of development and evolution depends on the accumulation of experience, knowledge and techniques. This is particularly suitable for the elderly. In the Western system, this aspect of life is built in by employing people especially in scientific, social and cultural and other forms of research and development. But this, being dictated by commercial and political interests, has a very narrow and lopsided application which also appears to produce more problems than it solves. It also wastes the experience of the elderly and makes them redundant and demoralized. One of the consequences of this is that the elderly are regarded as a burden, and may, in the future, be removed through euthanasia just as abortion is practiced to reduce the population at the other end of the age spectrum. It is not generally possible to reverse this tendency unless the family ceases to be a nuclear one and becomes extensive enough to give the elderly a role. This in its turn requires greater attention to be given to the family and the role of women.

A human society and, indeed, the whole of life and existence, requires not only that what has been achieved should be conserved, but that adaptation to inevitably changing circumstances should also take place and that there should be development. This usually means that there is a tension between the forces of conservation and order and the forces which disrupt these.

There must be a balance and cooperation between them, because the domination of one leads to stagnation and the domination of the other leads to chaos. Both cause maladaptation and degeneration. This balance is connected with the respective roles of men and women.

These problems could be solved if the ownership and management was distributed among all the workers, if the feminine qualities and functions were valued for themselves, and women returned to the home, cooperated and organized to cater for all the social needs. The increased leisure would also allow the fathers a greater role in the bringing up of children. All problems can then be solved in a much more adequate, natural, direct, intelligent and human manner.

The income of both husband and wife can be regarded as the property of both equally. It could be divided into six parts :- One part each for personal use, one part for common family use, one part for children, a fifth for social use, and sixth saved for emergencies. Or, as Islam recognizes the property rights of women and requires that the husband should give a portion to his wife, the income of each could be divided into the same categories. In so far as the wife does not have an independent career but is wholly employed within the family, then the marriage contract should require that the husband sets aside a portion for his wife’s personal use.  The women’s organization can be financed by the portion allotted to Social use. Whereas many of the social services rendered by women may be regarded as part of their duties as wives, others will give them paid employment without interfering with or disrupting their family functions. All work, including domestic work can be shared among the women on a communal basis. Indeed, if all firms were run cooperatively by the community for the community, in the same way as family firms are, then no distinction need exist between industrial, office and domestic work at all. All, men, women and children, would participate according to ability, requirement and convenience.

This obviously requires the reorganization of the Economic system. And this, in its turn requires a different Political system which requires a different ideological and cultural system. It is impossible for Islamic nations to remain Islamic if they blindly follow Western systems.

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