Working women according to Islam - II
24/11/2010| IslamWeb
Men and women have their own responsibilities and specialties in building this glory as Allah has divided different abilities between them. Each of these specialties is pivotal and cannot be belittled, underestimated or dispensed with. Men are responsible for production, developing wealth, earning a livelihood and defending the house, while women are responsible for the family with harder tasks like pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, upbringing, caring for the husband and the children, nursing, doing the housework, fostering tranquility, affection and mercy and exerting strenuous physical and emotional efforts to create a suitable atmosphere for her task as a wife and a mother.
Such differences in work and tasks for both the man and the woman, for which they have been qualified, are the best way for equal contribution in building the nation and its glory. Once each of them fulfills his/her duties properly, the interests of the nation will be fulfilled.
· They claim: The woman may not have a sustainer, or her husband may die and leave her young children without any property to depend on. So, the woman finds in her work a shield for herself and her children from loss.
We say that Islam obliges the relatives of the poor woman to provide for her and financially support her. It also made this an obligation on the relatives of her children. Should neither her nor her children have relatives, Islam allocates for them a share in Bayt Al-Maal (the Muslim treasury), so the Muslim ruler will provide for and financially assist her and her poor children until they grow and are able to work. This is the principle of Islam. Were all these alternatives of no avail, she would be allowed to work whereby she earns provisions for herself and her children within the limits, manners and teachings of Islam.
Nonetheless, the woman suffers other natural barriers which confirm the fact that she is not able to work efficiently outside her home. Examples of these barriers are menses, pregnancy for nine months, labor and its psychological and physical effects on the general structure of the woman, as proven by medicine.
The conclusions of eminent biologists and anatomists highlight the fact that the woman undergoes the following changes during her menses:
- Her body is not able to maintain its temperature, so it becomes low.
- Her heart beats slower; blood pressure becomes low; and blood cells decrease in number.
- Ductless glands, tonsils and lymph glands suffer changes.
- Digestion is disturbed and breathing becomes difficult.
- The senses do not respond immediately, and this leads to laziness of the organs, lack of insight and less concentration.
All these changes put a sound woman in a state with where one cannot know whether or not she is sick.
The period of pregnancy is even more severe on the woman than the menstrual period. Dr. Ribert said that the woman's power cannot endure the physical and mental hardship in normal conditions, and if the changes of pregnancy afflicted a man or a non-pregnant woman, they would surely look sick. During pregnancy, the nervous system of the woman is in disorder for several months, since her hormonal balance becomes disturbed.
After labor, the woman is susceptible to several diseases. The woman's post-partum wounds are vulnerable to infection, and her reproductive organs take a period of time to contract back to their natural pre-pregnancy state. These changes disturb the entire system of her body, which takes almost several weeks to restore itself to its normal course.
Therefore, the woman remains a source of tranquility for man, and he cannot find such tranquility in a woman, whom he cannot find because she is at work, or he finds her but she is overburdened with mental, psychological and physical troubles, or she loses her sensitivity and femininity due to the harshness and responsibilities of her work. If a woman considers herself a counterpart of man and equal to him in earning a living and being responsible for the expenses of the house, the man may feel that he had lost his position of power and protectiveness in the family. He may feel that he is no longer in charge of her, even though Allah The Almighty Says (what means): {Men are in charge of women.} [Quran 4:34] Once the man loses his right to be in charge of the woman, the family and society will be disturbed, since this right is one of the laws without which the bonds of the family cannot be tied.
The woman's work outside her house creates problems in the house that lead to family disharmony. Problems often arise between the spouses because of her work. Sometimes the husband does not want his wife to work, whereas she wants to, or vice versa. Perhaps the wife neglects the marital rights or the house because of her work without the permission of her husband. Sometimes disputes arise over the extent of her financial contribution to the needs of the house, or the extent of the man's financial commitments to his wife, the house and so on. In addition, problems may arise between the spouses because of her contact and intermixing with non-Mahram (marriageable) men at work.
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