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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I am a woman, treat me well

To educate a girl is to educate a whole family. And what is true of families is also true of communities and, ultimately, whole countries. Study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality, improve nutrition and promote health – including helping to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation.

- Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN

I was reading the first chapter of the Illustrated Textbook of Paediatrics (oh yes, started paediatric posting last Monday btw~) just now and came across this paragraph. My hands can't just stop twitching itself until I posted it here. Hehhe.

I felt a surge of pride knowing that once upon a time, when the world view females as a liability, as the weaker sex, as the burden of a nation, as the slaves of men, as an entity merely for that of pleasure fulfillment, never as a person, Islam stood alone and raised women to a very high status in its society.

For those who're ignorant of the histories of the world might not see what I mean. And to spread the story of nations in one entry would be, well, to be honest I need to study right now not writing this! Hehhe.

But anyway, briefly, you can review that during the emergent of Islam in Arab, the Romans and the Greeks were making women their playthings, the Hindus were oppressing the rights of their women, the Arabs themselves were killing girls who were born into a family for the stupid reason of females being the magnet of bad luck. Grrrrr!

But look at what the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did? He treated women with respect, he thought women the importance of knowledge, he gave women the rights to inheritance with great proportions, he behaved towards women with care and tenderness, and he listened to what the women have to say in many things.

“The rights of women are sacred.
See that women are maintained in the rights assigned to them.”
- Prophet Muhammad

“God enjoins you to treat women well,
for they are your mothers, daughters, aunts.”

- Prophet Muhammad

So, basically, even before Kofi Annan said it, Islam has already compelled it! I'm proud to be a Muslim.

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