Every prosperous and progressing society divides the gender roles in a fair and acceptable way that comply with the physical and emotional capabilities of individuals living in that society. Gender roles and responsibilities are defined and divided in one or another way in all cultures, societies and religions, differences do exist!
Islam is the only religion that gives a complete and practically implementable code of social values and individual as well as collective responsibilities of humans living in a society. This religion gives particular importance to women and assigns their critical roles in their individual as well as collective frame of family life.
Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal put significant efforts to convey the importance of the role of women in a society and in respect to nation building.
Dr. Ali Raza Tahir (Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy) from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan conducted a study in 2019 to present Allama Muhammad Iqbalโs philosophy about the status of women. The qualitative analysis performed in this study helped the author conclude that according to Iqbal the most important role of a woman is motherhood and this is the highest blessing of Allah Almighty for a woman. In the role of a mother, women hold the basic responsibility of character building. When every woman realizes this role and tries her best to play this role in a possibly effective way, it results in a nation that is strong, has an explicit set of moral and religious values reflected in its actions.
But the question is: Do women realize the importance of their role?
If we get a NO for this question, we need to pay attention to our current situation. We need to determine whether we are training our daughters and sisters in a way that would help them to carry the responsibilities of their future role as a mother in the right way? Dr. Ali Raza Tahir further elaborates that the institution of motherhood is the source of development of an individual, society, family and civilization as a whole.
One girl is responsible to train and educate a generation. So, when we train and bring up a girl in the right way, teach her the right ethical and moral values from the beginning and let her realize her role in the light of our religion, Islam, we are actually done with the right training of a nation. All this is pretty simple and feasible if we just brought our girls up according to the exemplary life of the daughter of our beloved Prophet (Peace be Upon Him) Fatima al Zahra (R.A). She set a perfect example as a daughter, as a wife and as a mother.
The perfect solution of our current problems is to teach our girls the Seerah of Fatima al Zahra (R.A) and guide them how they can implement Her Seerah in their lives and in their different roles in the society.
You can read the study referred here for a more detailed view of Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal regarding the importance of the role of women in any society. The link to the full article is given below:
Link to full article:
Tahir, A. R. STATUS OF WOMAN IN ALLAMA MUHAMMAD IQBALโS THOUGHT. Cell, 333, 4101412.
