Respect of Women

kchughtai · May 10, 2011, 5:29pm

Re: One thing love about Islam/being muslim

Salam Psyah,

Islam is not a hypocritical religion. It can’t be if it is ordained by God. That is the reason why although it “respects” women it does not respect evil people. Evil people can be both men and women and there are ways to determine evil people. There are dire consequences for evil people in Islam and it does what it can to make sure that the evil most people are sentenced to capital punishment. To determine the most evil people it does not take single claims on face value because the chance of the single claim being one based on personal vendettas could be high. That is the reason why four witnesses are required. It would be unjust to have a person who consented to sex only to be blamed for rape and which if determined was true then both the man and the woman would be sentenced. If however there is an accusation of rape on a person and that persons life could be ended as a result then due diligence needs to be given to determine the reality of the crime. The society in Islam does not allow free private interactions between man and woman and by so doing then the woman puts herself in to harms way such that if the man decides to do anything then her claim for rape will not have enough witnesses. So by having the requirement of witnesses prevents the potentially evil woman from scheming against a man and claiming rape thus ruining his life and potentially his dependets too. On the other hand society will not allow men to enter the houses of lone women.

Are you sure Islamic law requires four witnesses for rape victim? I don’t think it is Islamic at all. It is zia-ul-haq’s sharia not Islamic. I think it is based on wrong extrapolation of the laws/methodologies set forth in sura-e-Nur. I am still looking for ample information on this topic but one thing I am clear on that it is not mandatory on a rape victim to produce four witnesses. It is almost impossible since rapes are not usually done in public places before witnesses. I will start a separate thread on it.