I appreciate and welcome the statement of Sheikh Abdullah Al-Manea, member, Council of Senior Scholars, that women enjoy the same rights as men. (“Guardian for woman only during marriage,” Sept. 9)
It is however understandable that every person, including a woman, has his/her rights in Islam but under the strict parameters of Shariah. Equating women with men, or vice versa, can never be on the line the western culture is having, where nudity, free mixing in the society, drinking wine etc. are commonplace.
Even if according women the right to drive can be a matter of discussion as we see that such rights were enjoyed by women at the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), it does not give wild freedom to the Muslims to do whatever they can do on streets, thus spreading nuisance. Such unfettered freedom has seen the society disintegrating and degenerating into a dark abyss of immoral behavior.
We in Islam have every right to save our society from getting polluted from homosexuality and transgender culture, which is forbidden in the religion. There are rights as well as there are prohibitions. If we talk about rights we also need to talk about those prohibitions. Islam is a perfect religion for everybody including women. I’m glad the Saudi scholar has stated this. — Shahid Rahman, Dubai
Religious freedom
