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103 11 Rules Regarding the Seclusion of Women (Purdah) One of the most controversial and difficult topics a Muslim confronts in his social life is the subject of purdah in Islam. On the one hand we have the present system of purdah as practiced by Muslims in the present time, particularly by the Muslims coming from the Indian subcontinent. On the other hand, we have various Quranic and Hadith regulations and injunctions which provide the rules and methods Muslims are obliged to follow with regard to their dress, privacy, and manners while coming across the members of the opposite sex. A careful consideration of the duties and obligations which Muslims are asked to follow by the Quran and authentic Hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) show the socalled system of purdah, as we know it today, has very little to do with Islam. The study of Islamic history from the time of the Prophet (pbuh) until today reveals the shocking truth that the present purdah system owes its origin to reactionary Muslim rulers in various countries and by the regulators of Muslim society who were undoubtedly influenced by the societies and cultures with whom they came into contact after the conquest of Iran, parts of the Byzantine empire, and India. It is therefore appropriate to discuss first these historical factors that introduced the purdah system in Muslim society, as we know today. The Arab conquest of Persia (present day Iran) brought Muslims into close contact with Iranian civilization, its culture, and its practices that obviously had a profound influence on Arab Muslims. Even after their conversion to Islam, most Iranians retained traditional dress, such as shalwar 104 THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN ISLAM and sherwani, and continued their old system of purdah or seclusion. Similar to Iranian women, Roman and Greek women of the Byzantian territories occupied by the Muslims, covered their face, hands, and in fact, their whole body when coming out of their homes. Contact with Greeks, Romans, and other subjects of the erstwhile Byzantine Empire had a deep influence on Arab Muslim society. This influence became stronger when many of these people, particularly slaves and artists, came to the capitals and cities of the Arab empire. Syed Ameer Ali (n.d.), writes in The Short History of the Saracens, “Large influx into the capital of slave classes in pursuit of their vocations of dancing and singing gradually led to the segregation of the respectable section of the female community among the Muslim Arabs.” The martyrdom of Hazrat Ali, the fourth Caliph, is a landmark in the history of Islam. With his death, the khulafae-rashidin (the Caliphate of the pure Caliphs) came to an end and then began the Umayyad Caliphate with all its undemocratic attitudes, corruption, and deviations from the path of Islam. However, despite these profound changes in Muslim society there was no system of harem among Arab Muslims until the reign of Umayyad Caliph Walid the Second (al-Ispahani 1963). Syed Ameer Ali (n.d.) writes in The Short History of the Saracens, “His (Walid the Second’s) utter disregard for social conventionalities and the daring and coolness with which he entered into the privacy of the families, compelled the adoption of the safeguards against outside intrusions which once introduced became sanctified into custom. To the uncultured mind, wall and warden appear to afford more effective protection than nobility of sentiment and purity of heart.” However, although the seclusion of women and the harem were introduced during the time of Walid the Second, the universal acceptance of these customs among Arab Muslims took a considerable amount of time. By the time of the Abbaside Caliph, Mutawakkil (847 A.D.), the system and the custom of the harem and the purdah system (by which the Muslim women were kept in seclusion in a separate part of the household) had a firm grip on Muslim society under Abbaside rule. By then, Muslim women had many restrictions in their movements outside their homes. The Mongol conquest of Baghdad by Hulagu Khan in 1258 A.D. is another turning point in the history of Muslims. The Mongol conquest compelled Muslims to keep their women in seclusion to protect them from the ruthless and lecherous Mongol hordes of Hulagu Khan. When Muslims conquered India from the Hindus, they found the Hindu custom of the seclusion of women even worse than the Iranians [3.133.141.6] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 02...

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