In the name of Allāh,
the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Peace and Blessings of Allāh on Mohammad.
DEDICATED TO
Allāh–the Glorious and the High,
Lord of the worlds
AND TO
Mohammad–who brought the world
to our feet and eternity to our arms.
*

          WOMEN IN PRE-ISLAMIC EGYPT
Nonie Darwish wrote in her book Cruel and Usual Punishment (p. 207) that “pre-Islamic Egypt was ruled by several powerful, ambitious women, loved and respected by the citizens, and who actually ruled as pharaohs including Nefertari, Nefertiti, Cleopatra VII, and the great Queen Heshepsut….To accommodate the heat, both women and men in Ancient Egypt covered little of their bodies. That did not bring any shame to the queens….Almost 99 percent of Egyptian Muslim women today, under the hot sun choose to wear the Bedouin style hijab, and many are covering their faces by choice.”

Response: Staggering isn’t it? ancient Pharaohs gave their women equality despite the Bible condemning them to be lorded over by their husbands; and thousands of years later 1960’s “Christian” American women were burning their brassieres for equality with their “male chauvinist pig.”

So the ancient women’s choice was to cover “little of their bodies” and the Muslim women’s choice is to cover the “whole” of their bodies. Where’s the beef? And how “little” of your body do you cover in the North American summer sun? And what about men in western countries wearing suit and tie in summertime? And what about Mary, the Christians’ “Mother of God,” covering her body from head to toe? And the Christian nuns? And the Coptic priests? And the Pope and Bishops and Jesuit priests?

These queens may have ruled Egypt and are now dust or mummies and have no honor. As Mohammad was King of Arabia his wives may be regarded as queens. Though these wives/queens did not rule, as the Queens of Egypt, yet they, fifteen hundred years after their death –while the Queens of Egypt are largely forgotten and unhonored– are honored by some one and a half billion Muslims as their spiritual mothers. And so long as man govern by reason –which is the Divine requirement– there will be Muslims to the Resurrection, and these Queens of Arabia and the Muslim world will be honored not only to the Resurrection but also honored in the next world.

And while the monarchs of the world are also largely forgotten and unhonored, King Mohammad still reigns supreme daily among Muslims and will reign in the Hereafter; as he will be given the right of intercession. In which event Neferteri and others will in all likelihood be clamoring to him (and even to his wives/queens to plead to him on their behalf) to be spared the flames and to be given entry into the Gardens of everlasting Paradise. And you also, Ms. Darwish, will be pleading at Mohammad’s feet.

And what kind of lofty position does Christianity give to women? None! (See Christianity-women).
That Esther was queen and there were Biblical women who were prophetess –and even false Christs, as Jesus declared, can prophesy– are moot arguments. The decree of God that women are to be ruled over by their husbands and which decree was upheld by Jesus and enforced by Paul, trumps all human considerations. From Genesis all the way to Revelation “Woman” is the football of the Christian man.

Nonie Darwish continues: “In comparison with the past, today’s Egyptian women have lost many rights under Islamic Sharia.” (p. 207).
Response: Kindly detail these “rights” that Muslim women have lost under Shari’ah, (and Islamic Shari’ah is based on the teachings of the Qur’an).

-Shari’ah saved daughters from being buried alive–(Qur’an 16:58-59; 81:8-9).
-Shari’ah saved woman from being deserted by husband’s simply saying “thou art to me as the back of my mother”–(Qur’an 33:4. M. Ali comm.).
-Shari’ah saved woman from her husband suspending conjugal rights indefinitely by his oath of to not have relations with her–(Qur’an 2:226. M. Ali comm.)
-Shari’ah saved woman from being inherited against her will–(Qur’an 4:19).
-Shari’ah saved widows from becoming the property of her husband’s eldest son–(Qur’an 4:22).
-Shari’ah extricated woman from the bog of bondage and humiliation in which Christianity and Judaism had her mired, and sits her on the pinnacle of liberty and honor.
-Shari’ah gave woman mutual rights with man. Muslim women have rights that leave her nothing for which to strive; from birth all the way to Jannah!

In contrast, it is Christian women –in Egypt and everywhere– that have “lost many rights” in comparison with Egyptian women of the past.
In fact, as shown from the Bible the Christian woman has no right(s):
–she is decreed to be ruled over by her husband till her death;
-to be in silence and in all subjection;
-can be sold into slavery by her father;
-is good only to avoid fornication;
-is a “defiler” of man;
-a transgressor, and betrayer of man.
She has no place in heaven either, seeing that on earth she is a “defiler” of man, consider how much lowly her status would be in the Hereafter.
(See Christianity-women).

Islam has ennobled woman, liberated her, and given her rights unparalleled in the history of religions –it has given her rights alongside man from the cradle all the way to Jannah. She has nothing more for which to strive.
Islam is the Great Liberator of Woman!
Islam is the only Liberator Woman has known!