Whether A Man Salivates or Stays Like a Saint

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam

14 October 2024

An Islamic Cleric Said, ‘Men Undress Women with Their Eyes and Only Burqa Protects'

This Islamic cleric's statement reflected a deeply entrenched patriarchal and misogynistic mind-set that sought to control and suppress women's autonomy as well as anatomy.

By claiming that men were "undressing women with their eyes" and blaming women for wearing tight clothes, perfume, or makeup, he shifted responsibility from men to women.

This chauvinistic attitude perpetuates the harmful narrative that men cannot control their impulses and that women must bear the burden of preventing unwanted male attention.

Don't such lascivious men denude even burqa-clad women with their eyes? A woman is always an object of desire for lewd and lustful men irrespective of her choice of clothes. A patriarchal society or religion has no right to dictate sartorial terms and conditions to women. Holding women responsible for men's licentious behaviour is demonizing women and deifying men.

It's like Vishvamitra was a sage till the end despite getting deviated from his path because of Menaka's (Apsara or a heavenly nymph) blandishments and Latke-Jhatke. In other words, women's sartorial indescretion is a potential reason for men's eternal promiscuity!

South Africa's Surat-born rabid and radical Muslim preacher Ahmad Deedat, who mentored Zakir Naik, would say the same thing. He held bikinis responsible for men raping women and thought that a bikini was a concoction of Satan to divert men from the path of righteousness!

That perennially misogynistic and pathological Deedat was of the opinion that by giving hijab to women, Islam saved both men as well as women! Alhamdulillah!

A burqa-clad woman wouldn't stoke men's carnal and unmentionable thoughts and she too would remain chaste. It's time for Muslim women across the globe to do away with hijab in any form, even as a headscarf and a variety of head coverings. Whether a man salivates or stays like a saint is none of her headache.

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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.

URL:     https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/man-salivates-saint/d/133428

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