i updated blog!

I disagree with your take on the gender disparity. While the biology of men and women has remained largely unchanged over the years, their “duties” now are more different and varied then ever. The hallmark of Man’s social development is our respect for choice and the freedom of any individual to do as he so chooses, as long as others do not suffer as a consequence of his actions. I am therefore strongly opposed to designating “duties” to people of different gender, or, for that matter, any other classification of people. Just because the two sexes have different physical and emotional characteristics doesn’t stop men from becoming nurses and women from becoming fire-fighters.

Why then, confine women to home and child-care and men to work? If, hypohetically, a muslim woman makes much more money than her husband does, should she be duty-bound to stay at home when she has her first child, consequently resulting in a less financially stable family situation? In reality, a substantial number of muslim wives contribute an important portion to the financial support of their family. If they were to take their “charity” away, their families would doubtless suffer as a result.

Your point about men taking care of their parents only works in an ideal situation. I myself have seen situations in which daughters make a more substantial contribution to the support of their parents and are also more responsible in careig for them than their brothers. Why penalise them just for being female, when they are, for all intents and purposes, assuming the “duties” of the sons? Clearly, the responsibilities of men and women are today not so easily defined.

I am grateful for your input and must thank you again for introducing new elements into this discussion, which i will most certainly explore.

Would you not conisder the abidement and enforcement of Syariah law to be rigid? Take for example the case in Malaysia. If I remember correctly, a married couple with children was broken apart because authorities discovered that one of the parents was Hindu and the other Muslim. In the eyes of Syariah law, I believe, the marriage is void because one spouse is a non-muslim. The family was effectively broken up because of a technicality. To be honest, I have not seen much practice of “leeway” when it comes to Islam, or other religions for that matter, and would gladly welcome any evidence that could prove otherwise.

I agree with you when you say that Polygamy would be applicable, if practiced in true Islamic spirit. People for get however that Islam’s concession on polygamy is warranted only in certain conditions, depending heavily on situation and context. While certain situations today might possibly warrant polygamy, you cannot deny that it is less applicable today than it was in the past. It is for this reason that I consider the practice of polygamy to be antiquated, not suitable to contemporary times.