THE REASONS MEN EXERT GUARDIANSHIP OVER WOMEN
There are many considerations. The most notable, we can say, is masculine (male dominated) society, which is society in general. That is because people (historically) often did not have governments. There was no government that maintained security and public order, and secured our homes, so that no one knocked down the door to assault the people inside. Nowadays, there is a government, and control and restraint in the country. But people do not always live as if this is now the case. What’s more, people have not always lived in large, populated, and civilized cities. They used to live in tents and in the jungle. This is still the case for some people right now. During such a time, people did not have governments, police, or even public laws. Everyone needed to be strong and armed―needed to protect themselves, their home, and their honor. In such a society, a woman always needs to be protected. Just as personal protection was a major difficulty in such a society, livelihood was also difficult. One’s livelihood included hunting, where people had to run to catch their prey; it included raiding others for booty; it also included hard work that was rough and difficult. So, there was no chance for a woman in such a situation. First of all, her muscles are not strong enough to make a living in this manner. Then, there is a time when a woman is pregnant; there is a time when a woman is recovering following childbirth; there is a time when a woman is breast-feeding. This is the basic nature of women, so she is naturally and constantly in need of man’s help.
Male dominated societies, and the like, still exist. Such societies have given women a special status. This special status was bad in Arabia. It was extremely bad in Hejaz (Mecca - where Islam was first revealed). For instance, a man used to bury his newborn daughter alive out of the fear of being dishonored. This was because of the fear of failing to protect her from being taken captive from his tent, which was a constant worry, and would bring shame. He also used to bury her for fear of keeping him from surviving through his livelihood. Livelihood was indeed difficult. At that point in time, the distinctive features of Arabia were hunger, distress and anguish. So, for a man whose livelihood was limited, and who could not live in luxury, expending food to feed a boy was more preferable than feeding a girl. Accordingly, men buried their young daughters out of fear of hunger, or fear of shame. This practice was forbidden immediately after the advent of Islam, which stated: “When the little girl that was buried alive is asked: For what sin she was killed” (81:8-9)? Elsewhere stated: “When one of them receives tidings of the birth of a female, his face remains darkened, and he is inwardly wroth. He hides himself from the folk because of the ill tidings. Shall he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? What an evil is their judgment” (16:58-59). These (verses) address the issue of burying little girls alive, which was forbidden by (the advent of) Islam.
As girls used to be buried alive during pre-Islamic times, it was not possible for Islam, from the beginning, to consider a girl equal to a boy, to give her a share in inheritance equal to his, to accept her testimony as equal to his, or to require for a man to marry one woman. That was not possible, as it would not (lead to) progression, as these would not be successive steps towards the aim of (female) advancement. So, it was necessary for Islam to proceed slowly and deliberately. Therefore, (even though) Islamic shariah (exoteric code) granted women so many rights, those rights were not the most that could have been granted to them.
