Common Misconceptions: Segregating Women

It finally happened. Since the beginning, I was wondering how long it would take. It was a bit surprising when at first nothing occurred, there were no comments made, no questions asked. I figured it would never happen. But then it happened.

The nursing home I work in is owned and operated by several local Lutheran churches, hence its Christian affiliation. And thus there is a full-time, in-house chaplain. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the term, a chaplain is simply a member of the clergy (formal religious leadership) who works for some sort of institution. In this case it’s a Christian pastor; he presides over all religious activities in the home: church services, worship services, bed-side services, Bible study, and so on.

I knew of this chaplain’s presence upon employment; what Christian nursing home wouldn’t have such a person working there? I was curious about how long it would take him to question me about my scarf and thus my religious views. Would he ask right away? Or would it take some time?

It took about a month and a half. I saw him often when I went for a break, especially within the last few weeks seeing as I’ve been working every day. Any time I caught a glance of him, I readied myself for the inevitable query. This probably shows the amount of paranoia and self-consciousness I have in being a Muslim in a non-Muslim setting. Not everyone is going to be interested and ask questions. But the chaplain finally did.

It’s safe to assume he knew I was Muslim before I said anything; gossip runs through that relatively small nursing home like wildfire. And I’m sure I was a hot topic immediately after I started working there. That sort of thing happens when you’re the only one covering your hair and wearing a long-sleeved shirt. So through the grapevine he had probably heard I was Muslim.

One of the first things he asked was how I had converted and whether my parents were Muslim as well, both fairly common inquires I find myself answering. But then he talked a bit about the segregation of men and women within Islam. He added and anecdote of something he experienced while traveling in Israel and Palestine; while visiting a mosque, he noticed the separation of the women from the men.

To him this seemed wrong and degrading. Many non-Muslims probably share this particular thought. Something Islam is known for, although wrongly, is the division of men from women. Most incorrectly believe this division is due to the supposed higher rank of the male as opposed to the lower rank of the female. It’s similar to the segregation of whites and blacks experienced in the US for some time after the end of slavery. Blacks were considered to be of a lesser rank.

That thought was completely misguided. And so is the thought that Muslim women are separated from Muslim men simply because they aren’t important enough or aren’t as high a rank as the men.

In fact, Islam greatly improved and increased the rank of the woman. At the time of the advent of Islam, women were treated poorly. Female infanticide was rampant for example. Then Islam came along and changed all that. The only problem today is how misguided some Muslims can be when it comes to dealing with their wives, daughters, sisters, and mothers. And the Bible is full of verses degrading the position of women. Insha’Allah sometime in the future there’ll be a post elaborating on this.

So if this segregation isn’t due to differences in rank between the sexes, what’s the reason behind it?

In one word: modesty. Basically, it’s the same reason women wear a hijab and cover themselves. They do so to protect themselves from the wandering eyes and lustful glances of men. The hijab is in place to protect society from committing the sin of zina, unlawful sexual intercourse, or getting anywhere near doing so. Keeping the men from the women is a precautionary step, eliminating the possibility of casual interaction between a man and a woman, interaction that might lead to something steeped in the black stain of sin.

The reason women and men in Islam are usually divided in public, and even private, locations has nothing to do with the supposed, incorrect notion that women are less than men. In His infinite Wisdom, Allah subhana wa ta'ala has ordered us to do something that contains an extreme benefit. As Muslims we do all that we can to keep ourselves from committing even the smallest of sins, let alone something as severe as fortification or adultery. Islam has greatly increased the rank of women, not decreased it.