Islam Protects the Girl Child

Since 2012, the 11th of October every year was designated  International Day of the Girl Child by the United Nations in a bid to draw the attention of the world to the sufferings of girls across the globe while promoting girls' empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.

In the Arabian peninsula and so many other regions and cultures in the world, having a daughter was perceived as one of those unfortunate things that could happen to a caplet such couples became vulnerable to ridicule and mocking. A female child was doomed to suffer inequities which were sometimes fatal. Islam came to the Arabian Peninsula and the girl child was liberated. 

Other parts of the globe that were not fortunate to receive the divine message and those parts that had their Islamic systems destroyed have continued to suffer the persecutions. 

We shall discuss the major issues frustrating the girl child’s existence and prosperity.

Hatred for the girl Child

In the Glorious Qur’an, Allah The Majestic makes jest of people who shuddered at the thought of having daughters to show them how ignorant that mindset it.

“And when one of them is informed of [the birth of] a female, his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief. He hides himself from the people because of the ill of which he has been informed. Should he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? Unquestionably, evil is what they decide”. Suratul Nahl (16:58-59)

Muhammad (SAW) also took his time to wash out the worthless and dirty image men had about daughters.

Muhammad (SAW) said, "Whoever has three girls and is patient with them and clothes them from what he has, they will veil him from the fire (of Hell)."

In another Hadith, Muhammad (SAW) said, “Whoever looks after two girls until they attain the age of maturity, would come on the Day of Judgment with me and him being (as close to each other) as these (and he joined his fingers).” [Muslim]

Still Muhammad (SAW) said, "Whoever has three daughters, whom he gives refuge to, provides for and shows mercy to, Paradise is certainly guaranteed for him.” A man asked, “And (for) two, O Messenger of Allah?”He (SAW) replied: “And also for the one who has two (daughters)."

Here are other Ahadith in which Muhammad (SAW) made Muslim men to crave having female children.

“No one has three or two daughters or sisters, and he fears Allah regarding them and is kind to them, except that he will enter Paradise.”

“Whoever has two daughters or sisters to whom he is kind as long as they are with him, he and I will be in Paradise (as close to each other) as these (and then he put two of his fingers together)”.

Right to Life

A female child was only able to live if her father said so. The society felt no need to criminalize the murder of female children as they were seen as nonentities with no value and a potential source of shame. Female infanticide is widespread in India and China, they are the only countries in the world where men outnumber women. Advertisements in India for ultrasound clinics urge couples to spend “500 rupees today to save 50,000 rupees tomorrow” (World Vision, 1994, p.4) 

To accentuate the egregious state of the girl child in non Muslim climes, here are some statistics.

Female infanticide facts on India

• India has 48.20% female population compare to 51.80% male population. India has 49,314,062 more males population than females population.
• 6.4 million abortions take place very year in India
• Washington Post reporters Anderson and Moore (1993) report that at one clinic in Bombay, of 8,000 abortions performed after amniocentesis, 7,999 were of female fetuses.
• Between 1980 and 2010, they estimate, four to 12 million girls were aborted because of their sex.
• In 2017, Police in the western Indian state of Maharashtra have found 19 aborted female foetuses near a hospital.
• Eight female foetuses were found in 2012 in a plastic bag near a lake in Indore city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
• In June 2009, 15 female foetuses were found in drains in Maharashtra's Beed district.
• Indian officials estimate that approximately 6,000 female babies have been poisoned in Kallar villages in the past decade.
• The Usilampatti government hospital records nearly 600 female births among the Kallar every year. Five hundred and seventy are taken immediately from the hospital. Approximately 450 (or 80%) are estimated to become victims of infanticide (Venkatramani, 1992)

Some details don't even bear repeating

Female Infanticide Facts on China

• There are 54 million more men than women in China
• According to an official in Liaoning province, "Every year, no fewer than 20 abandoned baby girls are found in dustbins and corners."
• The People's Republic of China and its predecessors have a history of female infanticide spanning 2000 years.
• According to the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), the demographic shortfall of female babies who have died for gender related issues is in the same range as the 191 million estimated dead accounting for all conflicts in the twentieth century.

Allah (SWT) and His Messenger, Muhammad (SAW), condemned and outlawed the killing of baby girls. Allah hinted mankind in the glorious Qur’an that among the deeds that He will pass judgment on is the killing of baby girls.

“When the infant girl, is buried alive, is questioned, for what crime she was killed”.

Suratul Takwir (81:8-9)

After Allah's Messenger (SAW) declared his Messenger-ship, a Companion of his came to him and told him what he had done with his daughter:

When I had not embraced Islam, a daughter was borne to me. When I heard the news of her birth, I wanted to bury her as was expected of me. My ancestors had done the same because it was considered better to kill the girl at birth before she could run away with someone in youth and bring shame to the whole family. The culture and tradition demanded that I bury the daughter as soon as she was born, but my heart had already developed feelings for the child and I could not do so. Time went by, and she grew day by day. Every day, I felt an urge to kill her but every day the fatherly love wrestled with the thought and put it to rest. But when she came to the age of becoming a lady, the thoughts of her running away and bringing shame to the whole family started to haunt me every second of the day. It grew so unbearable that I could not rest; I could not sleep or eat. One day, I asked my wife to dress her in nice clothes and get her ready and tell her that I was going to take her out so she could play with her friends. Although my wife did the same, but somehow she sensed this was not what I intended to do. She kept on crying silently while she combed my daughter’s hair and dressed her. My daughter, on the other hand was delighted that I was going to take her out.

When she was finally done and I was about to leave, my wife mustered up enough courage to come up to me and whisper in my ears, ”Don’t lose your trust!”

I rushed out of my house with my daughter and started on my way. I had no plan; my mind was in a state of confusion. Should I kill her or not? If I should, then how? Suddenly I saw an old deserted well that I knew was filled up with sharp stones. Should I throw my daughter in the well? My heart and mind were going in two opposite directions. My mind told me to kill her as she would bring shame to me one day while my heart kept on fighting but the fatherly love grew weaker and weaker. All this while, my daughter had been running around me, talking to me about things she would do with her friends oblivious to what a turmoil I was going through. I could not stand it no longer; I grabbed her and pushed in the well.

She must have been surprised, but all she could say was “Don’t lose your trust!” and this is what she kept on repeating until I could hear her no longer.

When the man finished his story, he looked up and saw the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The Prophet’s (SAW) beard was soaked with tears and he said that “If He had been allowed to punish a person for his crimes before embracing Islam, that man would have been the first one to get punished.”

Education

Even in climes where girls were not killed, they were not considered useful or intelligent enough to the educated or trained prophet Muhammad (SAW) made sure he broke the screen that had been put on the image of the girl child in which she is viewed as worthless. 

Muhammad (SAW) said “If a man teaches his servant girl good manners, educates her in the best manner, then he emancipates her and marries her, he will have a double reward.” Sahih Bukhari 3262

Anas ibn Malik reported that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: "Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim." Sunan Ibn Majah 224 (No gender specification)

Abu Sa’eed Al-Khudri reported that a woman came to the Messenger of Allah (SAW) and said, “O Messenger of Allah, the men only benefit by your speech, so make a day for us when we can come to you and you teach us what Allah taught you.” The Prophet replied, "Gather on a certain day at a certain place."

Source: Sahih Bukhari 6880

A big lesson to be learnt in this Ahadith is that Muhammad (SAW) (Islam) never restricted the access of women to knowledge

Muhammad (SAW) sought the best form of education for the women and girls in his community. He took his wife Hafsah bint Umar to the house of Ash-Shifah, bint Abdullah and instructed, “Teach Hafsah how to read and write”. Hafsah also learnt the skill of making medicine from Ash-Shifah bint Abdullahi. 

The ability to read and write was they apogee of literacy at that time and Muhammad (SAW) sought it for his wife who was a young woman. If the various fields of science were as developed then as they are today, he (SAW) would have sought them for the Muslim women and girls. Two women were prominent in the field of science in the life time of Muhammad (SAW), they were Ash-Shifah bint Abdullah and Rufayda bint Sa’ad Al Aslamiyya, and they both enjoyed the massive support of Muhammad (SAW) in their works.

Chastity

According to several rights groups including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, thousands of women and girls are trafficked every year majorly for sexual slavery. The 30th of July every year s designated International Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Human trafficking earns global profits of roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers, $99 billion of which comes from commercial sexual exploitation, some of the girls are not yet in their teens.  

In their assessment of reports on child pornography, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection found that children under 12 years old were depicted in 78.30% of the images and videos assessed by their team, and 63.40% of those children were under 8 years of age. Among that same material, they found that 80.42% of the children were girls, while 19.58% were boys. 

Parting notes in the 2018 hollywood movie, Traffik, read, "It is estimated there are 1.9 million women being trafficked in the United States. Worldwide, 21 million victims of human trafficking generate illegal profits each year of 150 billion dollars".

The girl child is the major commodity of pornography.

Here are some other facts

• There are approximately 3, 000 English-language websites that distribute child pornography
• According to the Internet Watch Foundation, there were 1, 536 sites featuring child pornography in 2008
• 58% of those sites are housed in America

For more details on chastity in Islam, read https://towardsdalight.blogspot.com/2017/01/islam-respects-chastity-of-women.html

Allah (SWT) said in the Glorious Qur'an 

"...And do not compel your slave girls to prostitution, if they desire chastity, to seek [thereby] the temporary interests of worldly life. And if someone should compel them, then indeed, Allah is [to them], after their compulsion, Forgiving and Merciful." Suratul Nur (24:33)

For those who might take this to mean Islam encourages slavery, you can get clarity here https://towardsdalight.blogspot.com/2017/02/misconception-9-islam-supports-slavery.html

If Allah (SWT) would say this concerning girls who are not blood relatives, how much more about your own daughters.

Imam Bukhari and Muslim reported that, “Allah's Apostle (SAW) regarded illegal the price of a dog, the earnings of a prostitute, and the charges taken by a soothsayer."

General treatment of females in Islam

Muhammad (SAW) made it clear that he wasn't trying to attract women to Islam by outlawing practices that belittled the status of a girl child, he (SAW) he reiterated this point on his farewell pilgrimage.

Muhammad (SAW) said, “Treat your women well and be kind to them, for they are your partners and committed helpers."

Islam is the religion, Muslims are the people, the Glorious Qur'an and the Ahadith (examples of Muhammad (SAW)) define Islam. 

Non Muslims claim that their constitutions don't need to contain such touching words as in the Qur'an and Ahadith about women and girls because it is natural human instinct. Despite the pulchritude of their claim, their attitude towards the girl child shows that what they think about her hasn't changed; it has only put on a new look.