Maghrib aur Islam – a bi-annual Urdu journal of IPS – is a valuable resource for understanding Western perceptions about Islam and building basis for constructive dialogue between the two civilizations. Its 47th issue titled Maghrib mai Muashra, Idara aur Khwateen (Society, Institutions and Women in the West) is out now.

If seen in the historical perspective, the Western slogan of gender equality was shaped as a consequent need of capitalism. The system would find it hard to survive in the mechanical era without having a low-paid workforce, hence it sought to take women out of their homes in the name of independence, freedom, and progression, and persuade them to do the labour work in the garb of calling them business/working women. The Muslim world accepted imperialism not merely in political terms, but also associated the concepts of knowledge and society blindly with it, thinking that following the footsteps of the West was the only way to ensure their sustainability and materialistic growth. The approach was unanimously adopted by all, whether they were speaking Arabic, Turkish or Urdu.

The situation that Europe is facing today and the way its family and moral structure is disintegrating, it is sufficient for a sane mind to comprehend that mere gender equality is not the solution of the problem; the solution rather lies in teaching and training as per the need, nature and character of the gender, which is something that is taught in the Islamic way of life in form of refined principles.