Are men and women equal?

It is difficult to answer this question as “yes” or “no” at once. The question is not clear enough in this form. It is necessary to clarify it with other questions like Where? On what subject? From what aspect? If this question is asked from the “judicial aspect”, the answer is yes.

If it is said from every aspect, there is no need to answer this question because the answer is in the question. Since two different genders are in question, how can absolute equality be considered?

There are fields where the woman and the man are equal as well as there are fields where the man surpasses the woman or vice versa. So, it is not possible to analyze this issue as a single item.

If it is asked that, “Is there a difference between the man and the woman from the aspect of being a good, superior person?”, we can emphasize at once that domination is different from superiority and virtue. It is difficult to say this one is superior to the other one at once in the latter. It is because everybody is a servant of Allah, whether a woman or a man. Only the one whom He prefers and loves and He is pleased with is superior. When we examine the Quran, the Divine book, we see that taqwa (fear of Allah) is the measure of superiority instead of gender. Yes, the measure of superiority in the eye of Allah is taqwa.

What is taqwa? Taqwa means fearing Allah, abstaining from sins, keeping away from actions, manners, circumstances and words that He is not pleased with, regarding attaining His consent as the major aim and fearing very much of losing His consent. As you see, the superior and virtuous person is the one who behaves like that. Gender is not esteemed at this point.

We remember righteous deeds as soon as taqwa is mentioned. Righteous deed means to do good deeds and charity. Gender is not taken into consideration in righteous deeds, either. For example, if ten rewards are given for each letter of the Quran, it is the same for all people. A concept like fewer rewards for women and more rewards for men is not in question.

We can also deal with the question from the psychological aspect and can ask: Is there a difference between men and women from the psychological aspect?

We answer this question as “definitely” without any hesitation. The psychological difference between men and women starts to manifest itself from the childhood. The toys of boys and girls are different from each other. A girl likes dolls most among toys. She takes her dolls in her arms, kisses them, changes their clothes, swings them in a cradle and takes them to sleep. She spends most of her time with them. However, a boy prefers toys such as cars, airplanes and guns most.

When these children grow up, their conversations change. Men talk about business life or politics more while women primarily talk about household goods and knitting.

There is also an obvious difference between two genders in terms of ability. The man is superior to the woman in composition and analysis while the woman is superior to the man in imitation and memorizing. For example; the man is superior to the woman in making an architectural work and placing all its parts suitably. The woman is much more sensitive than the man in decorating any part of it with fine embroideries.

The man is more open to the external environment. He is inferior to the woman in showing compassion but he is superior to her in the ability of enterprise. The woman is more introversive compared to the man. The major benefit of it is the importance she will give to her children and her home.

Those two genders’ weaknesses are also different. There exists the sickness of tyrannizing and oppression in the man and the sickness of showing off and attaching much importance to what other people think about her in the woman.

One of the most distinct characteristics of the woman is her sensibility. It is called “affectivity”. The woman is more susceptible to be affected by the environment than the man. Therefore, the woman is more susceptible to be guided by inculcations and more suitable to be deceived than the man.

The woman’s intuition is stronger than that of man. She needs changes more than him and she is more open to innovations and excitement. The woman is usually inferior to the man in terms of body size, force and power. As a result, the need for taking refuge in someone is more in the woman than the man. However, this need changes into inferiority complex for some people and it shows itself as manly behavior complex.

The woman is more devoted to her spouse than man. She is more faithful than him. She is superior to him in the love of the world.

We should judge the woman in accordance with that psychology of her and we should try to make her an ideal woman instead of trying to make her become mannish.

Let us have a look around. There is a perfect harmony between spirits and bodies in all living beings. Putting a gazelle’s spirit into the body of a lion and forcing it to behave like a lion will harm that cute spirit first. It will lose some of the grace in its spirit every time it roars and it will destroy some part of its own elegance in every attack. Pushing a woman into mannish behavior for the sake of the equality of men and women gives the most damage to the woman.

In fact, intentional and intensive activities carried out in this field have not been able to change anything in a sense. Acting upon the rule “The judgment is made according to the majority”, we can state the following:

Women generally happen to be workers instead of factory owners, secretaries instead of judges, hostesses instead of pilots, shop assistants instead of bosses because it is not possible to change the human nature.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to give the woman the statue she deserves. We either tried to dominate her and treated her unjustly as though her sustenance was upon us, or we gave her too many opportunities and caused her to aspire to become mannish and we spoiled her in this way.