This is the first verse she quotes-
“Tell the faithful women that they must keep their gaze focused below/on the ground and cover their sexual organs. They must not put their beauty and their jewellery on display. They must hide their breasts behind a purdah. They must not exhibit their beauty to anybody except their husbands, brothers, nephews, womenfolk, servants, eunuch employees and children. They must not move their legs briskly while walking because then much of their bodies can get exposed.” (Sura Al Noor 24:31)
The bold are Ms. Nasreen’s addition and distortion. Here is the actual verse
“And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband’s fathers, their sons, their husbands’ sons, their brothers or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss.”
I am surprised that a writer of her caliber (as Manas points out) cannot differentiate between gaze focused below/on the ground and lower their gaze and guard their modesty. Quran never talked about the women’s gaze fixed to the ground, all it talked about is that women should lower their gaze (a similar command to believing men, the hijab for men!! yes the hijab for men; the beard). She even replaced the word ‘believing’ with ‘faithful’. The command is for a believing woman, if she is not then who is forcing her to! Has she ever worn the veil? I wrote on the veil issue on IM ( What about Burqa, huh? )
This is the explanation from Tafsir Ibn Kathir-
And tell the believing women to lower their gaze) meaning, from that which Allah has forbidden them to look at, apart from their husbands. Some scholars said that it is permissible for women to look at non-Mahram men without desire (whereas its not permissible for men to look at women), as it was recorded in the Sahih that the Messenger of Allah was watching the Ethiopians playing with spears in the Masjid on the day of `Id, and `A’ishah the Mother of the believers was watching them from behind him and he was concealing her from them, until she got bored and went away.
Her distortion is nothing but indicative of her prejudice and her desperation to prove the Quran wrong. She deliberately changed the wording to make her argument strong.
Her second verse-
“Oh nabi, please tell your wives and daughters and faithful women to wear a covering dress on their bodies. That would be good. Then nobody can recognise them and harrass them. Allah is merciful and kind.” (Sura Al Hijaab 33: 59)
Here is the actual verse
O Prophet! say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers that they let down upon them their over-garments; this will be more proper, that they may be known, and thus they will not be given trouble; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
The thing with Quran is that many people interpret the commands in relation to the present day world. There were many verses which were revealed for the prevalent situation. Here is an explanation of the above verse
Here Allah tells His Messenger to command the believing women — especially his wives and daughters, because of their position of honor — to draw their Jilbabs over their bodies, so that they will be distinct in their appearance from the women of the Jahiliyyah and from slave women.
This can be interpreted that the above verse was meant for the protection of women who had accepted Islam and who were in constant danger of being molested by the infidels. Jahiliyyah, the period, refers to the nomads who lived in Mecca and Madina before Prophet Muhammed (SAW) brought the message of Islam.
To be continued…
It’s bad enough that men have been mandating female behavior over centuries that now we have women doing that and more!
Gosh! Is this masochism or what!!