As the month of March winds down, I reflect on how it is dedicated to Women's History Month. Today's world is filled with screams and shouts of women wanting the right to do as they please. We debate on whether or not we should have a choice in having an abortion. We fight over whether modeling in a provocative way for a magazine is selling ourselves, or if remaining covered is oppression. All the while, we are judging others for the decisions they have made for themselves. To be honest, if we all took women's rights and freedoms more seriously, we would keep our judgment to ourselves, respect our fellow our sisters, and worry on how to improve ourselves as better female examples to the world.
As an American Ahmadi Muslim woman, I am lucky to live in a country where the conversation of women's rights is always afloat. But I am also lucky that I have a religion whose philosophy teaches me that I am given equality to my male counterparts from the start. In the Holy Qur'an it states that “Whoso does good whether male or female, and is a believer, shall enter Paradise and they shall not be wronged a whit,” (4:125). Essentially, I am responsible for my own actions as equally as a man and I would get the same positive recognition for good deeds and negative recognition for bad deeds. While cultural and societal perceptions may flub on this, the rights and equality of all women are written in stone. We are all accountable for our own decisions and the steps we take in our lives, no matter what. So while we debate over equality between women and men, it is good to know that there are some things written in the past that are still relevant in the present and in the future.