Me ya sa shari'ar Musulunci ke sauƙaƙa wa mijin mugu damar zaluntar matarsa?

Q: Why does Islamic law make it easy for an evil husband to oppress his wife?.

A: A yau, tare da tsarin zamantakewa da al'adu marasa kyau da ake gani a wasu ƙasashen Musulmi, eh, yana iya zama mai sauƙi ga miji mugun hali ya zalunci matarsa, ya sake ta, ya yi amfani da ita, ya cutar da ita, da sauransu. Amma a mafi yawan tarihin Musulunci, wannan ba haka yake da sauƙi ba. Wannan saboda tsarin iyali da zamantakewa a mafi yawan wurare a tarihi tsari ne na dangi, watau bisa ga iyali "mai fadi". Duk da cewa yana da sauƙi miji ya zalunci matarsa a yau, inda iyalai ƙanana ne kuma keɓe, mutane kuma ba su da alaƙa da iyayensu, manyan iyali, danginsu, da sauransu, a baya matar tana iya dogara ga waɗannan hanyoyin sadarwa don samun goyon baya a kan miji mai zalunci ko wanda ba shi da hankali. A gaskiya, a cikin mafificin muradin iyali ne su kare membobinsu mata daga irin wannan cin zarafi, tun da iyalai marasa lafiya ba sa iya haifar da ƴaƴa masu amfani da za su bayar da gudummawa mai kyau ga kabila ko babban iyali. Ya dace kawai a lura da nasu, kuma da irin wannan goyon baya, mata ba sa kasancewa ta atomatik cikin raunin gaske a fuskar miji mai iya zama mugu.

A: In today’s age and with today’s social structures and some of the backwards cultural practices we find in some Muslim countries, yes, it may be easy for a malevolent husband to oppress his wife, to divorce her, to take advantage of her, to abuse her, and so on. But for most of Muslim history, this was not so easy. This is because the familial and social structure in most places throughout history were kinship based, i.e., based on the “extended” family. While it is easy for a husband to oppress his wife in today’s world, where families are very small and isolated and people have no connection to their parents, extended family, relatives, and so on, in the past, a wife could rely on these networks to support her against an oppressive or otherwise unreasonable husband. In fact, it was in the best interest of the family to defend its female members from such abuse, since dysfunctional families cannot produce functional children who will contribute positively to the tribe or extended family. It just made sense to watch for your own and with that kind of backing, women were not automatically in a position of de facto weakness in the face of a potentially malevolent husband.

A yau mata ba su da hanyoyin kariya da yawa a kan mazajen da ke cin zarafinsu. Mata a yau sai sun dogara ga hukumomin gwamnati don su ba su tallafi, kuma a fili hukumomin gwamnati ba koyaushe suke iya taimako ba. A ƙarshe, mata suna tilasta dogaro da wani tsarin gudanarwa mai sanyi da ba ya jin tausayi, alhali hanyoyin iyali na zamanin baya za su iya gurfanar da miji mai cin zarafi da kuma ɗaukar shi alhakin kai tsaye kuma nan take. Kamar yadda tarihi ya tabbatar, haka ake yin abubuwa tsawon dubban shekaru, amma al'ummar zamani ta rushe dangi mai faɗi kuma ta tilasta mutane su dogara ga gudanarwar gwamnati (da ta kamfanoni). Dangi mai faɗi muhimmin tsari ne na rayuwar ɗan adam mai amfani bisa ra'ayin Musulunci game da wanzuwar ɗan adam, kuma Shari'a kanta tana jaddada hakan kuma tana ɗauka haka. Kasancewar al'ummomi da yawa a Gabas da Yamma suna fama da irin waɗannan matsaloli ya kamata ya gaya mana wani abu game da dorewar wasu tsare-tsaren zamantakewar zamani da kuma rushe dangi mai faɗi da ikonsa a zamaninmu.

It is today in modern society that women do not have much recourse against abusive husbands. Women today have to rely on state institutions to provide them support, and obviously state institutions are not always in a position to help, and at the end of the day, women are forced to rely on a cold bureaucratic system whereas family networks of the past could prosecute and hold an abusive husband accountable in a direct and immediate way. As the historical record will attest, this is how things were done for thousands of years, but modern society has dissolved the extended family and forced people to rely on state (and corporate) bureaucracy. The extended family is a crucial structure of functional human living according to Islam’s vision of human existence and this is emphasized in and assumed by the Sharia itself. The fact that many of our societies in the East and West are suffering such problems should tell us something about the viability of certain modern social structures and the dismantling of the extended family and its authority in our time.

Ainihin tambayar ita ce: shin ya kamata mu gyara shari'ar Musulunci domin ta dace da umarnin al'ummar zamani, wadda ke fama da wadannan matsaloli duka, ko kuma ya kamata mu gyara wadannan tsarin zamantakewa, mu dawo da cibiyoyin da wayewar kai ta baya, Musulmi da wadanda ba Musulmi ba, ta dauka a matsayin abin da ba a tambaya ba tsawon dubban shekaru?

So the real question is, should we reform Islamic law to conform to the diktats of modern society, which is suffering from all these problems, or should we reform these social structures and bring back those institutions that past civilizations, Muslim and non-Muslim, took for granted for thousands of years?