Double Standards of Muslim men

[Sher Khan]

It sickens my mind to see this but it's important I share my views on this being a practising Muslim myself. It annoys me to a large extent seeing Muslim men enforcing double standards in society.

The concept of Haya and morality in Islam also applies to men the same way it does for a woman. For example, men are expected to cover their body from the navel to the knees as a minimum. Yet I see many "Sheikhs" in public wearing shorts and tight singlets whilst their wives are covered in Burqas besides them.

I've also seen many prominent devout Muslim personalities free mixing and dancing in public whilst they expect their women to be completely covered and segregated away from society.

Let me give the example of Irfan Pathan- a devout Muslim who is usually dancing and carrying on with his shenanigans on live TV. His wife observes the Purdah and just like every other woman she is deserving of respect and honour. Now if she or any other Muslim woman was to do the same, I'm sure the reaction from the Muslim community would be completely different.

My question is why the double standards? And why are supposedly devout Muslim men projecting these in society?

 

[Itachi]

My question is why the double standards?

This actually has nothing to do with Religion in true sense. It's a reflection of abuse and power of patriarchy via the medium i.e. religion. The same has been existed in different forms but difference is, since Islam impacts every aspect of your life, if you could mould the abusive level of patriarchy in this mix, then it becomes very dangerous. In patriarchy, more or less, the males will decide the framework so in many occurences, the women becomes the "commodity" of the society (rather than people) and thus they have no right or authority.

The more concerning nature will be, the women itself will be criticise of those other women. It's driven by on one hand, the institutional thought process (since they are institutionalized from birth) and on the other hand, also driven by jealousy.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Irfan Pathan- a devout Muslim who is usually dancing and carrying on with his shenanigans on live TV.

Public figures often have to balance their personal beliefs with their professional obligations. Dancing and other forms of entertainment on live TV are part of his profession. His wife, on the other hand, may choose to observe Purdah as part of her personal faith practice.

Islam has nothing to do with such differences and has the guidelines that make us MUSLIM. It is your personal choice whether you are completely following ISLAM or you are more bent towards secularism.

 

[Itachi]

Public figures often have to balance their personal beliefs with their professional obligations. Dancing and other forms of entertainment on live TV are part of his profession. His wife, on the other hand, may choose to observe Purdah as part of her personal faith practice.

Islam has nothing to do with such differences and has the guidelines that make us MUSLIM. It is your personal choice whether you are completely following ISLAM or you are more bent towards secularism.

Heh? What's the use of having principles if you could just render them useless citing professional obligation?

And what is this completely following islam and not completely following islam?

Does it mean there are: true muslims (who completely follows islam) and false muslims (who does not completely follow islam)?

 

[sweep_shot]

It sickens my mind to see this but it's important I share my views on this being a practising Muslim myself. It annoys me to a large extent seeing Muslim men enforcing double standards in society.

The concept of Haya and morality in Islam also applies to men the same way it does for a woman. For example, men are expected to cover their body from the navel to the knees as a minimum. Yet I see many "Sheikhs" in public wearing shorts and tight singlets whilst their wives are covered in Burqas besides them.

I've also seen many prominent devout Muslim personalities free mixing and dancing in public whilst they expect their women to be completely covered and segregated away from society.

Let me give the example of Irfan Pathan- a devout Muslim who is usually dancing and carrying on with his shenanigans on live TV. His wife observes the Purdah and just like every other woman she is deserving of respect and honour. Now if she or any other Muslim woman was to do the same, I'm sure the reaction from the Muslim community would be completely different.

My question is why the double standards? And why are supposedly devout Muslim men projecting these in society?

Aren't you generalizing a bit here?

Just because a few Muslim men did something wrong doesn't mean all Muslim men do this.

I know many Muslim men who do not do this.

 

[Sher Khan]

Aren't you generalizing a bit here?

Just because a few Muslim men did something wrong doesn't mean all Muslim men do this.

I know many Muslim men who do not do this.

But it's a fact and it's important that we talk about this.

I know plenty of Muslim boys who are allowed out late at night and are usually at Shisha corners and living it up. Whereas majority of Muslim girls are not allowed to do that at all.

Islam teaches both males and females to practice Haya and live a noble life.

 

[greatest]

But it's a fact and it's important that we talk about this.

I know plenty of Muslim boys who are allowed out late at night and are usually at Shisha corners and living it up. Whereas majority of Muslim girls are not allowed to do that at all.

Islam teaches both males and females to practice Haya and live a noble life.

Nowadays even some Muslim girls especially in the Middle East are seen at Shisha corners. Some have even started wearing figure revealing skin-tight dresses like leggings etc.
The problem is that media and pop-culture has a lot of influence now.

 

[ElRaja]

how about you let people live how they want and not get too riled by other people's supposed hypocrisies?

there's already a post here now implicitly judging girls for wearing dresses and leggings, lol. if you are religious, great, if you aren't a hypocrite in your practise, awesome, now keep it to yourself and stop using it as a means to judge others, men or women.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Best way to eliminate double standards is to focus less on the behaviour of others and try to eradicate them in your daily lives.

If you want other Muslim women to dance on TV like Irfan Pathan, then encoursge your wives, sisters, daughters etc to follow this path.

If you want to see Muslim women at Shisha cafes then make it clear to females in your family you have no issue with them going. Drive them there, take them shopping for the aforementioned leather trousers and make sure they have your support.

Be the change you want to see. You can't change Irfan Pathan, but you can make changes in your own household.

 

[Itachi]

Best way to eliminate double standards is to focus less on the behaviour of others and try to eradicate them in your daily lives.

If you want other Muslim women to dance on TV like Irfan Pathan, then encoursge your wives, sisters, daughters etc to follow this path.

If you want to see Muslim women at Shisha cafes then make it clear to females in your family you have no issue with them going. Drive them there, take them shopping for the aforementioned leather trousers and make sure they have your support.

Be the change you want to see. You can't change Irfan Pathan, but you can make changes in your own household.

The question was:

My question is why the double standards? And why are supposedly devout Muslim men projecting these in society?

Your post revolves around solutions yet doesn't answer the basic question of the post.

OP isn't asking how to eraicate those. He is asking the cause of this hypocrisy.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

The question was:

Your post revolves around solutions yet doesn't answer the basic question of the post.

OP isn't asking how to eraicate those. He is asking the cause of this hypocrisy.

I cant speak for others. Its difficult to understand their reasoning without doinh PHD level reasoning.

Best we can do is make sure we aren't hypocrites ourself and provide solutions that we can implement.

 

[sweep_shot]

The question was:

Your post revolves around solutions yet doesn't answer the basic question of the post.

OP isn't asking how to eraicate those. He is asking the cause of this hypocrisy.

Cause is human nature.

Humans aren't perfect. People make mistakes.

 

[Champ_Pal]

Religion in general is a killjoy. You cannot treat women as just objects of desire. Everyone gets only one chance to live and they should pursue what they desire. Religion and patriarchy are nothing but shackles that prevent people from reaching their full potential.
In the name of honor, women are kept at home, oppressed and treated as mere breeding machines. No less than slavery.

 

[JaDed]

Best way to eliminate double standards is to focus less on the behaviour of others and try to eradicate them in your daily lives.

If you want other Muslim women to dance on TV like Irfan Pathan, then encoursge your wives, sisters, daughters etc to follow this path.

If you want to see Muslim women at Shisha cafes then make it clear to females in your family you have no issue with them going. Drive them there, take them shopping for the aforementioned leather trousers and make sure they have your support.

Be the change you want to see. You can't change Irfan Pathan, but you can make changes in your own household.

Irfan Pathan? I know Pakistanis aren’t good dancers but even if you googled you would had noticed so many of them dancing at marriages or functions with women.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Irfan Pathan? I know Pakistanis aren’t good dancers but even if you googled you would had noticed so many of them dancing at marriages or functions with women.

Irfan was mentioned in the OP.

 

[Major]

how about you let people live how they want and not get too riled by other people's supposed hypocrisies?

there's already a post here now implicitly judging girls for wearing dresses and leggings, lol. if you are religious, great, if you aren't a hypocrite in your practise, awesome, now keep it to yourself and stop using it as a means to judge others, men or women.

I think OP just shared his view pov which is a very valid one.

 

[ElRaja]

I think OP just shared his view pov which is a very valid one.

it may be valid, but we've been on these forums long enough to know what these conversations degenerate into, which is invariably validation of prejudices against certain people, whether on the liberal or conservative side of the argument

 

[Sher Khan]

Irfan Pathan? I know Pakistanis aren’t good dancers but even if you googled you would had noticed so many of them dancing at marriages or functions with women.

I didn't mean to single him out. But he is a very well known personality hence why I mentioned him so that people could understand my point.

 

[Sher Khan]

My view is in Islamic cultures, a man has a great deal of control over what a woman wears or does. For example, a Maulvi will obviously tell his wife to observe strict Purdah and stay at home as much as possible. Which from an Islamic perspective is fine, but their are attributes of Haya which also apply to Muslim men.

I am not judging anyone. Allah is the only one that judges. But we need to be honest with ourselves and see the issue.

If we want our wives to be covered up and be modest. We need to lead by example. We need to watch how we interact with people and pay attention to what we wear as well. We need to not follow random girls on Instagram, etc.

On a hot summer day, we can't be wearing a singlet and shorts and be walking around with our wife's clad in heavy Burqas. We need to have some Akhlaq and also wear an outfit in which women will not think rules in Islam are unfair for them.

 

[Suleiman]

Islam is perfect, however humans are prone to messing up. It has nothing to do with Islam and all to do with either lacking knowledge of the religion or misunderstanding what it says.

Men are the protectors and maintainers of women as per the Quran. If a mentally healthy women doesn’t feel safe around you, it means you messed up somewhere.

Had to preface that before I said anything about the topic. OP has a point though. A lot of brothers for Eg wear super tight clothes, shorts, all of which go against the awrah permissible for a man (basically, the body parts that you should cover as a man- YES, they exist for men too)

However this has all to do with culture and nothing to do with Islam. Human nature esp if you are traumatized is to seek control, and unfortunately few brothers use the laws when it’s convenient to tell women to stay home but then bend the rules when it comes to their own free mixing and conduct with outside men and women.

I am not perfect either by any means, but as Muslims we have a standard to aspire to, myself included.

May Allah forgive me if I misrepresented anything here, or got any part wrong.

 

[Suleiman]

it may be valid, but we've been on these forums long enough to know what these conversations degenerate into, which is invariably validation of prejudices against certain people, whether on the liberal or conservative side of the argument

We shouldn’t be afraid of what that group or groups of people think. We as Muslims know Islam is the truth. We have nothing to prove to any one.

Questions are good for the ummah as long as the intention is to genuinely seek knowledge. That’s how we fix the lack of knowledge prevalent in the ummah atm now more than ever before. And I say this for everyone who wants to seek knowledge which is all of us

 

[Sher Khan]

Islam is perfect, however humans are prone to messing up. It has nothing to do with Islam and all to do with either lacking knowledge of the religion or misunderstanding what it says.

Men are the protectors and maintainers of women as per the Quran. If a mentally healthy women doesn’t feel safe around you, it means you messed up somewhere.

Had to preface that before I said anything about the topic. OP has a point though. A lot of brothers for Eg wear super tight clothes, shorts, all of which go against the awrah permissible for a man (basically, the body parts that you should cover as a man- YES, they exist for men too)

However this has all to do with culture and nothing to do with Islam. Human nature esp if you are traumatized is to seek control, and unfortunately few brothers use the laws when it’s convenient to tell women to stay home but then bend the rules when it comes to their own free mixing and conduct with outside men and women.

I am not perfect either by any means, but as Muslims we have a standard to aspire to, myself included.

May Allah forgive me if I misrepresented anything here, or got any part wrong.

Thanks brother. You couldn't have said it better.

I felt it was important to bring this topic up. So that as an Ummah we can become aware of things we might need to pay attention to.

 

[ghalib kichlu]

As long as they follow the awrah from their chosen Islamic school of thought, there's no issue islamically

Not all fiqh include the burqa and niqab as mandatory as the verse includes the wife's of the prophet pbuh
And not all fiqh include the belly button as non awrah
Same goes with tight fitting adornment for both sexes