The truth slowly dawned on man's mind that he had over-
estimated the value of physical strength and military prowess. He
realised that other abilities are equally valuable. In modern society,
intelligence is valued more than bodily strength. The psychologists
tell us that woman is man's equal in intelligence and some other
abilities. Man is superior to woman in some abilities but inferior to
her in others. For instance, he excels her in mechanical skill while she
surpasses him in linguistic ability.
It is now generally admitted that woman is, on the whole, man's
equal. Nevertheless, deep down in her unconscious, the inferiority
complex handed down from the immemorial past is firmly lodged.
In the advanced countries of Europe and America, women are
working shoulder to shoulder with men in the fields of science,
industry and administration, but they too are impelled by an
unconscious urge to make themselves attractive to men. The greater
part of the money they earn is wasted on dress, make-up and finery.
All the time they can spare, they devote to beautifying themselves.
Obviously their main purpose is to make themselves fascinating and
glamorous. This is because women have been told all the time, on
religious authority, that God originally created man and woman was
created subsequently because man felt lonely. She is, therefore,
driven to the belief that she does not exist for herself but only to
fulfil the wishes of man: hence her unconscious desire to become as
attractive to man as possible.
The inferiority complex from which woman suffers has its roots
in the remote past. The social framework which has remained
basically unchanged assigned to her a status much lower than that of
man. Man regarded her occasionally as a goddess, usually as a slave,
but rarely as a comrade. In this man-made society, the dice were
heavily loaded against her. The powerful forces of custom, law and
religion were ranged against her. She could not own property in her
own right. She could not choose her own mate. The father could
give her in marriage to any one he liked. If the husband died even
when she was still young, she was not permitted to remarry.
Widowhood was her lot for the rest of her life. Sometimes she was
even expected to die with her husband. The barbarous custom of
Sati required her to sit on the funeral pyre of her dead husband and
be burnt alive. Religion too was not kind to her. The Biblical story of
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 293