Social Media critic: “And I’ve seen young Khadims getting excited when they were assigned as volunteers in Lajna side of the events. Of course, I don’t blame Jamaat for this behaviour of some Khadims but at the end of the day I think the extreme segregation enforced by the Jama’at is actually yielding so much negative results among youngsters”.
Response: It is absurd to suggest that segregation is having negative results. Our counter-question is: If there is no segregation, would the ‘excitement’ be justified? If there is no segregation, is there a guarantee that young people would not be ‘excited’? We see the actual problem is that people are living in open societies where there is no regard for purdah (or veiling) and the same is expected to be followed in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at. As such, this allegation is more like a complaint. It is presumed that mixed gatherings of men and women are better and would lead to better understanding between men and women.
The fact of the matter is that the Jama’at follows the Islamic commandments which are meant for our own good. We live in an age where it is now proven that mixed gatherings of men and women lead to harassment and abuse of women and women feel unsafe in such circumstances. There is more than enough information on this now and readily available on the internet via articles on the #MeToo movement.
The Jama’at aims to protect the integrity of women and to maintain their respect. When it comes to our own female relatives, would we not want to guarantee the same degree of respect? The ‘excitement’ of men needs to be controlled instead of how women are treated. The main reason for this so called ‘excitement’ is not following the Quranic injunctions, which is to lower one’s gaze. It must be kept in mind that in the Holy Quran, where instructions are given for purdah, the men are addressed first and told to lower their gaze (24:31).
