Some Perspectives on Aisha’s Gruesome Tale
By Dr. Basheer A. Khan
Garden Grove , CA
Bibi Aisha is a beautiful teenager from Afghanistan who is reported to have been married at the young age of 14 years. She was subsequently victimized and brutalized by her in-laws to the extent that her nose was chopped off to disfigure her beautiful face.
Time Magazine traced this girl in Afghanistan and reported her story. Some humanitarian organizations brought her to the US recently and she was given a prosthetic nose to restore her physical appearance.
It is difficult to say if she will ever be able to restore her inner beauty, peace and dreams after this traumatic experience at such an early age in life, and if so, when. No words are strong enough to condemn the people who committed this brutality on her. No words of gratitude are sufficient enough for those who took care of this girl and helped her to restart her life again.
The frightening image of Aisha from Afghanistan might have been used rightly for wrong reasons by some in the media who have a vested interest in defaming and demonizing Islam and Muslims to justify the treatment that is being meted out to them. It is their opportunity to utilize this calamity for their benefit. But we Muslims should use this calamity and make it into an opportunity and awaken to the reality of existence of such brutes amongst us and punish them for their crimes, and educate them in civil behavior.
Civility was the gift of Islam to the world when the world was living in a Dark Age. Islam does not teach us just about our relation with God, it also lays great emphasis on our dealings and our relation with each other. All the rituals that we perform in the name of religion are not an end in themselves but a mean to develop that God consciousness which compel us to behave properly in our dealings and interactions with every person.
It is pertinent to recall some of the instances of individual rage and see how they have been viewed in history, mythology and media to put the case of Aisha into perspective.
Rage is a human weakness of which there are many examples. Remember the nanny who shook the little baby in her care so hard that it caused the baby to die of a head injury. The case of the lady who cut off the private part of her husband in rage was again on the news for her effort to patch up with her estranged husband. The “accidental shooting” by a VIP and hurting his friend during a game session is also attributed to rage. As reported in a recent TV broadcast the VIP has not even apologized to the victim so far. The boxer who bit the ear of his opponent in the ring in rage became more famous for the outburst than his previous Boxing Record. All these stories were reported in the media with no subtext attached them like in the case of Aisha. In fact, some of them were presented in a hilarious manner.
There is a mythological story where a woman’s nose was chopped off in rage and that was in the prehistoric time. Surpanakha was the sister of Ravana who was the King of Sri Lanka. Disappointed by her failure to lure Rama, the god king of India, because of Rama’s dedication to his wife, Sita, Surpanakha tries to kill Sita. At this Laxman, borther of Rama, is outraged and cuts the nose of Surpanakha. Ravana abducts Sita and takes her as hostage to Sri Lanka. This results in war between Sri Lanka and India. Victory of Rama against Ravana in this war is celebrated to this day with fervor and reverence as victory of virtue over vice during the Dussehra and Diwali festival.
The other instance of individual rage which is mentioned in Qur’an is about Moses before he was anointed as prophet and lived as a prince in the palace of Pharaoh. Intervening in a fight between a Coptic master and a Hebrew slave, Moses (peace be upon him) wanted to discipline the Coptic but inadvertently kills him. Regretting and repenting this senseless act, Moses abandons his palatial life and goes to Madian to live a life of a shepard till he is anointed as a prophet. Moses’ repentance is lauded by Allah Himself in the Qur’an (Ch 28 V15-21). Taking queue from this story of Moses, those who committed this atrocity on Aisha should dedicate themselves to spread the message, loud and clear, that never again should any woman be subjected to this brutality.
As the episode related to Aisha is used to tarnish the image of Islam it is appropriate to look at how the Prophet Muhammad SA treated his wives.
Bibi Aisha RA was married to Prophet Muhammad SA. She was in her teens when she came to the Prophet’s household. She was treated with great care by the Prophet SA. He was so sensitive to her feelings that once he said to her: O Aisha, I know when you are happy with me and when you are angry at me. When Aisha RA asked him as to how he recognizes this, he SA said: When you are happy with me you call me O Prophet of Allah, and when you are angry with me you call me O Father of Qasim, and Aisha RA was amused at this answer. Prophet SA used to lift Aisha RA so that she could enjoy the street show in front of his house from over the top of its wall. When an allegation was made against her by the hypocrites in the community to defame her, it caused great discomfort to the Prophet SA. Allah swt revealed several verses in the Qur’an repudiating the slander which the hypocrites had spread and admonished the companions for giving credence to it to cause hurt to the Prophet SA and to Aisha RA (Ch 24 V11-20). If it were not for Aisha RA, much of the private life of Prophet SA would not be known to us. She was a great companion of the Prophet, a great teacher of the Muslim community, and a great social worker who helped the wounded in wars. She was a leader amongst her people and is revered by Muslims as mother of the believers (Ummul Momineen).
Nowhere does the Qur’an or the Hadith say that a girl should be treated as Aisha was treated in Afghanistan. Nor it is in the tradition of the soft-spoken and caring Afghans to treat their woman with such brutality. This was the act of rage of some mad men who happened to have Muslim names, and perhaps were attired to look like Muslims, but had no knowledge of Islam and training in Islamic behavior. This act was committed not because of Islam, but because of the lack of true knowledge of Islam and its practice. To attribute the crimes of such individuals to a religion and to a whole community and culture or to capitalize on it for any gain is not justifiable.
When Plato said, “Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle”, he was not referring to the individuals’ struggle with bread and butter issues. He also meant the fight which every culture and every civilization is fighting to correct itself from the weaknesses that are harming it. We need to be kind and sympathetic to each other when we see the suffering of people like Aisha, rather than allow such instances to be abused by those who want to fuel the war of civilizations. Plato has cautioned us about such people “When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.” Let us be wary of such leaders in media and in the echelons of power and save our civilization from needless wars to support their leadership.
Aisha was a victim of individual rage. To blame this weakness of some individuals on a whole country, a whole religion and a whole culture and demonize it is totally out of place. It reduces the importance of this real life event which has caused many a hearts to tremble in horror and many an eyes to shed tears in grief, into another episode from a soap opera.
