Our Moslem Sisters: A Cry of Need from Lands of Darkness Interpreted by Those Who Heard It
Religion
Our Moslem Sisters: A Cry of Need from Lands of Darkness Interpreted by Those Who Heard It
Women -- Orient
The aim of the Mohammedans in their schools is twofold: being both to
benefit and train the girls, making them more companionable, and also to
fortify them against Christian teaching. The aim of our work and our
teaching is more than that, for we desire, not only to enlarge the
mental horizon but to cultivate the heart, to open up for them the
wellspring of true joy and store their memories with hymns of praise and
the inspiring and comforting words of Christ. But more than all to lead
them to accept for themselves their only Saviour, the Son of God, who
died for them, who only is the true "Prophet of the Highest," whose
mission is "to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death." We claim for these dear women and girls the liberty which
their own sacred Koran inculcates: "Let there be no compulsion in
religion." (From the Sura called "The Cow," v. 257.)
And will the favored Christian women of England, America, and Germany,
and all free Christian lands not join those already on the field either
in prayer or personal service, that they may have a part in bringing
many of these Mohammedan women, sweet and lovable, and capable of rising
to high levels as many of them are, out of their "darkness into His
Marvellous Light"?
XV
BEHIND THE LATTICE IN TURKEY
If the condition of women under Islam is degraded and wellnigh hopeless
in other parts of the world, what must be the condition of such women in
Turkey, the seat of Moslem power, the centre of the Caliphate, with the
green flag of the Prophet kept at Seraglio Point, in Constantinople?
The picture of woman's degradation throughout the Empire is black
enough, yet gleams of light play over the blackness, and these gleams
grow steadily stronger and more frequent. Turkey not only borders upon
Europe, and thus is nearer to Western civilization and its progress, but
its extended coast-line affords many ports of entry, to which comes no
inconsiderable part of the travel and trade of the world. Kaiser
William's railroads are opening up the western portion of the empire,
and cause a curious jumble of modern advance with so-called fixed
Oriental ways.
With their parasols held low over their heads, even though the day be
cloudy, or the sun be set, the veiled and costumed Turkish women may be
seen in crowds on Friday, their Sabbath, and holidays, sitting upon
grassy slopes, with their children playing about them. They go in
groups or followed by a servant, if from richer families, as they are
not trusted to go alone. In the interior, even, non-Moslem women are
veiled almost as closely as the Mohammedans, when upon the street. Such
is the power of prejudice that it is not thought proper for any woman to
be seen in public.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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