'Iddah (Female Menstrual Waiting Period): Difference between revisions

*Need of sex is not only limited to men, but it is a natural need of woman too. But Islam does not recognise this right and natural need of a woman, and it has limited it to the man only. Thus, a woman is not allowed to have sex with any partner for this long period of time of ‘Iddah.

*But sex is not the only problem, while divorce or death of husband also comes with extreme emotional stress for the woman. This is exactly the time when some of them may need emotional support and attention from a caring partner the most, who could talk with them and give them love and attention, so that they feel themselves “secure” in the partner's arms.

*On the other hand, Muslim men are allowed to have sex with other wives and dozens of slave-girls the same night. There is absolutely no restrictions upon them to even control themselves for even for a single day.

A powerful idea within Islamic law and preaching is "promoting virtue and preventing vice" or in Arabic الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر literally "commanding in virtue and denying in vice." Muslims scholars argue that the institution of the 'iddah is in harmony with this principle, as the isolation of the woman during this period keeps her from falling into [[Zina]]. This idea is maintained even though going to parks, picnics, going on walks, going to social gatherings, visiting their relatives and staying with their parents is normally allowed to never-married women, who could also theoretically fall into zina. Unmarried Muslim women not in undergoing their 'iddah are also allowed to use Kolh and perfume, and to wear jewerly and good clothes, to take part in Henna and to wash their faces with Aloe. Never the less, all of these things are forbidden to women undergoing their 'iddah.

According to the following hadith, the concept of 'iddah was taken from pre-Islamic Arabian culture:

{{Quote|{{Bukhari|||5336|darussalam}}|Um Salama said that a woman came to Allah's Messenger and said, "O Allah's Messenger ! The husband of my daughter has died and she is suffering from an eye disease. Can she apply  collyrium/kohl to her eye?" Allah's Messenger replied, "No," twice or thrice. (Every time she repeated her question) he said,''' "No." Then Allah's Messenger added, "It is just a matter of four months and ten days. In the Pre-Islamic Period of ignorance a widow among you should throw a globe of dung when one year has elapsed (i.e. she had to stay in ‘Iddah for the whole one year)." '''}}Apparently women even at the time the hadith was created were complaining of the burdens of the 'iddah, but the hadith admonishes them that they ought to be thankful for Islam, since in the jahiliyyah (the pre-islamic time of "ignorance" before the coming of Islam in the Arab peninsula) the 'iddah lasted a whole year. That there were complaints, though, can be seen from the existence of the hadith in the first place, so even in the time of this hadith women were not happy with them; by comparison, modern secular culture imposes no such restrictions on women at all.