 رسول الله صلى الله عليه واله she said yeah رسول الله we bear the children of the men of our husbands we take care of raising them we look after them when our husbands go for the fight the battlefield we take care of the children yet it is our husbands who fight in the way of Allah do jihad في سبيل الله they get killed they get martyred and they get these higher ranks how is that fair so the women of madina have requested me to come and speak to you رسول الله صلى الله عليه واله looked at them and he said at his companions he said have you seen a woman so outspoken like her they said no يا رسول الله she's very outspoken the prophet صلى الله عليه واله looked at her and said go back to the women and tell them رسول الله صلى الله عليه واله says that the work you are doing is not any less than what the men are doing in the battlefields and your reward is not any less than what the men are gaining in the battlefields islam recognizes there are some differences physiological differences maybe psychological differences and therefore islam gives different legislation for example with regards to jihad fighting in the battlefield that is not imposed and mandatory upon women but it is imposed upon men just because men are the ones who go and fight in the battlefield that does not make them any better than the woman that's the reality and here is the حديث of رسول الله صلى الله عليه واله looking at this affirming this with regards to the political matter الله سبحانه وتعالى refers to مؤمنات in سورة الممتحنا يا أيها النبي إذا جاءك المؤمنات to you بايعنك على لا يشكن بالله شيئا when the female believers come to pledge their allegiance to you that's a political matter they're pledging the allegiance to رسول الله صلى الله عليه واله and there are some conditions that the quran lists tell them that they should look after الله fear الله and so on so forth there are some conditions six conditions listed in the ayah the last ayah of سورة الممتحنا on the day of غدير when when رسول الله صلى الله عليه واله introduced امير المؤمنين or announced that امام عليه صلى الله عليه is his official successor من كنت مولا فهذا علي مولا the muslims came and pledged their allegiance to امير المؤمنين صلى الله عليه عليه then the women had to come how did they pledge their allegiance just like they pledge their allegiance to رسول الله صلى الله عليه واله how did the women pledge their allegiance to the prophet صلى الله عليه واله the prophet brought a big bucket of water filled it with water he put his hand on one end the women came and put their hand on the other end of the bucket and that was their pledge of allegiance to رسول الله صلى الله عليه واله and that's how they pledged their allegiance to امير المؤمنين صلى الله عليه so they are practicing they are participating in the political process so until this day and age islam does not stop women from participating in the political process اسلام from the women from voting their economic values their social values a woman comes to رسول الله صلى الله عليه واله and she says يا رسول الله my husband has rejected me المجادلة سورة المجادلة he did ضحار he basically said you are haram to me like my mother is haram to me the prophet صلى الله عليه واله ordered the man to come and he immediately dealt with the situation so the prophet صلى الله عليه واله dealt with the matter the ayat of the quran المسلمين والمسلمات والمؤمنين والمؤمنات to the end of the ayat الله addresses male and female believers therefore from the quranic context from the history صلى الله عليه واله and امير المؤمنين عليهم السلام they guaranteed the rights of women and they accepted their testimony a lady by the name of suda bint عمارة الهمدانية she was from the city of hamdan in yemen when muawiyah became the khalifa the people of hamdan were very close allies to imam ali عليه السلام very close supporters they supported him especially they were next to him when muawiyah came he poured his wrath against them he seized all their land muawiyah poured his wrath against anyone who supported imam ali عليه السلام in madina for example he tripled the taxes so you can buy rice in madina the cost of rice although there wasn't rice but kamh wheat and barley القامح in madina was tripled the price than the kamh in sham tripled the price he tried to impoverish them so he fought against anyone because the people of madina الأنصار most of them were with imam عليه عليه السلام most of them so he poured his wrath against all those who supported kufa he poured his wrath on them he put زياد ابن أبيه as their governor madina he poured his رأس on them he increased their taxes impoverished them hamdan yemen he seized their lands so he poured his wrath his anger against them why did they support ali ابن أبيه طالب he seized the lands from the people of hamdan so suda this lady a lady gets up travels all the way from yemen to sham comes to see muawiyah she enters muawiyah looks at her says suda what brings you here weren't you the one standing next to ali ابن أبيه طالب on the day of syphine reciting verses of poetry to encourage his army to fight against me and my army she says yes and if time were to go back i would do exactly the same thing i did but unfortunately ali سلام الله عليه is gone times have changed and put you in power ya muawiyah she says what brings you here he said what brings you here she says you have seized my land and the land of the people of hamdan i am here to reclaim that land give us back the land he says what you have come to ask me to give you the land back get back get out and if you don't leave right now i am going to force that they put you on a camel with no respect and no dignity and be taken all the way back to hamdan in a disgraceful manner suda at that point cried and she recited a couple verses of poetry she recited two verses of poetry where she said that with the death of this great man justice was also buried when he was buried justice was buried with him she was among the first to say that justice was buried with ali yubnu abi talib she was among the first muawiyah when he heard her he said suda who are you referring to is it ali yubnu abi talib she said who else who other than ali yubnu abi talib she said i came to ali yubnu abi talib one day from yemen i came to kufa i arrived at masjid al kufa ali was about to start salat al jama'a when i called him i said يا امير المؤمنين he left he stopped he didn't start the salat he came he attended to me he said what would you like what do you want what's the problem she said يا امير المؤمنين the governor you have imposed on us you put us on us in yemen he is not treating us fairly she said when i told him this Imam Ali cried and he turned to Allah and said يا رب do not hold me responsible for what he's doing i ordered them to treat people with respect with fairness with justice this is not what i told them to do he's asking Allah for forgiveness then he took a piece of what we call today paper he had a piece of leather in his pocket he took it out and he wrote a letter on it like a piece of paper and a pen he wrote a letter on it where he said the minute that you receive this message of mine you are dismissed from your post and someone else is going to come and take over from you he closed the letter he gave it to me and he said سودة go back and take this letter to him he says that's how Ali ibn Abi Talib dealt with the situation and look at the difference between you and him i come to you and i tell you your governor in yemen is stealing our lands and you're telling me this is how i'm going to treat you and send you back this gracefully look at the difference between you and Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali ibn Abi Talib peace be upon him listened to me he gave me dignity respect and then Imam Ali went back to the salat you see Imam Ali peace be upon him did not tell her you're a woman what brings you here go back not at all with utmost dignity with utmost respect listens to her complaint answers deals with the situation and then sends her back when Muawiyah hear this he says okay سودة okay i'm going to give you your land back i'll give you your land he says to his writer he says right please make a note that سودة بنت عمار الهمدانية سودة بنت عمار الهمدانية she looks at him and he says Muawiyah i didn't come here just to claim my land i am here to claim everyone's land tell your writer to write all the lands are back he looked at her with anger قال لقد ألضمكم ابنه ابي طالب الجعه he says Ali ibn Abi Talib قلت لكم في such a manner that you can talk because he was so fair he was so just he would not punish you he would not harm you so you guys became outspoken she said Muawiyah right he turns to his writer he says okay خلص give her all the land she takes that land she takes that paper and she gets out that's سودة بنت عمار الهمدان that's one example this is how أهل البيت عليهم السلام this is how the prophet امير المؤمنين dealt with women in the political process in the financial process looking after the welfare of the women they came to Imam Ali عليه السلام they said there is a lady who is working she takes takes care of preparing the brides when they get married the brides she's the one who it's like today what we call the salon the hair salon back in those days she was the one he says لابس he says no problem what's wrong with that that's fine she can do that so when we talk about equal opportunities when we talk about and social matters and political matters and economic matters Islam is full of such examples