Boreal

Remembering Uzza

If Islam Was Explained to Me in a Pub 

A Woman Who Slept Around Confronts Mecca’s Conqueror

Bob: Was collecting the Zakat the first thing the Prophet did after the believers took over Mecca?

Uzza: No. The first thing Muhammad did was to take away a Meccan woman's right to choose.

Archie: The man had his priorities.

Uzza: At a special ceremony, he had the women of Mecca pay him homage and promise, among other things, not to commit adultery.

Gerry: Why bring up adultery at this time?

Uzza: The women of Mecca slept around. That was not a secret, and Hind was no exception.

Bob: And their husbands were okay with this? They did not have them stoned to death?

 Uzza: They may not have always approved, but most of the pre-Islamic Arabs, especially the fun-loving, tolerant people of Mecca, were not barbarians.

Archie: Who is this Hind person?

Uzza: Sorry, she was the wife of Abu Sufyan. She was the only woman among those assembled with the men of Mecca to hear their conqueror deliver his instructions to leave her face and hair uncovered. When Muhammad demanded the women of Mecca swear to stop "fornicating" with men other than their husbands, she rose to ask if it was possible for a free woman to commit adultery.

Bob: What did she mean by that?

Uzza: Like the free married men of Mecca who slept with other women, she may have felt that a free woman was entitled to do the same; it was her choice and many of the fair-minded men of Mecca, before Islam, seemed to agree. How I love that woman.

Bob: Because you like to sleep around?

Uzza: NO, and if I did, it is no one's business but my own. No, it is because she defended women's rights when they were threatened, unlike the women of today who see covering their features as empowering them, when it is about empowering men who, like Muhammad, would tell them what to wear, what to do and with whom they can do it with. Sometimes I hate my sex.

Archie: You and the Prophet.