A Realization?

I recently found out, while reading "In the Land of Invisible Women" by Qanta A. Ahmed that Islam does not make it compulsory for women to be accompanied by a male mahram during Hajj. That it used used to be very much possible for women up until the 1990s to do Hajj on their own, to fulfill the rites that were made compulsory for them by God.

How did it become okay to make difficult for half the humanity what God had made easy, doable?

And the worst part is, that all my life, I have been made to believe that this ruling was a part of Islam, not something that became a part of it hundreds of years later, due to the ruling of some male cleric who thought he could justify his own judgement about what was right for women, while hiding behind the facade of Islam and what he thinks God wants. It tells you how much of the rhetoric on religion is controlled by men who think they know better.

Who gave men the right?

And it scares me, how much else there is that I have been misguided about, all the while believing that it was what God wanted. And it is not a wonder so many women believe religions are misogynistic because they have all been "interpreted" and "explained" by men and fed to us in their very "man-made" forms.

And the funny thing is, they do this all under the umbrella of keeping women safe. "It is for your safety, for your betterment and so forth and so on", they all say. No, sir, it's actually to sate your obsessive need to exert control, of whatever kind, in whatever capacity it maybe. Because of your ingrained sense of superiority, and the malignant male bias that exists almost everywhere in the status quo.

This is why there is a need for women for have a place at the table in making decisions, to be educated enough to learn their religion on their own. Because this world is no longer a place where blind faith can work, it has never been that kind of place, and we need to realize it and make others realize it, before it is too late for us and them.