women even more than men. They mimic those riffraff among the unbelievers who have never acknowledged people of virtue for their virtue. Thus you will find, for example, that in their speeches they place the woman before the man, saying, “Ladies and gentlemen,” and you will see the woman in the higher position while the man is beneath her.

Yet this is hardly surprising from a people who venerate their dogs: they will spend thousands to buy a dog and set aside for it special soaps, grooming tools, and other such things—matters that would make even fools laugh, let alone people of sound intellect. Even if you were to bathe a dog in all seven seas, it would never become pure, for it is impure in and of itself and can never be purified.

In sum, men are the caretakers of women by virtue of the favor Allah has granted some of them over others and because of what they spend from their wealth. This spending is a further basis for their authority: the man is the one who supports the woman, he is legally bound to do so, and he is the head of the household; it is not the woman who is charged with providing.

This also points to the fact that the earners and breadwinners are men, whereas a woman’s craft is her home: she stays in her house, attending to her husband’s needs, her children’s affairs, and the household itself. That is her role. For her to compete with men in earning a livelihood—and then end up supporting him—is contrary to both innate nature and the revealed law. Allah, Exalted is He, says: “and by what they spend from their wealth” (4:34), making it clear that the spender is the man.

Allah the Exalted also says: “So righteous women are devoutly obedient and guard, in the husband’s absence, what Allah would have them guard” (4:34). Righteous women are devoutly obedient—that is, they are constant in obedience; the righteous woman obeys, not