A woman caught in a men's game.

Many years ago in the night prior to the country's general elections somebody slipped a leaflet into my letter box. It said that in Islam women cannot be made leaders, so anybody who voted for women in the next day's elections would be committing a sin. I knew straight away that the leaflet came from a political party which was fielding a male candidate as opposed to another party which was fielding a woman. I regret that I did not keep the leaflet or make copies of it.

So it shocked me when the same political party had been fielding women candidates in recent general elections. So I ask the question, who are committing sins now? Is Islam so flexible that you can say no today and yes tomorrow? So it did not surprise me that the same party fielded a woman candidate in a by-election which finished yesterday. Some said she was made a sacrificial lamb by the party knowing they would lose even if they fielded a man.

So this woman who is also a  wife and mother suddenly came to the limelight. She was standing against a man from a political party which had been fielding women all these while. But today's world is the cyber world. A few minutes after the nominations were closed everybody with a computer could see her putting up her hands in the nomination hall. From that moment on she was literally stripped, so to say, in the cyber world.

She was mocked for not shaking hands with men. She replied that it is a sin for women to shake hands with men if they are not 'muhrim' or legally bound. Still, to play politics she wore gloves so that she could shake men's hands. When asked why the gloves, she answered she wanted to be flexible. Is is not her party bosses that said Islam is not flexible? For me wearing gloves to shake hands is just like using condoms to make love. There the flexibility is similar. 

Then her husband applied for and was approved a lengthy medical leave. He was diagnosed as suffering from depression. Even a fool knows that the best cure for depression is to stay home and relax. But he was with her walking, standing, sitting and even wading in flood waters. He should ask Andy Gray the former Scotland and Everton footballer how to get rid of depression. Andy fell into depression after being sacked by a television station for making sexist remarks against a fellow female presenter. His cure was staying home and cutting himself away from the outside world.

Just to show that she was caught in a men's game, in the last day of campaigning she scored an own goal. When asked by a television station for her hopes, she replied that she wished 'the voters vote for the best candidate'. 

Did she know that in a men's game like football the best team sometimes lose?