Quote:
Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah
Its pretty cut and dry.
Its one of the major kabaa'ir to accuse a Muslim woman of unchaste behavior, but not so for a man, so admonitions about proper behavior will be reflective of that. |
The first part of your sentence is right. I don't see how the second is a logical conclusion of that though. You're saying because it's a major sin to falsely accuse a woman of being unchaste, there's more of a value on women's chastity.
Like I said, this doesn't mean that it's more wrong for women to be unchaste (compared to men) or that there's more of a value on their chastity. It's because in patriarchal socities, women suffer more for transgressions of sexual bounds. So in practice, if a woman is accused of being unchaste wrongly, then she'll suffer more (we see this in the modern day in many Muslim societies).
It's ironic because the Divine injunctions are meant to curtail that. That's perhaps why it's such a sin to falsely slander a woman's chastity. Also, perhaps that's why it's so difficult to convict somebody of adultery/fornication. The punishment for a male zani is the same as a female zani. A woman can, however, counteract her husband's testimony that she was unfaithful by testifying that she wasn't.