ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Fatima is Fatima Who Am I? In our society, women change rapidly. The tyranny of our times and the influences of institutions take her from `what she is'. All her traditional characteristics and values are taken away from her until they make her into a creature `they want', `they build', and we see that `they have built'!

This is why the most important and relevant question for the awakened woman at this time is, `Who am 1?', knowing full well that she cannot remain what she is. Actually, she does not want to accept modern masks to replace the traditional ones. She wants to decide for her­self. Her contemporaries choose for themselves. They con­sciously decorate their personalities with awareness and independence. They thoroughly ornament themselves. They manifest a design.

They reflect a sketch, but, they do not know how. They do not know the design of the real human aspect of their personality which is neither a reflec­tion of their heritage nor their artificially imposed imitative masks. Which of these do they identify with? The second question which arises from amidst this, stems from the following reasoning.

We are Moslems, wo­men of a society who wish to make decisions through rea­son and choice and relate them to a history, culture, reli­gion and society which received its spirit and origins from Islam. A woman who is in this society wants to be herself. She wants to build herself, `herself'. She wants to be re­born. In this re‑birth, she wants to be her own midwife. She neither wants to be a product of her heritage nor have a superficial facade.

She cannot remain heedless of Islam and she cannot remain indifferent to it. Thus, it is natural that this question should arise for the Moslem woman. Our people continue to speak about Fatima. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Moslems cry for her. There are hundreds of thousands of gather­ings, prayer meetings, festivals and mourning ceremonies in her memory. There are ceremonies of praise, joy, honor and majesty for her where her generosity is expressed through unusual customs.

They hold rituals of lamenta­tion where they re‑create her sorrows and speak ill of and damn those who offended her. In spite of all of this, her real personality is not known.