The first person responsible for the hatred between Shiites and Sunnis of the situation of Muslim women is little Aisha, the child-wife of Mohammad Ibnou Abdallah. On a war expedition, Mohammad took Aisha with him, perched on a camel, protected from the sun by a sort of hut fitted to the animal’s back. On the way back, during a stopover, some believer-soldiers left the hut a little way from the bivouac. Aisha got out and went behind a dune to pee. The wind was strong enough to erase the tracks of the little imprudent girl. She had wandered around for a while without finding the bivouac. Mohammad and his companions had already left, with the empty hut on the back of Aisha’s camel.
A young hunter, Safwan Ibnou El Moattal, discovered her. The handsome young man put her on the back of his horse and galloped off to join Mohammad’s troop.
This was a scandal. Mohammad’s other wives slandered Aisha for weeks and accused her of adultery. Moreover, Safwan Ibnu El Moattal’s youth, elegance and beauty did not help. Everyone said that no young woman could resist him. Even less so Aisha. Poets in Madinah even wrote poems in which they mocked Mohammad, saying that he was incapable of keeping his women in line.
In short, the whole of Madinah was talking about it and Aisha’s co-wives were happily keeping up the controversy. Mohammad was fed up. Finally, he settled the matter with a verse specially revealed by Allah in honour of Aisha.
Ali advised the Prophet to stone her as an adulteress but Allah sent down a verse that cleared Aisha and accused her slanderers
Since then Aisha has always opposed Ali’s ambitions and intrigued so that when the Prophet died he did not become Caliph
She also sided with Mu’awiya against Caliph Ali at the Battle of the Camel.
For Ali’s supporters she was a shaytana.
For the Sunnis, she is a great scholar of Islam, a feminist and a saint.
In this story where women are not allowed to go out alone, poor Mohammed is totally innocent. The fault lies with Aisha who was fooling around a bit too much with the young Medinese. And then a young, handsome Bedouin, Safwan, arrived and recognised her. Aisha said: “He used to see me, before the veil was prescribed for us. Now, according to the sharia, all Muslim women must atone for Aisha’s sin. No going out alone, no mixing. Not even shaking hands. And the djelbab or niqab as well!
Aisha’s infidelities are the origin of the Islamic veil
