Sakeena aka Sukayna bint Husayn bin Ali!
"Some women tried to resist the changes imposed on them after the death of the Prophet. They claimed the right to go out barza (unveiled), a word that they added to the Lisan al-?Arab dictionary: "A barza woman is one who does not hide her face and does not lower her head." And the dictionary adds that a barza woman is one who "is seen by people and who receives visitors at home" ? men, obviously. A barza woman is also a woman who has "sound judgement." A barz man or woman is someone "known for their ?aql [reasoning]." Who are they, these Muslim women who have resisted the hijab? The most famous was Sukayna, one of the great-granddaughters of the Prophet through his daughter Fatima, the wife of ?Ali, the famous ?Ali, the ill-fated fourth orthodox caliph who abandoned power to Mu?awiya and was assassinated by the first Muslim political terrorist. His sons? fates were as tragic as his own, and Sukayna was present at the killing of her father at Karbala. That tragedy partly explains her revolt against political, oppressive, despotic Islam and against everything that hinders the individual?s freedom ? including the hijab.
Sukayna was born in year 49 of the Hejira (about AD 671). She was celebrated for her beauty, for what the Arabs call beauty ? an explosive mixture of physical attractiveness, critical intelligence, and caustic wit. The most powerful men debated with her; caliphs and princes proposed marriage to her, which she disdained for political reasons. Nevertheless, she ended marrying five, some say six, husbands. She quarreled with some of them, made passionate declarations of love to others, brought one to court for infidelity, and never pledged ta?a (obedience, the key principle of Muslim marriage) to any of them. In her marriage contracts she stipulated that she would not obey her husband, but would do as she pleased, and that she did not acknowledge that her husband had the right to practice polygyny. All this was the result of her interest in political affairs and poetry. She continued to receive visits from poets and, despite her several marriages, to attend the meetings of the Qurashi tribal council, the equivalent of today?s democratic municipal councils. Her personality has fascinated the historians, who have devoted pages and pages, sometimes whole biographies, to her... All her life Sukayna harboured feelings of contempt, which she never hesitated to express, for the Umayyad dynasty and its bloody methods. She attacked the dynasty in the mosques and insulted its governors and representatives every time she had the opportunity, even arranging occasions for this purpose.
The conditions Sakina put in her marriage act with one of her husbands, Zayd, made of her a celebrity and a nashiz, a rebellious wife. She stipulated that he would have no right to another wife, that he could never prevent her from acting according to her own will, that he would let her elect to live near her woman friend, Ummu Manshuz, and that he would never try to go against her desires (Agani XIV, pp. 168, 169. Mada?ini, Kitab al-muraddafat, p. 66). When the husband once decided to go against Sakina?s will and went one weekend to his concubines, she took him to court, and in front of the Medina judge she shouted at him, ?Look as much as you can at me today, because you will never see me again!? (Agani XVI, p. 155).?
- Women?s Rebellin & Islamic Memory, by Fatima Mernissi
This sounds nice, for a Muslimah. But wasn't Sakina, daughter of hussain, grand daughter of Ali killed in the dungeons while the whole lot was imprisoned after the Karbala incident? That's what I heard growing up from every direction... it's a big thing among Shias who spend long amounts of time mourning her and the rest of Hussain's family every year (Ashura). Are we thinking of 2 different people?
Topic: Favourite Character in Islamic Scriptures