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Another subject that is often misrepresented, or painted with too broad a brush, is the role of women in Islam. More than about any other system of social organization, there could probably not be more consensus about the oppression of women under Islam. As far as I am concerned, you could probably make a conclusive case that Islam is one of the cultures that has taken things too far in one direction.

But even here we tend to overlook the responsibilities and restrictions placed on men. Most of them are consistent with the biological tendency of assigning men the role of providers and women as the ones provided for. For the man, that means the burden of labor. For women, that means reduced agency and independence. What is false, though, is to think that there are no restrictions on men. Many regimes that are oppressive towards women are oppressive in general. For neither gender those cultures are a haven of liberty. At the very least, it's best to read first before coming to conclusions.

I know that men should not wear silk garments, but if a garment is made of party silk but is not silky,soft,shiny, and feminine looking and looks like wool (suit coat) then would it be ok?

Abu Moosa (may Allaah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Gold and silk have been permitted for the females of my ummah and forbidden for the males.” Indeed, a stern warning has been narrated concerning this matter, as was reported by al-Bukhaari (5853) and Muslim (2069) in the hadeeth of Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with them both), who reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Silk is only worn in this world by the one who will have no share of the pleasure of the Hereafter.” Anas (may Allaah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever wears silk in this world will not wear it in the Hereafter.”

No, you might not care about wearing silk or gold and you might think that this is a silly example. The point is that our intuition that Islam might be completely correct, but we should still know in what ways exactly Islam is bad. We should also see that most such systems of social organization in some way tend to be consistent with male and female predisposition, even when they are exaggerated.

And, no, it should not mean that we should therefor continue to organize society in this way. One of the major reasons why men and women engaged in the division of labor and responsibilities the way they did was because it was a dangerous world and we had to use every biological advantage we could get, being hairless, clawless apes. Men and women are not enemies, they are collaborators. The world is dangerous enough without infighting. Nowadays, however, the role of the male protector is less and less needed. We can stop simping already. Women do not need protectors in the same way they used to and it is not surprising that some of our innate differences would cause resentment in modern society, for both men and women.

Praise be to Allah.

The ruling on men using cosmetics such as creams and so on varies from one case to another. To explain further:

Firstly:

In the case of things that are used only for the purpose of beautification or adornment, it is not appropriate for men to use them, because the woman is the one who needs beautification; what is appropriate for the man is the marks of masculinity such as roughness and toughness; being feminine or effeminate is not appropriate for him.