Q526 :What is the Islamic answer to prostitution?
How can it be eradicated?
A526 : As you realize, Islam has a very serious
moral code. It does not approve of any sexual practices, outside
marriage. Islamic legislation includes very severe punishments for
adultery. To go to a prostitute earns the man the same severe
punishment. When we want to know the answer Islam provides to a social
problem, and prostitution is one, we have to consider Islamic society
as a whole. In a Muslim society, no woman needs to work in order to
earn her living. Many prostitutes are first drawn into this horrid
practice by their poverty. Some girls find themselves having to earn
the living of other people in their families, such as a sickly mother
or young children. They are unable to find any proper work. Some of
them may fall in the trap of a person who runs a brothel and they are
dragged into a vice net. In a Muslim society, such a girl need only go
to the authorities and explain her position. She will either be given a
job or provided with an innete to look after herself or her family. I
realize that this is not the case in many Muslim countries, simply
because many of them have abandoned Islamic values and principles, and
they do not implement Islam as a whole. Once they move towards Islam,
such problems will start to be solved in the easiest of manners. I
will give you the example of Sudan when, a few years ago, the former
president Numeiri decided to put the country on a course that would
regain its Islamic character. One of the problems addressed was that of
prostitution. Women who were engaged in this practice were dealt with
on individual basis. The circumstances of each one of them were
considered separately. If it was possible to find any one of them a
husband, she got married. If not, she was helped to find a proper job.
Some were helped by the state to run a small shop. Moreover, they were
put under supervision. They were clearly informed that if they reverted
back to prostitution, they would be locked up. Most of them were very
happy with the new arrangement because it saved them of a practice
which they abhorred. I suppose that if any Muslim country decided today
to implement Islam in full, it will deal with this problem on the same
lines.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )