1st Essay

GENDER EQUALITY : HOW WOMEN FIGHT CORONAVIRUS

    What do New Zealand, Germany, Finland, Iceland and Norway all have in common? They have extremely low levels of Covid-19 cases and they all have Prime Ministers and Presidents who all happen to be women. Growing up, me, myself never saw female Prime Ministers and Presidents on television or any other medium. In Malaysia itself which we called a home, we have never ever had one female Prime Minister. That is why many are so impressed to see how these countries led by women have maintained some of the lowest rates of Covid-19 on Earth! 

    While all of these countries are doing an amazing job of taking coronavirus seriously, there is one country that would be highlighted throughout this essay and that is one of the country that I personally think as one of the fastest and best coronavirus responses on Earth which is Taiwan. Yes, their President is a woman - Tsai Ing-Wen, first woman President of Taiwan. Taiwan has always been so popular and well-known for its food and people, but now, the world love it even more for its Covid-19 response. Despite Taiwan is right next to China, they could have only 432 cases with no new local cases and how is that even possible? 

    Well, they acted fast and that is what makes all the difference in a pandemic. In January 2020, before most of us had even heard of coronavirus, President Tsai had made 124 new rules to help stopping the spread. She stopped most flights from China to Taiwan and from Taiwan to China as well. For everyone who is on quarantine, they track their phones with GPS to make sure they actually stay at home and even called once a day to check that they were doing fine at their home. They even sent the people on quarantine with care package full of foods and daily necessities. They knew that the world would run out of face masks so they made more, increasing production from 2 million mask to an insane 17 million. Now, they make the second most amount of face masks of any country in the world. They also made hoarding and stockpiling to resell at unfair high prices as illegal. Plus, they made sure to keep everything in a clean satisfying state at the restaurants, transport, public places and everywhere. Even though there is no new local cases, they are still being extremely careful to stop the spread of any infection. Because of all these, Taiwan is one of the only countries that did not have to do a total lockdown. 

    President Tsai and Taiwan are doing the best that they can of fighting the coronavirus and keeping the people in a safe state as are Prime Ministers Arden, Merkel, Jakobsdottir and Marin. Their success in controlling the spread of coronavirus is really inspiring. This is something that we should take note of because while 50% of the World's population is women, we make up less than 8% of world leaders.

    Looking at a closer view in our domestic daily life where women as a supportive system in each home providing meals and clean environment is such a great example as well. They play a huge responsibility to take a very good care and sustain the well-being of their families.

    In Islam, men and women can both make great leaders. There is no concept of which gender is superior than another. Islam treat everything equally as it should be with fairness and justice since Allah swt created both men and women for the same reasons as mentioned in the al-Quran, surah al-Dhariyat verse 56, "And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me". Both men and women also complete each other with their imperfection in exercising their responsibility as Allah mentioned in the al-Quran, surahal-Qamar verse 4, "We created man in the best design". These verses indicate that the creation of men and women with a solid reason to worship Allah swt, spread kindness and become the leader in prospering the world in peace and harmony.  

    Women can sometimes see things from a different perspective yet they are also having a hard time in controlling their emotions but Islam never discourage women to be left behind. Women may take up this responsibility to become a leader in a certain extent as long as it is not beyond the limitation that had been outlined in the shariah. Over centuries, there were many female figures that upholding and spreading the knowledge of Islam all over the world. Yet nowadays, women are not encouraged enough to take on leadership roles and the society should encourage them that we need more women in leadership roles so that we can have more absolute results like this. Hence, if you are looking for proof that women can make good leaders then you need not to look any longer and further because hopefully these women's response to the Covid-19 outbreak is all the proof you need.