Women in Sikhism

The role of women in Sikhism is outlined in the Sikh scriptures, which state that women are equal to men.

Quotes

• From woman, man is born; within woman, man is conceived; to a woman he is engaged and married. Woman becomes his friend; through woman, the future generations come. When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; to woman he is bound. So why call her bad from whom kings are born. From woman, woman is born; without woman, there would be no one at all. O Nanak, only the Creator is without a woman. That mouth which praises the Creator continually is blessed and beautiful. O Nanak, those faces shall be radiant in the Court of the Creator.
  • – Translated into English from Gurmukhi, Sri Guru Nanak Sahib in Raag Aasaa, Sri Guru Granth Sahib pp 473

• There is a marked difference in the behaviour of Muslims and Sikhs towards women and children captured during this fight. While Muslims everywhere dishonoured, abducted or murdered Hindu and Sikh women and children, Sikhs never resorted to anything of which they might have reason to be ashamed. On the first day of attack, several Muslims got killed by an infuriated Sikh crowd in a locality which was at the junction of a Muslim and non-Muslim zone, not very far from the centre of the Sikh influence. More than one hundred Muslim women and children, whose menfolk had either been killed or had run away for safety, fell into the hands of the Sikhs. Sikhs kept them safe and fed them for the two or three days that the fighting lasted and all communications in the town were cut off, and later sent them under escort to the City Police Station, These women acknowledged the chivalry and courtesy of the treatment of the Sikhs towards them. (156)
  • Gurbachan Singh Talib, Muslim League Attack on the Sikhs and Hindus in Punjab, 1947 (1950)