Women in Sikhism - Praised Treatment of Enemy Women

Praised Treatment of Enemy Women

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Even in times of severe trial and suffering, Sikhs were guided in their treatment of the women prisoners of war by the highest standards of chivalry. In 1763, for instance, one of Ahmad Shah Durrani’s generals, Jahan Khan, was defeated by the Sikhs at Sialkot and a number of his female relations and dependants fell into their hands. Ali ud-Din writes in his Ibratnamah, "as the Sikhs of old would not lay their hands on women, they had them escorted safely to Jammu."

Another Muslim chronicler, Ghulam Muhaiy ud-Din, vituperates against the Sikhs in his Fatuhat Namah-i-Samadi but notices the esteem they had for women. He writes, " look upon all women in the light of mothers." This had been how a Sikh was defined by Bhai Gurdas a century earlier: "A Sikh casting his eyes upon the beautiful womenfolk of families other than his own regards them as his mothers, sisters and daughters."

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