✦ Stop Waiting for Permission

"You do not need permission to speak the truth that lives in your soul. Stand. Rise. Walk through the door."

When Women Silence Themselves — and When Other Women Enforce It

There’s something that happens far too often in religious spaces — and it’s time we name it.

Women go quiet.

Not because they have nothing to say.
Not because they are unsure.
But because they’ve been trained to defer.

Trained to look toward the cleric.
Trained to wait for a nod of approval.
Trained to believe that truth only counts when it’s validated by a man in a position of authority.

But here’s what’s worse:

Sometimes it’s not even the men doing it.
It’s women.

Women from within institutions.
Women who studied the same texts.
Women who speak in religious language —
yet mirror the very gatekeeping they once hoped to escape.

They become the defenders of form,
not the seekers of truth.

They discourage questions.
They patrol tone.
They protect the institution — not the one who is awakening.

This isn’t humility.
It’s obedience to hierarchy, not to Haqq.

I know what that feels like — because I lived it.
Until I awakened.
Until I remembered that truth does not require permission.
And that Allah (swt) does not only speak through credentials.

The Divine gave you a heart.
An ‘aql.
A knowing.

And He will not ask on the Day of Judgment whether you remained polite to institutions —
but whether you stood up for the truth when it stirred in your soul.

So, to every woman who sees but stays silent,
who senses but suppresses,
who knows but waits —

Stop waiting for permission.

If your heart is moved, speak.
If the truth is lit inside you, rise.

The Imam of our time (aj) is not looking for silence.
He is looking for sight.
For basirah.
For those who can recognize the truth — even when others ignore it.