The Boldness to Think – Series
By Hossam Badrawi
They Are Driven, While We Have Free Will
In human understanding, life is the opposite of death. Life is considered a condition that distinguishes all living organisms — even microscopic ones — from non-living things. A living being is characterized by its ability to live and grow through reproduction and metabolism (metabolism refers to the totality of building and breakdown processes in the cell), ensuring the continuity of its biological species and its ability to adapt to its environment through physical — and sometimes genetic — changes.
A broad look at the Earth’s surface reveals an enormous diversity of life forms and structures. Some definitions of life even include the condition of being able to reproduce and undergo adaptive modifications.
(Some philosophers place enormous emphasis on the sexual drive in humans and animals, considering it the central pillar upon which the life of individuals and communities revolves. They even regard it as the sole foundation around which all life revolves — especially human life. Therefore, sex becomes the key to human behavior, and all human actions can be explained from A to Z based on it.)
In my research into the behavior of extremists — from ISIS, Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, and certain members of the Muslim Brotherhood, to many clerics and even some modern-looking individuals around us — I ask:
Isn’t it strange that women and sex are used as temptations in promises of paradise, while on earth, women are subjected to violence, intimidation, and erasure — all because they “tempt men”? As if God created the world just for them!
They treat a woman’s hair as a curse and her presence as a menace — unless she’s exclusively allocated for their pleasure. The entire issue seems to revolve around a fight over sex, represented by the woman — ownership of her, access to her, and control of her.
Yet science tells us that a man can also be seductive and tempting to women with his body, looks, or words. So why don’t we hide men, cover them up, and restrict them the way we do women?
It’s male-centric thinking — an admission of men’s animalistic nature, where merely seeing a woman is enough to lose control of their desires. The sad truth is that sex drives them, and they have no interest in cultivating their prefrontal cortex — the brain’s outer shell that allows humans to control impulses, respect others’ boundaries, and behave respectfully toward women — not because they don’t see them, but because they are civilized and acknowledge women as equals in rights and life.
The cerebral cortex is the largest part of the brain, containing 14 to 16 billion neurons. It plays a role in the brain’s most important processes — memory, learning, thinking, problem-solving, emotions, perception, and awareness.
Why don’t you steal when you want to? Why don’t you assault others or have sex on the street like animals? It’s because of your ability to control your urges when your values are deeply rooted — helping you recognize your limits and respect others.
That’s what defines a respectable human — not a wild animal leaping at every woman who walks by. But instead of training and refining themselves, some men take the easy way out: covering up women, keeping them at home, and banning them from public life — a clear admission of their own primitive instincts.
The truth is: the sexual drive for reproduction exists in all animals. So what sets humans apart?
What sets us apart is the mind God gave us — the ability to choose, to restrain our desires, to respect others’ freedoms and human relationships, such as marriage, fatherhood, and brotherhood. We also abide by the laws we collectively agree upon to govern our interactions.
What makes sex among humans different from raw animalistic desire is simply this:
They are driven. We have free will.
