The Lesser Child.
The daughter, though elder of the two, felt that she was the lesser child of the two. The son in his relation with his father felt himself like an adult, sharing the importance of the father in the family, and thus he had the advantage of a spring-board for developing self-confidence and his independently distinct personality.

On the other hand, the daughter was often driven to seeking comfort in the company of her mother. She found herself sharing with her mother the common obedience not only to the father but also to the son, who saw himself as the substitute of the father in the moments of his absence at home. She too vied for self-importance, self- respect and self-confidence but these were not let coming her way.

The imbalanced treatment of daughters in favour of sons, as they are raised together, is not uncommon in families. The scenario is no different even where the girl is the only child. If it is a culture of discrimination that obstinately survives as a legacy. It goes against all the norms and values set by Islam which exhort greater kindness and emotional support to daughters but instead they are denied even the equal justice only to bruise their emotions irreparably. The consequential effect on the personality of the daughters is likely to show when the personality fails to assert itself for a fruitful role as wife and then mother in her later married life.

Self Intimidation.
The mistake, disastrous as it is, which the father often commits is to perceive his daughter in her mother's image of docility {meekness). He hardly realizes that the wife's apparent docility has the elements of a matrimonial loyalty while the daughter's presumed docility is nothing short of an emotional intimidation with disastrous results. Such a daughter when assuming the role of wife would submit readily to the continuation of similar docility more through self-intimidation on the presumption of normalcy in the matrimonial life, her higher level of education and aspirations than her mother's notwithstanding.

What is required is that daughters on the path to becoming mothers in every succeeding generation are helped in building their emotional capacity to muster greater and greater strength of faith and self-confidence. This is the key to meeting newer and newer challenges as they surface in their role as mothers while life gets more complex and economic survival more difficult as time passes.

Let us remember that the best of Allah's creation is the human race. It is comprised of families. Each family as a unit originates and revolves around the institution of motherhood. The child-girl of today with a small period of time in her family is the mother of tomorrow for a greater period of time in the family of others.