Israeli media is marking today by taking a hard look at the challenges that Israel women still face on the path to full equality:
Statistical reports published to coincide with International Women's Day Sunday reveal that in some aspects, the situation of women in the country has worsened. Weeks after an unprecedented number of women were chosen as MKs, data shows that the number of women in management positions in Israeli companies stands at 14.8 percent - five percent less than last year. A global average of women in management positions stands at 30%... Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics data shows that in general, women in Israel are relatively highly educated and pleased with their employment. They also display a high level of optimism, despite making salaries about a third less than men in parallel positions.
Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia police are shutting down women's only parks because - seriously - there were reports of singing. That's a particularly interesting case because orthodox Jewish law also has qualms about exposing men to the dulcet tones of the female voice. The issue actually came up at an Israeli film festival last year, where the planners were asked by the filmmaker to ban men out of the screening. Being citizens of a modern democracy, the planners responded with a very firm hell no.
Of course that's not the only difference between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Israeli officials, for instance, wouldn't lash an American girls into strips for getting knocked up by her boyfriend. Israel judges would never punish the theft of two rams twice as severely as they'd punish a man who beat his wife until she swallowed her tongue and died. Overall, it's probably fair to say that we're dealing with different approaches to women's rights:
Female Saudi writer Suhaila Zeinul Abideen Hammad has penned several articles complaining about the unequal treatment received by women in the kingdom. In response, a column by Osama Ahmed Al-Subaie in today's Arab News displays the following. "Women are incomplete in our society. They will remain incomplete and will always be considered inferior. Their participation in literary clubs, journalism training courses, conferences and seminars would lead to them mixing with men. This would open the door for seduction, a source of corruption. Women would then become shameless and coveted by men."
Like Saudi Arabia, Iran also recently imposed the sharia-mandated "100 lashes for adultery" penalty. Only instead of lashing a besotted girl they tortured a woman who had been forced into prostitution by her husband. This was in between enforcing their new law banishing women to the back of the bus.
In Iraq they're beheading women's rights activists.
In Bangladesh women are being declared too dirty to walk past mosques:
Women in the Bangladesh town of Pirojpur are being physically prevented from walking down a road where a mosque is located, regional media said on Tuesday. Graffiti on Bara Masjid Road in Mathbaria says "women are forbidden on this road" and a retired soldier and self-styled "cleric" - one Abdus Sattar - has been guarding the area with a stick for a month." There is a mosque on this road. Use of this road by women is najayez [illegal in Islam]," he said.
In Yemen, there's an ongoing controversy over whether the government was wrong to ban the sale of teenage girls into marriage. This is after their controversy about the eight year old girl who wanted a divorce.
In Pakistan 60 year old sisters are being hacked to death by their brothers, 45 year old mothers are being killed by their sons, and 26 year old brides are getting shot by relatives. For the sake of honor, you see. And that's before we get to the Taliban-controlled parts of Pakistan:
The Taliban are their own worst enemy. Despite the pressure from the Pakistani army along the Afghan border, some Taliban leaders are demanding that tribes hand over young women to be wives for Taliban fighters. This is very unpopular with the tribes, and was one of the major complaints that led to tribes going to war with al Qaeda groups. In addition to burning down schools for girls and killing those who teach girls, the Taliban are also ordering women to stay away from markets, or working outside the home, unless they have a male escort from their family. These are the same attitudes that turned the Sunni Arab tribes against al Qaeda in Iraq, and is doing the same thing among the Pushtun tribes on both sides of the Afghan border.
"Marry or get raped," by the by, is being formally systematized into policy in the Swat areas that Pakistan surrendered to the Taliban.
In related news, Yakin Erturk, the UN's rapporteur on violence against women, recently noted that "Islamic countries have become stigmatised as being mysogynist societies which are inherently anti-women." Yes the operative word was "stigmatised." No I don't think she was mistranslated.
Statistical reports published to coincide with International Women's Day Sunday reveal that in some aspects, the situation of women in the country has worsened. Weeks after an unprecedented number of women were chosen as MKs, data shows that the number of women in management positions in Israeli companies stands at 14.8 percent - five percent less than last year. A global average of women in management positions stands at 30%... Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics data shows that in general, women in Israel are relatively highly educated and pleased with their employment. They also display a high level of optimism, despite making salaries about a third less than men in parallel positions.
Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia police are shutting down women's only parks because - seriously - there were reports of singing. That's a particularly interesting case because orthodox Jewish law also has qualms about exposing men to the dulcet tones of the female voice. The issue actually came up at an Israeli film festival last year, where the planners were asked by the filmmaker to ban men out of the screening. Being citizens of a modern democracy, the planners responded with a very firm hell no.
Of course that's not the only difference between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Israeli officials, for instance, wouldn't lash an American girls into strips for getting knocked up by her boyfriend. Israel judges would never punish the theft of two rams twice as severely as they'd punish a man who beat his wife until she swallowed her tongue and died. Overall, it's probably fair to say that we're dealing with different approaches to women's rights:
Female Saudi writer Suhaila Zeinul Abideen Hammad has penned several articles complaining about the unequal treatment received by women in the kingdom. In response, a column by Osama Ahmed Al-Subaie in today's Arab News displays the following. "Women are incomplete in our society. They will remain incomplete and will always be considered inferior. Their participation in literary clubs, journalism training courses, conferences and seminars would lead to them mixing with men. This would open the door for seduction, a source of corruption. Women would then become shameless and coveted by men."
Like Saudi Arabia, Iran also recently imposed the sharia-mandated "100 lashes for adultery" penalty. Only instead of lashing a besotted girl they tortured a woman who had been forced into prostitution by her husband. This was in between enforcing their new law banishing women to the back of the bus.
In Iraq they're beheading women's rights activists.
In Bangladesh women are being declared too dirty to walk past mosques:
Women in the Bangladesh town of Pirojpur are being physically prevented from walking down a road where a mosque is located, regional media said on Tuesday. Graffiti on Bara Masjid Road in Mathbaria says "women are forbidden on this road" and a retired soldier and self-styled "cleric" - one Abdus Sattar - has been guarding the area with a stick for a month." There is a mosque on this road. Use of this road by women is najayez [illegal in Islam]," he said.
In Yemen, there's an ongoing controversy over whether the government was wrong to ban the sale of teenage girls into marriage. This is after their controversy about the eight year old girl who wanted a divorce.
In Pakistan 60 year old sisters are being hacked to death by their brothers, 45 year old mothers are being killed by their sons, and 26 year old brides are getting shot by relatives. For the sake of honor, you see. And that's before we get to the Taliban-controlled parts of Pakistan:
The Taliban are their own worst enemy. Despite the pressure from the Pakistani army along the Afghan border, some Taliban leaders are demanding that tribes hand over young women to be wives for Taliban fighters. This is very unpopular with the tribes, and was one of the major complaints that led to tribes going to war with al Qaeda groups. In addition to burning down schools for girls and killing those who teach girls, the Taliban are also ordering women to stay away from markets, or working outside the home, unless they have a male escort from their family. These are the same attitudes that turned the Sunni Arab tribes against al Qaeda in Iraq, and is doing the same thing among the Pushtun tribes on both sides of the Afghan border.
"Marry or get raped," by the by, is being formally systematized into policy in the Swat areas that Pakistan surrendered to the Taliban.
In related news, Yakin Erturk, the UN's rapporteur on violence against women, recently noted that "Islamic countries have become stigmatised as being mysogynist societies which are inherently anti-women." Yes the operative word was "stigmatised." No I don't think she was mistranslated.
Source: Mere Rhetoric
H/T: photonh2o via LGF
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