Showing posts with label Gender Discrimination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gender Discrimination. Show all posts
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
"I want the world to know that as a woman in this country, I have no freedom"
By Moni Basu
Like thousands of other Iranian women, Parisa took to Tehran's streets this week, her heart brimming with hope. "Change," said the placards around her.
The young Iranian woman eyed the crowd and pondered the possibility that the rest of her life might be different from her mother's. She could see glimmers of a future free from discrimination -- and all the symbols of it, including the head-covering the government requires her to wear every day.
Women, regarded as second-class citizens under Iranian law, have been noticeably front and center of the massive demonstrations that have unfolded since the presidential election a week ago. Iranians are protesting what they consider a fraudulent vote count favoring hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but for many women like Parisa, the demonstrations are just as much about taking Iran one step closer to democracy.
"Women have become primary agents of change in Iran," said Nayereh Tohidi, chairwoman of the Gender and Women's Studies Department at California State University, Northridge. Read more ...
Like thousands of other Iranian women, Parisa took to Tehran's streets this week, her heart brimming with hope. "Change," said the placards around her.
The young Iranian woman eyed the crowd and pondered the possibility that the rest of her life might be different from her mother's. She could see glimmers of a future free from discrimination -- and all the symbols of it, including the head-covering the government requires her to wear every day.
Women, regarded as second-class citizens under Iranian law, have been noticeably front and center of the massive demonstrations that have unfolded since the presidential election a week ago. Iranians are protesting what they consider a fraudulent vote count favoring hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but for many women like Parisa, the demonstrations are just as much about taking Iran one step closer to democracy.
"Women have become primary agents of change in Iran," said Nayereh Tohidi, chairwoman of the Gender and Women's Studies Department at California State University, Northridge. Read more ...
Source: CNN
H/T: Jihad Watch
Monday, May 25, 2009
Jailed Islamic extremists want ban on women prison officers
By Justin Penrose
Jailed Islamic extremists want women prison officers banned from guarding them during Friday prayers - claiming it's against their human rights. Terrorists at Wakefield jail say having them there while they pray is an "insult to their religion".
The group at the West Yorks jail - led by convicted terrorist Kamel Bourgass who killed a cop during an anti-terrorism raid - told jail governor Jacqui Tilley of their anger.
Female and male prison guards oversee prayers from a glassed office.
Services are held in the prison's gym after the 60-strong group refused to pray in the jail's multi-faith chapel because it was used by "non-believers".
Now they want a mosque built there.
Their single-sex guards demand was refused - but it's feared they could now take their complaint to the European Court and use the Human Rights Act to claim they are being victimised.
A prison source said: "They do not believe female guards should oversee Friday prayers - and they go mad when they are told what to do by a woman. But that's life."
Jailed Islamic extremists want women prison officers banned from guarding them during Friday prayers - claiming it's against their human rights. Terrorists at Wakefield jail say having them there while they pray is an "insult to their religion".
The group at the West Yorks jail - led by convicted terrorist Kamel Bourgass who killed a cop during an anti-terrorism raid - told jail governor Jacqui Tilley of their anger.
Female and male prison guards oversee prayers from a glassed office.
Services are held in the prison's gym after the 60-strong group refused to pray in the jail's multi-faith chapel because it was used by "non-believers".
Now they want a mosque built there.
Their single-sex guards demand was refused - but it's feared they could now take their complaint to the European Court and use the Human Rights Act to claim they are being victimised.
A prison source said: "They do not believe female guards should oversee Friday prayers - and they go mad when they are told what to do by a woman. But that's life."
Source: The Mirror
H/T: Jihad Watch
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saudi Arabia
Sharia Judge Says Wives Deserve to be Beaten if They Spend too Much Money
| Koran 4.34: Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great. |
By Hayat Al-Ghamdi
ABHA: A Jeddah court judge’s approval of husbands slapping their wives on the face if they spend money lavishly on unnecessary things triggered a hue and cry during a seminar on domestic violence here recently.
“If a person gives SR1,200 to his wife and she spends SR900 to purchase an abaya (the black gown) from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” said Judge Hamad Al-Razine.
The judge made this comment in the presence of Princess Adila bint Abdullah, deputy chairperson of the National Family Safety Program, who attended the seminar on the role of judicial and security institutions in preventing domestic violence.
Al-Razine was explaining the causes of an increase in domestic violence in the country, adding that women were also equally responsible. “But nobody puts even a fraction of blame on them,” he said before making the controversial comment. Read more ...
ABHA: A Jeddah court judge’s approval of husbands slapping their wives on the face if they spend money lavishly on unnecessary things triggered a hue and cry during a seminar on domestic violence here recently.
“If a person gives SR1,200 to his wife and she spends SR900 to purchase an abaya (the black gown) from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” said Judge Hamad Al-Razine.
The judge made this comment in the presence of Princess Adila bint Abdullah, deputy chairperson of the National Family Safety Program, who attended the seminar on the role of judicial and security institutions in preventing domestic violence.
Al-Razine was explaining the causes of an increase in domestic violence in the country, adding that women were also equally responsible. “But nobody puts even a fraction of blame on them,” he said before making the controversial comment. Read more ...
Source: Arab News
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to 100 lashes for committing adultery
By Liz Hazelton
A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.
The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man.
He took her to a house to the east of the city of Jeddah where she was attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night.
She later discovered she was pregnant and made a desperate attempt to get an abortion at the King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces.
According to the Saudi Gazette, she eventually 'confessed' to having 'forced intercourse' with her attackers and was brought before a judge at the District Court in Jeddah. Read more ...
A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.
The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man.
He took her to a house to the east of the city of Jeddah where she was attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night.
She later discovered she was pregnant and made a desperate attempt to get an abortion at the King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces.
According to the Saudi Gazette, she eventually 'confessed' to having 'forced intercourse' with her attackers and was brought before a judge at the District Court in Jeddah. Read more ...
Source: Mail Online
H/T: A.L.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Arab Women: Victims of Islamic Gender Apartheid, Part II
By Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari
Egypt was once the pioneer in the liberation of women in the Arab world. “The Liberation of Women”, the first Arab feminist manifesto was published in Cairo as early as in 1899. And by 1920s, women were dropping veils; by 1960, the country had more female doctors than many in the West. They won the right to vote and entered politics in 1956 and even secured a ban on the horrible practice of female circumcision. At that time, a new bill called the “Personal Status Bill”, that sought to establish absolute equality between men and women was in the pipeline. Unfortunately, then came the war with Israel and the move died.
In those days of political turmoil, a conservative tide, spearheaded by Islamic fundamentalists, snatched away most of the rights women had won so far. Under a constitutional amendment in 1980, Islamic law was enshrined. As a result, women were reduced to the status no better than that of pet animals of males. For example, the practice of female circumcision was reintroduced. In medical term, it is nothing but a surgical operation that removes a part called clitoris of the female genital. At present, hundreds of Egyptian girls die every year due to excessive bleeding from the traumatic operation. In 1994, CNN telecast such an operation worldwide and sparked a heated debate in the Egyptian parliament. Egyptian Mufti, topmost religious authority in the country, appealed to members of the parliament for banning the practice. But the fanatic Islamist leader of the Al-Azhar University, Gad al-Haq Ali Gad al-Haq, promulgated a fatwa directing the Egyptians to continue the practice and the parliament also honoured his edict. Read more ...
Egypt was once the pioneer in the liberation of women in the Arab world. “The Liberation of Women”, the first Arab feminist manifesto was published in Cairo as early as in 1899. And by 1920s, women were dropping veils; by 1960, the country had more female doctors than many in the West. They won the right to vote and entered politics in 1956 and even secured a ban on the horrible practice of female circumcision. At that time, a new bill called the “Personal Status Bill”, that sought to establish absolute equality between men and women was in the pipeline. Unfortunately, then came the war with Israel and the move died.
In those days of political turmoil, a conservative tide, spearheaded by Islamic fundamentalists, snatched away most of the rights women had won so far. Under a constitutional amendment in 1980, Islamic law was enshrined. As a result, women were reduced to the status no better than that of pet animals of males. For example, the practice of female circumcision was reintroduced. In medical term, it is nothing but a surgical operation that removes a part called clitoris of the female genital. At present, hundreds of Egyptian girls die every year due to excessive bleeding from the traumatic operation. In 1994, CNN telecast such an operation worldwide and sparked a heated debate in the Egyptian parliament. Egyptian Mufti, topmost religious authority in the country, appealed to members of the parliament for banning the practice. But the fanatic Islamist leader of the Al-Azhar University, Gad al-Haq Ali Gad al-Haq, promulgated a fatwa directing the Egyptians to continue the practice and the parliament also honoured his edict. Read more ...
Source: Islam Watch
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Arab Women: Victims of Islamic Gender Apartheid, Part I
By Dr. Radhasyam Brahmachari
On April 4, 2006, Kuwaiti women made history by voting and contesting in a local by-election for the first time, after the parliament granted them right to suffrage the previous year. “Today is the biggest feast we have been waiting for more than 40 years”, said Ms Khaledah al-Khadher, one of the two female contestants, to journalists at a polling station in suburb of the town Salwa. “This is the first time Kuwaiti women can show the men that we are capable, it is important that we do our best and leave the outcome to Allah”, she added. In the said by-election, some 28,000 voters, about 16,000 of them women, cast ballots to elect a MP from eight contestants, including two women.
It may be recalled here that in the first week of December, 1999, jubilant mullahs and their supporters in the streets of Kuwait City celebrated the defeat of a bill in Kuwaiti parliament that sought to approve women’s right to vote and contest in parliamentary election. The incident was enough to understand the unwillingness of the chauvinistic Arab men to allow full citizenship to their woman folk. It may be mentioned here that, among the conservative Gulf countries, only Kuwait has an elected legislature, while the rest are ruled by dictatorship in one form or another. While dissolving the parliament in May 1998, Kuwait’s Amir, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad al-Sabah, issued a decree granting women the same political rights as enjoyed by men. But the newly elected, parliament rejected the decree in the last week of November, 1999, by a narrow margin of 32–30 votes. It took another five years for the bill to be tabled again in 2004; and fortunately, it could gather more supporters this time round as sundry conservative members of the parliament crossed floor, joined the liberal camp and helped Kuwaiti women win their voting right. Read more ...
On April 4, 2006, Kuwaiti women made history by voting and contesting in a local by-election for the first time, after the parliament granted them right to suffrage the previous year. “Today is the biggest feast we have been waiting for more than 40 years”, said Ms Khaledah al-Khadher, one of the two female contestants, to journalists at a polling station in suburb of the town Salwa. “This is the first time Kuwaiti women can show the men that we are capable, it is important that we do our best and leave the outcome to Allah”, she added. In the said by-election, some 28,000 voters, about 16,000 of them women, cast ballots to elect a MP from eight contestants, including two women.
It may be recalled here that in the first week of December, 1999, jubilant mullahs and their supporters in the streets of Kuwait City celebrated the defeat of a bill in Kuwaiti parliament that sought to approve women’s right to vote and contest in parliamentary election. The incident was enough to understand the unwillingness of the chauvinistic Arab men to allow full citizenship to their woman folk. It may be mentioned here that, among the conservative Gulf countries, only Kuwait has an elected legislature, while the rest are ruled by dictatorship in one form or another. While dissolving the parliament in May 1998, Kuwait’s Amir, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad al-Sabah, issued a decree granting women the same political rights as enjoyed by men. But the newly elected, parliament rejected the decree in the last week of November, 1999, by a narrow margin of 32–30 votes. It took another five years for the bill to be tabled again in 2004; and fortunately, it could gather more supporters this time round as sundry conservative members of the parliament crossed floor, joined the liberal camp and helped Kuwaiti women win their voting right. Read more ...
Source: Islam Watch
Monday, December 29, 2008
Female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan: "we will never stop because Islam and our elders require it"
By Amit R. Paley
Sheelan Anwar Omer, a shy 7-year-old Kurdish girl, bounded into her neighbor's house with an ear-to-ear smile, looking for the party her mother had promised.
There was no celebration. Instead, a local woman quickly locked a rusty red door behind Sheelan, who looked bewildered when her mother ordered the girl to remove her underpants. Sheelan began to whimper, then tremble, while the women pushed apart her legs and a midwife raised a stainless-steel razor blade in the air. "I do this in the name of Allah!" she intoned.
As the midwife sliced off part of Sheelan's genitals, the girl let out a high-pitched wail heard throughout the neighborhood. As she carried the sobbing child back home, Sheelan's mother smiled with pride.
"This is the practice of the Kurdish people for as long as anyone can remember," said the mother, Aisha Hameed, 30, a housewife in this ethnically mixed town about 100 miles north of Baghdad. "We don't know why we do it, but we will never stop because Islam and our elders require it." Read more ...
Sheelan Anwar Omer, a shy 7-year-old Kurdish girl, bounded into her neighbor's house with an ear-to-ear smile, looking for the party her mother had promised.
There was no celebration. Instead, a local woman quickly locked a rusty red door behind Sheelan, who looked bewildered when her mother ordered the girl to remove her underpants. Sheelan began to whimper, then tremble, while the women pushed apart her legs and a midwife raised a stainless-steel razor blade in the air. "I do this in the name of Allah!" she intoned.
As the midwife sliced off part of Sheelan's genitals, the girl let out a high-pitched wail heard throughout the neighborhood. As she carried the sobbing child back home, Sheelan's mother smiled with pride.
"This is the practice of the Kurdish people for as long as anyone can remember," said the mother, Aisha Hameed, 30, a housewife in this ethnically mixed town about 100 miles north of Baghdad. "We don't know why we do it, but we will never stop because Islam and our elders require it." Read more ...
Source: Washington Post
H/T: Dhimmi Watch
 |
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Taliban threaten to kill Pakistani schoolgirls: Officials
ISLAMABAD: Taliban extremists in Pakistan's troubled northwest Swat valley have banned girls from attending school, threatening to kill any female students, officials said Thursday.
The threat was delivered this week by local Taliban commander Shah Durran in an address carried on an illegally-run radio station in the area, local officials told AFP.
"You have until January 15 to stop sending your girls to schools. If you do not pay any heed to this warning, we will kill such girls," one official quoted the commander as saying.
"We also warn schools not to enrol any female students; otherwise, their buildings will be blown up."
The mountainous Swat valley was until last year a popular tourist destination featuring Pakistan's only ski resort.
But the region has been turned into a battleground since radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has links to Pakistan's Taliban movement, launched a violent campaign for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the valley.
Durran said local Taliban leaders were determined not to allow girls to attend school, saying: "We want to enforce the true Sharia in the area -- for this, we are fighting and laying down our lives."
Swat residents said Taliban fighters had already destroyed scores of government-run schools, leading some to set up private schools in their homes to educate girls.
An official at the Pakistani education ministry said there are about 1,580 schools registered in Swat -- once known for its top-flight schools.
But the official, Naeem Khan, said: "Already Taliban militants have destroyed 252 schools, mainly those where girls and boys were studying together." Read more ...
The threat was delivered this week by local Taliban commander Shah Durran in an address carried on an illegally-run radio station in the area, local officials told AFP.
"You have until January 15 to stop sending your girls to schools. If you do not pay any heed to this warning, we will kill such girls," one official quoted the commander as saying.
"We also warn schools not to enrol any female students; otherwise, their buildings will be blown up."
The mountainous Swat valley was until last year a popular tourist destination featuring Pakistan's only ski resort.
But the region has been turned into a battleground since radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has links to Pakistan's Taliban movement, launched a violent campaign for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the valley.
Durran said local Taliban leaders were determined not to allow girls to attend school, saying: "We want to enforce the true Sharia in the area -- for this, we are fighting and laying down our lives."
Swat residents said Taliban fighters had already destroyed scores of government-run schools, leading some to set up private schools in their homes to educate girls.
An official at the Pakistani education ministry said there are about 1,580 schools registered in Swat -- once known for its top-flight schools.
But the official, Naeem Khan, said: "Already Taliban militants have destroyed 252 schools, mainly those where girls and boys were studying together." Read more ...
Source: Times of India
|
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Afghanistan's women lawmakers speak out as conditions worsen
By Clancy Chassay
They were walking to school in the southern city of Kandahar, a group of teenage girls discussing a test they had coming up, when two men on a motorcycle sprayed them with a strange liquid. Within seconds a painful tingling began, and there was an unusual smell as the skin of 16-year-old Atifa Biba began to burn.
Her friend rushed over to help her, struggling to wipe the liquid away, when she too was showered with acid. She covered her face, crying out for help as they sprayed her again, trying to aim the acid into her face. The weapon was a water bottle containing battery acid; the result was at least one girl blinded and two others permanently disfigured. Their only crime was attending school.
It was not an isolated incident. For women and girls across Afghanistan, conditions are worsening - and those women who dare to publicly oppose the traditional order now live in fear for their lives. Read more ...
They were walking to school in the southern city of Kandahar, a group of teenage girls discussing a test they had coming up, when two men on a motorcycle sprayed them with a strange liquid. Within seconds a painful tingling began, and there was an unusual smell as the skin of 16-year-old Atifa Biba began to burn.
Her friend rushed over to help her, struggling to wipe the liquid away, when she too was showered with acid. She covered her face, crying out for help as they sprayed her again, trying to aim the acid into her face. The weapon was a water bottle containing battery acid; the result was at least one girl blinded and two others permanently disfigured. Their only crime was attending school.
It was not an isolated incident. For women and girls across Afghanistan, conditions are worsening - and those women who dare to publicly oppose the traditional order now live in fear for their lives. Read more ...
Source: The Guardian
|
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Dangerous liaisons: Is there really any place for polygamy in English law, as a leading Muslim figure recently argued?
By Rosa Freedman
The bodies of the Knights Templar were surely spinning under their effigies last night, as someone they would have regarded as an infidel delivered a lecture within the walls of Temple Church entitled "Family Law, Minorities and legal Pluralism: Should English Law give more Recognition to Islamic Law?".
The lecture focused on Islamic marriages and divorces in this country, with Sheikh Faiz ul-Aqtab Siddiqi (of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal) speaking candidly on many areas. One such topic was that of polygamy, and the refusal of English law to recognise such relationships. Siddiqi boldly stated:
The bodies of the Knights Templar were surely spinning under their effigies last night, as someone they would have regarded as an infidel delivered a lecture within the walls of Temple Church entitled "Family Law, Minorities and legal Pluralism: Should English Law give more Recognition to Islamic Law?".
The lecture focused on Islamic marriages and divorces in this country, with Sheikh Faiz ul-Aqtab Siddiqi (of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal) speaking candidly on many areas. One such topic was that of polygamy, and the refusal of English law to recognise such relationships. Siddiqi boldly stated:
In a jurisdiction where rights are afforded to a mistress, or many mistresses, and where there are same-sex marriages … polygamous marriages should not be such an alien concept.Siddiqi is a practising barrister, and has been involved with the process of reforming English law to accommodate Muslim cultural practices, especially within the area of family law. As a religious leader, he is at the conservative end of the spectrum. However, he is a well-respected member of a number of unifying Muslim organisations and is at the forefront of attempts to find common ground between sharia law and English law. Read more ...
Source: The Guardian
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
|
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
How Sharia Law Punishes Raped Women
Welcome to the most insane and sexist laws in human history.
On October 30, 2008, the United Nations condemned the stoning to death of Aisha Duhulowa, a 13-year-old girl who had been gang-raped and then sentenced to death by a Sharia court for fornication (Zina). She was screaming and begging for mercy, but when some family members attempted to intervene, shots were fired by the Islamic militia and a baby was killed.
Local Sharia courts in Bangladesh regularly punish raped minor girls and women by flogging and beating them with shoes. Similar cases of punishing raped women are Mina v. the State, Bibi v. the State and Bahadur v. the State. Sharia courts in Pakistan have punished thousands of raped women by long term imprisonment.
You might think that such horrific barbarity cannot be the real Sharia law; that it is a misapplication of the law by ignorant clergy. Sadly, neither is true.
There is a traceable dynamic in Sharia Law that is bound to lead to this barbarity. And unless we abandon these laws we will never be able to emerge from this barbarity. It was a blunder that Muslim jurists included rape in the Hudood section of Sharia Law that deals with murder, bodily harm, apostasy, drinking, defamation, theft, adultery and highway robbery. But anyone who tried to change these laws ended up banging their heads against the wall. Mawdudi, the founding father of modern Political Islam, claims that even if all the world’s Muslims together wanted to make the slightest change in these laws, they would not be allowed to do so. Read more ...
Local Sharia courts in Bangladesh regularly punish raped minor girls and women by flogging and beating them with shoes. Similar cases of punishing raped women are Mina v. the State, Bibi v. the State and Bahadur v. the State. Sharia courts in Pakistan have punished thousands of raped women by long term imprisonment.
You might think that such horrific barbarity cannot be the real Sharia law; that it is a misapplication of the law by ignorant clergy. Sadly, neither is true.
There is a traceable dynamic in Sharia Law that is bound to lead to this barbarity. And unless we abandon these laws we will never be able to emerge from this barbarity. It was a blunder that Muslim jurists included rape in the Hudood section of Sharia Law that deals with murder, bodily harm, apostasy, drinking, defamation, theft, adultery and highway robbery. But anyone who tried to change these laws ended up banging their heads against the wall. Mawdudi, the founding father of modern Political Islam, claims that even if all the world’s Muslims together wanted to make the slightest change in these laws, they would not be allowed to do so. Read more ...
Source: FrontPage Magazine
|
Friday, November 14, 2008
Asir parents in a quandary over 'full abaya' for schoolchildren
KHAMIS MUSHAYT: When an eight- or ten-year-old girl is told that she should cover her entire body from head to toe - as an adult woman is supposed to do - then immediately the child’s mother asks why.
This is exactly what is happening in the southern province of Asir where school regulations stipulate that pre-pubescent girls should dress in such a way that no part of their body, including head and face, is visible.
A child who dares to violate the new dress code faces severe punishment, including a public scolding and deductions from her marks.
This has put parents in a real dilemma. On the one hand, this new dress code is being imposed; on the other, they find it difficult to convince their young daughters that it is necessary for them to be completely veiled. Read more ...
This is exactly what is happening in the southern province of Asir where school regulations stipulate that pre-pubescent girls should dress in such a way that no part of their body, including head and face, is visible.
A child who dares to violate the new dress code faces severe punishment, including a public scolding and deductions from her marks.
This has put parents in a real dilemma. On the one hand, this new dress code is being imposed; on the other, they find it difficult to convince their young daughters that it is necessary for them to be completely veiled. Read more ...
Source: Arab News
|
Friday, November 7, 2008
Muslim men 'think they have God-given right to beat wives', claims female Muslim medic
Domestic violence is more common in Muslim households because men think they have a "God-given right" to beat up their wives, according to a leading female Muslim medic.
By Martin Beckford
Fatima Husain, a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology, has told how she sees Muslim women coming for treatment with strangle marks around their necks and bruises on their pregnant bumps.
She also claimed that problems develop because many followers of Islam are fearful of discussing sex, contraception and infertility.
Dr Husain, who works at Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals in Berkshire, told the Muslim News that many women ask to be referred to her specialist clinics because she is a hijab-wearing Muslim, allowing her to discover the true scale of domestic violence in her religious community.
She said: "I've seen injuries on some of my patients that I wouldn't dream would happen to pregnant women.
"I've seen strangle marks, finger marks on their necks and bruises on their pregnant abdomens.
"Domestic violence is supposedly equally divided amongst the various groups but I get the impression it is more common in Muslims.
"Some Muslim men think they have a God-given right to be physically violent to their spouses. I see the result of all this when they are admitted as my patients." Read more ...
Fatima Husain, a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology, has told how she sees Muslim women coming for treatment with strangle marks around their necks and bruises on their pregnant bumps.
She also claimed that problems develop because many followers of Islam are fearful of discussing sex, contraception and infertility.
Dr Husain, who works at Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals in Berkshire, told the Muslim News that many women ask to be referred to her specialist clinics because she is a hijab-wearing Muslim, allowing her to discover the true scale of domestic violence in her religious community.
She said: "I've seen injuries on some of my patients that I wouldn't dream would happen to pregnant women.
"I've seen strangle marks, finger marks on their necks and bruises on their pregnant abdomens.
"Domestic violence is supposedly equally divided amongst the various groups but I get the impression it is more common in Muslims.
"Some Muslim men think they have a God-given right to be physically violent to their spouses. I see the result of all this when they are admitted as my patients." Read more ...
Source: Telegraph
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
|
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Egypt: Women supporters of Muslim Brotherhood "becoming restless with their subordinate status"
By Jeffrey Fleishman
The sisters in the brotherhood demand change.
Women in Egypt’s largest Islamic political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, want to reshape an organization that is heavily patriarchal.
The brotherhood often overlooks or does not reward the accomplishment of its "sisters."
The group's new political platform angered many members by opposing the idea of a woman being elected president of Egypt.
This rumble of discontent comes as bloggers and other reformers are pushing the brotherhood to loosen its religious rigidity and modernize.
Otherwise, they say, the organization will fail to speak to the needs and aspirations of today’s Egyptians.
A report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that “women activists have been at the forefront of the Brotherhood’s political struggle and have become highly visible in key political events, but their role still goes unrecognized.” Read more ...
The sisters in the brotherhood demand change.
Women in Egypt’s largest Islamic political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, want to reshape an organization that is heavily patriarchal.
The brotherhood often overlooks or does not reward the accomplishment of its "sisters."
The group's new political platform angered many members by opposing the idea of a woman being elected president of Egypt.
This rumble of discontent comes as bloggers and other reformers are pushing the brotherhood to loosen its religious rigidity and modernize.
Otherwise, they say, the organization will fail to speak to the needs and aspirations of today’s Egyptians.
A report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that “women activists have been at the forefront of the Brotherhood’s political struggle and have become highly visible in key political events, but their role still goes unrecognized.” Read more ...
Source: L.A. Times
H/T: Dhimmi Watch
|
Saturday, October 18, 2008
A Fatwa on Purdah: Unveiling Niqab, Burqa, Chador and Hijab
This article is a fatwa to unveil the veil and liberate the world from violent and lethal punishments for adultery. It is designed to be explanatory, for Muslims, and non-Muslims alike, on the status of the veil, and its more oppressive forms. If you are a Muslim, it is set out as a valid religious opinion. If you are not a Muslim, its grounds are human common sense and compassion. It includes scientific and biological arguments, which are valid for all human beings, traversing all human cultures, and have implications for the practices of other religions as well as Islam. In religious terms, this is a fatwa rejecting the claim that, under Muslim teachings, women are required to wear the veil, or that it is desirable to do so.
It has come about now, because a conservative Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye. Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan, an influential ultra-conservative cleric, known for cursing the Olympic games as showing ‘obscene scenes’ and giving a fatwa that permits the killing of the owners of satellite TV stations who show "immoral" content, who was answering questions on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd, said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive. Read more ...
It has come about now, because a conservative Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye. Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan, an influential ultra-conservative cleric, known for cursing the Olympic games as showing ‘obscene scenes’ and giving a fatwa that permits the killing of the owners of satellite TV stations who show "immoral" content, who was answering questions on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd, said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive. Read more ...
Source: Dhushara
|
Friday, September 26, 2008
Purge on Muslim clerics who turn a blind eye to the abuse of women
By Richard Kerbaj
Muslim spiritual leaders could be denounced publicly by their own community as part of a campaign to expose imams whose silence on domestic abuse is leading to women being burnt, lashed and raped in the name of Islam.
Muslim scholars are to present the Government with the names of imams who are alleged by members of their own communities to have refused to help abused women. Imams are also accused of refusing to speak out against domestic abuse in their sermons because they fear losing their clerical salaries and being sacked for broaching a “taboo” subject.
Some of Britain's most prominent moderate imams and female Muslim leaders have backed the campaign, urging the Home Office to vet more carefully Islamic spiritual leaders coming to Britain to weed out hardliners. A four-month inquiry by the Centre for Islamic Pluralism into domestic abuse has uncovered harrowing tales of women being raped, burnt by cigarettes and lashed with belts by their husbands, who believe it is their religious right to mistreat them.
At least 40 female Muslim victims and many social workers from northern England - including Bradford, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham - were interviewed as part of the inquiry, which is expected to be published next month. Read more ...
Muslim spiritual leaders could be denounced publicly by their own community as part of a campaign to expose imams whose silence on domestic abuse is leading to women being burnt, lashed and raped in the name of Islam.
Muslim scholars are to present the Government with the names of imams who are alleged by members of their own communities to have refused to help abused women. Imams are also accused of refusing to speak out against domestic abuse in their sermons because they fear losing their clerical salaries and being sacked for broaching a “taboo” subject.
Some of Britain's most prominent moderate imams and female Muslim leaders have backed the campaign, urging the Home Office to vet more carefully Islamic spiritual leaders coming to Britain to weed out hardliners. A four-month inquiry by the Centre for Islamic Pluralism into domestic abuse has uncovered harrowing tales of women being raped, burnt by cigarettes and lashed with belts by their husbands, who believe it is their religious right to mistreat them.
At least 40 female Muslim victims and many social workers from northern England - including Bradford, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham - were interviewed as part of the inquiry, which is expected to be published next month. Read more ...
Source: Times Online
H/T: Shariah Finance Watch
Submit this article to: Delicious | Digg | Reddit | Newsvine | Google | Yahoo | StumbleUpon
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Girls escaping abusive father come to dead end
By Hassna’a Mokhtar
JEDDAH: Three sisters who have repeatedly fled their father’s home after 10 years of physical and psychological abuse and sexual molestation reached a dead end.
The girls’ last escape was five months ago. Mona, Nadin and Lina took refuge in the home of their mother, who had been divorced from their father nine years ago. According to a court verdict issued in 1999, the mother can only see the girls on Fridays from the afternoon until early evening. She tried to get custody of her daughters, but all her attempts were unsuccessful. She was hesitant to speak to the press until she realized it was her final recourse.
“Five years and I’ve been trying to have my daughters live with me. My ex-husband is an imam and member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. He uses his religious appearance as a green light to get under people’s skin and get what he wants,” said the mother in anguish. Read more ...
JEDDAH: Three sisters who have repeatedly fled their father’s home after 10 years of physical and psychological abuse and sexual molestation reached a dead end.
The girls’ last escape was five months ago. Mona, Nadin and Lina took refuge in the home of their mother, who had been divorced from their father nine years ago. According to a court verdict issued in 1999, the mother can only see the girls on Fridays from the afternoon until early evening. She tried to get custody of her daughters, but all her attempts were unsuccessful. She was hesitant to speak to the press until she realized it was her final recourse.
“Five years and I’ve been trying to have my daughters live with me. My ex-husband is an imam and member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. He uses his religious appearance as a green light to get under people’s skin and get what he wants,” said the mother in anguish. Read more ...
Source: Arab News
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Imam: having sex-slaves "may no longer be fashionable," but it's still legal in Islam
By Emeka Mamah
Mohammad Nureen Ashafa is the Imam of Ashafa Central Mosque, Tudun Wada, Kaduna; Vice President, Ashafa Mosque Foundation, as well as the Co-Executive Director of Interfaith Mediation Centre of Muslim-Christian Dialogue Forum, also in Kaduna.
He spoke to some media organisations on the implications of the death sentence [fatwa] passed on octogenarian Islamic preacher, Mohammed Bello Abubakar, by the Jama’tu Nasril Islam [JNI], for marrying 86 wives contrary to Islamic injunctions. Excerpts:
Do you support the fatwa passed on Mohammed Abubakar for admitting that he has 86 wives?
I strongly support the JNI fatwa. In Islam, if somebody claims to be a Muslim, he professes Islam and he wants to act in the name of Islam, then he has no legitimacy to marry more than four wives. In Koran Chapter four, God made it very clear.
You are free to marry women of your choice; you can marry two, three, or four. However, if you feel you cannot do justice among them, marry only one wife. This scriptural text is not ambiguous.
This is a direct instruction from God, so, anything that negates that injunction is not allowed. You cannot marry more than four wives. There is room for concubine in Islam. And that is why you see some royal fathers have four wives and they have concubines.
The history of concubine has to do with slavery, if you had women who are in your possession as slaves. This is because in those days, people bought slaves. It may no longer be fashionable in modern times but the law is still there. Read more ...
Mohammad Nureen Ashafa is the Imam of Ashafa Central Mosque, Tudun Wada, Kaduna; Vice President, Ashafa Mosque Foundation, as well as the Co-Executive Director of Interfaith Mediation Centre of Muslim-Christian Dialogue Forum, also in Kaduna.
He spoke to some media organisations on the implications of the death sentence [fatwa] passed on octogenarian Islamic preacher, Mohammed Bello Abubakar, by the Jama’tu Nasril Islam [JNI], for marrying 86 wives contrary to Islamic injunctions. Excerpts:
Do you support the fatwa passed on Mohammed Abubakar for admitting that he has 86 wives?
I strongly support the JNI fatwa. In Islam, if somebody claims to be a Muslim, he professes Islam and he wants to act in the name of Islam, then he has no legitimacy to marry more than four wives. In Koran Chapter four, God made it very clear.
You are free to marry women of your choice; you can marry two, three, or four. However, if you feel you cannot do justice among them, marry only one wife. This scriptural text is not ambiguous.
This is a direct instruction from God, so, anything that negates that injunction is not allowed. You cannot marry more than four wives. There is room for concubine in Islam. And that is why you see some royal fathers have four wives and they have concubines.
The history of concubine has to do with slavery, if you had women who are in your possession as slaves. This is because in those days, people bought slaves. It may no longer be fashionable in modern times but the law is still there. Read more ...
Source: Vanguard
H/T: Dhimmi Watch
Monday, August 25, 2008
Women abandoned by their husbands in Bahrain broke their silence and staged two sit-ins earlier this month to highlight the legal challenges they face
MANAMA - Women abandoned by their husbands in Bahrain broke their silence and staged two sit-ins earlier this month to highlight the legal challenges they faced in getting their marriage annulled. Their cases have now been taken up by the Women’s Union when some of these women approached it last week, seeking its help in getting their case heard at courts.
“We received some of the women who took part in two protests at the Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs and Ministry of Social Development and promised them to look into their matter at the earliest,” President of the Women’s Union, Mariam Al Ruwai told Khaleej Times yesterday. She said the union would also raise the demand of implementing a family law to govern such cases at Shariah courts.
Those women have been dumped by their husbands long ago who have also stopped offering them any financial assistance. However, these women failed to get divorce because of legal complications. They have been protesting for not being able to get any financial support from the government because all assistance still go to their husbands because they are officially still married.
One of these women is Ruqaya who did not know when she got married in 1996 and had no idea of the legal hassles she had to face for choosing a man she considered right at the time of marriage. Read more ...
“We received some of the women who took part in two protests at the Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs and Ministry of Social Development and promised them to look into their matter at the earliest,” President of the Women’s Union, Mariam Al Ruwai told Khaleej Times yesterday. She said the union would also raise the demand of implementing a family law to govern such cases at Shariah courts.
Those women have been dumped by their husbands long ago who have also stopped offering them any financial assistance. However, these women failed to get divorce because of legal complications. They have been protesting for not being able to get any financial support from the government because all assistance still go to their husbands because they are officially still married.
One of these women is Ruqaya who did not know when she got married in 1996 and had no idea of the legal hassles she had to face for choosing a man she considered right at the time of marriage. Read more ...
Source: Khaleej Times
H/T: Shariah Finance Watch
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
