 Nadin al-Badir for taking a stand against established norms of polygamy for Women in Islam.
 To Muslims, and even to some non-Muslim apologists, Islam is the only religion that has given women their due rights, equality and dignity. It can’t be otherwise: How can then Islam, as Muslims claim, be the perfect, the best and the final religion of God? And Muslim women got due equality and rights alongside men despite the fact that (a) Muslim women have no individuality and independence for themselves as Allah has placed them under the charge of men, who may beat them or deal with as the wish, not vice versa [Quran 4:34]; (b) women are worth only half the men [Quran 2:282]; (c) women can inherit only half that of men (i.e. brothers inherit double that of sisters) [Quran 4:11,4:176]; (d) women are same as slaves and camel, according to an authentic sacred tradition of the prophet [Dawud 11:2155]; and many other such gross discriminations and injustices. While these references from Islam’s sacred texts make it clear that Muslim women, far from being equal, are an inferior being to men, the grossest of indignity that Allah has reserved for them is His allowing Muslim men only to marry up to four women at a time [Quran 4:3, 70:29-33, 4:24], meaning that a woman is worth only one quarter that of a man. And that’s not enough, Allah the barbarian par excellence even allowed men, on top of taking four wives, to keep unlimited number of sex-slaves, who can be procured, according to Allah’s sanction [Quran 33:50], by attacking non-Muslim communities and wholesale enslavement of their women. Notably, Prophet Muhammad himself, when became powerful, had captured women of the tribes of Quraiza, Khaybar, Mustaliq and Hawazin etc. after attacking those communities and slaughtering their men. While it would sounding utterly idiotic to seek to find equality between men and women or high dignity to women sanctioned in Islam, it is easy to say that Allah, the man-god, the alter-ego of Muhammad, has rewarded Muslim men richly at the expense of women. For fourteen centuries, Muslim women have suffered under the degrading status and treatment at the hands of men as per sanctions of the Islamic God. But no unjust system, whether sanctioned by a purported God or dictatorial men, can last for ever; the oppressed and wider humanity will rise up and challenge it one day. Many religions have reformed their unjust institutions and doctrines to survive in the modern civilized world, while the tyranny of Hitler or Stalin has been put to rest. Although Allah’s injustice upon women has lasted fourteen centuries, the oppressed Muslim women have started challenging the unjust status quo of Islam. As of latest, a Saudi female journalist, Nadin al-Badir, has added voice to well-known courageous critics, namely Taslima Nasrin, Ayan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan and Nonie Darwish et al., against the injustices of Islam. And al-Badir’s challenge is quite unique, unheard of, coming from a Muslim woman: She has taken on the highly trumped-up Muslim claim, that only Islam gives due rights and equality to women, in an article, published in the Egyptian Al-Masri al-Yaum newspaper, by demanding that Muslim women, like men, be allowed to take multiple husbands. Well, indeed, that would reflect true equality between men and women in Islam. And why not! Muslims claim that polygamy is allowed to men only, because they only have the ability to support multiple partners financially. But today, many well-educated Muslim women are becoming confident and pursuing rewarding careers, thus, gaining ability to support multiple sex-partners through legitimate income, unlike Muhammad’s and his companion’s barbarous means of earning livelihood through decoity, raids and wars. I have been told by well-educated Muslims, to support polygamy in Islam, that only men can sexually satisfy multiple sex-partners, not women. While that’s true for certain men, it can well be true of certain women, too. There are prostitutes, predominantly women, all over the world satisfying multiple men on a daily basis.
We come across news of gang-rape all the time, more frequently in Islamic countries and communities, in which multiple men get sexual satisfaction from one single woman within a short time. We don’t here gang-rape of men by women; and one wonders how many men will be able to sustain such assaults by multiple women at a time. The said journalist, for sure, did not earnestly mean to have polyandry for Muslim women, alongside polygamy for Muslim men. Instead, it is obviously an effort to highlight the “unjustness” of Islamic institutions concerning women. What is stunning is the fact that this demand is coming from the pen of a Saudi woman, the community of Muslim women in the world, worst-affected by the cruel institutions of Islam in the most provocative manner. Seeking polyandry for women, not for men, is adultery in Islam, which is punished by stoning to death in Saudi Arabia. If she is living in Saudi Arabia, this column may well bring her death by stoning for questioning an unquestionable divine institution of Islam. This also proves that not all Muslim women, even from Saudi Arabia, are willing to suffer Islam’s gross violation of human rights and equality of women anymore lying low; they are ready, even, to embrace death in order to put an end to Islam’s lasting injustices. And, quite understandably, the article also elicited angry responses from Muslims, particularly clerics. One Egyptian Member of Parliament, according to BBC, has already filed a lawsuit against the newspaper for publishing the provocative article. Surprisingly, however, one cleric has also defended the article, saying that it aimed to highlight the sufferings of women under Islam, not than seeking to promote polyandry among them. Is window of change for Muslim women in the offing? Well it might if voices like al-Badir’s keep joining the growing club of courageous Muslim women, willing to challenge the status quo of Islam’s unjust institutions and doctrines concerning them, some even seeking to put an end to Islam, a scourge of humanity, altogether. Islam Watch 
 By Amie Ferris-Rotman Amie Ferris-rotman GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) – Adam, 52, keeps his three wives in different towns to stop them squabbling, but the white-bearded Chechen adds he might soon take a fourth. "Chechnya is Muslim, so this is our right as men. They (the wives) spend time together, but do not always see eye to eye," said the soft-spoken pensioner, who only gave his first name. Hardline Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov is vying with insurgents for authority in a land ravaged by two secessionist wars with Moscow. Each side is claiming Islam as its flag of legitimacy, each reviles the other as criminal and blasphemous. Wary of the dangers of separatism in a vast country, Moscow watches uneasily as central power yields to Islamic tenets. It must chose what it might see as the lesser of two evils. Though polygamy is illegal in Russia, the southern Muslim region of Chechnya encourages the practice, arguing it is allowed by sharia law and the Koran, Islam's holiest book. By Russian law, Adam is only married to his first wife of 28 years, Zoya, the plump, blue-eyed mother of his three children, with whom he shares a home on the outskirts of the regional capital Grozny. His "marriages" to the other two -- squirreled away in villages nearby -- were carried out in elaborate celebrations and are recognized by Chechen authorities. The head of Chechnya's Center for Spiritual-Moral Education, Vakha Khashkanov, set up by Kadyrov a year ago, said Islam should take priority over laws of the Russian constitution. "If it is allowed in Islam, it is not up for discussion," he told Reuters near Europe's largest mosque, which glistens in central Grozny atop the grounds where the Communist party had its headquarters before the Soviet Union fell in 1991. "As long as you can feed your wives, and there's equality amongst them, then polygamy is allowed in Chechnya," he added. Islam is flourishing in Chechnya which, along with its neighbors Dagestan and Ingushetia, is combating an Islamist insurgency which aims to create a Muslim, sharia-based state separate from Russia across the North Caucasus. Though Islam first arrived in the North Caucasus around 500 years ago, in Dagestan's ancient walled city of Derbent on the Caspian Sea, religion under Communism was strongly discouraged. Kadyrov, like most of his region's one million people, is Sufi, a mystical branch of Islam which places a greater focus on prayer and recitation. Political analysts say that in exchange for successfully hunting out Islamist fighters, the Kremlin turns a blind eye to Kadyrov's Muslim-inspired rules. Today Grozny's cafes hold men sipping smuggled beer out of teacups as alcohol has been all but banned, single-sex schools and gyms are becoming the norm and women must cover their heads in government buildings. Clad in a tight hijab, Asya Malsagova, who advises Kadyrov on human rights issues and heads a state council dealing with the rights of Chechen prisoners, told Reuters: "We believe every woman should have a choice -- but we prefer she covers up." Against the backdrop of a bubbling Islamist insurgency, Islam's revival has also brought violence against those who do not live by sharia law in the North Caucasus -- a region the Kremlin has described as its biggest political domestic problem. Islamist militants, who label Kadyrov and other regional bosses as "infidels" for siding with Moscow, have been behind attacks on women they say worked as prostitutes in Dagestan and murders of alcohol-sellers in Ingushetia. In Chechnya and Ingushetia, rebel fighters who regularly carry out armed attacks on police are celebrated as "martyrs" by Islamist news sites with links to the insurgency. HOLY CAMELS Dirt roads lead the way to Chechnya's first camel farm, about 55 km (34 miles) northwest of Grozny, where 46 of the two-humped creatures munch on salt and grass while they are groomed to be gifts for dowries and religious holidays. Considered holy animals in Islam, they sell for 58,000 roubles ($1,886) each, said Umar Guchigov, the director of the farm, which opened just over a year ago under Kadyrov's command, and plans are in place to build three more in Chechnya. "So many people, simple people, congratulated us for bringing back this ancient tradition," Guchigov said. Animals are also being used to reintroduce Islam at Chechnya's round-the-clock Muslim television channel, where 60 young bearded men and headscarved women create children's programs in large studios adorned with photos of Mecca. A bevy of bumble bees joyfully scream "Salam Alaikum" (Peace be with you) upon entering the studio of Ruslan Ismailov, who is making a full-length cartoon on hi-tech Apple computers for the channel, which is called "Put," meaning "The Way" in Russian. "The bees appeal to children, and they will teach them how to live properly by the Muslim faith," Ismailov said. Set up two years ago by the state and broadcast to thousands across the North Caucasus, instantly becoming one of the top channels in the region, it also features programs for women on how to keep home and reading of the Koran throughout the night. "It's no secret what Chechnya has been through," said the channel's general director Adam Shakhidov, sporting a ginger beard and traditional black velvet cap. "Two wars, the Soviet Union and today's Muslim extremism... it's time to show the true beauty of Sufism and install the basis for sharia," he said. Reuters
 According to a survey of French Muslims, 70% think polygamy should be banned in France. 22% think it should be permitted for those people whose religion allows it.
Sonia Imloul, the author of the report, estimates there are 40,000-50,000 polygamous families in France today, totaling at least 400,000 children.
These children, she says, live in crowded apartments and do not get the same opportunities for success. They suffer psychological troubles, no special support from their parents. There are also many cases of domestic violence in such families, particularly between the wives. The climate is destructive.
Imloul says that these women are often illegal and therefore do not exist. Some live confined, and then there's the issue of the language barrier and the fact that they have no money because the husband is in charge of the family allowances. This poses problems for plans for 'decohabitation'.
She wants a parliamentary inquiry into the matter.
A report on polygamy in France denounced its 'destructive' character for the women and children who are subjected to it. The study makes ten proposals to end the practice, which is officially prohibited.
The phenomenon undermines equality between men and women, a pillar of our Republic, writes the author of the report, an official of an association for preventing crime in the Paris suburbs and a member of the Economic and social Council, a consultative assembly.
Polygamy makes the family home into a 'prison for the wives', where the lack of privacy causes very strong internal tensions between the occupants, she wrote in the report, published by the Institut Montaigne, a think-tank focusing on issues of internal cohesion.
The National Advisory Commission for Human Rights estimated in 2006 that there were 16,000-20,000 polygamous families in France, or 200,000 people, mostly in the Paris region.
The practice mostly concerns families from Black Africa. It's one of the social issues linked to immigration and regularly debated in France, such as the full veil worn by some Muslim women, which is now the topic of a parliamentary commission.
The main proposal of the author: reviving the policy of 'decohabitation', permitting co-wives to live elsewhere with their children. She suggests various incentives: obtaining a residence permit, citizenship, French classes and opening a bank account.
Sources: Romandie, TF1 (French), h/t le blog laicist
Thanks to Islam in Europe
 Kareem Shaheen A Nobel Peace Prize winner yesterday called on women in the UAE and wider Arab world to fight for “economic independence” and equal political rights.
Dr Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel laureate and human rights activist, said a key first step was raising “the awareness of women in the Arab world, and then they have to encourage women to go in search of work and leave their homes to work”. That would better enable women to venture into the marketplace, she told The National.
“Then [comes] the economic independence of women. And I’m saying economic independence that they get from working, not from inheriting some money from their fathers.”
Dr Ebadi was in Abu Dhabi for the Festival of Thinkers, organised by the Higher Colleges of Technology and in which The National is a partner. She delivered the keynote address at the Emirates Palace hotel on Monday. The event ends today. In the UAE, Dr Ebadi said, “women are allowed to have an education. They go to school and even university, but it’s a very low percentage of these women who enter the work market and become active. Therefore the situation is discriminatory”. She said the lack of female empowerment in the Middle East was evident in the low number of women holding key leadership posts.
“Polygamy still exists,” said Dr Ebadi. “The political rights of women are not equal to the political rights of men. “You don’t see any women who are holding senior positions, political or economic.
“In Saudi Arabia, women aren’t even allowed to drive their own cars, let alone be engaged in political and cultural activities, whereas in other Islamic states, such as Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, for many years women have been able to work in political fields and even become prime ministers.
“Behind all this thinking, ideology, it is not Islam, because Islam respects the rights of women.” The differences between Islamic countries were the result of different degrees of patriarchal culture, Dr Ebadi said. “So this culture gives an interpretation of Islam which suits their patriarchal culture. And that is why we see how the situation of women is different from one Islamic culture to the other.”
But the blame laid with both genders, she said. “Although the women are victims of this culture, they’re also the carriers and promoters of this culture. Don’t forget that any man who is a bully has been raised by a woman, and it’s only women who can stop this wrong culture, that does not believe in the equality of mankind, from being carried on and promoted.”
The UAE and the Arab world could learn from Iran’s growing feminist tradition, Dr Ebadi said, where women actively engaged in the post-election protests.
In addition, “many of our women are professors and lecturers, we have many women who are engineers, doctors, and have senior administrative positions”, she said, pointing out that even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, appointed a female adviser and a female minister. “There is a saying, ‘Modernity is born in the streets’. And a woman who leaves her home for work gradually becomes modernised.” Source: The National
 In Islamic Bangladesh, rife with sexual violation and rape of women, being beautiful for a women is rather a curse than blessing, more so when she belongs to a minority community.
Some people might say that beauty becomes a curse for a woman, because she is often targeted for rape. I disagree with the idea that the woman's physical beauty is a curse.
It is not beauty of the woman that causes sexual violence, but the beast inside the rapist. Not all of the women or girls, who get raped, have great physical beauty either.
Rapists generally spare their mothers, sisters or daughters, even if beautiful, from sexual violence, but go out and rape unrelated women or girls, not necessarily beautiful at all? If it is the religious teachings that prevent rapists from abusing their own, then the same religious norms also fail to stop them from sexually abusing someone else.
In Bangladesh, if you look at the newspapers on a morning, you will see news about various forms of sexual violence against females. There have been reports of such violence upon two-year-old girls to elderly grandmothers.
There are stories about girls raped by strangers, by relatives, by teachers in schools, or even by clerics in religious institutions. The victims may go to the police for justice, but often fail to get justice. There are also cases of women getting raped by policemen, when they go to police stations for reporting sexual crimes against them.
We talk about educating about violence against women in Bangladesh, but in some cases, teachers harass female students in schools, from the Mohila Madrasa (Islamic Girls School) to well-known institutions of higher education. On May 14, 2009, the Bangladesh High Court pronounced a judgment to prevent sexual abuse of women at offices, educational institutions and all types of governmental, non-governmental and other organizations.
Especially for minority girls and women, Bangladesh is an extremely fearful place.
As soon as a girl is born into a minority family, they have to worry about her being victim of sexual violence by Muslim thugs, and how they can protect her from such a fate. While not all minority girls and women are raped, but the number of victims of rape, especially in Bangladesh's Hindu community, are quite high.
At dawn each day, there is another story about a minority woman or girl, raped, maybe even murdered, or she has committed suicide out of shame after rape.
It must be noted that it’s not the men, perpetrators of the odious crime, who commit suicide out of shame, but the victim. Famous U.S. author, educator and theorist Freda Adler had rightly said: “Rape is the only crime, in which the victim becomes the accused.”
All the major religions, practiced here in Bangladesh, are male-dominated organizations. In the holy book of Islam, the dominant religion, creation begins with a man, “Adam”, for whose pleasure and consort, “Eve”, the first a woman, was created. The Abrahamic faiths differ from one another in many things, but are united in this beginning story, thus creating male-dominated paradigm of human history, which ends in today's daily-life practices. From Adam to Prophet Mohammed, all prophets were male.
Bangladesh has a vast population practicing and following Islam in their lives. Islam initially controls their way of life. In Islam, Prophet Mohammed left an example by having sexual relations with many women, including little girl Aisha, whom he married at the age of six and consummated at nine. At his death, he left behind thirteen wives and concubines.
Different religions, being generally male-dictated, have created institutions of marriage to suit men, normally polygamist by nature. Especially the Prophet of Islam, who maintained about a dozen wives and concubines during his best days, has set an example for Islam’s followers to be polygamist forever.
The Roman philosopher Seneca said: “Injustice never rules forever.”
The injustice that is going on in Bangladesh against women can be stopped if we can dig out and discredit the rotten teachings of religions, especially of Islam. Islam makes it followers to be extreme male chauvinist, dominant over women and polygamist, and, thus, foster deprivation of women of their basic rights and dignity by making them dependents of men. And this male-dominance is also responsible for engendering the horrible culture of sexual violence and rapes of women in Bangladesh.
We must work toward achieving equally between men and women, when beauty will not be a curse, will not rouse men to rape, but be an object of appreciation. William Gomes is a former Muslim, freelance Journalist and Human Rights Activist. Source: Islam Watch
 A SOMALI man who claims to be 112 years old has married a 17-year old girl. "Today God helped me realise my dream," Ahmed Mohamed Dore said, after the wedding in the region of Galguduud.
Bride Safiya Abdulle's family said she was "happy with her new husband".
Mr Dhore says he wanted to marry Safiya for a long time but waited for her to grow up.
"I didn't force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love; and then we agreed to marry," he was quoted by the BBC as saying.
He said his children and two other wives agreed to the marriage, as did Safiya's parents. And he claimed he wants to have more children with his young bride.
The pair celebrated their marriage late Tuesday in central Somalia before hundreds of guests.
Somali adolescent girls are often married off to older men, but it is rare for a man as old as Mr Dhore to marry a girl of Safiya's age.
Mr Dhore claimed to be 112, but there was no way to verify the claim.
This marriage was his sixth; three of Mr Dhore's wives have died.
Polygamy is widely practiced in predominantly Muslim Somalia. Source: The Australian
 KEYSAR TRAD In a liberal society such as Australia, it should not be a crime to have more than one wife, argues Keysar Trad. IN JUNE last year, Triple J's current affairs program Hack ran an item on plural relationships. The ABC's youth broadcaster interviewed me about polygyny, a form of polygamous marriage in which a man has more than one wife at the same time. A bisexual couple were also interviewed. To my surprise, I was reported on the ABC's respected current affairs program AM the next morning. Without speaking to me again and after seeking comments from the Attorney-General's office, AM ran the line: “Undeterred Keysar Trad says he's hoping to find another wife to join his family. To do so, he says, would be to honour his first wife.” No such comment had aired on Hack. The media then spent more than a week mocking the practice of a husband having two or more wives simultaneously. No one took issue with the bisexual relationship, which involved one man and his female partner, who also had a relationship with another woman. At the end of an interview on 2UE, Mike Carlton declared that, as a Judeo-Christian nation, we marry one person for life. After a pause, he added that we just have lots of affairs on the side. In Western society, the “other woman” in an affair is stigmatised. She faces significant pressure to keep the relationship secret to protect her man because modern society frowns on plural heterosexual relations. If she fell pregnant, society – including her partner – could place great pressure on her to have an abortion. The mistress in an affair should have rights. She needs to be protected if she decides to end the relationship because the man refuses to live up to her expectations and leave his wife. The Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, must have been paying attention. A few months later, he introduced legislation granting rights to the second woman so that she could also share the assets of her married lover. The problem of deception, however, does not go away.
Why in the liberal 21st century must we live a lie in relationships? And why do we continue to maintain a facade that monogamy is a perfect institution, when studies consistently reveal that most men admit to having affairs? Monogamy is great, but it is clearly not for everybody. Islam openly acknowledges this fact of human nature and stipulates a regulatory framework for plural relations. But modern Western society, suspicious of all things Islamic, fails to recognise the qualities of Muslim marriage and family. Legally enforceable monogamy was introduced by Emperor Justinian in the year 534. Justinian himself kept a courtesan as a mistress. He married her after the death of his wife, Euphemia, and only after he convinced Justin, his predecessor, to change the law so that senators could marry actresses and courtesans. Justinian is said to have criminalised plural unions under the influence of St Augustine, though Augustine clearly stated in his treatise on marriage that having several wives is not “contrary to the nature of marriage”. Yet like other church fathers, Augustine preferred celibacy, or monogamous marriage if one could not be celibate. Over the years, I have counselled adulterers from different faith backgrounds. I never tried to punish, hurt or expose them. I tried to guide them to mend their ways. I tried to help them understand that sex outside marriage was neither in their best interests nor in the best interests of society. If they were married, I did my best to ensure that their marriage remained safe and stable. Had they been in plural unions that conformed to the Islamic regulatory framework, such relationships would not have been adulterous, but divinely sanctioned unions. Australian law has maintained the Justinian facade that a marriage is one man and one woman, and that every other relationship must be kept secret. Under Australian law, bigamy attracts penalties of up to seven years' imprisonment. On the other hand, polygamous marriages conducted overseas are recognised under family law for the purpose of property settlements. When a couple marry in a Christian church, it indicates they want their marriage to be governed by the rules of that church. The same applies for unions conducted under Muslim rules.
For a marriage to be valid under Islam, it requires the consent of both parties, at least two witnesses and a dowry paid by the groom to the bride as a gift for her to use as she pleases. There is no requirement for such a union to be "legally" registered with a secular body that does not recognise the clauses in a Muslim union. Plural relations of this nature that take place in Australia are treated like de facto relationships and are not registered. This keeps them outside the ambit of the nation's criminal and marriage laws. Such unions are not considered adulterous because they follow the rules of an Islamic union. They are not secret and they carry no stigma under God. This is not to say that people are actively encouraged to enter such unions. Islam stipulates very strict equality in the treatment of wives. If a man cannot treat his wives equally, the Koran says he should have only one. Monogamy is the norm in Muslim communities. However, men who are capable of supporting more than one partner equally are advised to be open, honest and accountable in their relationships and to treat their wives fairly. Yes, polygyny may lead to jealousy. We are all human. But in a caring and sharing world where we become euphoric when we give to those in need, sponsor orphans and provide foster care, the ultimate in giving is for a woman to give a fraction of her husband's time and affection to another woman who is willing to share with her. It is a spiritually rewarding experience that allows women to grow while the husband toils to provide for more than one partner. In most cases, the husband ends up providing separate accommodation. The women can agree to share dwellings – it's entirely up to them.
Many men in Western society complain about their mother-in-law or a “nagging” wife. If his wife and in-laws were difficult, would he seek more of the same? The willingness of a man to take on another wife is in fact a form of praise to his first wife. While Islam sanctions polygyny, it does not condone threesomes. Islam also does not permit polyandry, a form of relationship in which a wife takes more than one husband.
There are many reasons for this. Some are medical, some relate to paternity. Others pertain to the sexual proclivities of the different genders. The sex therapist Bettina Arndt, promoting her book Sex Diaries, outlined the merits of women saying "yes" more often to sex with their husbands. If Arndt's research is reflective of a greater portion of the population, a monogamous relationship leads to reduced interest in sex among women and a perpetual state of conjugal frustration among men. If men in monogamous relations are not satiated, by its very nature polyandry creates an overwhelming burden for a woman in long-term relationships. Who someone marries first is an accident of history. If a man who has an affair had met his mistress before his wife, he may have married her. Why maintain the facade that is the Justinian doctrine of monogamy knowing it has failed as a social experiment? A man can have multiple girlfriends.
Why not formalise that into a commitment for life? Why should “bigamy” be a crime? Keysar Trad is president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia. He will deliver a speech on why polygamy and other Islamic values are good for Australia at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Opera House today. Source: Sydney Morning Herald
 Keysar Trad, the Muslim radical damned by a judge this month as a man who " incites acts of violence, incites racist attitudes, is dangerous and, perhaps most significantly, is a disgraceful individual," takes his act to the Sydney Opera House: Presented By Sydney Opera House & St James Ethics Venue ...
Polygamy and Other Islamic Values are Good for Australia I’m not so sure that polygamy would be good for the country, given what misery even thinking of another woman has inflicted on Trad’s own family: It has not been easy and (Trad and his wife Hanifeh, mother of his nine children) remember 1998 as their worst year when Trad fell in love - “became obsessed”, his wife says - with another woman. In desperation, Hanifeh proposed marriage on her husband’s behalf to the other woman. “We were having a terrible time. He fell in love and I wasn’t thinking about myself,” she says. But his obsession passed. “He became more compassionate after it,” Hanifeh says. “God meant for him to go through this experience and it made him a better person and more emotionally aware. It knocked him off his perch.”
Hanifeh was not heartbroken. A second wife would have meant divorce (though he was against it) or living under the same roof as her husband’s mistress. Of course, while she’s not against it, being a devout Muslim, she’s somehow never agreed to it, either, being only human: Whether a second wife would work in the Trad household remains another issue. The Trads say they have discussed the idea only in principle. Trad’s wife, Hanifeh, is not against the idea of having another woman in her husband’s life. She says she has enough confidence in herself not to let it affect her ego. However, she’s concerned of the effect it might have on her children and how they would be affected by the stigma. Source: Andrew BoltH/T Gramfan
 'Totally dominating': Naseebah Bibi, pictured outside
Preston Crown Court, is accused of keeping her sons'
wives as prisoners in her Blackburn homeBy Jaya Narain A mother locked up her three daughters-in-law and treated them as slaves for more than a decade, a court heard yesterday. Naseebah Bibi, 62, is said to have ruled the women by fear - beating and slapping them if they disobeyed her, threatening to break their legs and denying them food. Their ordeal only came to light when one wife managed to break free and ran into the street to alert a neighbour. The court was told that Tazeem Akhtar, Nagina Akhtar and Nisbah Akhtar had arrived in Britain over several years after arranged marriages to Bibi's sons Nahim, Fahim and Nadeem in Pakistan. Instead of living with their husbands and raising families, the women were put to work by their mother-in-law cooking and cleaning and using an industrial sewing machine. Bibi, a mother of six, denies three charges of false imprisonment of the three women between 1993 and 2006. Her son Nadeem, 31, denies falsely imprisoning his wife Nisbah between 2005 and 2007 and one count of actual bodily harm. Philip Boyd, prosecuting, said: 'Mrs Bibi was clearly exploiting each of these women. They were treated like children, slaves or dogs by a regime of threats of force or actual force. 'These young women had been rejected by their husbands of their arranged marriages, they couldn't speak English, they couldn't go back to Pakistan, they were in limbo and so they were exploited by the defendant for her own purposes.' Preston Crown Court heard that the first wife was Nagina Akhtar who had married her husband, Fahim in 1993. The couple had three children, but she spent her days cleaning and making clothing on a sewing machine. Mr Boyd said: 'As soon as she came to this country, she was ordered by Mrs Bibi to spend the day sewing on an industrial sewing machine. 'She sewed all day, every day. She sewed for money, but she didn't see any of the money.' When she once left the small terraced house in Blackburn, Bibi warned her: 'How dare you leave the house. If you do it again I will break your legs.' Mr Boyd told the court that Nagina was forced to live under these conditions for more than 13 years. Read more ...Source: Daily MailNaseebah Bibi
Latest recipient of The Face of Evil Award
 Three Canadian organizations fear that Canada will soon legalize polygamy.
The Canada Family Action Coalition (CFAC) has joined the Institute for Canadian Values and the Muslim Canadian Congress to issue a news release called "Polygamy - The Road to Fiscal, Legal, and Social Chaos." A poll conducted by Compass Research for CFAC shows that 85 percent of Canadians do not want the government to legalize polygamy.
Executive director of CFAC Brian Rushfeldt says the poll is in response to a court case in British Columbia in which two men are challenging the polygamy ban based on the fact that Canada has already legalized homosexual "marriage."
"We said this from day one. If we destroy the foundational premise of marriage as one man and one woman and open it up to any two people, which is to appease the homosexuals," he notes, "then we're going to have other groups and others forms of relationship using the same argument that the homosexuals did."
Rushfeldt believes that would make it impossible to set any parameters for marriage. "Are they going to say one man and ten women or one man and 20 women? Then the women are going to say what about one woman and 20 men?" he contends. "And so we will virtually put ourselves in a position where we cannot put a definition on marriage, and therefore marriage will no longer exist in the law."
The pro-family leader does not expect a ruling on this case until sometime in the fall. Source: One News Now
 Ministers decided not to force through plans to cut benefits to hundreds of polygamous families in the UK after officials advised that the move would be too politically sensitive.Internal documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal that ministers from four departments ordered an “urgent review” of the position of up to 1,000 men with “multiple wives”, amid complaints that they were claiming millions in benefits. However, the Government decided against altering the status of polygamous families after it was warned that it could contravene human rights legislation – and officials assured that the benefits system was geared to ensure there was “no financial advantage to claiming for those in polygamous marriages”. Details of the response to the complaints came after the Tory frontbencher Baroness Warsi accused politicians of failing to deal with the issue because of “cultural sensitivity”. The Muslim peer urged the Government to consider the mandatory registration of all religious marriages to stop men in Britain from marrying more than one woman. Britain recognises polygamous marriages from countries where such unions are legal, although a man is prevented from bringing another wife into this country if a woman is already living as his wife in the UK Read more ... Source: The IndependentH/T: Weasel Zippers
 Baroness Sayeeda Warsi says polygamy is growing in BritainBy Macer Hall GROWING numbers of Muslim men are “marrying” up to four wives in Britain, a leading Muslim peer warned last night.Tory Baroness Sayeeda Warsi fears a sharp increase in polygamy in the UK is becoming a threat to community cohesion. And she accused Labour ministers of turning a blind eye to the practice, which is common in some Islamic countries. The Government must make it clear to Muslims that “in this country, one married man is allowed to marry one woman,” she said. Most Muslim polygamous arrangements are not illegal because the “weddings” are private religious ceremonies that are not recognised by British law. But Baroness Warsi, Tory spokesman on community cohesion, feared that multi-wife marriages could increase tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain. Read more ...Source: Daily Express
 By Matthew Hickley | 21st February
Baroness Warsi said Labour has failed to tackle the problem of polygamy in Britain because of 'cultural sensitivity'
Politicians have failed to take polygamy seriously because of 'cultural sensitivity', a Muslim peer has claimed.
Baroness Warsi, a Tory spokesman for community cohesion, said this has resulted in laws banning the practice not being properly enforced.
The Conservative peer urged the Government to bring in rules demanding the registration of all religious marriage ceremonies to stop men in Britain marrying more than one woman without registering them.
The Government has no figures on polygamous marriages, but the practice is thought to be common in parts of the Muslim communities and the number is thought to run into thousands.
Polygamy is a crime in Britain, punishable by up to seven years in jail.
But the practice is legal in many Muslim countries, and the UK benefits system recognises 'extra' wives as dependents - provided the marriage took place legally overseas.
Islamic law allows a man to take up to four wives, provided he can support them properly and equally.
In some cases it is thought Muslim men marry second wives in a religious ceremony in the UK without registering the marriage.
The changes urged by Baroness Warsi would end that practice by demanding that all such weddings be registered - rendering the man liable to prosecution.
The Tory peer, who was born in Britain to Pakistani parents, said: 'There has been a failure on the part of policy-makers to respond to this situation.
'Some of it has been done in the name of cultural sensitivity and we've just avoided either discussing or dealing with this matter head on.'
She told the BBC: 'There has to be a culture change and that has to be brought about by policymakers taking a very clear stance on this issue, saying that in this country, one married man is allowed to marry one woman.
'And that must be the way for everyone who lives in this country.'
Muslim weddings are not recognised by the state, and couples must also undergo a register office ceremony to be married in the eyes of the law.
Baroness Warsi proposed rules making it compulsory to register private Muslim 'Nikah' marriage ceremonies which take place in the home - with 'an imam and a couple of witnesses there' - within a four-week period.
She said: 'If that was the case, then those marriages would have to be declared within law and if those marriages were declared within law, then clearly if the person has a first legal wife then there could be potential cases of bigamy being brought.'
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: 'It is Government policy to prevent the formation of polygamous households.
'Polygamous marriages that have been contracted in overseas countries are legally recognised.
'It is not the role of Government to take a position on the rites, beliefs or practices of any particular religious faith, other than where these give rise to conflict with the common law.'
Ministers reviewed polygamy laws last year, but opted to leave them unchanged.
Men with multiple wives can claim extra income support, jobseeker's allowance and housing and council tax benefits for his dependents provided the marriage took place legally overseas - although the state only recognises one of his wives as his legal spouse. Source: Daily Mail H/T: Doctor Bulldog and Ronin
 The 'reign of terror' merits the harshest punishment, Riverside County judge says. Mansa Musa Muhummed starved, beat and imprisoned his 3 wives and 19 children for decades.
By David Kelly | February 14, 2009
A polygamist who tortured, starved, imprisoned and beat his wives and children for decades was sentenced to seven life terms in prison Friday by a judge who said the man's "reign of terror" warranted the harshest punishment available.
Mansa Musa Muhummed, 55, spoke before sentencing and denied ever mistreating his three wives and 19 children.
"I never tortured anyone," he told Riverside County Superior Court Judge F. Paul Dickerson III. "I don't know where that came from."
The judge dismissed his comments. "Mr. Muhummed showed no remorse and accepted no responsibility for his twisted behavior, and the court is sending the strongest message possible," he said.
Family members filled the back row of the courtroom, some of the women wearing colorful head scarves.
"I'm very afraid of him. I really don't want him to get out of jail at all," his daughter Sharon Boddie, 28, told the judge. "Please, Your Honor, don't show him any mercy because he never showed any mercy to his kids."
Muhummed was arrested in 1999 at the family's house in rural Aguanga in Riverside County, but legal maneuvering delayed the trial for years.
Originally from Virginia, Muhummed came to California, converted to Islam and moved his family from place to place, living in houses, small apartments and vans.
Family members testified that he would beat them savagely with boat oars, hoses and electrical cords for any perceived infraction. Grounds for beatings included sneaking food, failing to recite a passage from the Koran accurately and not asking to use the bathroom. He also organized fights between his boys.
Muhummed tightly rationed food for everyone but himself. He carefully locked up the cabinets and chained the refrigerator. His children said he "ate like a king" while they went hungry.
In fact, they said, they went up to seven days without food. They had to beg for it or pick a lock and steal it. If caught, they were beaten or made to stand all night in a corner. Buckets in bedrooms usually served as their toilets, they said.
When police found Sharon Boddie in 1999, she was 18 years old, weighed 48 pounds and stood barely 4 feet tall. Her older brother Marlon weighed 53 pounds. Another brother, Curtis, 16, weighed 42 pounds.
Marlon Boddie, in an interview before the sentencing, said his father hung him upside down in the basement by a cord and beat him for hours. He said he was made to eat his own feces and vomit. Marlon Boddie, now 29, said he once smashed a bottle against his head in order to get sent to a hospital and out of the house.
"He broke my arm once and wrapped a towel around it real tight like a cast," he said. "Imagine what it's like to see your dad split open your head, then sew it up with a needle and thread."
Like many members of his family, Marlon Boddie is at loose ends, trying to navigate a world that was hidden from him for most of his life. The experience, he said, has irrevocably scarred him.
"It's like 20 years of my life has gone down the drain. Even now I get afraid to eat. I look around me to see if someone is watching," he said.
The family lived in Bakersfield, North Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Moreno Valley, Riverside and Aguanga. Muhummed made money selling his food stamps and collecting Social Security on himself and his children, family members said. His children were pulled out of elementary school or never sent. Some still struggle with basic skills such as reading, writing a check and shopping for groceries.
"When I got out I couldn't read," Sharon Boddie said. "I had never been to school."
The wives and children were often locked up in a dark garage for days with no heating, air conditioning or toilets.
In 1999, one of the wives slipped a letter to the mailman, begging for help. Police raided the Aguanga home and arrested Muhummed. Another wife, Marva Barfield, was jailed for a year on charges of child endangerment. She was released after agreeing to testify against her husband.
"I married him at 18 and got out at 45," Barfield said in court Friday. "I was scared of him. I want to apologize to my kids for not doing more, but I was truly afraid of him."
A letter was read from another daughter, Felicia Boddie, asking the judge to show mercy: "If he didn't have emotional problems, would he have done this? . . . I want the hate to end and the healing to begin."
When it was Muhummed's turn to talk, all but two family members left the courtroom. He spoke defiantly, saying that he was innocent and that his children were pressured to say they were abused.
"I made mistakes, but they know how I looked after them their whole lives," he said. "I tried to keep them together. My family never suffered the way they say they did."
The judge denied a defense motion to sentence Muhummed to one life term so he might be eligible for parole someday. Instead, he gave him a life sentence for each of the seven counts of torture. Muhummed isn't eligible for parole for at least 65 years, said his attorney, Peter Morreale.
Marta Butterfield, one of the jurors in the case, showed up for the sentencing. "I think he is such a monster," she said, "and I wanted to see him get everything he deserved." Source: LA Times http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-torture14-2009feb14,0,6118963.story?track=rss
By Sarah Sacheli WINDSOR, Ont. -- An Iraqi-Canadian was acquitted of bigamy Tuesday by a Windsor judge who said that while he had no doubt the man has two wives, it could not be proven the man left the country "with intent" to take a second partner. The incident began on Valentine's Day in 2004 when Sahib Abid Ali Al Jibouri went before a county judge in Jefferson, Ohio, and married Katharine White. But he already had a wife and baby back home in Toronto. Mr. Al Jibouri, 46, now lives in Windsor. After hearing testimony from Mr. Al Jibouri's first wife and that of a Canadian immigration officer who discovered the Ohio marriage, Ontario court Justice Guy DeMarco said he didn't doubt Mr. Al Jibouri had two wives. Yet he acquitted because of what Judge DeMarco called a "stringent requirement" under Canada's bigamy law in which the Crown has to prove the man had left the country with "the intent" to take a second wife. Read more ...Source: CanWest News ServiceH/T: Dhimmi Watch
 Rashid Jamil and Sahar Daftary at a party before their wedding last yearBy Dominic Kennedy The death of a model who learnt that her husband was already married has shone a light into the murky world of Muslim polygamy in Britain. Sahar Daftary, 23, fell 150ft from the twelfth storey of a block of flats where she had gone to collect her belongings at the home of a businessman whom she had married in a religious ceremony last year. Her husband, Rashid Jamil, 33, was arrested on suspicion of murder but bailed by police after they found no evidence that the death was anything other than an accident or suicide. Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the head of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, told The Times: “This story is very common, unfortunately. We have tried to plug some of the holes in the whole system, but unfortunately our clerics do not live on this planet. Read more ...Source: Times Online
 The Ottoman harem in Western imagination.By Daniel Pipes A Scottish judge recently bent the law to benefit a polygamous household. The case involved a Muslim male who drove 64 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone – usually grounds for an automatic loss of one's driving license. The defendant's lawyer explained his client's need to speed: "He has one wife in Motherwell and another in Glasgow and sleeps with one one night and stays with the other the next on an alternate basis. Without his driving licence he would be unable to do this on a regular basis." Sympathetic to the polygamist's plight, the judge permitted him to retain his license. Monogamy, this ruling suggests, long a foundation of Western civilization, is silently eroding under the challenge of Islamic law. Should current trends continue, polygamy could soon be commonplace. Since the 1950s, Muslim populations have grown in Western Europe and North America via immigration and conversion; with their presence has grown the Islamic form of polygyny (one man married to more than one woman). Estimates find 2,000 or more British polygamous men, 14,000 or 15,000-20,000 harems in Italy, 30,000 harems in France, and 50,000-100,000 polygamists in the United States. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
 By Barney Zwartz | 21/11/2008 1:00:01 AM
SOME Muslim religious leaders are condoning rape within marriage, domestic violence, polygamy, welfare fraud and the exploitation of women, a report on imam training has found.
The report, by the Islamic Women's Welfare Council of Victoria, says some imams perform polygamous marriages knowing that the second wife, a de facto under Australian law, can claim Centrelink payments.
It found that some apply sharia when it benefits men but not when it benefits women, and that they hinder police from pursuing domestic violence charges.
Keysar Trad, a spokesman for the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said last night that there might be "isolated incidents" of such cases "but in a community as large as ours there will always be some people who do the wrong thing".
The report, which has been rejected by the Victorian Board of Imams, also found that women seeking divorces had been told by imams that they must leave "with only the clothes on their back" and not seek support or a share of property because they can get welfare payments.
The report, based on a study commissioned and funded by the Howard government and its Muslim advisory group, was presented at a conference of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies in Melbourne yesterday.
It is the result of interviews with police, lawyers, court workers and academics, and meetings with and questions to the Victorian Board of Imams, whose role is to provide an Islamic view and religious guidance to the community and represent it to the media.
The report says the 24-man board ignored or did not directly answer many of the questions. It says women, community and legal workers and police were particularly concerned about domestic violence and suggested that imams aimed to preserve the family at the cost of women.
It says the husbands of some women who were legally separated but not religiously divorced entered their houses, demanded sexual intercourse and took it by force. "Workers who have assisted women in this situation said that the advice women received from the imams was that it was halal - permitted - because there was a valid nikah - marriage," the report says.
It also cites sexual assault allegations connected with underage marriages and says polygamy is increasing and gaining acceptance among Muslims.
Community members quoted in the report believe that the narrow religious training of imams, their lack of life experience, poor English and lack of understanding of Australia have created problems for the community.
The secretary of the Board of Imams, Sheikh Fehmi Naji-al Imam, also Mufti of Australia, denied the complaints "absolutely". He said no authorised imam would conduct a polygamous marriage, and it was absolutely wrong that imams ignored domestic violence.
"I haven't heard of any case where the board disregarded a woman or did not try to help her."
with Alex Tibbitts Source: Sydney Morning Herald
 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: 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 GuardianFaiz ul-Aqtab Siddiqi
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 |
|
|
Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
E-mail: info AT ReformIslam.org
|
|
|
Posts
