Archive for the 'religion' Category

Lily Mazahery on the Ayatollah’s theocracy

Published by
Sarah
at December 21, 2006 in Ayatollah's Theocracy, Islam, fundamentalism, law, religion, violence against women and women in power. 0 Comments

A transcript of an awesome speech made by an Iranian-American attorney Lily Mazahery, Head of the Washington-based Legal Rights Institute, on the human rights situation of women and girls under the Iranian legal system. 

These are the type of women that western feminists need to get behind. This links to my earlier thread about the powerful potential of western muslim women to instigate change via non-violent means through the power of ideas.

This kind of global grassroots movement by people who are deeply rooted and have a genuine passion and knowledge of the societies they are attempting to reform makes them powerful agents for change.

Such awe-inspiring women include figures such as  Iranian activist Mehrangiz Kar and Shirin Ebadi- winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and a personal hero of mine.

This ‘insider’ status gives these women a unique mandate- A free pass from the ‘imperialist’ tag of those who speak without such ‘insider’ status or use human rights atrocities and feminist arguments as a cover for racist agendas.

 

 

 

East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet?

Published by
Sarah
at December 4, 2006 in Islam, Politics, World, feminist media, religion and women in power. 0 Comments

“100 of the savviest, smartest, most motivated, and influential Muslim women” have met this month in New York for the first ever Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity (WISE) conference.

The way in which the western landscape has formed a crucible for the birth of Muslim feminism, and also broader calls for “Islamic Reformation” is interesting.

It seems appropriate that the most powerful catalyst for change will come from the “smart, savvy and influential Muslim women” that have flourished and achieved power and position within the west. The location of New York seems symbolic of this melding of cross-currents.

The way these women navigated the differences of opinion was laudable. They seemed to recognise their goal in the end was the same- empowerment and recognition of the basic human rights and dignity of the female person within both secular and religious contexts. Which is feminism at it’s basic really.

The question is can they work to effect real-world change in the places that really need it?

The speech of Mukhtaran Mai, a gang-rape survivor who now dedicates her life to building schools for girls in her village seemed to remind everyone where it was all at.

“Our only hope is the fight for justice. End oppression with education. To remain ignorant is a crime. To remain apathetic is a crime. It is a crime to avoid oppression. To remain silent about a crime is a crime.”

Change can only come from within and it seems western muslim women in particular, have the skills and knowledge to challenge authority, the opportunity to support activists; and the freedom to engage in serious lobbying efforts internationally.

But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When (women) stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!

Women’s lives don’t matter: Nicaragua

Published by
Anna
at November 21, 2006 in Politics, World, abortion, religion, struggle and violence against women. 2 Comments

Abortion has long been illegal in Nicaragua but had, up until now, been allowed where it would save the woman’s life if three doctors testified that the woman would die if she didn’t undergo the procedure. Now even that exception has been ripped away from Nicaraguan women.

Some figures from the Guttmacher Intstitute to keep in mind. In Nicaragua:

  • A quarter of all births (35,000) are among 15-19 year-olds but 86 per cent don’t want a child within the next two years and 36 per cent don’t have adequate access to contraception.
  • Half of 20-25 year old women had had a child before their 20th birthday
  • Nearly half of all births are unplanned
  • The rate of childbirth among adolescents is the highest out of any other Central American country.
  • Also higher than any other Central American country is the rate of maternal deaths which is 230 for every 100,000 births.

The WHO estimates that 78,000 women die from illegal and unsafe abortions each year (13 per cent of maternal deaths). Most of those of course occuring in developing countries such as Nicaragua. So even if access to a cheap illegal abortion is possible there’s no real out for these women. Imagine being powerless knowing that your death was imminent because your government couldn’t give a fuck. Pro-life indeed.

The leftist, Sandanista and former president Daniel Ortega sold women up shit creek in order to try to gain support from the Roman Catholic voting block and regain presidency. According to the linked NYTimes article his support for the ammendment was critical.

Pakistani women protest rape law ammendments

Published by
Anna
at November 21, 2006 in Islam, World, liberalism, religion and violence against women. 2 Comments

What do you make of this?

Hundreds of female supporters of Pakistan’s largest Islamic group protested today against government amendments to controversial rape laws.

Some 800 women, many wearing veils, attended the rally in a downtown district of the capital, Islamabad.

They were supporters Jamaat-e-Islami, a militant-linked Islamic charity.

These are strong women, with a strong voice. Not just puppets of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami wing from what I can tell. And yet they are protesting ammendments that could prevent a lot of suffering on behalf of women who are locked up for things such as ‘adultery’ - even if the sex act was forced.Shakira Hussein explores their mission in an article for New Matilda :

The JI women have no time for the likes of Jehangir. They claim that they are the true defenders of Pakistani women and that secular advocates of women’s rights are puppets of the West. They say that without the protection of the Hudood Ordinances, Pakistani women would suffer the plight of Western women — forced to dress and behave according to the lewd desires of men. Just as many in the West refuse to believe that a woman might choose to wear the hijab, JI women find it hard to believe that a woman would choose to wear jeans that display her bum cleavage.

In viewing Western or Westernised women primarily as victims, the JI women differ from their male counterparts, who view ‘immodest’ women in terms of the threat they pose to social order. While Islamist men tend to believe that it is immoral women who lead men (and other women) from the path of virtue, many Islamist women believe that ‘fallen’ women have been coerced or manipulated into sin. By outlawing immorality, they believe that it is possible to free women from being sexually exploited, or having their families broken up by their husbands’ extra-marital affairs.

The JI women are well aware that the Hudood Ordinances have caused immeasurable pain to many women who are entirely innocent of adultery. Through their welfare work in providing legal aid and emergency shelter to women in crisis, they have witnessed the damage at first hand. Such programs provide useful propaganda for JI, but there is also no doubting the women’s passionate belief in their work. They speak of their satisfaction in helping women who have been falsely accused, and they angrily denounce the common practice of a husband divorcing his wife and allowing her to remarry, only to go to the authorities with the claim that the first marriage was never dissolved and that his former wife is therefore guilty of adultery with her new husband.

And yet, they continue to support the Ordinances under which such women are jailed. They insist that the main problems lie in the implementation of the law, rather than the law itself. For instance, if marriages and divorces were properly recorded (most are not), it would be much more difficult for disgruntled former husbands to lay false charges. If the legal system were not so grindingly inefficient, women would not languish in jail for years only to be found not guilty (as most often happens) when they finally come to trial.

Is there a comparison here between christian anti-feminists and the Islamic women of JI? Or is it more complicated than that? It seems Western feminists and the Islamic women of JI hold similar views about one another. I guess we have to ask whether their agenda is to uphold the power of their patriarchal religion, or if they indeed are acting on behalf of women. Christian anti-feminists seem beholden to maintaining the patriarchal notion of women’s place as ‘God’ stipulates. However the JI women seem to be about ‘liberating’ women- Just in a completely different way to the ideas and actions of western feminists. Does anyone know more?

A Moment for Alia Ansari

Published by
Sarah
at November 7, 2006 in religion, violence and violence against women. 1 Comment

Alia Ansari was a mother of six and wore a headscarf. She walking down the street in Fremont, California when she was shot randomly on the street, in what can only be described as a religiously motivated attack. She is my mother. She is your mother.

Groups in California have come out in support of Mrs. Ansari in a “Wear a headscarf day” for November 13.

I recommend everyone get involved in at least remembering her and what she represents.

It seems it’s not the powerful mullahs who have to suffer for their stupid statements. It’s always women who must pay. Innocent women like Mrs. Ansari, an Afghani immigrant, who unwittingly bear the brunt of media frenzies and demonising that have become regular public fare.

The recent deaths of the five young Amish girls in America, in what also appears to be a hate crime, reflects the way in which women- particularly from ethnic and religious minorities- have become the sacrificial pawns in the game of politics and prejudices.

These women face a triple brunt- first from superheroine feminists who want to ‘rescue’ them, then pressures from their own communities, and lastly being the vulnerable and visible targets of those who wish to inflict harm.

This kind of thing- violence against women, immigrants, minorites- it’s the death of liberalism and the worst kind of cowardice.

Trifecta!

Published by
Sarah
at October 26, 2006 in Islam, rape, religion and sex. 0 Comments

It’s a hatrick people!

We have had trivialisation of rape from world leaders, a criminal lark by schoolboys and now a glorious trifecta!

Anna has already scooped me on “Australian Mufti” Sheikh Taj al-din al-Hilali comments that women who do not wear the Islamic hijab invite rape.

“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it … whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat,” the cleric said.

“The uncovered meat is the problem.

“If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.”

Besides the objectification of women ’s function as merely “pieces of meat” for men’s gratification and the equally insulting likening of men to predatory animals, the whole debacle is revealing on the hysterical fantasies of the shiekh.

Muslim women and clothing has become an obsession- a fetish of epic proportions for muslims and non-muslims alike inspiring countless debates, stories and controversies.

Not only is the scrutiny women undergo in terms of their so-called morals, dress and deportment torturous it’s also demeaning.

When sexuality becomes the defining aspect of someone’s character, nullifying a person’s achievements, abilities and intellect- it is revealing a deeper anxiety.

When sermons are filled with exhortations on dress, satanic impulses, lusts, busts and temptations is it not merely confirming the western stereotype of Islam (or Muslims rather) as obsessed with sex, harems and houris, rather than emphasising a spiritual path to good works?

This kind of education has a hugely damaging impact on young people. It is a crucible for shame, guilt and neurosis and is not healthy for relationships.

Muslim leaders are free to preach abstinence- but they must do it without exhortations to demonic forces, and be balanced and open in their education.

The positive that has been extracted from this debacle (if that is possible) is that it has strengthened the acceptable parameters of comment on the issue.

Now even conservative leaders and muslim spokespeople have come to a unanimous agreement that the clothing and deportment of a person is never a incitement to rape.

This may seem self-evident- but such a definitive political statement is radical considering the proliferation of “she asked for it” mentalities proliferating even today.

Modern day law cases are filled with interrogations of the clothing, behaviour and even past sexual-life of sex assault victims.

Let’s hope the chorus of voices condemning the Shiekh’s remarks today will echo in those circumstances too.

Everybody must get stoned?

Published by
Sarah
at October 18, 2006 in Islam, World, law, religion, violence, violence against women and wtf?!. 0 Comments


They’ll stone you when you’re trying to be so good
They’ll stone you just like they said they would
They’ll stone you when you’re trying to go home
They’ll stone you when you’re there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned

They’ll stone you when you’re walking on the street
They’ll stone you when you’re trying to keep your seat
They’ll stone you when your walking on the floor
They’ll stone you when your walking to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned

They’ll stone you when you’re at the breakfast table
They’ll stone you when you are young and able
They’ll stone you when you’re trying to make a buck
They’ll stone you and then they’ll say good luck
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned

Well They’ll stone you and say that it’s the end
They’ll stone you and then they’ll come back again
They’ll stone you when you’re riding in your car
They’ll stone you when you’re playing your guitar
Yes But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
Alright

Well They’ll stone you when you are all alone
They’ll stone you when you are walking home
They’ll stone you and then say they’re all brave
They’ll stone you when you’re send down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned

Everybody Must get Stoned -Bob Dylan

I sweeten your palate with Dylan- as the only way you are going to be able to deal with this is if you’re high on some hashish…

7 women have been sentenced to death by stoning in Iran.

Now that you have read that sentence which should have no place in the 21st century- follow the instructions artfully arranged by an American blogger and sign the petitions. 

You will feel much better.