"Imagine You're A Woman"
This article from the October 31, 2005 edition of Asharq Alawsat is published in its entirety:
Imagine You're a Woman
by Badriyya Al-Bishr
Imagine you're a woman. When your brother is born, people say 'It's a boy, how wonderful,' yet when you are born they say, 'A little girl, how wonderful!' Why do they use diminutive form? Your arrival is welcome if you are the first or second girl; it is best your mother has no more than two. On the other hand, the arrival of boys is always welcome! The more the merrier, the saying goes.
Imagine you're a woman. You will always need to seek permission from your guardian not only for your first marriage, according to Islamic legal scholars, but in every other matter. You cannot study without your guardian's permission, even at the level of PhD and you cannot get a job and earn a living either. Furthermore, many shamelessly argue that a woman must have permission to work even in the private sector.
Imagine you're a woman and picture your 15-year old son or your brother accompanying you on every journey. Your guardian might request a bribe in return for setting you free from his unwanted company but will not accept cash since his self-respect prevents him from touching a woman's money. Instead, he will ask for a car or the money to be paid in installments.
Imagine you're a woman, and you are subject physically abused and maybe even killed. When the press publishes your photograph and exposes the brutality of the beatings, the public will only care whether you were veiled. When the man who broke your ribs is your husband, people will believe there was a reason behind his actions.
Imagine you're a woman whose husband breaks your nose, arm, or leg. When you file a complaint, the judge responds reproachfully, 'Is that all?' He believes physical abuse to be a natural occurrence amongst all families as the saying goes 'Beating the beloved is like eating raisins.'
Imagine you're a woman who must be driven in a ‘limousine’ by your Indian or Sri Lankan driver because you yourself are not allowed behind the steering wheel.
Imagine you're a woman in the 21st century at a time when experts in Islamic law are issuing religious edicts on sexual intercourse with the enemy’s womenfolk, but you do not know to which enemy they refer to.
Imagine you're a woman who writes in a newspaper, and every time you write about women issues such as poverty, unemployment, and legal issues, they say: 'Never mind her, it is all women's talk.
Why don't the others commit Suicide?
Badriyya Al-Bishr is a lecturer in social sciences at King Saud University.
posted by Always On Watch @ 11/05/2005 07:14:00 AM
37 comments
37 Comments:
i find it difficult to do.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sad the value they place on women. I can't imagine, nor can I understand the mad left and their support for the jihadis. They are cutting their own throats and are blind to it.
Good post..I appreciate your site.
Women are strangely silent about the woes of the Muslimah! They burnt their bras not so many years ago, yet today they are silent. Whatever happened to the vociferous women who fought for their liberty? It's as if enslaving them by Muslims is somehow acceptable, whereas the few restrictions on them that used to be placed in the Christian West were not!
Women had better keep looking over their shoulder, since with the growth of Islam here in the West, there's no telling what life will be like for them in the years to come.
Life has its many twists and turns.
"They burnt their bras not so many years ago, yet today they are silent. "
In fact the feminist movement implies that reforming Islam is not a big deal, for the religion itself DOESN'T preevent gender equality.
It is only some conservative males who do not interpret the holy Quran correctly.
The are growing numbers of Muslim-Feminist web sites... in the Western countries of course.
This is just a part of of the radical-left movement/push to use Islam in dismantling the common evil - the Capitalist West.
How perverse, Felis!
For the most part, the world is silent about the matters presented in the article I posted. Where are the feminist groups? Why aren't they howling their heads off?
Two books (not particularly recent) present personal anecdotes about the situation with women in Muslim nations: Not without My Daughter and Princess. The Council on Islamic Education urges teachers in public schools not to show the movie version of the first book--all the more reason to have another look at that film, I think.
Great article...sad times. Sometimes the silence is deafening.
Where are all the gung-ho gay men ready to join the Army and put a stop to this?
Oh wait, there's a war on.
The left rails against theocracy but says nothing about it when practiced under the name of Allah.
France is a good example of the failure of the multicultural myth.
Just a little housekeeping...
I have deleted my first comment here because it is a duplicate of the article I posted. At first, I had to post the article in the comments section because I was having problems posting the text to this site. I switched computers and finally got the article where it belonged--on the home page.
Also, because there was a delay in getting the article up (only the title showed), Elmer's Brother made his wry comment, totally appropriate at the time.
Some old John Lennon music about a perfect Socialist world keeps running through my head when I read this post. I can't imagine any good coming from a Socialist world and I can't imagine any of the women I have ever met allowing anyone to treat them like they were some sub-human form of life.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
Mark,
"How perverse, Felis!"
I know.
Check this one out.
(Just a tiny sample of what's going on).
And of course Saudi charities cover the expenses.
http://www.redflag.org.uk/frontline/16/16islam.html
No one is thumping their chest about massive changes in Middle Eastern countries, Duck (you idiot). The post illustrates that Muslims are barbaric in a number of ways in their treatment toward women. Strangely, this seems to be okay with the leftist mindset. Where is the outcry against these kinds of human rights abuses?
To be fair, though, Muslims are not the only people who routinely abuse women. A few years ago, a televised report indicated that a Hindu man set his wife on fire because she had the audacity to deliver a female child as her first-born. Of course, there were no charges ever filed against the husband.
I am appalled that the UN has not attempted to ban the practice of female circumcision. I wonder why an organization dedicated to the rights of mankind hasn't taken up this topic as a matter of priority.
I think you all are emphasizing the negative a little too strongly. In certain environments (natural and cultural) the Islamic practice of shielding their women in "harems" and providing "escorts" for them in public is the only viable way of life and protecting them. To believe otherwise is, in my opinion, simply naive. It is only in the last century that civil society has been "safe enough" to allow women the same freedoms man have always enjoyed. For we now take the safety of our civilization and the protections offered by our society and government for granted.
However, when Muslims come into OUR environment, or "westernize" their own, they cannot expect to hold onto their ancient practices and traditions. They must assimilate into our culture or adapt, or not suffer surprise if they are discriminated against or essentially reviled for their "barbaric" practices. They must be prepared to "let their women go" and join the mainstream of American life. If they cannot, they should return to their homelands.
-FJ
ps - I'm not condoning wife beating or abuse... I just don't think that a blanket condemnation of Islam is in order... for the hills of Afghanistan is like stepping into America's wild wild west. Lots of bandits and indians to worry about, not to mention all the wild critters about. Perhaps mom ought to stay "indoors" and let pa handle the "outside" work.
-FJ
AOW,
Where are all of the radical, feminist types that use every opportunity to bash all men, when you need them? Why is NOW, Barbara Boxer, and even Hillary absent on this? They can sure show up for a Bush Bash Fest, and accuse him of setting back the cause of women's rights 30 years, but where are they when the rights of women are really being abused in other countries, especially those that follow Islam?
Duck, do you ever really read the entire article or do you scan for one part you can take out of context, blow it out of proportion, and turn it around to Bush and the evil corporations? Talk about tunnel vision.
The reason that Muslim men want to control "their" women is because of nothing more than insecurity. They need that control to affirm their "manliness". It's the same thing that Libearls accuse Conservative men of, but in this case it's true.
Muslim men are, basically, cowards. It's part of their culture that if anyone projects more power than they do, they back down. That's why negotiating with them is useless: it's seen as a weakness. If it weren't for the promise of "martyrdom" and 72 virgins (read "little girls"), none of them would put up a fight.
I've had a couple of confrontations with Muslim men (one was about to take a swing at my mother-in-law...I was torn). In each case, the second that I got in their face and asserted myself, they turned into craven, whining embarrasments.
If you're willing to fold that quickly in the face of a threat, you can't feel too good about your manhood, which explains why they love to oppress their women so much.
Exile,
Your comment just popped into my inbox, and I laughed out loud when I read that part about your mother-in-law: (one was about to take a swing at my mother-in-law...I was torn)
But the rest of your comment is serious indeed, and I think you're analysis is correct: insecurity, efforts to affirm manliness, the power trip, sexual relations with children (those 72 virgins), etc.
Generally speaking, those who try very hard to exert their power over other individuals are masking their own feelings of weakness.
Furthermore, Muslim men see women as evil and as evil temptresses.
And this part of the posted article bothers me a great deal: Imagine you're a woman whose husband breaks your nose, arm, or leg. When you file a complaint, the judge responds reproachfully, 'Is that all?' He believes physical abuse to be a natural occurrence amongst all families as the saying goes 'Beating the beloved is like eating raisins.' To me, that is barbaric!
Thanks, Exile, for stopping by.
Duck,
Your comments are coming out of left field (pun not intended, but it fits). The article posted here was written by a Saudi, I believe. And the focus of it is in line with Mustang's comment.
Are you not at all concerned with the poignant text of the posted article? From birth, females are relegated to the lower class just by virtue of their gender--a permanent trap.
I see no mention of the burqa in Toni's comment.
Get a grip, Duck. Not every single thought which crosses your mind pertains to the thread here.
FJ,
I think you all are emphasizing the negative a little too strongly. In certain environments (natural and cultural) the Islamic practice of shielding their women in "harems" and providing "escorts" for them in public is the only viable way of life and protecting them.
The posted article is itself a condemnation, and from a Saudi, at that.
As to protecting their women, I don't think some of the escorting is all about protection from harm, though that might be an element in some cases, particularly in the wilderness. But the same type of escorting occurs in areas not in the wilds, so to speak. I think the escorting in metropolitan areas has more to do with protecting property, which women as regarded as.
Of course, we totally agree on this: However, when Muslims come into OUR environment, or "westernize" their own, they cannot expect to hold onto their ancient practices and traditions.
Did you notice the article's reference to the 21st Century? Important, I think, at least in the eyes of that writer.
In some cases I've read, fundamentalist Muslims aren't willing to do so, even here in the United States. I've read that in Canada some Muslims want shari'a law applied to their cultural variant of wife-beating.
LA,
Duck doesn't care about the articles. He cares only about his own pontificating. Everything in Duck's world has to lead back to the failings of the current administration.
As to the feminists, they just aren't saying much. I guess the issue of this post doesn't fit their agenda.
Beak,
I thought theocracy went out of style long ago, but apparently I was wrong.
David,
Utopias have never succeeded. Lennon's dream was only that--a dream, and an impossible one.
Samwich,
There was a law irrevokably decreed in the heavens before the world was; that all of the pain and suffering you cause, you will suffer.
Beware the consequences of the offense to one of His princesses, you will be held accountable. The unjust will be subjected to justice.
Justice can be a long time in coming, however. And for some, the interim suffering seems interminable. In this life, we should do everything we can to alleviate that suffering. I think that last might be the unspoken words in the article I posted.
Beamish,
gung-ho gay men
Don't ask, don't tell--but mostly in peacetime.
Toni and Esther,
The silence you've both mentioned is what disturbs me the most.
Some of you may already have a copy of a book titled "Princess," the autobiography of a Saudi woman brought up in an upper crust family.
It makes interesting reading, especially since it is about the personal, real-life experiences of a woman living in this society.
I am re-doing the floor of the room the computer is in, so a lot of my books have been boxed up and moved out, so I can't give you anything more than the title, but I just wanted to throw the title out there in case someone has a use for such material.
Duck is great!
Lets take this one a paragraph at a time:
Mustang, get a grip. The U.N. has actively tried to stop female circumcision. Surely you know that cultural norms die hard. Take the American problem of ex-military strutting around mumbling "freedom isn't free" when they haven't done anything useful in 60 years.
Never mind that whole Cold War thing. Or the countless skirmishes that have kept a great deal of nations free, reguardless of their thanks. Oh, and the extreme liberty with which we have been able to expand our economy because we fear no nation’s reprival. Other than keeping America number friggin 1 in the world… your right. By the way, you enjoy the Stars and Stripes over the Hammer and Sickle?
I defy you to prove that it is in fact Islam that is the issue or whether it is tribal norms. If you can tell me how encouraging economic growth will further repress women I am ready to listen but here's the fact. Your dopey hero President Chimpy with his pathetic "Bring 'Em On" has managed to harden the feeling that the west is at war with all of Islam and has caused a decline in women's rights.
Tribal norms over the entire Muslim world? Pakistan, Saudi, Iran, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Syria, etc… They are all part of the same tribe with the same tradition of beating their woman? Did you ever read my post “Peaceful Islam” (http://americacentered.blogspot.com/2005/11/shining-example-of-peaceful-islam.html)? If not, I suggest you read about other neat tribal customs we are supposed to accept under your idiot boy mentality. Woman’s Rights… but only if it doesn’t offend anyone? Don’t be a tool
As far as battering goes...we should look closer to home and stop the high occurrence among police. It's a problem all through the western world as well as Islam. Spain needed a socialist government to really start getting tough on it recently.
Again, you want everyone to forget the common, everyday practice of feminen brutality in the Muslim world, and shift focus onto the very isolated events of law enforcement taking things too far. Your mind works so partisan, and so warped, it is amazing you can make Chicken Noodle Soup without going on a protest march to promote the rights of Chickens (and noodles?). How about we let the law take it’s course, as it does 90% of the time in those cases, and we will keep the focus on this issue, where the law doesn’t take the right course (it protects the abusers). Spain has a socialist government because Islamo-fascists had success there. That is what they would like to do everywhere: influence governments, and force voters to change things to meet the radical’s agenda. You really think that the current government in Spain will be good for the Spanish, check back in 5 years when their entire economy is on the verge of collapse.
Your cliched ignorance of the U.N. commision on women's rights is not surprising, but things move despite you. A woman may be elected head of Nigeria. A major advance. Things have regressed in Iraq but we always have to pay for the missteps of the cliched "freedom isn't free" crowd and their mischief.
Things have regressed in Iraq to the point that now those crazy women are “choosing” to wear their veils. I still venture to say it’s better than when Saddam’s sons would roll up, kidnap them, rape, murder, and then deliver the head to the father. And you are going to proclaim the success of the UN over Nigeria allowing woman to be elected head of the government? How about we stack that one with Darfur, and the millions of cases of woman’s rights abuses they ignore? They still loose. By this logic, hell, Bush should be a smashing success in your book. He has told everyone repeatedly that Islam is a “religion of peace”, so, as you do with the UN, ignore everything else he says or does, and point to that… call him a success.
Oh wait, that violates your party lines… sorry.
In Pakistan, an estimated 75% of the woman in prison are woman who claimed to have been raped. Sharia law states that there must be 4 men present who actually witnessed the penetration to convict the rapist. Wouldn't it be obvious that if they are 4 man present that they would stop it? In Nigeria a pregnant woman was sentenced to be stoned because of infidelity. The woman claimed her neighbor raped her but he said he didn't know her even though there were witnesses who did say he knew who she was. At present, her sentence has been stayed by Nigeria. In many Muslim societies, a woman needs permission just to leave her house on an errand. By law one man's word is equal to the word of 2 women. Sharia law also allows for the husband to beat her if she displeases him. A man may divorce his wife by simply saying "I divorce you" three times. If at the end of three menses cycles she is not pregnant, then the divorce is legal.
On a quick sidebar...the Koran doesn't mention that women should be veiled or not. It was actually a custom that was being practiced by both pagan Arabs and Byzantium Christians before the birth of Islam.
Mustang, get a grip. The U.N. has actively tried to stop female circumcision. Surely you know that cultural norms die hard.
I agree that cultural norms are difficult to change, duck for brains, but you appear to have forgotten to include citations in your claim that the UN has actively tried to stop female circumcision. What, in particular, has the UN accomplished? Oh . . . wait . . . the issue appeared on an agenda for some non-descript low-level meeting? How many abuses occur while bureaucrats chew the fat and accomplish little else than drawing a heft salary? I can see that you, like most leftists, are big on “trying” and small on “accomplishment.” By the way, could this be the SAME United Nations that placed Momar Khadafi in charge of the human commission?
I defy you to prove that it is in fact Islam that is the issue or whether it is tribal norms.
Duck, your lack of basic knowledge (considering the fact that you claim to be an educator) is astounding. Are you attempting to tell us that it is possible to remove religion from cultural mores? Religion (or its absence) is a basis of all human behavior, and therefore cultural behavior – please write that down so that you don’t embarrass yourself in the future.
As far as battering goes...we should look closer to home and stop the high occurrence among police.
Yes, duck . . . if you are unable to make a rational argument, be sure to change the topic under discussion. We are discussing the quality of life among Middle Eastern (sans Muslim) women, not police abuses here in the United States. I hope you are taking meds for your AADHD. All of us deplore instances of abuses of power, Duck. The fact that it happens in the US does not justify occurrences in other nations, does it? It is true that people abuse women here, but you might note that there are laws that protect our citizens from abusive husbands (and/or wives). Now as it happens, the Qu'ran does include passages designed to protect women, but somehow those suras are largely ignored.
Things have regressed in Iraq . . .
What things, Duck? You might do us all a favor (as well as yourself) by consulting more than one source of information, and then thinking carefully about the issue before commenting on it . . . and you might try being specific in the future.
Now it so happens that I find your lack of manners irritating, but it is possible that you are not as bad as you make yourself look. Why don’t you try “discussion” rather than personal attacks and snide remarks – who knows, with some extra effort on your part, you might actually develop a personality.
Mustang,
You just don't understand Ducky. Try huffing a garbage bag full of paint thinner fumes.
Then, and only then will you believe, as Ducky does, that we're "losing a war" to a country that "is not a threat."
Mustang,
"What things, Duck? You might do us all a favor (as well as yourself) by consulting more than one source of information, and then thinking carefully about the issue before commenting on it ."
Duck's information in almost every argument he takes on, is propaganda straight out of the playbook from outfits like the DNC, MoveOn.Org, and the Howard Deaniac Foundation. Almost ever bit of it. What he doesn't use from their scripted delusions, he makes up.
"Why don’t you try “discussion” rather than personal attacks and snide remarks – who knows, with some extra effort on your part, you might actually develop a personality."
And then again, maybe not.
Duck,
Personal message here...I got that book you mentioned (on another thread at this blog) from the library yesterday. I'll try to get to it soon.
Dear Commenters:
I see you're all having a good time here. LOL.
If I have anything to add, I'll be back by this thread later in the week. Too many papers to grade right now!
"Duck, your lack of basic knowledge (considering the fact that you claim to be an educator) is astounding."
OMG, Duck is an educator? Say not so!
Well, I'm not surprised, since most of our schools have been infested with collectivists like this, be it in the form of Liberals,Progressives, Socialists, Communists, Fascists, or Nazis. They're all collectivists, and they all disvalue the individual and his rights. They just don't understand that if the rights of the individual are protected, then the rights of the group as a whole are protected.
That's the reason--the disvaluing of the individual and his rights--that collectivism of all sorts, including our Liberal friends in the U.S. today, and the Nazis of WWII Germany, finds itself in bed with Islam.
We have to get through to the children. They have to understand what the Founders understood. We mustn't lose any more time.
Cubed,
Yes, Duck tells us that he is an educator--a teacher of videography. He once referred to his students as "revolutionaries" or "Trotskyites," I think; but later he said that he wasn't being literal.
if the rights of the individual are protected, then the rights of the group as a whole are protected
Lincoln-Douglass Debate, aka values debate, teaches that relativism is a principle to be lauded. Makes a mockery of the very term "values debate," doesn't it? Many debate clubs in our public schools focus on values debate. Maybe policy debate is too objective for promoting the leftist agenda.
You're right, Cubed: Time is of the essence! And a major problem is that the educators themselves have been corrupted and cannot think with discernment. Furthermore, with Susan Douglass (convert to Wahhabism) sitting on the advisory boards for social-studies texts, curriculum is not reliable.
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