From: Walpurgis (walpurg@myrealbox.com)
Date: Sat Jul 13 2002 - 02:34:35 MDT
This is at once fascinating and appalling, but could you *please*
provide a source other than the author? Do you have a link or ook
reference?
many thanks
Walpurgis
On 13 Jul 2002 at 3:01, joedees@bellsouth.net wrote:
> Islam and Women's Rights
> By Azam Kamguian
> Religion in general and Islam in particular are women's enemy.
> Women's inequality is god's commandment, in Islam enshrined in
> immutable law by Mohammad and eventually recorded in
> scripture. In most countries under Islamic states or under the
> influence of Islam, Koran's directives are incorporated into
> contemporary law. Family law in these countries generally follows the
> prescriptions of Koran. Veiling (hijab), divorce laws, a very young
> legal age of marriage, custody of children, polygamy, women's
> rightlessness in matters of employment, travelling, choosing the place
> of residence, honour killing are all aspects of Islamic Shari'a based
> on the Koran and Islam's doctrine. Together with these, in countries
> under the Islamic states, women are stoned to death for engaging in
> voluntary sexual relations and are stripped of their basic human
> rights. As many Western and Eastern apologists for Islam repeatedly
> tell us that what is happening to women in the so -called Islamic
> countries is not according to real Islam, and that real Islam is
> egalitarian, I mainly refer to the Koran. Laws about women are the
> most cruel, inhumane and cunning aspects of the Koran and Islamic
> Shari'a. Women are the Inferior Sex: The rigid laws of Islam have
> deprived half of the population of their basic human rights. The male
> is in charge of the female: Koran 4:34, and the subjugated half is led
> to believe, through Islamic teachings, that the supremacy of the man
> is the will of Allah, and it has been predestined for women to live as
> submissive, obedient wives. They are forced to accept that women are
> inferior to men, that their testimony is equal to only half that of
> the man, that they should inherit one - half of the male share, that
> Allah doesn't want to see any women unveiled, that she may not
> conserve with men except her father, or her brother. The proper job
> and position for women is taking care of home, children and to be a
> housewife. The majority of Muslim women are brought up with the
> conviction that it is Allah's command for them to be under male
> dominance and their fates are interwoven with that of men. In The
> Koran there are four so called neutral verses where women are
> considered equal to men (at least not demeaning towards women); to
> which apologists for Islam refer us repeatedly. Here are those: 3: 195
> "Their Lord responded to the: "I never fail to reward any worker among
> you for any work you do, be you male or female, you are equal to one
> another¦." 4: 124 "As for those who lead a righteous life, male or
> female. While believing, they enter paradise; without the slightest
> injustice" 16: 97 "Anyone who works righteousness, male or female,
> while believing, we will surely grant them a happy life in this world,
> and we will surely pay them their full recompense for their righteous
> works." 40: 40 "Whoever commits a sin is required for just that, and
> whoever works righteousness - male or female - while believing, these
> will enter paradise wherein they receive provision without any
> limits." In opposition to above four so-called neutral verses, there
> are hundreds of versed that deliberately defame and dehumanise women:
> An-Nisa 4: 34 "As to those women On whose part ye fear disloyalty and
> ill -conduct, admonish them (first), (next) refuse to share beds, (and
> Last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not
> against them means (of annoyance): For God is Most High, Great (above
> you all)" Al - Baqara 2: 223 "Your women are a tilt for you (to
> cultivate) so go to your tilt as ye will, and send (good deeds) before
> you for your souls, and fear Allah, and know that ye will (one day)
> meet Him. Give glad tidings to believers, (o Mohammad)" Al - Baqara 2:
> 222 "They questioned thee (O Mohammad) concerning menstruation, Say it
> is an illness, so let women alone at such times and go not unto them
> till they are cleansed." Al - Baqara 2: 228 "Men, your wives are your
> tillage. Go into your tillage any way you want." "Women have such
> honourable rights as obligations, but men have a (single) degree above
> them." "Men are managers of the affairs of women because Allah has
> preferred men over women and women were expended of their rights." 4:
> 6 ¦ "And if ye are sick on a journey, or one of you cometh from the
> closet, or ye have contact with a woman & ye find not water, then go
> to clean high ground & rub your faces & your hands with some of it¦"
> 33: 32-33 "O ye wives of the prophet! Ye are not like any other women.
> If ye keep your duty (to Allah), then be not soft of speech lest he in
> whose heart is a disease aspire to you, but utter customary speech And
> stay in your houses. Bedizen not yourselves with the bedizenment of
> the time of ignorance. Be regular in prayer, & pay the poor due, 7
> obey Allah & His messenger ¦" Hadith, Mohammad's Tradition: "If a man
> and woman are alone in one place, the third person present is the
> devil." "I was shown the hell- fire and that the majority of its
> dwellers were women who were ungrateful" " If it had been given me to
> order someone to prostrate themselves in front of someone other than
> God, I would surely have ordered women to prostrate themselves in
> front of their husbands¦" "A woman cannot fulfil her duties towards
> god without first having accomplished those that she owes her
> husband." "The woman who dies & with whom the husband is satisfied
> will go to paradise." "A wife should never refuse herself to her
> husband even if it is on the saddle of a camel." "Hellfire appeared to
> me in a dream & I noticed that it was above all people with women who
> had been ungrateful. "Was it towards god that they were ungrateful?"
> They had not shown any gratitude towards their husbands for all they
> had received from them ¦ Even when all your life you have showered a
> woman with your largesse she will still find something petty to
> reproach you with one day, saying, "You have never done anything for
> me." " If anything presages a bad omen it is a house, a woman, and a
> horse." " Never will a people know success if they confide their
> affairs to a woman." Veiling (hijab) One of the most misogynist
> Islamic laws with respect to women is the requirement for complete
> veiling (hijab) in accordance with koranic tenets. The wearing of the
> veil was instituted by Mohammad in the early days of Islam. Within
> about one hundred years of his death, the institution of veiling and
> seclusion had been spread all over the Middle East. One and a half
> centuries after his death, the system was fully established. The
> effect of all kinds of veils is the same, the woman is rendered
> anonymous, a non -person, unapproachable, just a silent being skulking
> along. She is taboo. The Islamic head- cover mentioned in Koran 33:
> 59, and the curtain referred to in Koran 33: 53, which was meant to
> separate the man from the woman. Why is Islam so obsessed with keeping
> men and women part? Why have Islam gone to such great lengths to
> maintain control over women? The main reason for hijab is the need for
> controlling women's sexuality. Veiling internalises the Islamic notion
> in women that they belong to an inferior sex, and that they are sex
> objects. It teaches them to limit their physical movements and their
> free behaviour. Veiling is a powerful tool to institutionalise women's
> segregation and to implement a system of sexual apartheid. It
> signifies the subjugation and servitude of women based on Islamic
> doctrine and Koranic teachings. Much more than a way of clothing,
> hijab is the manifestation of an outright Islamic misogynism and an
> antiquated view on women's status. It is designed to control women's
> sexuality much more effectively than any other religion or ideological
> system. The following quote is attributed to Mohammad by a number of
> Hadith collectors: "A woman is a pudendum (awrat) which is proper to
> hide and cover; therefor when a woman goes out Satan looks at her and
> desire to carry her from the road." In the eyes of Mohammad, according
> to this quote, all male believers are potential "Satans" who might try
> to take unconcealed women for themselves. Mohammad himself was one of
> the men who were unable to control their lust upon looking at women.
> Once he visited the home of Zayd, his adopted son, and there saw
> Zaynab, Zayd's wife, half-naked. Mohammad's obvious desire for the
> woman eventually led to the divorce of Zayd from his wife and shortly
> thereafter Mohammad married her himself. The law of veiling is not
> only humiliating to women, but it is an insult to men. It is a clear
> indication that, in the eyes of Mohammad; all Muslim males were
> sex-crazed. The obvious Implication is that seeing a woman without a
> veil would cause the typical Muslim male to lose control and that
> unveiled women would constantly be subjected to unwanted sexual
> advances. Veil (hijab) is imposed on women in many countries under the
> influence of Islam, either legally or under cultural and social
> pressure. During the last thirty years, hijab has been and continues
> to be the political and ideological symbol of political Islam, Islamic
> states and the Islamic movement in the Middle East, North Africa and
> Central Asia. Women have been the first - hand victims of this
> reactionary movement, and imposing the veil on women by Islamic
> movement and Islamic governments has been their fist bloody action to
> suppress the whole society. In other countries, Saudi women typically
> don a billowy black cloak called an Abaya, along with a black scarf
> and veil over the face. Morality police enforce the dress code by
> striking errant women with sticks. The women of Iran and the Sudan can
> expose the face, but should cover the hair and the neck. Otherwise
> they face arrest, imprisonment, flagging, cash fines; and if they
> refuse it, they face knife and acid attack. Under Taliban, women of
> Afghanistan had to wear burqa. Political Islamic groups vigorously
> campaign to block reforms in women's civil rights in the Middle East
> and North Africa. As long as Islam secludes women from the public
> life, no real socio-economic progress is possible. The Wild and Naked
> Misogyny in the Koran The most despicable expression one can ever come
> across is that according to Hadith, women of heaven will be created in
> such a way that after each sexual intercourse, they will become virgin
> again. What a wild and naked misogyny! What an insult to women and to
> humans! Here, I quote Koranic verses about Huris, virgins and the
> sexist nature of Islam. These are few among many in the Koran: 52:
> 17-20 "They will recline (with ease) on thrones arranged in ranks. And
> We shall marry them to Huris with wide lovely eye. There they shall
> pass from hand to hand a cup of wine." 37:40-48 "They will sit with
> bashful, dark - eyed virgins, as chaste as the sheltered eggs of
> ostriches." 44:52-55 "Yes and we shall wed them to dark- eyed
> beautiful virgins." 55:56-57 "In them will be bashful virgins neither
> man nor Jinn will have touched before. Then which of favourites of
> your Lord will you deny?" 78: 31 "As for the righteous, they surely
> triumph. Their gardens and vineyards and high - breast virgins for
> companions, truly overflowing cup of wine." 78: 33-34 "And young full
> - breasted (mature) maidens of equal age, and a full cup of wine."
> "Then which of the blessings of your Lord will you both (Jinn and men)
> deny? (In beauty) they are like rubies and corals." 56: 7-40 "Owe
> created the Huris and made them virgins, loving companions for those
> on the right hands." 55: 70-77 "In each there shall be virgins chaste
> and fair, dark eyed virgins sheltered in their tents whom neither man
> nor Jinn have touched before." 56: 22 "And there will be Huris with
> wide, lovely eyes as wives for the pious." 56: 35-36 "Verily, We have
> created them (maidens) of special creation. And made them virgins."
> 40: 45 "Surely for the God - fearing awaits a place of security
> gardens and vineyards and maidens with swelling breasts." The tidings:
> 30 "The Huris are ever - young women who have wide eyes, flexing
> glances and swelling breasts." Divorce According to the Koran and
> Islamic law, a man has the right to terminate his marriage whenever
> and wherever he pleases. It is the absolute power of a Muslim male to
> repudiate his wife unilaterally at his discretion. He needs no reason
> for a divorce; a family quarrel or bad temper is sufficient. Divorce
> does not require any court, judge, lawyer, or counsellor. One phrase
> from a husband is enough to break the marriage bond: "you are
> divorced." The Koran states: "If ye wish to exchange one wife for
> another¦." (4:20), giving the absolute power to the man to repudiate
> his wife and marry another without any formalities. In fact more than
> two dozens verses in Allah's scripture explain the modes of divorce
> (Koran 2: 226, 227, 228, 230 -37, 241, 242; 4: 19-21, 130; 33: 49; 58:
> 3, 4; 63: 1-7; 4: 35). According to Islamic law, when a man wishes to
> divorce his wife, all he has to do is to say: "you are divorced," or
> "you are dismissed." In the second half of the 20th century, based on
> some legal changes in some of the Middle Eastern countries, men are
> required to be present in family courts and repudiated their wives
> before a judge. A man may divorce a wife and call her back up to three
> times. After the third repudiation, he cannot take her back again
> unless she marries and is separated from someone else first. Fear of
> poverty keeps many women locked in bad marriages, as does the prospect
> of losing their children. Typically, fathers win custody of boys over
> the age of six and girls after the onset of puberty. A woman can sue
> for divorce in the Islamic court on the specific grounds, such as the
> impotency of her husband, non-payment of maintenance, or his insanity.
> Cruelty is not sufficient grounds for divorce because wife beating is
> enjoined in the Koran. When a woman applies to the court for an
> injunction of divorce, and the husband is not willing to repudiate
> her, the procedure can be very lengthy and in most cases is futile.
> The offering of financial consideration of some sort is commonly the
> repayment of the bride- price. When the marriage is contracted, a sum
> of money is stipulated to be paid by the husband to the wife or her
> male kinsmen before or after the wedding. This is called mahr (bride-
> price), which means marriage settlement or dowry. A man who divorces
> his wife must pay the full amount of the bride- price. When the wife
> agrees to buy her freedom, it is called khula in Arabic, which means
> something belonging to the wife is taken away from her. "There is no
> sin for either of them if the woman ransom herself." (Koran 2:229) The
> text of the scripture makes clear that the wife is actually paying
> money to her husband to get her freedom. This is ransom money,
> reminiscent of the ancient Arabian nomad's rite, which allowed the
> release of the booty or captive of the raids after receiving a ransom
> or head - price. Thus, in Islam a man actually buys his wife when he
> bargains over the bride - price (mahr) and sells his wife's freedom
> back to her when a financial settlement is paid for by her for a
> divorce. The legal Age of Marriage At the age of 9, based on lunar
> year (when a girl is actually 8 years and 8 months) she is considered
> an adult and has to pray, fast and cover herself by hijab and eligible
> to be married. Mohammad's favourite wife, Aisha; according to
> evidence, was 6 when Mohammad met her, and nine when the marriage
> consummated. Custody of Children According to Islamic law, woman
> cannot get custody of her children, even if their father dies. In the
> case of divorce or death, she surrenders her children to their father
> and /or his family. Women's other Civil Rights Women living under
> Islamic Law cannot travel, work, study, and leave their houses without
> their fathers or husbands' permission. They do not have the right to
> choose the place of their residence. Under the terms of Koranic law,
> any judge fulfilling the seven requirements (that he have reached
> puberty, be a believer, know the Koranic laws perfectly, be just, and
> not be affected by amnesia, or not born illegitimate, or be of the
> female sex), is qualified to dispense justice in any type of cases.
> According to Islamic Law, woman cannot choose her mate and is not
> permitted to divorce him. Her husband can divorce without her
> knowledge, and according to Shari'a, he is required to support her for
> only 100 days. Polygamy According to the Koran a man can have four
> permanent wives and as many temporary wives as he wants: 2: 3 And of
> ye are apprehensive that ye shall not deal fairly with orphans, then,
> of other women who seem good in your eyes marry but two, or three or
> four, and if ye still fear that ye shall not act equitably, then one
> only; or the slaves whom ye have acquired. Al -Nisa 4: 24 "And all
> married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your
> right hand possess. ¦" "Also (prohibited are) women already married
> except those whom your right hands possess: ¦" 33: 52 "It is not
> lawful for thee (to marry more) women after this, nor to change them
> for (other) wives, even though their beauty attract thee, except any
> thy right hand should possess (as handmaidens): and Allah doth watch
> over all things." Al - Nisa 4: 34 "Marry such women as seem good to
> you, two, three, four; but if you fear you will not be equitable, then
> only one, or what your right hands own; so it is likelier you will not
> be partial." 23: 1,5,6 "Happy now the believers, humble is their
> prayers, shunning vain conversation, paying the poor -due, and who
> restrain their appetites except with their wives or the slaves whom
> their right hands possess: for in that case they shall be free from
> blame." 33: 49-51 "O prophet! We allow thee they wives whom thou hast
> dowered, and the slaves whom thy right hand possesseth out of the
> booty which God hath granted thee, and the daughters of thy uncles,
> thy paternal and maternal aunts who fled with thee to Medina, and any
> believing woman who hath given herself up to the Prophet, if the
> prophet desired to wed her - a privilege for thee above the rest of
> the Faithful. We well know what we have settled for them, in regard to
> their wives and to the slaves¦; that there may be no fault on thy part
> ¦ Thou mayest decline for the present whom thou wilt of them, and thou
> mayest take to thy bed her whom thou wilt, and whomsoever thou shalt
> long for those thou shalt have before neglected, and this shall not be
> a crime in thee." Honour Killing Honour killings are an example of a
> practice that is commonly associated with Islam. It has broader root
> and has been incorporated into Islamic rules and Islamic law; Shari'a.
> It is based in medireview tribal culture, in which a family's
> authority and ultimately its survival is tightly linked to its honour.
> Muslim perpetrators repeatedly justify their crime by referring to the
> Koran that states harsh punishments for adultery.
> *****************
> Civilised humanity has slowly moved towards the equal treatment
> of women and the recognition of women's equal rights. Religions
> are one of the oldest and the most persistent obstacles on the way of
> women's equality and freedom. Indeed, religion is women's enemy and it
> is the nature of all religions particularly Islam to look backwards to
> past ancient times and antiquated values. Women will be universally
> equal someday, when that day comes, it will arrive in spite of all
> religions and as a result of a just and powerful fight against Islam
> and all other religions.
>
>
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