Hi Carolyn; Okay. I clicked, and I learned. But it would have been simpler if you'd given a description.
In the name of Islam - Women are being abused, even mutilated
Ann Louise Bardach, Readers' Digest, March 1994
In April 1991, a 22-year-old Saudi woman arrived at Montreal's Mirabel Airport and requested asylum on the ground of "gender-related persecution." She told authorities that if Canada forced her to return to Saudi Arabia, her life would be in danger. Her crime? Walking outside her home without being enveloped from head to toe in a black chador.
Initially, the woman's request was rejected. Canadian officials were apparently reluctant to believe that women in Saudi Arabia today live as third-class citizens. In fact, they do: Saudi women are not allowed to drive, to marry whom they want or to travel without written permission from a male guardian, and they are the target of frequent searches by the Mutawwai'in, dreaded religious police.
Following an outcry, Canada finally granted the woman asylum. However, some people feared that the decision would lead to an influx of women asylum-seekers. One official commented, "There are one billion Muslims in the world, so we're talking hypothetically about 500 million who might want out."
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"Search for Identity." The issue is not Islam - the world's fastest growing religion - but extremist fundamentalism, which uses Islam as a billy club. "In Islam, the communion is direct between God and the individual," says Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan. "But throughout the Muslim world, you have clerics saying that Muslims don't know what's good for them. They say a woman has to look down at the floor. But the Prophet said the best veils is the veil in the eyes."
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Last May, the World Health Organisation adopted a resolution sponsored by several African countries calling for the elimination of female genital mutilation, which is performed on an estimated two million children each year, ranging in age from infancy to adolescence.
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Arrange Marriages.
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In the past decade, the West has been confronted with a series of unfamiliar legal, medical and ethical problems, says Ahmed Jamal, a London film maker who was raised in Pakistan. His recent British TV film documented the career of Tahir Mahmood, a former cabdriver from Huddersfield, England, which tracks down runaway wives and daughters. Some of them were escaping physical abuse or were trying to dodge arranged marriages.
The film triggered public outrage, which stunned Mahmood. He believed that "he was a public servant of sorts, putting back together good Muslim families," says Jamal.
Scottish lawyer Cameron Fyfe represents Muslim clients forced into arranged marriages. In October 1992 he won an annulment for one woman on the ground that she had been forced into marriage when she was under the legal age.
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Attempted Censorship. In the United States as well, among a small segment of American Muslims there is a resentment bordering on hostility toward any kind of scrutiny or criticism of Islam. When the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a series on women and Islamic fundamentalism, it was besieged with letter accusing it of racism and Muslim-bashing.
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themodernreligion.com
-- Carl
P.S. Thanks to Carolyn for the link. |
