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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (101778)	6/16/2003 7:34:48 PM
From: NickSE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Would that be the same Qaradawi who issed the fatwa stating women can now blow themselves up? Hamas was persuaded to accept truce by fatwa from pro-al Qaeda preacher Qaradawi presented by Egyptian mediators. Truce will be announced next week in Cairo. First, partial Israel troop redeployment planned. Equality in the Arab world - Shira A. Drissman southend.wayne.edu Women have finally achieved equal rights in the Arab World. They are now officially allowed to blow themselves up on homicide/suicide missions. Congratulations to all! Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the dean of Islamic Studies at the University of Qatar and a leading Islamic scholar, issued this statement in response to a suicide bombing in Israel last week by a Muslim woman: "Women's participation in the martyrdom operations...is one of the most praised acts of worship. Also, the act is a form of martyrdom for the cause of Allah, and it entitles them, inshallah, to the same reward earned by their male counterparts who also die in the cause of Allah... This obligation reaches the extent that a woman should go out for jihad even without the permission of her husband, and the son without the consent of his parents." Qaradawi also added that Muslim women may violate Islamic traditions by traveling without a male relative and not wearing a veil, but only during an attack and only if these measures would help them to blow people up more effectively. Let us analyze this wonderful statement of equality. The issue here is the question about what women will receive in the afterlife. According to this scholar, she will receive exactly what her male counterpart suicide attacker gets. And as we know from the Hadith (Islamic tradition), the afterlife caters to male fantasies. So what is it again that the female homicide bomber will get? So Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi allows for Islamic tradition to be broken in order for a homicide bombing to go forward. Look at the exceptions to the rule: women can leave their homes without a male relative escorting her and they can remove their veils in order to carry out an attack. Wow, good for them. I wonder if the Sheikh will even allow them to drive a car in order to carry out the attack. Hey, it's a start. Let us not impede progress. If this is the beginning of the Equality for Women movement in the Middle East, we should probably look into other issues such as: the right to free speech, the to marry whoever she wants (as opposed to whoever her father wants her to marry), the right not to be murdered by a family member to save family honor, the right to have an education, the right to not be handled like a piece of property, and maybe, just maybe, the right to vote (but perhaps we are looking too far ahead). It is about time that equal rights for women crept into Middle Eastern culture, but we should keep in mind that, in this case, equal rights for some means death and terror for others. But let us not be spoil sports about all of this. Instead, let us cheer on Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and support him in his courageous struggle for women's equality. Female homicide bombers are one small step forward for Arab women and one giant leap backward for mankind.