Saturday, March 12, 2011

Turning a Blind Eye to Islam’s Brutal Treatment of Women

By Phyllis Chesler in New York City

My feminist generation believed in universal human rights — one standard for all. I still do. Therefore, I have taken a strong stand against the persecution of immigrant women and dissidents. I now submit affidavits on behalf of women who have fled the threat of such killings and who are seeking asylum in the United States.

Those of us who condemn the plight of such women, who are mainly Muslims and ex-Muslims, have been demonized in activist circles as “Islamophobes” and racists because we do not, in the same breath, blame America, the West or Israel for their suffering. Many Western academic feminists are so afraid of being condemned as “racists” that this fear trumps their concern for women’s rights in the Arab and Muslim world.

Islamic gender apartheid, which has penetrated the West, is characterized by normalized daughter- and wife-battering, forced veiling, female genital mutilation, polygamy, purdah (the segregation or sequestration of women), arranged marriage, child marriage and first-cousin marriage. Girls and women often are honour-murdered if they resist such practices, if they wish to divorce a dangerously abusive husband, or if they are viewed as too independent, too modern.

Today, at its most extreme, Islamic gender apartheid is characterized by acid attacks, public stonings, hangings, and beheading of women in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Saudi Arabia — countries in which female rape victims are jailed, tortured and executed.

Feminists should be crying out from the rooftops against these practices. Some are. I am. Yet, many Muslims, as well as many intellectually “progressive” Western infidels, are not. They are welcoming the imposition of Islamic religious law, Sharia law, not only in the Middle East but also in the West. (Read more.)

3 comments:

GreekAsianPanda said...

I read an article today about the dress codes for women at three conservative Christian colleges. The dress codes, of course, demanded modesty of the colleges' young ladies (shirts must have sleeves, necklines may only be a couple of inches below the collarbone, shorts must not be above the knee, etc.). The article's readers who commented in the comments section thought it was awful. One of them even went so far as to say, "And Americans say Muslims are bad," implying that these Christian girls are treated just as badly as Muslim girls in Islamic countries. What a joke! A little modesty is something girls need, but to compare it to what Muslim women in Islamic countries endure--that's ridiculous.

Pretending that America is just as bad with women as in Islamic countries is another way to turn a blind eye to the suffering of women in the Muslim world.

Fernando said...

Will WomenforLies comment on this article? After her laste debacle arounde here, I doubt...

minoria said...

Most feminist leaders can not accept the fact the Koran itself,not just cultural practices,has passages that are anti-feminist,anti-woman.

There should be a debate between a feminist and a Muslim woman on "Is the Koran Anti-Feminist?"

The Koran has several anti-feminist passages.The logic is Islam is anti-feminist.I took the trouble of finding the 13 or more extremist passages in the Koran and they are here,including the anti-feminist one:

http://www.antisharia.com/2011/03/14/about-the-argument-of-diversity-in-islam-and-the-extremist-passages-in-the-koran-2/