Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Anne Marie Waters: Sharia Law and Middle Class Feminism

It's good to finally see a call for consistency in the feminist community. Anne Marie Waters concludes that the attitude among many feminists ("We're against domestic abuse, but not when it comes to women from the Muslim world") is sheer racism.

UNITED KINGDOM--On Saturday, I was honoured to attend the launch of the International Sindhi Women's Organisation. Here was a group of brave, principled, and intelligent British Pakistani women who had come together to talk about their future, their fears, and most importantly, their rights.

They discussed forced marriage (and what to do about it),"honour" killings, and sharia law among other important issues that affect them. However, quite what the middle-class, predominantly white, 20-somethings I met on Sunday would have to say to these women is anyone's guess – but it might contain a strong hint of "shut up and accept your culture".

On Sunday, I spoke at the University of Kent's Critical Law Society conference under the heading of 'Equality: Are We There Yet?'

I was invited to speak alongside pro-sharia advocate Aina Khan (more on her later) and a PhD student (more on her later as well) and found myself in a not-too-unfamiliar situation of having to argue against domestic violence in opposition to a room full of "feminists".

Having described how sharia family law in Britain allows men to beat their wives - as the testimony of women who have been through it confirms – the "feminists" weren't quite sure whether or not they disapproved. I was met with highly accusatory questions such as How can we be multicultural if we don't allow sharia?, and comments such as We must tolerate … well, pretty much everything from what I could make out. With the mumblings and applause in favour of my opponents, I was left in no doubt as to the company I was keeping.

Here's how it seems to go: "We are feminists. We are incredibly right-on. We read the Guardian. We disapprove of women's breasts getting a public airing and we strongly object to the fact that boards of directors are not 50% female. We will go absolutely ballistic if anyone dare understate how vile domestic violence is, or attempt in any way to justify it. We are feminists you see. Oh, but only when it comes to white women – did we mention that?"

At this point you may, as I do, envisage them leaning forward a bit, hands back-to-back between knees and continuing - "You're different you see. You come from funny countries where people are a bit strange and where women don't seem to mind a punch in the mouth quite as much we would. You can't possibly expect us to stand up with you against violence. Violence is your culture. Now, stop being such a racist and accept it".

I'll now come back to the PhD student sitting next to me and falling over her good self to sell the beauty of sharia to us all. Following the meeting, I turned to her and said "I bet you think you're a feminist right?" She answered a very emphatic Yes. So I asked her if she condemns sharia. "Nope".

Well then you're not a feminist.

Now let me explain. A feminist stands up for women because they are women, not because they are white, middle class, English speaking, Christian, atheist, Jew or Muslim – but because they are women. A feminist opposes all violence against women because they are women. Feminists oppose the rape of women, because they are women. Feminists oppose these all the time and for all women.

This is not however what I heard from some of these students on Sunday. Their message is very clear – domestic violence is acceptable under certain circumstances. As I said at the time, if we were talking about any other situation, I have no doubt that we would have been united in our disgust at wife-beaters... but throw the word "sharia" in there and suddenly the wife-beater becomes the victim; an innocent bystander whose own oppression leads him to lash out. It's not his fault, (haven't we had this argument already?) it's the fault of the west/Israel/America.

Let's get this straight once and for all – a man who beats his wife is a criminal, and for the protection of the rights of all women, he must be punished and his actions condemned. Full stop. If you think this should apply only to white women and care nothing for the plight of your non-white sister, then you are a racist. Full stop. (Read more at National Secular Society.)

4 comments:

sara said...

sometimes muslims make it hard for a none muslim to sympathies with them, they get oppressed by their fellow muslims and ask for help and when we try and help them they turn on us, as much as it hurts to say this as a woman sometimes I think we should just leave them to oppress and kill them selves.
at the end of the day it always come down to them against us they will never live peacefully with people who are not muslims

simple_truth said...

sara said...

"sometimes muslims make it hard for a none muslim to sympathies with them, they get oppressed by their fellow muslims and ask for help and when we try and help them they turn on us, as much as it hurts to say this as a woman sometimes I think we should just leave them to oppress and kill them selves.
at the end of the day it always come down to them against us they will never live peacefully with people who are not muslims"

Sara, I can understand what you're saying. It makes no sense to defend a religion and ignore its problems when the religion teaches that person that the people outside of their religion are enemies and to oppose them regardless.

If you take a look at the American leftist, you see a similar mentality. That is why it is easier for Islam to gain footing in America because we have lefties/liberals who think similarly and tolerate Islam and Muslims. They are sympathetic to them. The same can be said of Europe.

Cristo Te Ama said...

It's not only racism, it's hipocrasy, but at least we can see one of them being honest...

Unwed Housewife said...

There's a lot of hypocracy which ever way you look at it. On one hand, I understand Sara's argument, but on the other, how often do American women turn on their "saviors"? It is extremely common for women (white, black, etc) to attack police and other emergency personnel who are called to domestic violence scenes. Are they also not worth trying to protect? It's attitudes like that which keep feminism (in my mind) in the same hypocritical category as affirmative action: the "minorities" (women and non-whites) demand equality while also crying out for special treatment. Racial minorities get "entitlements" handed out left and right and abuse systems, then play the race-card when they FEEL wronged. Like-wise, women demand the same pay and opportunities as men, but since they're also the only one's with a uterus, they also demand special maturity rights and govt sanctioned time-off. Abuse is abuse, no matter who you are and should NOT be tolerated, but as far as these "equality" groups, they're mostly hypocrites who fight only for what benefits THEM, not society as a whole.