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Islamic law and women

By Chris James - posted Friday, 20 March 2009


Feminism died more than two decades ago but still the backlash against women continues. It comes from various quarters. There is a gradual push of extreme Islamic beliefs into the Western culture by Muslim clerics and some immigrants. There are also those already within the Western culture (the conservatives and extreme Right) who welcome Islam’s rigid patriarchal beliefs because it heralds the return of women’s subjugated role.

Feminism conveyed the message that women throughout history have been considered the weaker sex. It was feminism that alerted us to the reality that women are only perceived to be weaker because patriarchy serves to enforce these stereotypes. Feminism also taught that in order to maintain patriarchy men have to have control over women’s reproductive sex. Today, this happens less by stealth and more by discursive means. Men still try to make women feel obligated to fulfil men’s sexual needs and this is best achieved by regulating women’s sexuality. It might be argued that the pill and abortion have liberated women. However, in a highly sexualised society women cannot freely express their sexuality unless it panders to male desires. This translates into the sexual availability of women rather than the controllability of men’s’ instincts.

Women's sexuality and the jihad

Even before the Sexual Revolution in the West Islamic men had difficultly accepting the overt sexuality of Western women. When Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian intellectual visited America in 1948 he had two major problems, race and sex. America was full of racial tensions at the time but the most threatening aspect of American society for the Egyptian was the sexuality of American women.

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When Qutb went back to Egypt he was opposed to Egypt becoming like the Western liberal state. His protests saw him arrested and thrown in prison. There he wrote a book Ma’alim fi-l-Tariq, which means “milestones”. This is the manifesto that Al-Zawahri, bin Laden and all jihadist leaders read. It calls for a vanguard of Muslim youth to mobilise and purify Islam. Qutb was hanged in 1966 and Al-Zawahri started a cell to bring down the Egyptian government. He later formed a partnership with Osama bin Laden and shifted his attention to spreading Jihad - including women’s subjugation - worldwide.

We do not notice the slow indoctrination of social roles, only the public outcries. First, we had the nation’s most senior Muslim cleric Sydney-based Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali blame “immodestly dressed women who don’t wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men”. He likened them to “abandoned meat” that attracts voracious animals.

In a Ramadan sermon the Sheik also alluded to the infamous Sydney gang rapes. These attacks took place on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long prison sentences. The Sheik suggested the attackers were not entirely to blame. He said “there were women” that “sway suggestively” and “wore make-up and immodest dress” then he went on to ask, “then you get a judge without mercy [rahma]” who “gives you 65 years … but the problem all began with who?”.

He elaborates to force home his point:

“if you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?”

Not long after this outrageous outburst Islamic cleric Samir Abu Hamza of Melbourne asserted that it is permissible for a husband to beat and rape his wife. Women should submit to their husbands and meet their husband’s needs.

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It is not only religious leaders shaping community attitudes towards women. More recently, sexologist Bettina Arndt has been telling women they should negotiate sexual consent. Arndt has always tried to say that “no” does not mean “no”, when it comes to sex. She believes “no” is just a “come-on” and women really want the sex. Now, in her book The Sex Diaries (2009) she effectively tells women who are unwilling to succumb to their husband’s sexual demands to put up it.

This harks back to another misogynist chorus, “if you don’t want sex there is something wrong with you; it must be that you are ‘sick’; or ‘mad’ or a lesbian”. This is what writer Ben Pobjie says of Bettina:

“… if men want to persuade women to engage in sexual intercourse with them, they are fighting a losing battle. Which is why it’s such a blessed relief that Bettina Arndt has, yet again, come to the rescue to solve the problems of the ordinary male.”

Perhaps this is stating the obvious but most therapists are in the business of helping their clients, male and female, to solve their own problems. It is called “empowerment”. Therapists do not make judgments about who should do what and when, especially if it may cause one or the other party to feel compromised. Pobjie continues his comments on Bettina:

“Not for nothing has she been frequently called ‘man's best friend’ - admittedly not in those exact words. Men everywhere owe her a debt of gratitude for standing up for their sexual rights, defying the feminism industry to give men a sporting chance at sexual happiness.

“Sexual rights”? “Sporting chance”? Women are not here just so men can assert their perceived sexual “rights” - rights that have no moral or legal basis - nor are women just the fodder for men’s sport. Or are they?

Pobjie has a penchant for satire and behind the smiling face of this journalist there is surely a gentle, sensitive male; we hope! Notwithstanding, his black humoured commentary serves to compound the realities of a growing trend in the revival of women’s oppression by an insidious and covert means.

A step by step invasion

On March 30, 2008 the International Humanist and Ethical Union posted an article on the Internet describing how the Islamic states led by Pakistan had fought for 12 years to achieve an amendment on the Freedom of Expression. It was that day, March 30, 2008, that they succeeded. This new amendment has profound ramifications. “The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression will now be required to report on the ‘abuse’ of this most cherished freedom”; this includes reporting anyone who dares to speak out against Sharia law.

Sharia law requires women to be stoned to death for adultery and young men to be hanged for being gay. It allows the marriage of girls as young as nine in some countries, for example in Iran. Not only does this decision mark a shift in the balance of power in the UN towards Islam, it demarcates the rising power of religious fundamentalists across the world and the revival of women’s subjugation.

Sharia law has become part of the law of the land in Britain in matters of divorce, finances and domestic violence. It gained credence on the basis that both parties request this alternative dispute resolution model of justice. If British-Muslim women are happy about their inferior status that is one thing, but do they ever consider the impact this has on women who do not wish to be second class citizens?

And, are they really as happy as they pretend to be? They inherit considerably less than their male siblings. They frequently fail to press charges against husbands who assault them because if they do they must face the wrath of the rest of the community. In order to remain within their religion, family and communities these women must submit to Sharia law or risk ostracism, isolation, or the possibility of being killed.

British women (and men) are so concerned about the implications of Sharia law that they are now taking to the streets en masse in protest.

Popularising oppression

UK jihadist Anjem Choudary uses YouTube to explain how Islam will take over Britain. He claims that the Islamic flag will soon be flying over 10 Downing Street because the British Muslim population continues to grow and there will be more conversions. He is probably right. The problem is the mainstream population in Britain are beginning to make a distinction between violent terrorist extremism and Sharia law. Instead of seeing Sharia law as oppressive and a violation of Human Rights, they see Sharia law as a return to religious values at a time when the old British values are falling apart.

Australia has not yet seriously confronted the issues of Sharia law.

Let me be clear, I am not anti-Muslim or anti-immigration. Indeed, I love our cosmopolitan environment and I have many friends and associates from different religions and cultures. I am anti-discrimination. Sharia law is a cruel and oppressive regime that keeps women in silent imprisonment; let us not tolerate it in Australia.

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About the Author

Dr Chris James is an artist, writer, researcher and psychotherapist. She lives on a property in regional Victoria and lectures on psychotherapeutic communities and eco-development. Her web site is www.transpersonaljourneys.com.

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