Friday 18 May 2012

Women in Islam

Wandering the Intertubes, came across this article, by an English convert to Islam, an apologia for Islam's treatment of women.
To anyone who follows this issue, her article is full of errors of commission and omission.
Just a few:
There is no right for a woman to be a head of state or a judge (Ai-Attal herself points this out!...). She fails to note that while men can easily divorce a woman ("I divorce thee" said three times), the same is not true for women. That the inheritance of a woman is half that of a male.  That a husband may, according to Koranic teaching, beat his wife if she is disobedient.  That the testimony of a woman in court is worth only a quarter that of a man (four "witnesses" needed to prove rape, for example). That the Umdat al-Salik, the classic manual of Islamic jurisprudence recommends female cliterdectomy (aka FGM).  That her own "choice" to veil herself is either a reflection of her own piety or of male suzerainty over her and in any case reflects on the apparent inability of males to control themselves in the sight of her unveiled face.  That there is a high correlation between the percentage of Muslim population in a country and the percentage of child brides. And so it goes.  All dreary stuff, all part of Islam and all ignored here in this piece of drivel from a "revert" to Islam.
I note it's an ancient article.  But it's of the same cloth as we still see bruited about: that Islam was the originator or women's rights, because Muhammad made them free and equal.  Nonsense.  The Islamic texts and practice prove the opposite.  The status of women in Islam is one of oppression and getting worse.
Update (tx to BCF): Imams in Swedish mosques advise against reporting abusive husbands.  Eight out of ten recommend polygamous marriage.....