Tribal Religious Abominations
Despite the protests from moderate Muslims, those who simply do not wish to believe that their religion, the tenets of the Koran they so revere, the injunctions of their great Prophet, could be construed as viciously harmful to women, the issue of honour killings will not soon fade into obscurity.The UN and NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan to assist that country toward a more human governance resembling democracy perform bravely and courageously. Theirs is a hopeful task of bridging the gap between fundamentalist Islam and moderating aspirations toward a fairer, more just society.
Little do they fully apprehend that what they struggle against is a pathology as deep if not deeper than religious strictures that teach the place of women to be vastly inferior to and subject to the whims and perceived needs of men. Women are possessions, properties, valued for their singular ability to produce young.
They are not entitled to anything beyond their keep, and not even that if they betray tribal mores. Women are not to be seen in public, heard in private, to complain, or to aspire to any condition other than that which they occupy. As children they can be bartered, pledged to concubinage or marriage to other tribal members, including elderly mullahs.
Women can be maimed or murdered to avenge tribal honour, and this atrociously vicious ritual goes unquestioned, unchallenged.
In Iraq, where British troops are handing over Basra to the Iraqi military claiming that the city and the area have been sufficiently pacified, violence against women goes unchecked. Women are casually murdered, sometimes along with their children, for bearing insult against Allah through their immodest attire.
No one questions, all are fearful of reprisals. Local terror militias strike anywhere, anytime with total impunity.
In Saudi Arabia a teenage girl is sentenced to six months' incarceration and 200 lashes because she was the victim of a horrible gang rape. The Saudi justice ministry found her sentence just, because she was perceived to be an adulteress, who "provoked the attack" by being "indecently dressed".
In fact, a gang of men, seeing her seated in a vehicle with a man who was not a relative, punished her by serial rape. Restoring tribal honour.
In Canada, a Muslim father enraged by his teen-age daughter's obsession with western-style clothing, and her insistence that she be allowed to live her life in a manner resembling that of her school friends, is throttled to death. She had taken to leaving her home wearing her hijab only to remove it en route to school, where she would change her garments for the school day, and change again on returning home.
She is now dead, family honour restored.
Brothers, uncles, fathers murder recalcitrant sisters, nieces, daughters. Those who would publicly flaunt their femaleness, flout tribal convention.
Exhibit interest in a man not approved by the family or the tribe, court death. Attempt escape from an abusive husband, welcome death. Defy a father's orders to prepare to become the wife of an ignorant man three times your age, death results.
It's difficult to separate tribal injunctions and cultural mores from religious tradition. However, no religion, Islam included, exhorts its followers to maim and murder women.
Labels: Realities, Religion, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, December 18, 2007
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