Relative Moralities, All In Perspective
Afghanistan stands on its obligation to its traditions, its heritage, its right to enact laws that reflect the culture and society's expectations. It brooks no interference from the international community with any kind of equanimity. Its government must swallow hard on its cultural pride to stem the tide of growing anger from governments and populations located within countries who have sacrificed their military personnel for the country's advance toward balanced moderation.That 'balanced moderation' is in the mindsets of the international community, since it reflects the values and the social culture that is prevalent there. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the mores, the situation on the ground, historically and valued to the present time, in Afghan traditions. Thus has it been, thus must it remain, in a country whose structure is based on a strict interpretation of shariah insisting that the time, the place and the strictures remain constant.
And thus is it that Afghanistan's top Shia cleric hotly defends the legislation in question that simply brings into law that which already exists; the domination and cultural inequality of women in a fundamentalist Islamic society. "This political pressure is a cultural invasion, thinking one's culture better than others" thunders Mohammad Asif Mohseni, rejecting a ministry of justice review ordered by President Hamid Karzai, submitting to Western disgust.
The Shia cleric went on to accuse the United States, United Nations, Canada and others of the Western alliance in Afghanistan - shoring up its feeble, ineffective and corrupt government - of disrespecting the very democracy they assisted Afghanistan in installing after the defeat of the Taliban regime. The law in question, he claimed, was as legitimate as those of "the same democracy that the West is emphasizing" in Afghanistan.
Mohseni insists it is 'compulsory' for a woman to submit to her husband's demands for sex, outside of extenuating circumstances; that it is rigidly incumbent on a woman to have her husband's express permission to leave her home. "The ministry of justice has no right of changing this material" he claimed, insisting that the country's Shiites had the right to their own legal system under the constitution.
(Bringing shuddering recall to the insistence of local Islamists attempting to persuade the Government of Ontario to legitimize shariah law there for the Islamic community, much to the anger, disgust and dismay of Muslim women in Canada. Although the Ontario Government prevaricated for some time in indecision, vocal protests primarily from Muslim women won the day, and Ontario refused shariah.)
Countries have their traditions, their customs, based on their heritage, their religion. What the West recoils at in revulsion are customs inimical to human dignity. What Islamist countries react to with agitated disgust is the loose morals exhibited by people in Western countries. And what Islamic interpretations of Koranic precepts permit in various countries in abusive human relationships is claimed to be their business.
That would, needless to say, include the sexual abuse of young boys, commonly accepted and practised in Afghanistan by police officers and civil authorities. It would also include honour killings, not necessarily confined to Islam, but certainly very present there. As when a man in Ethiopia kills his wife and there is no punishment because she 'disobeyed' her husband's orders.
As, say the example of honour restored when a young man killed his 22-year-old sister in Amman, Jordan because she had a habit of leaving her family home without permission. Or Basra, Iraq, when a Muslim teen was killed by her father and brothers for flirting with a British soldier; their honour-cleansing approved within the community. The father, indeed, expressed pride in his sons: "They were men enough to help me finish the life of someone who brought shame to ours."
An article published in the European Journal of Public Health claims that "One in every five homicides in Pakistan is a so-called 'honour killing' according to Muazzam Nasrullah, writing from the Aga Khan University in Pakistan, and who additionally considers that an under-estimation.
"God will protect me, God is watching" said a Pakistani Muslim living in Atlanta,who had strangled his daughter because she had horribly blemished family honour by engaging in an extramarital affair while trying to end an arranged marriage.
Labels: Political Realities, Religion, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, April 12, 2009
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