Tag: men

It was an unremarkable village, the only thing different about it was that it was surrounded by mountains on three sides so that its main connection to the outside world was a pass. It was somewhat far from other centers of population, so for the purpose of this story it does not matter when this story took place, it could have taken place today, yesterday, a year ago, five years ago, a hundred or even five hundred years ago. The location is also of no consequence.

On that fateful day Fatima, the daughter of a poor farmer, got separated from the rest of her group while coming back from the fields. While trying to find her way back to the village she came across a group of men who had less than noble intentions. She cried for help and struggled but there is no person who could help her. After desecrating her body the men left her for dead. After many hours of searching her father and the village folk came across her and took her back. Fatima and her family were traumatized, but not completely broken even though people were saying 'things' and pointing fingers at her. She knew who were assailants were - the powerful and the influential in the community but she had faith in justice. The case was presented before the judge, the accused of course feigned ignorance and innocence. The qadi (judge) declared that Fatima should produce four witnesses otherwise the court has no doubt that she was involved in adultery and the society must be cleaned of her abominable presence. As expected, the two aggressors were set free by the qadi. Fatima insisted that this law was unislamic and that they were twisting the laws for their own benefit but her voice fell on deaf years.

Fatima was thus condemned to death by the court and abandoned by her family since it was now clear to everyone that she had dishonored her family and there is no other way for them to reclaim their honor. The next day she was brought to the main square to be stoned. She expected justice from men but men are imperfect and often times their justice is also imperfect. Dejected and wronged by her people Fatima turned to God, the only one who can deliver perfect justice and so right before breathing her last she asked God if the perpetrators of this crime would face the same humiliation that she had to face so that in the future men will think a million times before even thinking about desecrating a woman.

In a move that will stun the Muslim world, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt and one of the highest-ranking Sunni authorities, has said that hymen reconstruction surgery for women who have lost their virginity before marriage is halal (permissible) and that a man has no right to demand proof of a woman's virginity if he cannot provide proof of his own. In addition, the fatwa states that a woman who has had sex before marriage but has sincerely repented is under no obligation to inform her husband of her sexual status. 

The Daily Star has the full story.

This is brilliant: "It is not rational for us to think that God has placed a sign to indicate the virginity of women without having a similar sign to indicate the virginity of men," Gomaa says. (My emphasis.) For those who claim that logic is out of vogue in the corridors of Muslim power, prepare to revise. As far as I know, this is the first fatwa from a sheikh of this rank that declares the hymen an illegitimate 'sign' of virginity. Since the hymen of an active girl is often worn away by the time she reaches a marriageable age, this bodes well for millions of Muslim women around the world. Finally, reality-based physiology from the clerical class. 

The fatwa has been seconded by Azharite scholar Sheikh Khaled El Gindy, who, when challenged about 'traditional beliefs' which hold that a woman's virginity is sacrosanct while a man's is not, said "Islam does not care for the feelings of ignorant people, just as the law does not protect the idiots."

What is remarkable about this fatwa is that while it accepts the underground hymen-surgery racket, it does not endorse it; it considers the practice acceptable only because it protects a woman from potential violence. The real meat of the fatwa is in its de-emphasis of the need for proof of virginity--and in a region of the world where a woman is not considered a virgin unless she bleeds on her wedding night, this is a serious blow to entrenched un-Islamic misogynistic cultural practices.

In an interesting side-note, the hymen is mentioned nowhere in the Qur'an or the two commonly accepted books of hadith. Not once. The word for 'virgin' in Arabic--bikr--means simply 'unmarried woman'.  

Today is a very good day for women's rights in Islam. Alfa shokran, Sheikh Gomaa and Sheikh Gindy. 

Related: Azhar outlaws female circumcision. 

The prevalent Zeitgeist in the world these days is what can be termed as Scientism and its twin Objectivity. This world view seems to have penetrated culture to such an extent that a large number of religious people want to prove that their religion is “scientific” or “rational.” This worldview has been challenged by Feminist Epistemologists, the idea being that the rational vs. Irrational, nature vs. culture and masculine vs. feminine dualities that form part and parcel of the modernist programme are informed by constructs of rationality and objectivity that are rooted in notions of masculinity.

I'm a mathematician--a logician--at heart.  Though I've become obsessed with the social sciences, I'm still just an extension of the little girl who spent weekends taking math and science tests for fun and excels in and loves the grammar-and-vocab aspects of learning foreign languages much more than reading in them.

So how could I avoid wanting to know more, more, more about one of the most-discussed aspects of male-female relations taking place outside my culture and one of the most-discussed aspects of Islam in my moderate-liberal subculture of the Midwestern USA?

If lots of people are talking about it, that means the chances are high that the discussion is full of axioms, theories, and principles!  Exciting.  Something I can figure out.

Below you will find the link to the text of the entire 15 page long Women's Protection Bill recently passed by Pakistan's National Assembly.

I want to thank Barrister at Law Umera Ali for the bill, and I also want to thank Pakistani attorney Feisal Naqvi for the invaluable work on the ground he did.

Text of Women's Protection Bill 

(Page 1 is at the bottom right)(The 'all sizes' option allows you to make an image larger)

Digitized version here 

This is Eteraz.Org's up to date list and summary of discussion about the bill including all my numerous old posts.

Oh, and the principles of comity and citation require that you reference Eteraz.Org since this bill is not publicly available in the West.

Made you look.  I thought about writing "niqab!" in the title just to get your attention.

<img src="http://www.mobipocket.com/eBooks/coverpage/ID238/femalechauvinistpigs4.jpg"> 

The issue is, however, about mistreating women.

I'd like to ask Eteraz readers and writers for help. 

There are at least 5 million Muslims living in my country (America).  That means at least 5 million people can potentially brainstorm based on a whole different set of principles than those I learned in my mainstream suburban culture and my not-so-mainstream liberal academic culture.

Both of these cultures of mine have done a lot of reaching out to people of other backgrounds, trying to help them.  "Oh, you don't have running water?  Glad you identified the problem--we can help.  We know how to build pipes that stay shut and pumps to make the water flow.  Here, how about we send some engineers your way..."

<img src="http://www.cafod.org.uk/var/storage/images/media/cafod/images/africa/ethiopia/bain_in_ethiopia/9147-1-eng-GB/bain_in_ethiopia_medium.jpg">

There ain't so many calls for Pacific Islanders, Maoris, Muslims, native Chileans, etc. to chime in with THEIR assertions of, "Oh, we know how to fix that!" to problems that we've identified in our society.

So here's my call:  community of Eteraz, please come help me.  Come help all the sympathizers with my ideas.  We need a good brainstorming session.