From: ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Words Feminists find Demeaning!
Date: 12 Aug 92 19:45:19 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.164720.23446@ucunix.san.uc.edu> minhaszt@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Zafar T Minhas) writes:
>
>Behnam Sadeghi writes:
>>
> >One question I wondered about for some time was this:  Given the fact
> >that women are opppressed in the U.S. as well (e.g. refer to statistics
> >regarding rape, wife-beating, lack of equal pay for equal work, etc.), why
> >is that Americans [and Westerners in general], shed rivers of crocodile
> >tears for Muslim women while pushing the grave problems of women in their
> >own countries under the rug?  I arrived at the conclusion that it is not
> >the status of Muslim women that these people really care about.  They don't
> >give a damn about Muslims, be they male or female.  All they care about
> >is covering up their own problems and insecurities, easing their conscience
> >about the miserable status of American (and Western) women, and making
> >themselves feel better by putting down others. 
> >

> Salam Alaikum Behnam, may add one more thing, not only is it that they are
> trying to cover up there own problems, but when it comes right down to it
> these people who just moan about the plight of Muslim women, these WHITE 
> people are just racist.

> sincerely

> zafar minhas

And we supposedly should be happy going around bragging about the status of
women in our own (homeland) societies and feel no responsibilty whatsoever in
voicing the plight of millions who are suffering (with the explicit or implicit
approval of religious and state authorities) under the harsh social, religious,
moral and civil codes.

Where should our loyalties really belong?  To the oppressors who are ruling
these societies and perpetuate the status quo, or to the millions of helpless
girls/women who are forced into marriage, who are sold in marriages, who are
subject to perpetual rape in-and-out of marriage, who when they are raped
(outside the marriage) they are in a bigger danger of being killed by their own
relatives (to "save their honour"), who are beaten by their husbands
as-a-matter-of-routine (for disobeyance on the grounds that it is sanctioned in
Qoran) and even by other male relatives, who can be divorced and kicked out of
their conjugal home at any time, who when divorced or widowed with no state
support for themselves or children may be foced into prostitution (religious or
otherwise) if the ex-husband evade supporting them (which so often happens),
who when widowed can be kicked out of their life-long conjugal home, who etc,
etc, etc...

Shouldn't there be the slightest human consceience in us to hear these loud
voices?  Are we just happy to quote the rape statistics in the States to boast
about "our" women?  Have you ever thought why there are no comparable
statistics in our societies?  Can any women in Iran or Pakistan go direct to
the police station and say "officer, I was just raped"?  And if she ever does
it, wouldn't it be first and foremost to ask for protection from her own
relatives (the same people whose support she would desparately need in order to
overcome the trauma of rape)?  Is it really that hard for some to understand
these harsh realities?

Can't we understand that we live in an institionalised unequal society in
whcih half the population is denied equal rights in many aspects of life
including in marriage?  Isn't it the direct result of these apartheid regimes
that Iran and many Arab countries (that is, the most religious ones) sent only
an all-male team to the Olympics?

Forget about the "WHITE"s, Zafar.  Let's be honest about ourselves.  I am not
white, and I do "moan about plight of Muslim women".  So what do you call me?
A traitor, a westernized-liberal-atheist-so-and-so?  It wouldn't matter a thing
for me.  What matters is how much YOU CARE about the oppressed in your society,
and what YOU are DOING about it (that is, apart from telling them to become
"good Muslims" to get rid of all these evils etc).  Are you proud of
institutionalized apartheid in your homeland?  If not, then say it, and say it
loudly - and then start to do something about it.  Call for an egalitarian
society in whcih all citizens are proteced by law, all have the same share in
power and resources, all enjoy equal rights, all are entitled to free beliefs,
associations and expressions, and no religious or other sanctified rule/text
can be used to limit these freedoms.

Or is it too much to ask from some people?

-hossein