Islam and the rights of women

The notion that women have more freedom under Sharia is contradicted by our limited but direct experience with Islam. Who could forget Aasiya Z. Hassan, whose decapitated body was found at the studios of Bridges TV, her estranged husband arrested shortly thereafter. Assaiya had filed for divorce, fully aware of the danger it entailed.

The grounds for divorce were "cruel and inhuman treatment," DiPirro said, referring to mulitple prior incidents of abuse. She declined to elaborate.

"She was a very brave woman who was extremely devoted to her children and had come to this decision after a long, thoughtful process and was determined to change her life for herself and her children," DiPirro said.

Oddly enough it turns out Muzzammil Hassan founded Bridges TV in November 2004 to counter anti-Islam stereotypes. He ended up surrendering to the police, but Aasiya’s life is gone and her children will grow up knowing that their mother died a brutal death at the hands of their father.

My impression is that this case is not unusual. In England and Canada this population subset is the only group where the sudden disappearance of grade school children routinely goes uninvestigated, as cultural sensitivity has made us accept that little girls will disappear from their fifth grade classrooms to become the bride of some forty year old second cousin back in the home country. Furthermore adolescent girls have been murdered at the hands of their father and brothers for the crime of wearing a pair of jeans. The so-called “honor killings” are simply the most grotesque and obvious expression of a repressive culture at odds with the Judeo-Christian traditions which our laws and society are based upon.

The poling of the population of Muslims cannot possibly enlighten one as to the true thoughts and feelings of women caught in the vise of this “religion of peace”, as the stakes for dissenting are far too high.

Similar poling was conducted in Iraq in an election held a couple of months prior to our intervening in Iraqi affairs in 2003, and the big winner in that one was none other than Saddam Hussein himself, with 100% of Iraqi’s selecting President Hussein to another term at the helm. It turned out to be short lived, but only because of the force applied. He ended up hiding in a spider hole, and was ultimately hung by the people who had previously elected him unanimously. The BBC dutifully reported on the elections:

There were 11,445,638 eligible voters - and every one of them voted for the president, according to Izzat Ibrahim

Right.

For me of course, it all comes back to another one of these Beauty Pageants, which in the name of modernity were recently begun in Saudi Arabia. "

"Sukaina al-Zayer is an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. She covers her face and body in black robes and an Islamic veil, so no one can tell what she looks like.
Here’s the first ever winner from 2008, Zara al-Shurafa: “I tell this year’s contestants that winning is not important . . . What is important is obeying your parents.”

The idea of the pageant is to measure the contestants’ commitment to Islamic morals.

Perhaps our president and we as a people should renew our commitment to our own.