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TechnoratiThat means the sovereignty of neighboring countries are not really respected by Islam. And that law can explain to us why the Arab conflicts exist.
There is a story in the book about a young woman who was gang raped by seven men in Saudi Arabia who was sentenced to flogging because she was seen talking with a man not her relative. As a westerner, this is a mind-boggling unfair justice system. Can you say if this only happens in a few extreme countries or just in a few cases? How widespread is this?
Darwish: I heard that the men who raped her were punished. I think, but I’m not sure, they got some jail time. But when men rape women they don’t get beheaded, but if a women gets raped and cannot prove rape because if she is not a virgin anymore and cannot prove rape then she is considered to be a major violator and she will be beheaded.
Under sharia law, for a woman to prove that she has not committed adultery, she can only prove rape by having four male witnesses. So how can a woman prove rape? She can’t. How can she get four male witnesses?
So what happens is usually men who commit rape are either not proven or they will not get punished as much as she will get punished.
Muslim countries range from extreme countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran, and then very moderate countries like Turkey, and all in between. But unfortunately, sharia can apply unofficially. So the beheading done in Saudi Arabia, or the stoning, can happen in Turkey unofficially by her family.
So sharia can happen in a Muslim country or in a Muslim family in Europe. They can do honor killing.
CP: You made an intriguing observation that Muslim woman living under sharia law are in an odd predicament because they are like prisoners who guard their own jail cells. Could you explain what you mean?
Darwish: Islam gives no way out of the prison for women. For example, a woman can be beaten by her husband, she has no right for divorce, her testimony in court is half the value of the man, her inheritance is half what her brother gets, she cannot leave the house officially without her husband’s permission, she cannot do anything without her husband’s permission – she cannot leave the country.
So the rights of a woman in the Muslim world is so so weak. Even if she gets raped, she is the one to blame. So in order for a woman to have some sort of dignity, she must act as radical if not even more radical than men. She must act as if she is the guardian of Islam, the guardian of her own prison. She becomes an advocate for obedience of women to Islam. She will actually report on girls who don’t cover their heads.
The predicament of women is it divides women. Women are not allowed to freely meet and very often men tell the wife that you can’t befriend this woman. If a Muslim woman living in the Middle East, or even in the West, starts adopting activities such as joining a feminist movement she becomes an apostate immediately. And the punishment for apostasy is death.
So in this environment women are placed almost in an impossible situation where they are almost forced to become against each other instead of supporting each other. Continue »
darshan »
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