Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Could Dhivehi ladies become Arab women in the near future?

As the number of mullahs increase and people are swayed by their rhetoric, women are being covered, hidden and marginalized. The once proud Dhivehi woman is losing her place as an equal partner and a leader in society and entering into the role prescribed by Islam and the Arab way of life. No surprise there - a woman under Islam is an object, a property to be used and discarded at whim.

  • Sura (2:223) - "Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will..." Wives are to be sexually available to their husbands in all ways at all times. They serve their husbands at his command. This verse is believed to refer to anal sex (see Bukhari 60:51), and was "revealed" when women complained to Muhammad about the practice. The phrase "when and how you will" means that they lost their case.
  • Sura (4:34) - "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them."

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Saudi women had more rights at the time of the Romans than today

Arab women had more rights at the time of the Romans than they have today. At that time, in fact, their capacity to conduct their own economic affairs was recognised, which is not true in Saudi Arabia today. This is maintained by a female Saudi scholar, Hatoon al-Fassi, in a book entitled "Women In Pre-Islamic Arabia", published by British Archaeological Reports.

Barred from teaching at King Saud University in 2001, the scholar has examined the situation of Nabataea, a kingdom that at the beginning of the Christian era included parts of modern-day Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, and had its capital in Petra. Here, Fassi maintains, women were able to conduct business, without even the form of "protection" required by Greek tradition in these matters. In her opinion, it is precisely because of the lack of understanding on the part of Islamic scholars of the influences of Greco-Roman legislation on sharia that the limited rights and freedoms for women have arisen.

"We now live the worst status imaginable": this statement from Fawziya al-Oyouni, a women's rights activist, is reported in the review of the book on Middle East Online, which highlights how, when religious authorities, ministers, and businessmen met last month in Riyadh to discuss work for women, there were no women visible, because they were confined to another room, and the men were able only to hear them.

With thanks to Asia News

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:28 AM

    Maybe we ought to differentiate between Arabization and Islamization. The former being a milder, less strict version of the latter. Picking and choosing some parts of a culture (like food, clothing, music, ideals) is, IMO, ok, like the Indianization and Westernization of some Maldivian women. But accepting it as the absolute final law of God is dangerous.

    I like Arab cuisine, music, dancing, some of their clothing, and their huge extended family parties. and some Arabs can be really nice and welcoming. ofcourse the strict patriarchy and low status of women ought to go.

    I think queen Rania is doing a good job by inviting young Arab youtubers to make videos to help demolish Arab stereotypes.

    But yes I agree, women in the Maldives are embracing the wholesale 'Islam' package hook,line and sinker and its Islamization of Maldives that we have to be afraid of. Lets hope the ancient matriarchal streak in our women resist this male-dominated misogynistic religion

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  2. anon,
    interesting point there...
    how do we differentiate between Arabization and Islamization? Where do we draw the demarcation line?
    Muslims tell me that Islam is a complete way of life..down to the fine details of how to pee..and its all there in the Islamic texts.
    Do we draw the line somewhere between the after Friday prayer madhaha sung by Holhudullah Abdullah - "Arabinge Maaiy Kammaeye" ..or ..
    as to food ..they tell me kadhuru is blessed by allah and has supernatural powers..
    and as to your part about huge extended parties of arabs..i dont have to go there... a wedding or such event includes my extended family and my whole island..
    do we have to go and look for something in Arabia that is part of our own ancient culture?
    Some arabs can be nice? so can Aztecs, Incas, south pacific islanders..
    I agree with you and hope the ancient matriarchal streak in our women will resist this male-dominated misogynistic religion, but i am still pondering the question of where we draw the line between arabization and islamization.

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  3. Anonymous8:03 AM

    Yeah, they will become Arabs and you can't stop it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anon,
    as to the work of Queen Rania..its all good and well..but what influence does she have?
    AMMAN, Jordan: A Jordanian court has sentenced a man to six months in jail after convicting him of the honor killing of his 16-year-old daughter.
    http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/30/africa/ME-GEN-Jordan-Honor-Killing.php
    The court ruled Wednesday that the man killed his married daughter because she had an affair out of the wedlock. The enraged father severely beat her with a baton and ultimately electrocuted her in November 2006.

    Neither the father nor daughter were identified.

    Like other tribal-oriented societies, many Jordanians consider sex out of the wedlock an indelible stain on the family's honor that can only be cleansed by blood.

    An average of 20 women are killed by male relatives in Jordan each year. So far, four were killed this year.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Nass,Vainrooney...
    Welcome back to the debate..

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous12:21 AM

    A debate as in, you speaking to yourself?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous7:15 AM

    Highly energetic post, I loved that a lot. Will there be a part 2?
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    ReplyDelete