« UK: Archbishop of Canterbury has joined the debate on abortion | Main | Terri Groggy and Unresponsive: High fever last night likely due to infection caused by improper removal of the feeding tube »
March 20, 2005
On "Fighting To Rescue All Women From Islamist Oppression"
Topics: Understanding IslamCaptain Ed at Captain's Quarters writes about Newsweek profiling a courageous Pakistani woman who Ron Moreau and Zahid Hussain compare to Rosa Parks, one who wants to transform a horrific and brutal gang-rape into a passage for freedom for Muslim women throughout Islam. Three years ago, a village council used Mukhtar Mai in order to punish her clan for the supposed adultery of her teenage brother and sent 14 men to rape her, making Mai so undesirable in the eyes of her society that she had little choice except exile or suicide. Mai had other ideas.
- Newsweek
Soon after Mukhtar Mai was savagely gang-raped on the orders of a village council three years ago, she considered her options. She had never been accused of any crime. (The rape was carried out as supposed retribution for an alleged and implausible affair between Mai's teenage brother and a 30-year-old woman.) But according to rural Pakistan's strict Islamic code, she was forever "dishonored." The local Mastoi clan, which dominates the village council, expected her to keep her mouth shut or simply disappear. Her own Gujar clan refused to support her. "My choice was either to commit suicide or to fight back," Mai recalled last week. "I decided to fight back." More ...
Captain Ed seems to have hope that Mukhtar Mai may signal a fresh wave of modernization in Islam, and that she may well become a Ghandi-like symbol of peaceful protest and an agent for change. For the sake of the many men and women suffering from Islamist rule everywhere(such as has been feared for Iraq and that exists in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere), we can only hope she succeeds, as Captain Ed has noted. After-all, Saudi Arabia just may be at a crossroads of change and if Islamic rule is reformed there, perhaps elsewhere also, including Pakistan.
Hat tip - Captain's Quarters
Posted by Hyscience at March 20, 2005 1:50 PM
Articles Related to Understanding Islam:
- On "Fighting To Rescue All Women From Islamist Oppression" - Mar 20, 2005
