Yasmine Perni Quotes
Because divorce and polygamy are accepted traditions backed by men’s interpretation of the Koran, women have learned to require their future husbands to sign a prenuptial agreement, whereby he forfeits his rights to unconditional divorce or marrying a second wife.
This technique she describes is consistent with Sharia—Islamic Law. It however is used by very few women who are sophisticated and courageous enough to do so.
Yasmine Perni, Egyptian Journalist, “Contradictions of The Veil”, The Common Review Vol. 4, No. 3, Winter 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This type of religious sexism is not unique to Islam. Fundamentalist Christians place women in a secondary role as do fundamentalist orthodox Jews although both allow a man to take only one wife. The Islamic scripture tells us that the Prophet allowed multiple wives only if the man had the resources to care for the wives and all the children. 4 is the maximum.
This is a particularly interesting passage of the Koran. On the one hand it provides the religious justification for the sexist dominance of the male in a marriage. However, at the same time, it gave wives rights at a time when few cultures and religions did--such as the right to own and inherit property. Women in the Western world did not obtain some of these rights until the last hundred years. So historically, Islam was somewhat ahead of Christianity when Muhammed lived, but while most Western interpretations of gender role and rights have changed and advanced, a small minority of Islam has been reformist and modern so Islam has gone from a leader in modern gender relations to an obstacle to equality and fairness by not changing and reforming.
Dr. Saadawi was fired from her government post for revealing the status of women in the country. She was also actually arrested and jailed as well for impairing national “values.” See .{586709}.
This proverb is a large part of the conceptual basis of the concept of honor killing. It starts with the notion that women are property. However, being animate property women are in the same class as livestock. And if a camel or a donkey get lose and does damage, the owner is responsible. So if a woman does something wrong, it is the father or the husband who is responsible. Since sexual behavior of most kinds is contrary to the Islamic custom and law, any activity in this regard, demonstrates that the father of husband has not been up to his obligations and is therefore dishonored. Therefore, the least he can do, to provide a deterrent to other women is to kill the offending female. Without the concept of property, the entire chain of logic collapses under its own weight.
In Egypt a man may unilaterally divorce a wife by declaration and file a signed paper with the authorities. A woman, in contrast, must petition the court, have a hearing, and may be granted a divorce if the court thinks she deserves it under Islamic law. However, the courts are extremely crowded and corrupt. A woman may have to wait two years for a hearing, and since the husband usually has the control of the financial assets, the husbands sometimes bribe the judges to get the verdict they want.
In much of the Islamic world if a woman commits adultery or becomes pregnant out of wedlock, she will often be killed by her own father or brothers who perceive that this is the only way to maintain the honor of the family. The primitive custom really becomes gross when a woman who is the victim of rape, ends up being killed by her own male family members. In some Muslim countries honor killings are against the law but that prohibition is rarely legally enforced.
Although she was very outspoken about the plight of women in society, she was very disapproving of women insisting upon rights. See {585321}.
The imam was deported from France for making this statement as it was viewed as inciting violence against women.
Jordanian Political Party. In much of the Islamic world “honor killing” is allowed and/or condoned. Males may murder their wives and other female relatives whose sexual behavior brings “dishonor” to the family. To make matters worse, many females are killed on the basis of rumor or innuendo. The Jordanian Royal family has for several generations been a modernizing force.
Some modern versions of the Koran annotate the “beating” injunction and argue that this should only be used as a last resort. This is an example of socially unacceptable anachronisms that are found in the scripture of most older religions. All but the radical fundamentalists do not take these passages literally.
Since rape was forbidden by the Koran, the mullahs of the time came up with the concept of a temporary marriage. If a Muslim conqueror “married” a local woman after killing the husband, she could not properly refuse him without being beaten severely which was allowed by Islamic law for a recalcitrant wife. Then the man would leave his “wife” and take another one. There are many scholars who credit the rapid rise of Islam in the Indian sub-continent to this practice. Tragically the same practice of mass rape is still being employed by some Arabs as in the Sudan—as in earlier times encouraged and abetted by the authorities and not chastised by the mullahs of the time. Given the brutal sexual behavior of the Arabs towards non-Islamic women, the tenderness and protection of their own women is surprising to many.
