Muslim Women's League Quotes
The problem of “honor killings” is not a problem of morality or of ensuring that women maintain their own personal virtue; rather, it is a problem of domination, power and hatred of women who, in these instances, are viewed as nothing more than servants to the family, both physically and symbolically.
Islam is no more monolithic than any of the other major religions. This view is not held by most Muslim Coutnries or Islamic leaders throughout the world. It is held by a significant minority however.
Muslim Women’s League, American Non-Profit Organization, Position Paper on "Honor Killings", April 1999
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
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.
Many leaders of nations are in denial about this problem which exists almost everywhere. In Israel, the problem is compounded because the very orthodox Jews and Muslims both come from a tradition where women are allocated a place subservient to men in many ways and to some (like some Christians) there is a perceived duty to discipline wives and daughters. So reform involves religious tradition and theology.
He served a jail sentence in Britain for inciting race hatred.
The universality of the fundamentalist extremists desire to control women is a fascinating observation that appears not to have been made before.
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.
He was a major critic of French Quebec Separatism and some elements of French Canadian culture including his perception of sexism. His French Quebec Separatist enemies translated passages of this work into French and (some say deliberately) mistranslated this line to read: Quebec women are sows. The quotation was bandied about Canada in the original version as well as the mistranslation.
Jinnah was a modern Islamic reformer as this quotation demonstrates. Pakistan is not as backward as most of the Arab Islamic countries on the role of women. There are many Pakistani businesswomen and professionals. Pakistan has even had a female president. However, the fundamentalist Islamic forces that dominate the culture constantly preach and advocate the literal interpretation and following of Sharia which calls for a traditional, subservient traditional role for women; “honor killings” are common; “a rapist cannot be convicted on a female victims testimony; there are calls for the killing of adulteresses and other primitive throwbacks. Jinnah’s vision has not come to pass yet.
This statement is referring to the custom of women covering their eyes whenever a man who they did not know passed them. Turks did not ever use Burkas the way some other Muslim countries do, but they wore headscarves and covered their eyes when a strange man appeared. This was a shocking statement in a sexist Islamic culture. Although the process of modernization and reform in Turkey was relatively bloodless, Ataturk was prepared to and did use force to defend it. This and many others made the role of women not only uniquely equal in the Islamic world, but women were suddenly elevated to the level of most Western nations and in voting rights were ahead of most. He used his own family to set an example. See {584503}.
See {592434} for more on ‘honor killings’ where male relatives kill females who have been accused of sexual activity. This is perceived to dishonor the family by many Muslims. She was responding to an Egyptian judge who was arguing that men who commit honor killings should not be punished to harshly as the men were in great emotional states at the time because they were so upset.
