The Universal Sisterhood
It is truly difficult to understand why feminists have not organized a protest over the state of women's rights in the Islamic world. Of course there is the fact that feminism and leftist-orientation seem to feed off one another and the liberal-left seems inordinately devoted to non-judgemental treatment of other cultures. But cultural neutrality has its place. There are some values which are not amenable to prevarication.
Human rights and equality between the genders are not expendable in the interests of cultural sensitivity. If a heritage has evolved where women's gender rights are felt to be non-existent, where women are institutionally thought of as chattel, there is something inherently, seriously wrong with that evolution in social values. There are some social verities that cannot logically or emotionally or legally be exempted.
Equality under the law is not only a needful reality recognized in civilized countries, it is one that should be recognized as just and required as a basic commitment to human rights in all countries, in all cultures and all religions. Cultural relativism is an absurd concept, one that requires us to suspend intelligent judgement for the lesser good of not passing judgement on other societies' value choices.
But it is also a total abdication of responsibility toward other human beings, as well as their societies and cultures which consider it moral, feasible and reflective of intelligent judgement to treat one-half of the human race as inferior and undeserving of equal rights. Women who have fought hard for the recognition of their social, political and legal equality rights appear to have overlooked the universality of the imperative.
What is just and of urgent need for women from Western cultures is just as urgent to achieve for women and girls coming out of other cultures which have traditionally victimized and maltreated women simply because they are female and not male in traditional patriarchal-based societies. Whose cultures view women as completely subservient to men who 'own' their female relatives.
From the separation of men and women in society, and the demand that women become invisible in public, to child-brides, female genital mutilation, polygamy, arranged marriages, and honour killings, societies and cultures who practise this cruel and traditional treatments of women are clearly societally inferior. These practices are brought as honoured traditions when migration occurs to other countries, and re-established there.
In Islam in particular, the penalties meted out under Sharia law, and through time-honoured cultural practices holding women responsible for violence and rape they suffer as victims, are intolerable. Public stonings, hanging of women and children, beheadings, the jail, torture and rape of females who defy family traditions and demands are unforgivable assaults on justice.
Women who defy the universal Islamic edict to wear full-body garments, veils, to isolate themselves from men, to covert to other religions, to speak blasphemously, are considered to have committed grave offences for which capital punishment may be applied. Women who are incarcerated in Iran for purported affronts to the state or Islam will be gang-raped before execution to ensure they may not enter Paradise.
Where is the concerted effort on the part of privileged and intelligent and educated women of the West - who have been liberated from the relatively mild-by-comparison indignities of not being able to vote, having to take a man's surname on marriage, not being able to purchase property nor open a bank account without the consent of a male relative - advocating on behalf of their sisters?
Abusive societal mores and values seen in Islam most extensively but not exclusively, since purdah, arranged marriages, honour killings, female genital mutilation and other offensive practices are also recognized in Hindi, Sikh and African communities. All of these dreadful abuses against girls and women should be addressed; why are they not?
An egregious, disturbing instance of competing politics.
Human rights and equality between the genders are not expendable in the interests of cultural sensitivity. If a heritage has evolved where women's gender rights are felt to be non-existent, where women are institutionally thought of as chattel, there is something inherently, seriously wrong with that evolution in social values. There are some social verities that cannot logically or emotionally or legally be exempted.
Equality under the law is not only a needful reality recognized in civilized countries, it is one that should be recognized as just and required as a basic commitment to human rights in all countries, in all cultures and all religions. Cultural relativism is an absurd concept, one that requires us to suspend intelligent judgement for the lesser good of not passing judgement on other societies' value choices.
But it is also a total abdication of responsibility toward other human beings, as well as their societies and cultures which consider it moral, feasible and reflective of intelligent judgement to treat one-half of the human race as inferior and undeserving of equal rights. Women who have fought hard for the recognition of their social, political and legal equality rights appear to have overlooked the universality of the imperative.
What is just and of urgent need for women from Western cultures is just as urgent to achieve for women and girls coming out of other cultures which have traditionally victimized and maltreated women simply because they are female and not male in traditional patriarchal-based societies. Whose cultures view women as completely subservient to men who 'own' their female relatives.
From the separation of men and women in society, and the demand that women become invisible in public, to child-brides, female genital mutilation, polygamy, arranged marriages, and honour killings, societies and cultures who practise this cruel and traditional treatments of women are clearly societally inferior. These practices are brought as honoured traditions when migration occurs to other countries, and re-established there.
In Islam in particular, the penalties meted out under Sharia law, and through time-honoured cultural practices holding women responsible for violence and rape they suffer as victims, are intolerable. Public stonings, hanging of women and children, beheadings, the jail, torture and rape of females who defy family traditions and demands are unforgivable assaults on justice.
Women who defy the universal Islamic edict to wear full-body garments, veils, to isolate themselves from men, to covert to other religions, to speak blasphemously, are considered to have committed grave offences for which capital punishment may be applied. Women who are incarcerated in Iran for purported affronts to the state or Islam will be gang-raped before execution to ensure they may not enter Paradise.
Where is the concerted effort on the part of privileged and intelligent and educated women of the West - who have been liberated from the relatively mild-by-comparison indignities of not being able to vote, having to take a man's surname on marriage, not being able to purchase property nor open a bank account without the consent of a male relative - advocating on behalf of their sisters?
Abusive societal mores and values seen in Islam most extensively but not exclusively, since purdah, arranged marriages, honour killings, female genital mutilation and other offensive practices are also recognized in Hindi, Sikh and African communities. All of these dreadful abuses against girls and women should be addressed; why are they not?
An egregious, disturbing instance of competing politics.
posted by Pieface | 3:19 PM
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