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India-Pakistan
Mullahs' protests over Women's Bill pathetic
2006-08-26
KARACHI: Only a handful of protestors participated in demonstrations organised by mullahs against the Women's Protection Bill in several cities of Pakistan on Friday.
“We will even sacrifice our lives for this and will not allow these amendments to be made...”
Participants of the unsuccessful protests vowed to resist attempts to amend Islamic laws that liberals have long deemed unfair to women.

The ruling party introduced the Women's Protection Bill in parliament this week, aimed at amending these laws, to the fury of religious conservatives. "We will even sacrifice our lives for this and will not allow these amendments to be made," Mirajul Huda Siddiqui, an MMA leader, told a small crowd in Karachi. Similar small protests were held in Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad. Protestors said that prostitution would be promoted if the bill was passed.
Posted by:Fred

#9  a woman : agreed - if they weren't convinced they'd face worse punishment at the hands of muslim mobs, they'd kill the f*cker and face Judicial review
Posted by: Frank G   2006-08-26 22:28  

#8  We should send in the reserves:

Posted by: lotp   2006-08-26 21:20  

#7  Of course that last line should have read:

Just how quickly will Muslim women overcome this sort of entrenched abuse?
Posted by: Zenster   2006-08-26 21:16  

#6  As I said, the choice here is that of the women.

'moose, I agree with you in principle but Muslim women are essentially nothing more than a gigantic example of the Stockholm Syndrome. The programming runs too deep and the consequences are too severe. Sure, a woman might be able to inflict grievous injury, even fatal harm to her abusive husband. Then what awaits her? Being beaten to death by the husband's outraged mail relatives. Being hung from a lamp post by a male-dominated sharia court. Being exiled from her entire community.

At the very least, she will lose her children. Which is something that, by dint of tradition and maternal feelings (especially in such an environment of sensory deprivation) she is deeply attached to and represent one of the only productive outlets in her entire life.

Remember, female illiteracy is rampant. Women are not allowed to drive cars. They cannot obtain a divorce without presenting evidence that is essentially impossible to secure. They are frequently subject to genital mutilation. They cannot leave their own house unless chaperoned by a male relative.

In the West, all of these manipulations represent blindingly obvious hallmarks of spousal abuse and women are granted divorces based on even a single instance of these behavior patterns in their mate.

Now imagine living within such a constrictive milieu and having had it presented to you, from birth, as being religious dictum, cultural imperative and a requisite for physical survival.

Pray tell. Just how quickly will Muslim overcome this sort of entrenched abuse?
Posted by: Zenster   2006-08-26 21:13  

#5  Great in theory. Harder to accomplish in fact.

And even harder to organize in the face of centuries of practice and the womens' own upbringing.
Posted by: a woman   2006-08-26 20:30  

#4  Zenster: I am a firm believer that nobody can make another person a victim without their assent. A person can be beaten, raped, or even murdered without submitting--and by not submitting, it drains their oppressor of strength.

Even a woman with a 3" needle can defend herself. Most anything can be a weapon, and time is on her side. She can tell her husband that he can rape her, but he will never sleep well again.

And this resistance is passed from woman to woman. If a woman is beaten by her husband, yet is too afraid to resist, other women may join in, without warning, and attack her husband.

He can no longer walk the street in ease, trust his food and drink, even trust that his reputation is secure--remember that poisoned tongues can kill as easily as a dagger.

The other women may turn their men against him.

As I said, the choice here is that of the women. It just doesn't matter what the men think.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-08-26 20:20  

#3  The hilarity is that the women's opinion is the only one that matters.

Only if you're allowed to vote. If not, it doesn't help much that rape is de facto legalized, physical abuse institutionalized and outright murder part of canonical law.

Were it possible to disregard terrorism (and it's not), Islam would still be invalidated by its congenital abuse of women. Islam is an outmoded cultural artifact whose hour passed long ago and needs to be expunged from modern history.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-08-26 16:21  

#2  The hilarity is that the women's opinion is the only one that matters. If the social tide has turned among women, then what the men want doesn't matter for squat.

Call it a "slave's strike". If the women just refuse to play along, the men can beat them, but they can't make them work. Since most of these men are utterly incapable weaklings in the first place, they cave pretty quick.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-08-26 10:28  

#1  "We will even sacrifice our lives for this and will not allow these amendments to be made,"

Good. If all of you sacrifice your lives, then there might not be any need for special legislation.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-08-26 00:59  

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