Islam: Hatoon al-Fassi Asserts that Women in Medieval Arabia Had More Rights than in Modern Saudi Arabia

Saudi scholar finds ancient women’s rights

Andrew Hammond (Reuters)

… In her study, “Women In Pre-Islamic Arabia”, the outspoken rights advocate [Hatoon al-Fassi]argues women in the pre-Islamic period enjoyed considerable rights in the Nabataean state, an urban Arabian kingdom centered in modern Jordan, south Syria and northwest Saudi Arabia during the Roman empire.

Most controversially, Fassi says women in Nabataea — whose capital was the famous rose-red city of Petra in south Jordan and which was at its height during the lifetime of Jesus Christ — enjoyed more freedom than in Saudi Arabia today because clerics have misunderstood the origins of Islamic law.

She also suggests some Saudi restrictions on women may have their origins in Greco-Roman traditions….”

Saudi Arabia: Female Teachers Face Long, Treacherous Commutes

Many female teachers have no choice other than risking their lives on the road in order to reach remote teaching jobs each day. A solution could be to live on their own or in a dormitory near their jobs, but even if they recieve permission from their guardian to do so, custom frowns on women living outside the family home.

Female teachers dying on the roads in Saudi Arabia

Donna Abu-Nasr (Associated Press)

Roads in Saudi Arabia are among the world’s most dangerous but one type of victim stands out: female teachers who are dying at alarming rates because of long commutes through the desert to reach remote schools.

The Saudi government appoints teachers to work in villages where local staff cannot fill all vacancies. But unlike their male counterparts, female teachers in this conservative Muslim country have difficulty living alone in the villages, forcing them to commute each day….

USA: The Criminalizing of Islam

The ongoing furor over the proposed footwash sinks at the Minneapolis Airport is an example of the mistrust and hatred of Muslims described in this article. Merely being Muslim is perceived by these people to be a threat, and no action a Muslim takes — taking out a Sharia compliant loan, praying, washing oneself — is allowed to pass without notice.

Her Dream, Branded as a Threat

Andrea Elliott (New York Times)

… [A] growing and organized movement [aims] to stop Muslim citizens who are seeking an expanded role in American public life….

“It’s a battle that’s really just begun,” said Daniel Pipes, who directs a conservative research group, the Middle East Forum…

Israelis: Combatting Child Abuse Among the Ultra-Orthodox

State helpless in face of skeletons in haredi closet

In spite of efforts by welfare officials, local rabbis, state authorities are unable to curb rampant child abuse in ultra-Orthodox families

Yael Branovsky (YNet News)

… Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, head of the National Council for the Child, believes that it is the closed and reticent nature of the haredi community that in many instances precludes intervention by state authorities in child abuse cases.

“The haredi community firmly opposes airing its dirty laundry out in public, like we saw with many kibbutz communities in the past. The haredi community is extremely concerned about its public images, and in many cases rabbis did not allow families to go to the police and report abuse.”

Kadman noted, however, that this trend is mercifully changing. “In recent years there is more willingness among haredi families to report abuse. In our council alone, 30% of individuals involved in a project tending to victims of sexual abuse are haredi….”

India: ‘Untouchable’ Woman and Baby Die After Doctors Refuse Treatment

The cold-hearted medical staff at this hospital is now under investigation.

‘Untouchable’ woman dies after Indian medics refuse treatment

(Agence France Presse)

An “untouchable” woman who gave birth outside an Indian hospital because doctors would not treat her died Thursday, a day after her baby, officials admitted….

… Several doctors, including the hospital’s chief medical superintendent, had refused to touch her or provide medical care as she delivered her baby, the Press Trust of India reported.

Devi was a Dalit, or “untouchable”, a group at the bottom of the caste social ladder who have long been ostracised and forced into menial professions despite laws banning discrimination. Many high-class Hindus fear coming into contact with them…

USA, Arkansas: Wasting Away to Nothing in Prison

This is off-topic, but happened to catch my eye:

A man whose weight has dropped from 413 to 308 pounds in 8 months while in prison is alleging starvation. He is barely subsisting on 3,000 calories a day …

Benton County Inmate Says He’s Not Getting Enough Food
(Morning News Northwest Arkansas)

… Broderick Lloyd Laswell filed a prisoner civil rights lawsuit, without a lawyer, Friday in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville. He claims the jail doesn’t provide inmates with enough food.

“On several occasions I have started to do some exercising and my vision went blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out,” Laswell wrote in his complaint. “About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again…”

Usually, when prisoners complain about the food it’s because it’s too starchy and fatty. With this guy, it’s the opposite.

Saudi Arabia: Perpetual Child Status of Women

Saudi women ‘kept in childhood’

(BBC News)

Saudi women are being kept in perpetual childhood so male relatives can exercise “guardianship” over them, the Human Rights Watch group has said…

… “It’s astonishing that the Saudi government denies adult women the right to make decisions for themselves but holds them criminally responsible for their actions at puberty,” said Ms [Fareida] Deif [of Human Rights Watch].

Saudi Arabia: Mecca Mean Time (MMT)

Muslim call to adopt Mecca time

Magdi Abdelhadi (BBC News)

Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace GMT, arguing that the Saudi city is the true centre of the Earth….

… One geologist argued that unlike other longitudes, Mecca’s was in perfect alignment to magnetic north.

He said the English had imposed GMT on the rest of the world by force when Britain was a big colonial power, and it was about time [sic] that changed…

Hmmm… good luck with getting non-Muslim majority nations to go along with this idea based on pseudo-science. The current system works pretty well and using Greenwich Mean Time as a standard no longer has a political meaning (if it ever really did). The important thing is that GMT **is** used as a global standard. Throwing a competing system into the mix won’t improve matters, IMHO.

Photo Essay: Druze Festival Celebrated Across Borders

This annual celebration of the uprising of Syrian Druze against French rule straddles the borders of Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

It includes musical performances where the stage is at the back of half the audience, so that they can face their relatives and friends on the other side of the border.

Druze festival in the Golan Heights

(BBC News)

Germany: Cologne Gym Caters to Muslim Womens Needs

Special Gym Caters to Muslim Women, Bans Body Cult

(Deusche Welle)

A gym in the city of Cologne has made many Muslim women feel at home. After a successful year in business, others want to open up more fitness centers where devout women can get a great work-out while remaining modest.

Pakistan: Farrukh Saleem on the Condition of Women in Muslim Countries and Other Questions

Dr. Farrukh Saleem, a regular contributer to Pakistan media, keeps asking questions that few people want to answer. The latest question, posed in Women in the Muslim World:

Can you think of a Muslim-majority country that has risen to the height of glory [in the past 1000 years]? Could it be because we let half of our accumulated brainpower go to waste?

Women in Muslim world

Dr Farrukh Saleem (International News)

Muslims do not treat women right. According to the Global Gender Gap (GGG) report, the planet’s ten-worst offenders are: Yemen, Chad, Pakistan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Benin, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt and Oman. Of the ten, nine are Muslim-majority states. At the other end of the spectrum, the planet’s best countries for women to live in are: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Philippines, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Spain. Not even one of the top-ten is a Muslim-majority state….

… For women, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan comes out as one the worst of countries to live in; there are only two other countries worse off than is Pakistan — Yemen and Chad. Under economic participation, Pakistan is ranked 126 out of 128. Educational attainment, 123 out of 128. Health, 121 out of 128. Political empowerment, 43 out of 128. Surprisingly, Pakistani women are worse off this year than they were last year….

Other questions from Dr. Saleem:

Knowledge

(IRFI.org – Islamic Research Foundation International)

…Why are we powerless? When was the last time we invented something? When and what was our last contribution to human civilisation? Is this also a Jewish conspiracy? Perhaps, an American one? Did the Jews stop us from producing knowledge? Did the Americans stop us from applying knowledge?…

And:

Why are We Poor?

(DAGA – Documentation for Action Groups in Asia)

… India’s economy is 800% the size of ours (Pakistan’s). On a per capita basis, we have a record of spending 500% more on arms imports than does India. Which country is likely to run out of resources first? Just who is most likely to win without firing a shot? There certainly are no prizes for getting these
riddles right….

Austria: Muhammad Asad Honored

Asad, an Austrian convert to Islam is best known for his writings, including his English translation of the meaning of the Quran (The Message of the Quran) and his support of founding of Pakistan.

Muhammad Asad Square inaugurated in Vienna

(APP)

As a part of European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and with its focus on Islam and its relationship with Europe, the City of Vienna, the capital of Austria, has named a square as “Muhammad Asad Platz”….

A media release of the organisers said “Muhammad Asad Platz” (Square) is the first traffic area to be named after a Muslim not only in Austria, but in Western Europe.

Asad, born Leopold Weiss, was a Jew who converted to Islam and translated the Holy Quran into English. He was born in 1900 and lived up to the ripe age of 92 years….

Indonesia: Seeking to Officially Ban the Ahmadiyya

Intolerance rears its ugly head in Indonesia, with two government ministries seeking to further isolate an already abused religious group.

Indonesia plans to ban “heretical” Muslim sect

(Reuters)

Indonesia is drafting a decree that will ban a Muslim sect that has been branded heretical by most Muslims, an official said on Friday.

The Ahmadiyya sect views itself as Muslim but it has been branded a heretical group by the Indonesian Ulema Council, the secular country’s highest Muslim authority, which has issued a fatwa, or edict, against it.

Update, April 20:

Indonesian Muslims rally for ban on Ahmadiyya sect

(Reuters)

More than 1,000 Indonesian Muslims gathered in front of the presidential palace on Sunday to press the government to ban a Muslim sect that has been branded heretical by most Muslims….

… Chanting “Allahu Akbar (God is Great)” and “Disband Ahmadiyya”, the members of the Indonesian Muslim Forum (FUI), a group of about 50 Muslim organisations, urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to issue the decree.

“We are pushing the president to immediately issue a presidential decree disbanding Ahmadiyya,” FUI Secretary General Muhammad Al Khaththath told Reuters.

The FUI also asked the government to capture Ahmadiyya’s leaders and seize all its assets. [Emphasis by PM]

South Asia: Acid Attacks

While this article focuses on acid attacks on women in South Asia (India & Pakistan), acid is a common weapon in the Arab Gulf, also and men use it against each other. This is such a horrible thing to do to a fellow human being. I don’t understand it.

Acid Attacks on Rise in South Asia
Disputes Lead to Crimes Against Women That Too Often Go Unpunished

Nick Schifrin (ABC World News)

There are no national statistics on how many Indian women are the targets of acid attacks. But read the newspapers here and you’ll find their stories, women having disputes over relationships or property or family, women who become the victims of crimes that physically and mentally ruin their lives.

The problem seems most acute in South Asia, although it is not restricted to this part of the world. The Bangladesh Acid Survivors Foundation reports that an average of 228 acid attacks have occurred each year since 1999. In 2002, in Pakistan, 750 women were injured in acid attacks, Human Rights Watch reported.

Yemen: Eight Year Old Girl Gets Marriage Dissolved by Court

Bravo to the judge in this case for doing the right thing.

Court terminates 8-year-old girl’s marriage

(Reuters)

A Yemeni court ordered the marriage of an eight-year-old girl terminated on Tuesday because she had not reached puberty.

The court also ordered the child’s family to pay about $250 in compensation to the 30-year-old ex-husband.

The girl’s lawyer and human rights activist Shatha Nasser said the minor had filed a suit in April asking for divorce and told the court that her husband had been physically abusing her and forcing her to have “sex with him after hitting her.”

More details from the Yemen Times:

8-year-old girl asks for divorce in court

Hamed Thabet (Yemen Times)

An eight-year-old girl decided last week to go the Sana’a West Court to prosecute her father, who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man.

Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer, a man 22 years her senior. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse.

According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute, as she is underage. However, court judge Muhammed Al-Qathi heard her complaint and subsequently ordered the arrests of both her father and husband….

And the Yemen MPs refuse to consider requiring a minimum age for marriage:

Parliament refuses to legislate minimum age for marriage

Hamed Thabet (Yemen Times)

Despite pressure of 8-year-old girl’s husband refusing to set her free. Simultaneously, Yemeni Parliament does not consider early marriage as a priority and is not moving forward with legislation to prevent it….