Theological curiosity that most feminist religion can treat women harshly
A homecoming of sorts, The Australian, Thursday:
A Saudi woman (Dina Ali Lasloom) attempting to flee from her “abusive” family and seek asylum in Australia has reportedly been forcibly returned to Riyadh after being gagged, tied with duct tape and wrapped in a sheet by two uncles while on a stopover in The Philippines.
Misconceptions about Islam and women. Activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied, ABC’s Q&A, February 13:
Islam to me is the most feminist religion, right. We got equal rights well before the Europeans.
Lasloom’s plight:
Saudi women are not allowed to travel without approval from their male guardian, and Saudi embassies are known to assist families in tracking down women who have fled abroad … “They took me and locked me up for 13 hours, just because I’m a Saudi woman,” Ms Lasloom claimed in a video sent to a Saudi activist and posted online. “If my family come, they will kill me. If I go back to Saudi Arabia, I will be dead …”
More Abdel-Magied:
… people talk about Islam without knowing anything about it and they’re willing to completely negate any of my rights as a human being, a woman, as a person with agency, simply because they have an idea about what my faith is about.
Wife-disciplining is about “managed” hitting and “a beautiful blessing”, The Australian, Thursday:
Muslim men are allowed to hit their wives — but only gently, and not with fists, instead using short sticks and pieces of fabric, according to a new video produced by the Australian women’s branch of radical Islamic political movement Hizb ut-Tahrir. (Panellist Reem Allouche) says the “hitting” must be done in a “managed way” with a short stick, a twisted scarf or a scrap of fabric. “It’s symbolic,” she says. A fellow panellist adds: “And a beautiful blessing.” Ms Allouche tells the audience of 26 veiled women in Sydney’s west that Muslim husbands are in a leadership position in marriage and “it goes hand-in-hand that he would have the right to undertake disciplinary measures”.
Free speech? Sbs.com.au, April 3:
Prominent Muslim activists and free speech advocates have spoken out ahead of the visit to Australia by anti-Islam campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The Somali-born Dutch-American is well-known for her strong views on the Islamic faith, and says she herself has been subjected to some of its practices. (A petition) says it rejects Ms Hirsi Ali’s “hatemongering and bigotry”, and accuses her “divisive rhetoric” of serving to “increase hostility and hatred towards Muslims”.
Talking about hostility … Muslim “crusader” Deeba Abedi, The Huffington Post, February 7:
Sharia law allows women to be beaten, divorced with the utterance of three words, shunned, have their genitals mutilated for any number of offences, and legally killed by most men depending upon the reason. Women under sharia may not speak in court and her testimony carries no weight (if she is permitted to speak) if who she is speaking against is a man … The women’s march (in Washington in January when participants wore solidarity hijabs) stands for preventing any female from becoming an imam, leader of a mosque and any woman of the faith without a hijab to be discounted.
No limits to white supremacy, The Daily Telegraph, Thursday:
Insurers are giving owners of white cars discounted premiums and will charge customers more if they buy a policy in the afternoon (and) people may pay less if they are married. A Senate inquiry was told drivers of white cars … made fewer claims. Inquiry member Nick Xenophon said: “If you are a single male, own a red car and buy your insurance late at night, you’re pretty much stuffed.”