Reply #210: Denial is not just a river in Egypt [View All]

[vincent_vega_lives]

http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2000/english/ch03.html

In the Arab/Muslim Middle East, the situation is critical. According to the State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, violence against women in the region is widespread. Under Islamic law (Sha'aria), Muslim female heirs receive half the amount of a male heir's inheritance; Christian widows of Muslims have no inheritance rights. In a Sha'aria court, the testimony of one man equals that of two women. In Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia, women cannot travel abroad without the consent of their husbands or fathers. Women are expected to dress properly in public (e.g. covered from head to toe) in Iran, where otherwise they may be sentenced to flogging or imprisonment, and in Saudi Arabia, where the Mutawwa'in constantly harass women to enforce the dressing code.

Saudi women are not allowed to drive and cannot run a business by themselves. They have to enter buses by separate rear entrances and sit in separate sections from where men sit. Saudi girls are not permitted to participate in sport at school and colleges. Saudi women are not even admitted to a hospital for medical treatment without the consent of a male relative. While women have access to education at the university level, certain studies such as journalism, engineering and architecture are off-limits.

In Iran, where the penal code includes mandatory stoning of adulterous women and men, life for young women is so miserable that, according to a New York Times report, some street girls began to disguise as boys to avoid rape or falling victim to prostitution rings. ''I wouldn't have been able to survive in women's dress. I would have been finished by now,'' explained one such girl.

A 2000 study showed that 97 percent of married Egyptian women and 90 percent of Sudanese women have undergone genital mutilation. In Sudan, southern women are forced into slavery and regularly raped.

If one were to create an ''horror index'' to measure the abuse to which women and girls are subjected in the Arab and Muslim world, the ''honor-killing'' phenomenon would rank close to the top. In Jordan alone, about 25 percent of all killings committed there in 2001 were of the type.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/5334423.htm?1c

http://www.themodernreligion.com/women/dv-ending.htm

AN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP IS PREPARING A REPORT
DETAILING AN ALARMING RATE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN
TAJIKISTAN. POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS SAY THE MOSTLY
MUSLIM NATION IS A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY WITH EQUAL RIGHTS FOR
WOMEN. BUT AS PETER HEINLEIN FOUND DURING A VISIT TO TAJIKISTAN,
THE TREND APPEARS TO BE TOWARD LESS, RATHER THAN MORE EQUALITY.

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/s/53F01A946DDB56CFC125653600433BC1

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/print.asp?ArticleID=5016

Violence against women, whether it is verbal or physical, is increasing worldwide. The UAE is no exception. There are no official figures on the level of domestic violence in the UAE, but experts agree that the number of reported cases does not reflect the true picture. Head of Special Reports Duraid Al Baik talks to social experts, doctors and police officials about the problem and what needs to be done to stem the violence.

http://www.crescentlife.com/psychissues/domestic_violence.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/849029.stm

An association of women's groups in Spain is presenting a lawsuit against a Muslim leader whose book, Women in Islam, gives advice on wife-beating.