Joke of the day: Women's Rights In Islam Cartoon

Appropriate representation of women in Islam- a religion that has never evolved.

Legalized Marital Rape and Child Marriage Part Of Proposed Iraqi Law

It appears we wasted a heck of a lot of precious U.S. blood in Iraq. Not only has the country continued to be a hotbed of sectarian violence after US troop withdrawl, it's now considering passing a barbaric law that will set women back centuries, and rights activists are hopping mad. 

The current legal age to get married there is 18. With the okay from your parents you can marry at 15. That will all change if the Jaafari Personal Status Law (named for the sixth Shiite imam Jaafar al-Sadiq) is introduced.  Although it does not specifically mention a minimum age that girls can marry, it does refer to a specific age in the "divorce" section. The age of Mohammed's child bride Aisha- 9.

.. setting rules for divorces of girls who have reached the age of 9 years in the lunar Islamic calendar. It also says that's the age girls reach puberty.

Since the Islamic calendar year is 10 or 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar, that would be the equivalent of 8 years and 8 months old.

Other parts of the bill that encourage male-domination:

Men will have all the control when it comes to marriage proposals for their daughters.

Men will have all control over their wives when it comes to sexual relations. Raping wives will be legal.

Women will need permission from their husbands to leave their homes.

Women will have fewer rights when it comes to post-divorce child custody.

Men will have an easier time taking on more wives.

The bill is apparently catering to the majority Shiites who were persecuted under Saddam Hussein's reign of terror, and some believe tied to the upcoming elections.

Baghdad-based analyst Hadi Jalo suggested that election campaigning might be behind the proposal.

''Some influential Shiite politicians have the impression that they should do their best to make any achievement that would end the injustice that had been done against the Shiites in the past,'' Jalo said.

Naturally, Sunni females aren't too happy about the proposal.

.. lawmaker Likaa Wardi believes it violates women's and children's rights and creates divisions in society.

''The Jaffari law will pave the way to the establishments of courts for Shiites only, and this will force others sects to form their own courts. This move will widen the rift among the Iraqi people,'' Wardi said.

Secular Shiites are just as opposed.

Qais Raheem, a Shiite government employee living in eastern Baghdad, said the draft bill contradicts the principles of a modern society.

''The government officials have come up with this backward law instead of combating corruption and terrorism,'' said Raheem who has four children, including two teenage girls.

''This law legalises the rape and we should all reject it.''

Hopefully they will reject it, but who knows.

Gang Rape Victim In Sudan Charged With "Indecent Acts"

Another example of how oppressed women are in Islam.

An 18-year-old woman in Khartoum is gang-raped by seven Sudanese men, efforts to report the crime are ignored, and she gets penalized.

Apparently, the young Ethiopian migrant was lured into an empty property, while seeking housing, where she was then raped by seven men who videotaped the atrocity and then posted it on social media sites 6 months after the attack. Only then were the men arrested and tried.

The punishment for the men:

Three were sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery.
Two were given 40 lashes and fines for indecent acts.
One received 40 lashes and a hefty fine for distributing indecent material.
The seventh rapist- off scott-free because of insufficient evidence.

Punishment for the woman, who is now 9 months pregnant:

"During the trial, she was found guilty of committing “Indecent Acts,” sentenced to a month in prison, which has been suspended, and fined 5,000 Sudanese Pounds (about $961.00). She has also been threatened with “punishment for illegal entry” under Sudan’s immigration law and faces a prison sentence of 1 to 2 years and/or a fine, followed by expulsion."

She could have received a death sentence (stoning) since she was initially charged with adultery, but was able to prove she was divorced, so those charges were dropped.

Source: Amnesty International

Iranian Councilor Barred For Being Too Pretty and Sexy For Office

Hassan Rowhani, duly elected president of Iran, promised change in his country, especially for women.  One of his campaign promises was:

“Discrimination against women will not be tolerated.”

He also said in a campaign debate:

“I will form a women’s affairs ministry to return their trampled rights to them.”

But good luck trying to find one female member of his cabinet.

And the government of this so-called champion of women's rights has barred Nina Siakhali Moradi, city councilor for the city of Qazvin, from taking office because she's too pretty and  "too sexy."  Even though Moradi was fairly elected, the religious hardliners overturned it.

Even with more than 10,000 votes in the June election, putting her 14th out of 163 candidates and winning her a council seat, the 27-year-old engineer and website designer had her political career cut short because she was deemed too attractive to take up the post.

“We don’t want a catwalk model on the council,” a senior official in Qazvin told local press.

Moradi ran under the slogan “Young ideas for a young future,” pushing for better women’s rights in Qazvin, the restoration of the old city and greater youth involvement in town planning. She had been vetted and approved as a candidate by Iran’s judiciary and intelligence services. Her liberal views appeared popular with the electorate, The Times reported.

And  even though she adhered to strict Islamic dress code (full hijab with no hair showing) in her campaign posters, the conservatives complained to the governor calling them  “vulgar and anti-religious,” and anti-Islamic.

Others took umbrage with the fact that her headquarters

... became a gathering place for local young people, whose behavior and clothing provoked criticism from her opponents, mostly older conservative men.

The complaint was challenged but ultimately upheld. She was disqualified for not “observing the Islamic norms.”

She wasn't the only female candidate targeted. Maryam Nakhostin-Ahmadi and Shahla Atefeh both were detained and questioned and had their campaign posters removed.

In-Laws Who Tortured Afghan Freed From Jail By Afghan Courts

Remember Sahar Gul, the young Afghan girl who was severely tortured and locked up in a cellar in 2011 by her in-laws for refusing to become a prostitute?   Three of them (mother-in-law, father-in-law and sister-in-law) had been convicted and jailed last year for attempted murder (they had been starving her), but the appeals court reversed that decision, and the three are to be set free. The two women have already been released. No word about father-in-law, yet. The husband (30s) was never found.

The rest here.

It's not the only case of being forced into prostitution. Sahar Gul survived, Mah Gul wasn't so lucky, she was beheaded by her mother-in-law last year for refusing to engage in prostitution.

Shameful.

Saudi Women Banned From Music Shops

Saudi Arabian women are now prohibited from entering music shops that sell instruments:

Saudi Arabia’s Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has ordered a number of music shops across the kingdom to install a sign banning women from entering, the Arabic-language Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

That is, if you can believe the source- the Iranian government's mouthpiece PressTV. 

If true, why?