Friday 29th of March 2024

to ban or not to ban...

attaturk

illustrated presentation doing the email rounds...

...

It is arguable that the full body and face cover is not a religious requirement in Islam but represents a minority tradition among a small Islamist minority; that it is not a matter of free choice but a highly forced choice and a visual Islamist symbol—one that is ostentatiously anti-secularist and misogynist;[10] that the Western state does have an interest in public appearances and, therefore, does not permit public nudity or masked people in public buildings; and that it is strange that the very feminists (or their descendents) who once objected to the sexual commoditification of women "can explain to you with the most exquisitely twisted logic why miniskirts and lip gloss make women into sexual objects, but when it comes to a cultural practice, enforced by terror, that makes women into social nonentities, [they] feel that it is beneath [their] liberal dignity to support a ban on the practice."[11] To this may be added that face-veil wearers ("good" girls) endanger all those who do not wear a face veil ("bad" girls). But before addressing these arguments at greater length, it is instructive to see what political and religious leaders in the Muslim world, as well as Muslim women, have to say about the issue.

The House of Islam Unveils Its Women

The forced veiling and unveiling of Muslim women, both in terms of the headscarf and the face veil, ebbed and flowed for about a century as Muslim elites strove to come to terms with the demise of the Islamic political order that had dominated the Middle East (and substantial parts of Asia and Europe) for over a millennium. Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, for example, generated a new and vibrant brand of nationalism that sought to extricate Turkey from its imperial past—and its Islamic legacy—and to reconstitute it as a modern nation state. Iran's Reza Shah distanced his country from Islam for the opposite reason, namely, as a means to link his family to Persia's pre-Islamic imperial legacy, which is vividly illustrated by his adoption of the surname Pahlavi, of ancient Persian origins,[12] and the name Iran, or "[the land] of the Aryans," as the country's official title in all formal correspondence.[13]

http://www.meforum.org/2777/ban-the-burqa

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Though:

Is the Arab Spring a movement leading to more freedom and equal rights?

Not for women, according to Amal al-Malki, a Qatari author who is very concerned about the rights of women in the Arab world.

She is largely skeptical of recent developments and says, if anything, the Arab Spring has only highlighted the continuing “second-class citizenship" of women in the region.

She argues that despite some progress made Arab women are still largely absent in the public arena.

“We have no voice. We have no visibility... And I am telling you, this is why women’s rights should be institutionalised, it should not be held hostage at the hand of political leaderships who can change in a second, right? Governments should be held responsible for treating men and women equally.”

Will the Arab Spring deliver its promises to everyone? Or is there reason to believe that women will be left behind? What has changed for women in the Arab world?

On this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, we talk to Amal al-Malki, a woman not afraid to ring the alarm bells, about women's rights in the Arab world, political and social empowerment and Islamic feminism.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2012/04/201242111373249723.html

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Meanwhile:

The Arab revolutions are not only shaking the structure of tyranny to the core - they are shattering many of the myths about the Arab region that have been accumulating for decades. Topping the list of dominant myths are those of Arab women as caged in, silenced, and invisible. Yet these are not the types of women that have emerged out of Tunisia, Egypt, or even ultra-conservative Yemen in the last few weeks and months.

Not only did women actively participate in the protest movements raging in those countries, they have assumed leadership roles as well. They organised demonstrations and pickets, mobilised fellow citizens, and eloquently expressed their demands and aspirations for democratic change.

Like Israa Abdel Fatteh, Nawara Nejm, and Tawakul Karman, the majority of the women are in their 20s and 30s. Yet there were also inspiring cases of senior activists as well: Saida Saadouni, a woman in her 70s from Tunisia,  draped the national flag around her shoulders and partook in the Qasaba protests which succeeded in toppling M. Ghannouchi's provisional government. Having protested for two weeks, she breathed a unique revolutionary spirit into the thousands who congregated around her to hear her fiery speeches. "I resisted French occupation. I resisted the dictatorships of Bourguiba and Ben Ali. I will not rest until our revolution meets its ends, for your sakes my sons and daughters, not for mine," said Saadouni.

Whether on the virtual battlefields of the Internet or the physical protests in the streets, women have been proving themselves as real incubators of leadership. This is part of a wider phenomenon characteristic of these revolutions: The open politics of the street have bred and matured future leaders. They are grown organically in the field, rather than being imposed upon from above by political organisations, religious groups, or gender roles.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/04/201142412303319807.html

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joan of arc...

 

Munich, Germany - Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? A challenging new book by the Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker says that the answer is "yes".

In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker presents data showing that human violence, while still very much with us today, has been gradually declining. Moreover, he says, "over the long sweep of history, women have been and will be a pacifying force. Traditional war is a man's game: tribal women never band together to raid neighbouring villages." As mothers, women have evolutionary incentives to maintain peaceful conditions in which to nurture their offspring and ensure that their genes survive into the next generation.

Skeptics immediately reply that women have not made war simply because they have rarely been in power. If they were empowered as leaders, the conditions of an anarchic world would force them to make the same bellicose decisions that men do. Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi were powerful women; all of them led their countries to war.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/02/201221075020654159.html

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazons

 

the war of the donuts...

Supporters of women's rights sound off using the hashtag #Women2Dunkin.

In Riyadh, a sign posted in a Dunkin' Donuts store stating that women could not enter without a male chaperone offended many online and spurred the hashtag #Women2Dunkin.

The hashtag is a spin-off of the online campaign #Women2Drive that began in 2011. 

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It sounds silly and many comment on the hashtag are funny including this one:

If women shouldn't buy bananas, carrots and cucumbers because of sexual connotations, surely it is MEN who should be banned from buying donuts?

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But is it a promotional ploy to create a buzz around something that could be full of sugar and transfats?... Make something temptingly illegal and the cash comes in.

But then another comments:

dunkin donuts make horrible donuts so i'd recommend going to krispy kreme.

Same stuff, different brand... But the map is telling:

 prisonbreak

the "natural status of women"...

Saudi King Abdullah has sacked one of his most hardline advisers, Sheikh Abdelmohsen al-Obeikan.

Sheikh Obeikan, who was an adviser to the royal cabinet, opposed moves to relax gender segregation.

The dismissal comes shortly after Sheikh Obeikan attacked plans by "influential people to corrupt Muslim society by trying to change the natural status of women".

Saudi officials did not give a reason for Sheikh Obeikan's departure.

His recent comments were taken to be an attack on tentative steps towards relaxing some stricter interpretations of Saudi law.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18042467

Meanwhile, more and more educated older Afghans reminisce foundly over the communist era of their country... Al least "every one was equal", including women... Pity about the Yanks who financed the Taliban and Mujahideens to oust the commies...

the good yanks VS the bad guys...

The United States military has called for a review of all its training classes after receiving criticism for a course taught to senior officers that allegedly encouraged war against Islam.

The controversial class presented slides that accused dozens of Islamic groups, many widely recognised as mainstream advocacy groups, of infiltrating the US media, education system, government and military.

One slide titled "The Muslim Brotherhood and Violence" showed a photo of an al-Qaeda beheading, erroneously conflating the two groups.

Through the slides and other presentations, the course created a picture of a US government co-opted by subversive Muslim elements.

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2012/05/20125124178148367.html

turkey's latest battleground...

Turkey may be a secular country, but the government is turning several secular schools into religious institutions under controversial education reforms. And the schools are being received with mixed results.

Many parents in Turkey were in for a shock this month when they discovered that their children's schools had been turned into Imam Hatips. Religious schools were originally created to teach future imams or religious leaders.

But not everyone was unhappy at the change: at one school, a mother, wearing a headscarf, believes it's a good thing.

"I want my child to learn about his religion […] because we are a Muslim country so religion must be part of our education," she said.

Another parent was less enthusiastic about the change.  

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16269525,00.html

 

See toon at top...

afghanistan's latest battleground...

Schools and health centres built by the British in Afghanistan as part of the military's counter-insurgency strategy are being forced to close down because President Karzai's government cannot afford to pay for them, the Guardian has learned.

Britain has spent hundreds of millions of pounds in the province over the last six years building and restoring services decimated by conflict and the years of Taliban rule.

But the Guardian has been told that a confidential report compiled this year warned that some of the buildings in Helmand were constructed without enough consultation with the Afghan government and without thinking through how they would be maintained.

Senior British officials in Helmand are working with Afghan ministers to identify the schools and clinics that are deemed "critical" and should remain open, while most of the rest could be phased out between now and the end of 2014.

The report made clear the British "had built too much" in the province, and that this was a consequence of the UK military trying to win "hearts and minds" among the populace.

It is not clear how many schools and clinics will be affected, but it is thought dozens are potentially at risk, particularly in more rural areas.

"Of course we built too much," said one official. "We didn't think about how the Afghans would pay for it. But it was understandable. Nobody is blaming the military. We wanted to show them what we could do for them, but without regard for sustainability."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/27/afghan-schools-clinics-built-british-close/print

89th anniversary of the founding of modern Turkey...

 

Police using tear gas, smoke bombs and water cannons failed to stop thousands of secularists who forged ahead to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's mausoleum in a march that highlighted the divide over secularism on the 89th anniversary of the founding of modern Turkey.
Police removed roadblocks as tens of thousands of flag-waving secularists marched to the mausoleum of Turkey's founder following clashes outside the parliament building in Ankara where Ataturk declared the republic, CNN-Turk television said.
"Some policemen kicked youths who only wanted to unfurl Turkish flags," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), told CNN-Turk. "It is very sad. How can a government that is against the republic call itself the government of the republic?"

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/turkish-police-clash-with-secularists-20121030-28ghp.html#ixzz2AmOXfHjq
See image at top