Watch for Michael van der Galien to charge Dr. Farrukh Saleem with dishonesty for failing to claim that, back in the seventh century, Muhammad improved the status of women, and that the hijab was borrowed from Christianity.
But in the real world, it is good to see this published in Pakistan.
"Women in Muslim world," by Dr Farrukh Saleem in The News International (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):
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.GGG collected data from a total of 128 countries to develop a comprehensive, scientific index. The GGG Index is based on four different sub-indices -- namely, economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health -- while each of the sub-indices has half a dozen components.
Under economic participation, five of the worst-offenders are: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Oman and Bahrain. Under educational attainment, the worst-offenders are: Chad, Yemen, Benin and Pakistan. The best: Denmark, United Kingdom, Australia, France and Belgium. Under political empowerment the worst are: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Iran. The best: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Spain.
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.
Al Mamlakah al Arabiyah as Suudiyah, or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is ranked really low, too. Under economic participation, Saudi Arabia is ranked 127 out of 128. Educational attainment, 87 out of 128. Health, 60 out of 128. Political empowerment, 128 out of 128.
Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah, or the Republic of Yemen is worse than both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Under economic participation, Yemen is ranked 128 out of 128. Educational attainment, 127 out of 128. Political empowerment, 127 out of 128.
Intriguingly, there is a correlation between poverty and status of women. Some of the worst offenders are also the poorest of the poor (with the exception of oil wealth). Most of the Arab world is far below global averages and conditions, unfortunately, are actually deteriorating -- not improving. Yes, there are a few exceptions. The UAE, for instance, has invested massive resources into educating its women. Bahrain now has a woman parliamentarian....
The program "Equality" on Al-Hurra TV has an interesting interview this week. A young Saudi woman went to Dubai (against her family's strong objections)and ended up as a TV broadcaster there. She says she gets tons of emails and calls from Saudi women asking how they can do what she did. She estimates 40 percent of them would leave Saudi in a heartbeat just for the opportunity to have a real job.
If I wrote a piece in a newspaper "Muslims do not treat women right" (sic) here in Australia, I would be charged with racial AND religious hatred.
Watch for the counter attacks from Muslims the world over to asassinate the character and motivation of the author.
Not to address any of the points however.
Most of the Muslim countries do nothing to advance or improve the lives of their population of women except to peddle Islam as the cure for everything.
But do you think we'll hear anything, or see any action, from the UN's Human Rights Commission about this? Of course not, because it's effectively controlled by the worst women's rights offenders, and human right's offenders, on the planet.
The very last short paragraph of the article contains this gem:
"Muslims are 22 per cent of humanity but produce less than five per cent of global GDP."
How seriously pitiful and pathetic is that? I truly do not know how Muslims retain any form of dignity and pride in this world. Their countries are examples of what NOT to do, their lives are wasted as they submit to their satanic moon god, they have absolutely no regard for human life whatsoever, they treat half of their population worse than they treat their camels and farm animals, they contribute absolutely NOTHING to the world stage except for their particular brand of death porn and destruction, I could go on and on and on and on... How truly humiliating to be a Muslim today.
"Surprisingly, Pakistani women are worse off this year than they were last year."
Who's surprised? I'm not surprised. Are you? Is anyone?
If the unlikely day should ever come when all those millions of good little muslimahs wake up, look out, muslim men. You may meet your virgins in paradise sooner than you think.
And this is what Naseem, the resident female Pakistani Muslim troll, wants for the entire world. Of course, she'll probably argue that the way Muslim women are treated is Allah's law and who are we to judge what the creator of all the universe wants? In other words, a typical theodicy, and we know how well theodicies explain things, which is to say, they don't explain things at all.
In other words, a typical theodicy, and we know how well theodicies explain things, which is to say, they don't explain things at all.
Posted by: venividivici at April 20, 2008 10:05 AM
Where is Hugh? I would appreciate a mini-exegesis on "Theodicy." I haven't seen him lately, is he available?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodicy#The_problem_of_evil
Most of the Muslim countries do nothing to advance or improve the lives of their population of women except to peddle Islam as the cure for everything.
Posted by: pulsar182
Islam is the cure-all-snake-oil that drives its users into fits of rage, irrational psychotic behavior, superstitious fear of dogs, braindead conspiracy theories, lascivious behaviors with 72 virgins waiting in paradise for the blow-yourself-up martyrs, and beat the wife, or kill her. With such snake oil Islam cure all they should all go on prozac and chill out. Better yet, have this snake oil treated as a controlled substance under the supervision of the ATF, and outlawed.
". . . 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."
Unfortunately, the "top-ten" are at the top only for their non-Moslem majority. Many Moslem women in many of these countries are treated little better than their peers in Moslem countries -- they live in ethnic enclaves where they are subject to beatings, FGM, forced marriages, honor-killings, etc. And yet, instead of enforcing their own standards, the PC dhimmi bureaucrats of many of the "top-ten" want to hand over more authority in family matters to Islamic courts.
Also, if present trends continue, the "top-ten" won't be at the top in 50 or so years, when the Moslems become a majority. By then they will have descended into the same pit as Yemen, Chad, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.
From the article: "Intriguingly, there is a correlation between poverty and status of women."
Really? That's the reason that this is happening?
Wow! Who knew?
I just took a look at the GGG report; and it makes amusing reading. Apparently, equality counts for everything, and quality itself for little. Thus Cuba rates a high place: 22nd. It appears that a country where nobody has any rights at all scores highly -- male and female are equal. And a country where anyone can own property, but where there are a few restrictions on female ownership, scores poorly.
Cuba scores more highly than: Austria (27), the U.S. (31), Portugal (37), Switzerland (40), France (51), and the Czech Republic (64), to name a few. But does anyone seriously think Cuba is a better place for women to live than any one of those countries?
"Muslims are 22 per cent of humanity but produce less than five per cent of global GDP."
If you take away oil SPAIN adds more to the global GDP than the ENTIRE Muslim world.
These figures aren't really fair though because they don't include heroin exports.
"Muslims are 22 per cent of humanity but produce less than five per cent of global GDP."
Yes, but they only care about the fact that they produce nearly 100% of global IRP, Islamic Religion Product. For some hare-brained reason, they think that's all they need to do. Muslims appear to live in an alternate reality where everything related to the day-to-day survival of humanity is supposed to be taken care of by "someone else", preferably a non-Muslim. They are the equivalent of the "idea guy" at work, whose always spouting off some ridiculous idea or another, but never does any actual work. It's pathetic and disgusting.
The statistics quoted here are very useful, as they provide hard, quantified data that verifies what anyone who travels, reads the papers, follows the news or reads JW/DW and similar blogs knows to be true. I worry about the future health of Dr. Farrukh Saleem.
Benazir Bhutto would agree.
If she could.
Here's a shocking collage of homicide bomber victims to contrats the dhimmi laudatios the move "paradise now" has received in Europe and from "Amnersy International".
The are using the moive in German classrooms.. There are Germans opposed to this which is how I found this collage.
I thought this belongs on Dhimmiwatch.
http://www.honestly-concerned.org/Temporary/Paradise-NO-Schock-klein.jpg
Sorry for the typos above.
I wonder if the relationship between poverty and the oppression of women might, like poverty and crime, be reversed. That crime and oppression of women cause poverty because the stability, safety and extra brain and people power needed to create more wealth and goods are compromised.
Posted by: Ummah Gummah
Here's a shocking collage of homicide bomber victims to contrast the dhimmi laudatios the move "Paradise Now" has received in Europe and from "Amnersty International"
And so they should oppose the exciting, quality Nazi film, which attempts to normalize suicide bombers, and promotes terror
The message of "Paradise Now" is simple: We're all people, even mass murderers." You see, anyone has the potential to blow up children and babies in a restaurant. It can happen to anyone, like dandruff.
And again the message is clear: if these people can become murderers – than clearly so could I.
Out of artistic considerations, you understand, Hany Abu-Assad doesn't linger on the less photogenic aspects that can lead someone to commit mass murder – a distorted mentality of honor, an anti-Semitic education, Islamic radicalism, the cheapening of human life.
He only sells us a humanity whose outer characteristics we find palatable: young heroes, sweet families – like us – not religious fanatics, but marginally traditional, t-shirt wearing secular folk. You know, just like us.
But that's not wholly accurate, because the two murderers of "Paradise Now" aren't quite like us, nor are they like most other Western viewers. They're much more than that.
Son of God
They're the son of God, in all his splendor and glory. Yes indeed, the screenwriters were well aware of the film's Christian audience, so they prepared something especially for them.
Just before they go out to blow you and me up, the two cool killers sit down to eat a final meal, together with eleven men, in the exact arrangement and with the exact number of participants in Leonardo's famous painting of the Last Supper.
In order to prevent any of the non-Jews from interpreting the scene inappropriately and to maintain its visual context, there are no cuts during the scene.
There isn't a Christian on the planet who isn't familiar with that painting, or who doesn't know who's sitting around that table. The Christian whose mind will have no trouble conjuring up the association of Jesus just prior to his crucifixion.
So we've got a modern day Jesus and an innocent victim who will die – because of whom? An interesting question.
Irit Linor
Not even one of the top-ten is a Muslim-majority state.
Yet. Just give them a few years and they will be like the other Muslim states.
21/04/08
How a woman is looked at in Islam and what does a marriage mean? Please read:
"In Urdu, women are called ‘aurat’ (عورت), which came from the Arabic word ‘awrah’ (عورة). The Arabic word refers to the genitals of a woman’s body, in a simple and straightforward word, which is called the ‘vagina’. It means, the entire body of a Muslim woman is a huge vagina and nothing else (Warraq, 2005. p. 316). How many Urdu speaking Asian Muslims know this fact that for referring their mothers, sisters and daughters, they use a word which actually degrades their women folks?
‘Nikah’ (Muslim marriage, النكاح) is an Arabic word whose literal meaning is penetration (Kaleeby, 2002; Warraq, 2005). It can be pronounced as ‘Nokh’, which again means the ‘awrah’, the giant vagina, i.e, the entire body of a Muslim woman. When the word ‘Nikah’ is used to mean marriage, the actual meaning is not marriage but literally ‘sexual penetration’. Ignorant Muslims often use these words, without knowing their actual meaning and degrade their woman folks to the level of sex-slaves and cheap highway prostitutes.
Kasem (n. d) concluded that the method of securing such sexual / physical pleasure is very similar to a commercial / business transaction. In plain language, this is called prostitution. In all cases of marriage and sex, the women are treated merely as sex-objects, much like the provider of a service for which she must be paid some compensation.
The compensation (dower) for sexual service of the wife is known as ‘mahr’, which all Muslim men must agree to pay before marriage. It can be immediate or deferred to a future date. No Islamic marriage is valid without the payment of ‘mahr’. Sometimes, Muslim women take keen pride in the sums paid for them as ‘mahr’ without knowing the actual purpose of it. In reality, however, ‘mahr’ is nothing but the payment to purchase a female body for sexual enjoyment. This degradation is sanctioned by Allah in ‘Sha’ria’ (the divine law of Allah). So when a Muslim marries off his sister or daughter to another Muslim family, he actually auctions his sister’s or daughter’s soft and warm vagina for a quick financial profit. If the ‘mahr’ is not sufficient, then as per ‘Sha’ria’ Law, the marriage can be cancelled. Often the wife does not get to use the ‘mahr’ for herself. This money is used to furnish the house of the newly married couple or her father grabs the entire amount (Warraq, 2005, p. 311). In an Islamic marriage, there is hardly a trace of romantic love. One rarely finds love poetry in their marriage songs.
Kasem (n. d) furthermore lamented taking reference from an authentic ‘Sha’ria’ Law book, that the husband’s rights include but not limited to ‘…ownership of a woman’s body to do as he likes including beating… a husband possesses full right to enjoy his wife’s person (from top of her head to the bottom of her feet!) in what does not physically harm her… he is entitled to take her with him when he travels.’
Besides above, Kasem (n. d) continued by taking reference from another book The Hedaya Commentary on the Islamic Laws. This book is frequently used by Sha’ria lawyers in the interpretation of Islamic laws. It says, “…full dower is the payment for the delivery of woman’s person, ‘Booza’, meaning ‘Genitalia arvum Mulieris’ ”
Kasem (n.d) with disgust concluded, “Yes, you read it correctly. The meaning of ‘Genitalia arvum Mulieris’ is woman’s vagina. The above few sentences clearly meant that a woman sells her vagina in return for the dower. This is a commercial transaction. Make no mistake about it! Period.’’
Where is the question of gender justice? In Islam the woman is a commodity or a house and the man pays an advance rent for the use of the body.
IN Cuba, Fidel Castro has successfully transformed a beautiful island into a very large ghetto...