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The egregious Nicholas Kristof turns in a worthy piece on wife-beating in Afghanistan without, of course, ever once mentioning Qur'an 4:34: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them."
Why mention it, Nicky? Because until it is addressed and definitively rejected by significant elements of the Islamic community, you will be able to write pieces like this until you're 95.
Anyway, heeeeeeeeeeere's Nicky:
KABUL, AfghanistanI had an inspiration about where Osama bin Laden might be hiding. But when I visited the women's detention center in Kabul, there was no sign of him.
I did meet Ellaha, a bold 19-year-old prisoner who startled me by greeting me in English. (Like many Afghans, she uses only one name.) She had been attending college as a refugee in Iran when her family pulled her out, alarmed that education might corrupt a young lady's morals.
Her family returned to Afghanistan, and she found work in a U.S. construction company, where her bosses were so impressed that they began arranging a scholarship for her to go to Canada to study.
That horrified her family because the patriarchs had decided that she would marry her cousin. "I didn't agree to marry him," she told me through an interpreter, "because he is not educated and I don't like his job - he is a butcher. Plus, he's three years younger than me."
"When it was almost time for me to go to Canada, and I was asking about flights," she added, "they tied me up and locked me in a room. It was in my uncle's house. My father said, 'O.K., beat her.' I'd never been beaten like that in all my life. My uncle and cousins were all beating me. ... They broke my head, and I was bleeding."
Ms. Ellaha's younger sister, who had been pledged to another cousin, was facing the same treatment. After a week of being tied up, the two sisters agreed to marry their cousins.
"So we went home," Ms. Ellaha added, "and escaped."
The two sisters moved into a cheap guesthouse as they prepared to flee Afghanistan. But their family learned where they were hiding, and the police came to arrest them.
On what charge?
"It's because their lives were in danger," said Rana, the head of the detention center. Ms. Ellaha agrees that her family was pretty close to killing her. The sister is apparently back home, but I was not allowed to interview her.
The police subjected Ms. Ellaha to a mandatory virginity test. Fortunately, her hymen was intact, or she would have faced a prison sentence.
Now she worries that she will be released into her family's custody and then forced to marry her cousin. If that happens, she told me, "I will kill myself."
The entire jail is a kaleidoscope of woe. It's been two years since President Bush declared that in Afghanistan, "Today, women are free." But that's news to the inmates.
Nicky's right (for once). To give Bush his due, they are freer now than they were under the Taliban, but they still have a long way to go, and they won't start getting there until the elements of Islam that mandate second-class status for women, which are similar to those that mandate second-class status for non-Muslim dhimmis, are reformed. No, I am not holding my breath.
Posted by Robert at October 6, 2004 10:40 AM
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Shes being forced to marry her cousin....guess she had no brothers?? I worked with a girl a few years back who was born in Canada but her parents were born in India, this girl was very western in her thinking and when she was almost 17 a guy from india shows up at the door (he was in his late 40s) and her parents told her that this was her husband to be....she ended up running away and her family was looking for her and had even made threats on her life, she eventually went to the police and thankfully they listened to her and lucky for her her father made threats against her life IN FRONT of the officers and was arrested...long story short she ended up moving to the other coast and married a brazilian (whom SHE chose) but she did say that for years she was looking over her shoulder and afraid....now just think if sharia had been in place then, oh yeah nothing to be concerned about with shaira worming its way into ontario...nothing at all...except girls like her...
Posted by: USAgirl![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 6, 2004 10:59 AM
Kristof should have mentioned the Koran, Sira, and ahadiths. People get the impression that this is just a social problem that can be solved by changing your address!
The virginity test is unfair as the hymen can be ruptured through means that have nothing to do with sex, such as by a fall, demonstrating not only stupidity, misogyny but ignorance of female anatomy and physiology.
Posted by: epg at October 6, 2004 12:12 PM
If America believes it is right to interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and Iraq, then what is to stop Afghanistan and Iraq interfering in the internal affair of America?
The Muslims do not want school shootings, morbid obesity, talk shows or any other aspect of American culture in their land. If Muslims see American's trying to Americanize their land then in return they are justified in trying to Islamify America. America always takes the moral low ground and complains about other cultures when those cultures haven't done anything to America.
Posted by: Karl at October 6, 2004 12:42 PM
muslims want to 'islamify' the enitre planet...not just the US...perhaps then we should also remove our evil foreign aid that feeds and medicates the muslims.
Posted by: USAgirl at October 6, 2004 12:45 PM
Evil foreign aid? EVIL SANCTIONS. Suffering in Muslim and other countries is due to America imposing trade sanctions on them so they cannot buy food and medicine and other things for themselves. They do not want your "aid", they want to be treated equally, to be equal trade partners.
Posted by: Karl at October 6, 2004 1:01 PM
Spencer, I think you should hold you're breath for a long time. This is Afghanistan we're talking about, and attention has sort of waned since the start of the Iraq war, and we're talking about a puppet regime here, wasn't Karzai a former warlord. So I"m sure he's eager to improve the plight of Afghani women. 'specially since things are so good now:
http://www.fpif.org/papers/2004afghanwom.html
And hey, Bar, if you're reading this, stop watching FAUX NEWS, it's making you dumber by the minute!
Posted by: Linda at October 6, 2004 1:14 PM
USA GIRL;
You wrote: I worked with a girl a few years back who was born in Canada but her parents were born in India.. (and then)
now just think if sharia had been in place then, oh yeah nothing to be concerned about with shaira worming its way into ontario...nothing at all...except girls like her...
Well, what religion was she? Hindu or Muslim? This stuff happens with Hindu women, too, and it has more to do with being from a backward country with backward traditions then religion, I think. By the way, speaking of backwardness, what is going on in Utah, with the members of the LSD faith. What about women's equality there, how come no outcry there?
http://www.polygamyinfo.com/plygmedia%2002%2025akron.htm
http://www.polygamyinfo.com/plygmedia%2099%2038%20uofu.htm
http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy69.html
http://www.americanreligion.org/cultwtch/polygamy.html
I wasn't able to get recent documents on this, b/c it hasn't been in on the media lately, due to the fact that the Iraq war has overshadowed everything else. I know ppl love to bash Canada on this site, right? 'specially since I bet most of you haven't been here, well, take a good look at what's going on in you're backyards, before condeming us.
Posted by: Linda at October 6, 2004 1:31 PM
Linda,
Not to make light of what your post, but I got a good laugh on the last one.
Members of the LSD faith... yeah, them drug takers are a real problem in all areas of existence.
Posted by: Walker Colt at October 6, 2004 4:28 PM
Linda-
The issue with the fundamentalist Mormons in Utah is by no means forgotten, and the Feds (among others) are doing their best to put these bloodsucking patriarchs behind bars. Some are already there. It's no secret that these men generally refuse to work to support all their wives and kids but are able to collect welfare on the behalf of the women/children.
But this topic is really for another discussion board, not DW/JW, although Joseph Smith, the founder of LDS, was directly inspired by Mohammed. Some even call LDS the American brand of Islam. True, Mormons originally practiced polygamy and still don't drink alcohol, but they tend to be much less violent than Muslims, probably due to the difference between the Book of Mormon and the Qu'ran.
Posted by: kafira at October 6, 2004 5:52 PM
Where are the people clamouring for the introduction of "purported" good sharia?
The main evil of our generation = Islam
Written by,
Ayatollah Dase (SWT).
at October 6, 2004 6:31 PM
Linda,
Don't spout leftist knee-jerk platitudes unless you can back them with data.
How is Karzai a "U.S. puppet"? Are you ready to describe the process by which Karzai was chosen to lead Afghanistan? Are you ready to give evidence that he is taking orders from the Whitehouse? Is his willingness to have elections "proof" that he is a Western puppet? Give me a break!
What kind of "warlord" was Karzai? Are all warlords the same? Or is there no difference between moderate warlords like Hamed Karzai, Abdul Haq, and Masoud
and not-so-moderate warlords like Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar?
If you don't know all these names, then do your homework BEFORE you post.
Posted by: Rublev at October 6, 2004 8:52 PM
Karl,
The people who you believe should be treated "equally" to us use head-carving snuff films as a recruitment tool.
Do you see the Bush administration using pictures of Abu Ghraib as a recruitment tool? On the contrary, it is the left who rubs our nose in it every day to make us sick.
It is people like YOU who degrade Arabs by not putting them to the same standards of civilized behaviour as Americans.
Posted by: Rublev at October 6, 2004 10:05 PM
Linda, I remember your sarcastic, lengthy post of last week about Shariah in Canada. Have you ever been to the U.S. or do you get all of your convoluted information from the far left Canadian news media? You're about as far out in left field as they get and I resent your overt hostility and ignorance about my country. I thought Faux News was banned in left-wing Canada, so what would you know about it?
You're just another blind, ignorant Islamic apologist and I'll laugh my ass off when the muslims put a burka on you.
By the way, the U.S. is not trying to impose our culture on Afghanistan or Iraq. If you had any accurate information, you would know that we have bent over backwards to respect these cultures in every conceivable way. Why don't you pity the suffering of the women in Afghanistan? Why doesn't that bother you? It's much more fun to hate the U.S., right?
at October 6, 2004 10:11 PM
'Backwards traditions'? 'Backwards countries'? Why Linda your profs are going to start giving you very bad marks. Are such biased, value-laden descriptions explananda with even the slightest bit of content? And the anecdotal example? What kind of evidence is this? Are you going to put this in your term paper? Tisk, tisk...And raising the issue of the polygamists in a thread about Islamic violence against women? I have been trying to teach folks about 'red herrings', but they just do not listen. Say it, 'red herring'. Red herrings will mean red marks.
You see you must dispute that there exists Islamic traditions and norms based in the Koran and religious belief-system that encourage violence against women. That is what you must dispute. So, dispute. Offer relevant examples and evidence from texts, cultural practices, etc.
Oh, but that will require some reading and study, which you obviously are too busy to do. Doing all that research on polygamy and all.
Not only have you offered vacuous, prejudiced explanada, committed the fallacy of argument by example, and a very bad one at that, and thrown around stinky fish, you are lazy and insincere.
Please do not tell that prof of yours you are posting here. He might lose respect for you.
Posted by: JTF at October 7, 2004 12:53 AM
My friends parents were 'fanatical' muslims...and that was how SHE described them. She went through the motions of islam because she had no choice (she didnt believe anything in the koran and thought the religion sick and twisted..again her words) she and her mother and sisters were regularly beaten by her father and brothers if the were 'disobedient'. If sharia is sooooo wonderful, why is it then that the biggest opponents are MUSLIM women. If I immigrate to another country, as I have, I FULLY expect to adhere to the laws of that country. I am not rallying the Canadian government to do things the 'American' way simply because I feel that my rights to be governed as I see fit are being trampled....I moved here of my own free will as did every muslim here, they should not expect special treatment and should live by the laws that have been set out. As far as 'assimilating' into the country....try as a woman walking through the FRONT door of a mosque...is there any other building in the country where a woman would be expected to use the back door. My husband is a police officer in Ontario and has been involved in the arrest of several muslim 'men' for spousal abuse...they do not get the concept that it is AGAINST the law to beat their wife...yes even if she is 'disobedient'...as soon as they are arrested they start screaming 'racism' and how the they are being forced to go against their religion because the laws of Canada are anti muslim...they drone on and on about the koran and allah...they actually feel that under islamic law they are ENTITLED to hit their wives and daughters...and yes under islamic law they are..however Canada does not have islamic law, and hopefully never will. Anyone that is fooled by them only wanting to live by 'bits and pieces' of shaira is an idiot....my husband has heard the rantings of these so called men as they scream about how 'perfect' Canada will be once sharia is implimented fully....and yes they want EVERYONE to live by this barbaric law....ONE COUNTRY ONE SET OF LAWS TO GOVERN EVERYONE!! No special treatment for muslims.
Posted by: USAgirl at October 7, 2004 10:41 AM
USAgirl - Right on! The Muslim situation is the same in the states. Muslim believe they entitled to everything because Muslims and Muslim law are superior. They do scream "racism," and "violation of human rights," and "violation of right to religious practice" when they are thwarted and prevented from doing that which breaks local, state or federal law. As you do, I hope that Sha'ria is rescinded and that Muslim law does not spread to through the Western Hemisphere as its anathema.
Posted by: epg at October 7, 2004 4:11 PM
The problem with these "useful idiots" like Little Nicky, is that they are more ready to blame the US for the evil that is conducted in islamic countries, than to blame the ideology of the populace.
According to Nicky, it's better that the US not liberate repressed islamic countries, because when we do so, it exposes the rotten core of the belief system in those countries. And that brings people here to question the "peacefulness" of said ideology.
And that is just plain "racist". After all, accorfding to Nicky, this is a sovereignty issue: a "sovereign" country should be able to treat its "inmates" as it pleases. The US has no right to trample upon that sovereignty.
God bless the USA for trampling on such sovereignty!
at October 8, 2004 9:47 AM
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