Recently in Kurdistan Category

Is this guy some kind of Islamophobe? We have often quoted the Shafi'i jurisprudence manual Umdat al-Salik (The Reliance of the Traveler), here on many matters, including female genital mutilation, noting problems with the most common English translation. Enterprising amateur apologists have turned up in the comments section to claim that it's just one book that we've plucked out of the ether to defame Islam.

One problem there is that Umdat al-Salik was, in fact, certified as "reliable" by none other than al-Azhar University in Egypt. What's their excuse for not only failing to kick it to the curb, but taking the step of certifying it? They ought to know a "misunderstanding" of Islam when they see it.

And then there's this guy, corroborating the same teachings of the Shafi'i school, and invoking chapter and verse of the Qur'an (4:34) to defend a man's "right" to beat his wife. Gee, he must have some funky translation. That's what all the apologists tell us. And yet here is an Islamic cleric who seems to have his decoder ring on backwards.

"Female Genital Mutilation 'Is an Obligation' Says Mullah in Iraqi-Kurdistan," by Thomas v. der Osten-Sacken for Stop FGM Kurdistan, August 15, via the Assyrian International News Agency:

A mullah in Iraqi-Kurdistan talked in a Friday sermon about the new bill against domestic violence that passed the parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan in June. This law also forbids the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Various clerics and members of Islamic groups started a campaign against this law and demand from the president of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Mr. Massud Barzani not to sign the bill.

The mullah is one of the outspoken opponents of this bill. In his sermon he defends FGM as a Islamic practice of the Shafi'i law school. Additionally he defends the right of men to beat their women and children.

Here is a translation of some excerpts from his sermon:

A woman has the right to protest if her husband looks at her in a grim way. Allah says if a woman disobeys her husband he has the right to beat her, but the lashes should be according to the Sharia. It has conditions. (With the bill against domestic violence) the Kurdish Parliament has rejected Quranic law. (...) The parliament has also decreed that children should never be beaten for any reason. Even if the father comes home and the girl has a mobile phone in her hand that is not an excuse for beating her.

Of course she is a girl and will be encouraged in this bad world of today, she will have her mobile in front of her father flirting with boys and exchanging love phrases.. The father must sit cross handed in front of her, he must either kill himself if he has the least bit of honour left -- saying that if he doesn't do that he will lose his afterlife (...)- or he must assault his daughter who already has the numbers of the police stored on her mobile, calls this organization or that and complains that her father abuses her. The man will be put in jail for 6 months, and if the girl is not satisfied she can let him stay for 3 years and rot in jail. They will fine him 5 million ID. Is this the struggle for Kurdistan we are doing here? Is this the religion we have left? The situation is very dangerous but no one will follow you to the battlefield. The people don't have guts. If the people do have courage I will be the first to block Barzani's path. (....)

Then they come to the issue of circumcision. They have no problems left except the issue of female circumcision in Kurdistan. The mothers and sisters of more than half of your party members were circumcised. This means that you insult your own grandmother. You insult your own mother. You accuse them of ignorance. You dishonour your dead grandfather and burn his coffin for allowing the circumcision of your mother. Circumcision is a tenant [sic] of Islamic law (sharia). (...) (This bill is) to satisfy the Jews who in the conference of the Jews in Beijing discussed that female circumcision should be banned. You obey their orders and disregard the Sharia of Allah (...).

Not just the Jews. The Jews at a conference in Beijing. The conspiracy gets around!

They say if a mullah, a religious man, a father, a mother, a doctor or anyone else even mentions circumcision could be a good thing for women or if a woman feels uncomfortable and says that her mood was disturbed by that statement, she can complain to one of these organizations and agencies and they will take the mullah (...) to jail. (...) They can jail you for saying that circumcision is a good thing. The Imam Shafi'i (most Iraqi-Kurds belong to the Shafi'i law school) said circumcision is good! Aren't you following his denomination? Didn't the KRG president say that he is a Shafi'i? Your denomination says FGM is good, and that is why I am saying it is good. If you are honest in your denomination then don't accept this discussion to be held in the parliament. Imam Shafi'i is one of those who say that FGM is an obligation, that girls and women should be circumcised (...)

If I get asked about the religious ruling on FGM I must keep my silence and not dare to open my mouth. I must request to avoid this subject. As soon as I utter that FGM is good then they can arrest me. (...) If you don't accept this Mr. President you are the one who receives the project. You might say that you don't approve of the MPs. The people will love you for doing that. (...)

No longer should they ridicule our religion and believes [sic] and honours. We have made you president, you have the parliament and the oil and the money and no one is bothering you, why don't you leave our religion and honour intact?...

The full transcript and video can be found at the Stop FGM Kurdistan web page.

A pleasantly surprising update on this story. The next steps: enforcement and education. "Ban on female genital mutilation passed," by Hemn Hady and Patrick Smith for AKNews, June 23 (thanks to Nicholas):

Erbil, June 23 (AKnews) - For the first time in Iraqi Kurdistan women are protected by a new law against some of the traditions most harmful towards them.

Yesterday the regional parliament ratified a bill banning female genital mutilation and domestic violence. This is a landmark law in a region that is more steeped in such practices than surrounding countries.

As explained at the link above ("this story"), one factor Kurdistan holds in common with other countries removed from Africa where FGM is prevalent is the dominance of the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, in which female "circumcision" is obligatory.

Female circumcision, where the clitoris and hood, and sometimes the labia, are cut away, is particularly commonly in rural areas. A German-Iraqi study conducted in 2007/08 showed more than 77 percent of female interviewees aged 14 and over in the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah had undergone the procedure.

The new law lays out the penalty for encouraging female genital mutilation as 3 to 6 years imprisonment or a IQD 1 million ($860) fine. Those who carry out the operation will be sentenced to 3 to 5 years or a fine equal to IQD 5 million ($4300). If they are medical practitioners they will be banned from working for three years.

The demanding of dowry payments, forced marriage, arranged marriages for young women to men many years their elder and forcing women into prostitution are also outlawed by the new law.

It is not clear how a law, seeking to stop a practice, such as genital mutilation, that is not carried out though official means, will be enforced.

Kurdistan's health minister, Taher Hawrami, said authorities are distributing posters to promote awareness, but he said religious leaders should do more to end the practice.

"The clerics should take on the main role. People need to have better understanding of religion in order to give up this phenomenon."

There are also many issues that are not covered by bill. Payman Abdul-Kareem, a member of the parliamentary committee for women and children’s affairs said: ‘When a woman is divorced, she does not have anywhere to go and is often mistreated.

“There ought to be social welfare safety nets to cope with this.”

The final two paragraphs, along with a few above, are carried over from the prior report.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report last year that showed there are at least four factors driving the prevalence of genital mutilation: a link to Kurdish identity, a religious imperative, social pressure, and an attempt to control a woman's sexuality.

The practice is often carried out at home and by people without medical training. When not done properly the girls, who are often as young as ten, can have lasting damage and in extreme cases die from loss of blood or infection.

How could a Western author, as one of the writers named above apparently is, allow such a statement to go to press under his name? The practice has never been, is not now, and never can or will be done "properly." There is always "lasting damage." That is the whole purpose.

"Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report last year that showed that there are at least four factors driving this: a link to Kurdish identity, a religious imperative, social pressure, and an attempt to control a woman's sexuality."

Regarding the religious imperative for female genital mutilation, particularly for Islamic countries outside of Africa such as Yemen, Kurdish areas, and Indonesia, there is a noteworthy correlation with the prevalence of the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence. In that Islamic legal tradition, female "circumcision" is obligatory. Thus, for both apologists and prospective reformers, it is that much more difficult to brush the practice aside as merely "cultural," or "tribal," and for sincere reformers, it will be that much harder to abolish.

"Bill to ban female genital mutilation before parliament," from AKNews, June 19 (thanks to Nicholas):

Erbil, June 19 (AKnews) – The Kurdistan parliament will discuss a bill on domestic violence tomorrow, which proposes the criminalization of female circumcision.

The trend, is more widespread in Kurdistan than the surrounding countries, despite awareness raising campaigns carried out by civil society organizations and the media.

It is practiced particularly commonly in rural areas. A German-Iraqi study conducted in 2007/08 showed more than 77 percent of female interviewees aged 14 and over in the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniya had undergone the procedure.

The practice is often carried out at home and by people without medical training. When not done properly the girls, who are often as young as ten, can have lasting damage and in extreme cases die from loss of blood or infection.

It has never, is not now, and will never be done "properly." The deeply disturbing photo that accompanies this story at the link above should make that abundantly clear.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report last year that showed that there are at least four factors driving this: a link to Kurdish identity, a religious imperative, social pressure, and an attempt to control a woman's sexuality.

"It's time for the regional government to step up to the plate and take concrete actions to eliminate this harmful practice because it simply won't go away on its own," said Nadya Khalife, HRW Middle East women's rights researcher.

It is estimated that more than 130 million women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, western and southern Asia and parts of the Middle East.

It is not clear how a law, seeking to stop a practice that is not carried out though official means, would be enforced.

Kurdistan's health minister, Taher Hawrami, said authorities are distributing posters to promote awareness, but he said religious leaders should do more to end the practice.

"The clerics should take on the main role. People need to have better understanding of religion in order to give up this phenomenon."

The bill also seeks to curb fathers beating their children and forced marriages.

But they meant "peace and tranquility," doncha know. "Islamic Clerics Call Kurdish Protestors to 'Jihad' Against Their Leaders," by Wladimir Van Wilgenburg in Rudaw, March 25:

The city of Sulaimani is known for its secular image in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, but now young religious clerics are taking a central role in the ongoing anti-government demonstrations there by leading the protest’s Friday prayer sessions and speaking out against governmental corruption.

“We are especially inspired by the events in the Middle East and Egypt,” said Mullah Mohammed Nasrullah, one of the first clerics to lead the public prayers that have become a focal point of the Sulaimani protests.

Inspired by the revolution in Egypt, protestors have, since February 17th, continuously demonstrated against the Kurdish Regional Government in Sulaimani’s central Bar Darki Sara Square, which they have renamed Maidani Azadi (“Liberation Square”) in tribute to Cairo’s Tahrir (“Liberation”) Square. In addition, as in the Egyptian protests, religious clerics are now playing a central role in the political debate.

Jihad against corruption

Nasrullah, an outspoken cleric, is playing an especially significant role in the anti-government demonstration by, for instance, calling it a “jihad” (“holy struggle”). Although protestors have generally been enthusiastic about this label, some fear this was a call for violence, which Nasrullah denies.

“I did not call for violence, but for demonstration and the solving of problems, for peace and tranquility,” the cleric said.

Nasrullah admits his actions have been inspired by theologian Sheikh Qaradawi, who led thousands of anti-government protesters in prayer in Egypt.

“In Egypt – a big Islamic country – we saw thousands of people come onto the streets to pray with imams,” said Nasrullah. “We want to support our people, who came out in support of the demonstrations. Our country needs us in these difficult times.”

Nasrullah, who studies religion in Baghdad, says the events in Maidani Azadi are something new for the whole of Iraq.

“It never happened before that people prayed on the streets, but everything that’s new also results in problems,” he said, referring to the threatening and temporary detention of some of the clerics who supported the protests.

Clerics are part of society

Demonstrators interviewed by Rudaw in the square welcomed the new role of religious clerics in the protests.

“We feel supported by them,” said Nian Farez Mohammed. “They have the right to express their opinions.”

Osman Ali Achmed, the uncle of 16-year-old Rezwan Ali, who was killed by security forces in the protests, agrees the clerics have a right to participate.

“They are a part of the society,” said Achmed. “If the people have problems, everybody participates, and so do the imams. Mullahs have the right to participate in protests.”...

That's the whole point of Sharia. In the first place, it is difficult to impose and maintain limitations on the power of government or ensure its accountability when it is recognized not as a government of citizens by citizens, but as the direct and unquestionably correct implementation of orders from on high.

Add to that the scope of Sharia, in which one may find rules for almost every imaginable aspect of human existence, and also the brutality it allows in order to maintain Islam's dominance, and it is clear one is dealing with a mindset of "government knows best" on steroids. It is that mentality that drives the clerics' sense of entitlement to rule.

"Kurds of Iraq May Ban Friday Sermons," from AINA, January 15:

Secularists in the Iraqi Kurdistan region have pushed through a government ban on the Friday religious sermons, driving an ideological rift with the committed Muslims.

The move by some alleged intellectuals and feminists came after Mullah Farman Kharabaiy, the Imam of Majidawa Mosque in the capital of Arbil, accused a number of leading Kurdish feminists of blasphemy in his Friday sermon, reported Press TV's correspondent in the city, Matt Frazer.

Those referred to by Kharabaiy have also complained to the police, alleging that the words by the religious authority constituted a direct threat to their lives.

"The main concern here in Kurdistan is that religious leaders think that they must be the leaders of the whole society...," Mariwan Naqshabani, a political expert told our correspondent.

The parliament is currently discussing a law which would only allow the government to authorize and broadcast three Friday sermons, one from each of the Kurdistan region's major cities of Arbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Duhok.

"Ninety percent of the people here are Muslim. Those who are gathering signatures and petitioning the government to make this law should consider its acceptance by the majority of the people in the region," said Salim Koyi from the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan.

"Religious leaders talk about the failures of the political leadership and the absence of government. That's why even the ruling parties are silent, when religious leaders are attacked by intellectuals," he added.

Our correspondent said, "Many religious groups are ready to stage demonstrations if the law passes and experts agree that the vast majority of the population would oppose such a ban."

Why we don't see more reformers in Islam, chapter 434: "Mullah Accuses Kurdish Women Activists of Blasphemy," by Saman Basharati for Rudaw, January 3 (thanks to Twostellas):

ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: Thirteen Iraqi Kurdish women's rights activists fear for their lives and have complained to the police after a well-known Mullah has accused them of "blasphemy and demoralizing Kurdish society" in a recent controversial pamphlet.

The pamphlet, entitled "A Lost Truth," was distributed by Mullah Farman Kharabaiy of Majidawa Mosque, a mosque in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

The pamphlet focuses on women's rights issues in Kurdish society, but more specifically targets Iraqi Kurdish women's rights activists and their push for gender equality in the region, an issue which has been under the spotlight in recent weeks as a hot topic of discussion in the Kurdish parliament.

In his pamphlet, Kharabaiy claims that the issue has been widely used by women's rights activists "as a business to get rich."

Note that this is the same claim that Islamic supremacists and their Leftist allies and dupes make about anti-jihadists in the U.S. In the Qur'an and Islam in general there is no concept of people disagreeing with or dissenting from Islam in good faith; all such people know better, but are warring against Islam for their own personal gain.

The activists targeted in the pamphlet have now lodged a complaint with the Erbil police, because they view the pamphlet as a direct "threat to their lives."

However, Kharabaiy defends his words merely as critical literature.

"The pamphlet does not include any defamation or libel," said Kharabaiy in an interview with Rudaw. "It is simply research conducted on some of the writings published by Kurdish women activists defending women's rights. I wanted these women writers to regret their opinions; it is because of them that divorce has increased and more women burn themselves to death [in Kurdistan]."

Taman Shakir, a writer and women's rights activist who was named in Kharabaiy's pamphlet, says she believes the pamphlet is "dangerous" for the women writers mentioned in it, and so she is urging the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to protect them.

"There is a threat to the lives of those named in the pamphlet," said Ms. Shakir. "The government needs to draw a line in the sand for those Mullahs who are using their religious status to target journalists and women's rights organizations."...

"Circumcision is obligatory (O: for both men and women. For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women, removing the prepuce (Ar. bazr) of the clitoris (n: not the clitoris itself, as some mistakenly assert). (A: Hanbalis hold that circumcision of women is not obligatory but sunna, while Hanafis consider it a mere courtesy to the husband.)" -- 'Umdat al-Salik e4.3

We're told that female genital mutilation is an African tribal practice, that it has nothing to do with Islam.

"Government Says 41 Percent of Kurdish Women Are Circumcised," by Ari Osman for Rudaw.net, December 1 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: A survey by the Kurdistan Minstiry of Health shows that 41 percent of women have gone under the practise of female genuital mutilation (FGM).

The survey was carried out in July this year. The results of the survey were announced during a campaign to raise awareness on violence against women in Kurdistan earlier this week.

Part of the campaign has focused on FGM. The survey by the government shows that mothers are the main party responsible for forcing their daughters experience the painful ritual and then grandmothers and fathers.

The survey's results show that none of the participants in Dohuk, Kurdistan's smallest of the three provinces, were circumcised while the highest rate of FGM was in Sulaimai.

Erbil, Kurdistan region's capital, came between Sulaimani and Dohuk. According to the survey, most of the women were circumcised while they were under five years old.

Jamil Ali Rashid, the director general of health affairs at the ministry of health, said "the survey's results are totally correct and credible because the participants were given clear questions and special teams examined the women who participated in the survey after their consent was secured."

A campaign to end FGM practices in Kurdistan was launched in February 2010 by 51 non-governmental organizations.

I've been predicting this since at least 2006:

June 27, 2006: "Of course, Ahmadinejad may be jumping the gun a bit as far as that is concerned, but he is certainly doing all he can to bring into being a Shi'ite client state in Iraq."

September 13, 2006: "Here we see looming in Iraq the Shi'ite client state of Iran that the U.S. has unwittingly helped put into place with its short-sighted democracy project."

October 31, 2006: "Is al-Maliki on the road to creating the Shi'ite client state that the Iranians have been trying to foster in Iraq for quite some time now?"

February 11, 2007: "Iran continues its efforts to create a Shi'ite client state in Iraq."

June 10, 2008: "Or are U.S. troops the main obstacle to Iraq's becoming a full-fledged client state of Iran?"

November 12, 2008: "Very soon now the President of the United States and the President of Iran will sit down, without preconditions, and hash this out, and clear everything up before Iraq turns fully into the Shi'ite client state that the Iranians covet."

July 1, 2009: "Their goal of creating a Shi'ite client state is closer than ever to being realized."

July 30, 2009: "Was this what we have been fighting for in Iraq all these years? An Iranian Shi'ite client state in Baghdad?"

Yep.

"Iran: Tehran and Baghdad jointly planned attack on 'Kurd rebels,'" from AKI, September 27 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Tehran, 27 Sept. (AKI) - Iraq and Iran worked together in a weekend assault on Kurdish rebels that killed more than 30 insurgents in Iraqi territory, according to a news report.

An unnamed Iranian government source told an Iranian journalist about the operation during an interview on Arab-language satellite news channel Al-Arabiya.

"The attack was against a group of rebel Kurds who operate in Iran but find refuge in Iraq," journalist Amir Moussavi said....

"Circumcision is obligatory (O: for both men and women. For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women, removing the prepuce (Ar. bazr) of the clitoris (n: not the clitoris itself, as some mistakenly assert). (A: Hanbalis hold that circumcision of women is not obligatory but sunna, while Hanafis consider it a mere courtesy to the husband.)" -- 'Umdat al-Salik e4.3

"Kurdistan Is Urged to Ban Genital Cutting," by Namo Abdulla and Timothy Williams in the New York Times, June 16 (thanks to AINA):

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq -- Human Rights Watch urged Kurdistan's government on Wednesday to ban genital cutting of women and girls, a practice the organization said is widespread and dangerous there, but which they said Kurdish officials had failed to move aggressively to stop.

Human Rights Watch, an advocacy organization based in New York, interviewed 31 girls and women last year and combined its findings with recent surveys by other organizations that found that at least 40 percent of girls and women in Iraq's Kurdistan region had undergone the procedure, which typically involves cutting off external genitalia with a dirty razor blade.

One of the studies, of about 1,400 girls and women interviewed during 2007 and 2008, found that almost 73 percent of women 14 years and older said that at least a portion of their genitals had been removed....

"Although it has not been completely inactive, its efforts have been piecemeal, low key and poorly sustained," the report said of the Kurdish government....

Mariwan Naqshbandi, a spokesman for Kurdistan's Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs, dismissed the study, saying that it had distorted reality and that Kurdistan had "issues far more important" to confront.

"The report is extremely exaggerated," he said. "It is so unfair. It relied solely on some local reports. It relied on rumors."

He added: "Circumcision exists as an isolated occurrence, rather than as a phenomenon in Kurdistan. It only exists in certain places."

Human Rights Watch said Kurdish girls and women described genital cutting as being physically painful and psychologically scarring.

"Girls undergoing the procedure are forcefully held down, their legs pried apart, and part of their genitalia cut off with a razor blade," the report said. "Often the same blade is used to cut several girls. No anesthesia is applied beforehand and if anything at all is applied to the open wound afterwards, it is water, herbs, cooking oil or ashes."

In addition to wounds caused to women, risks include an increase in the rate of stillbirths and in the occurrence of babies with low birth weight, the report said.

It is not clear how common genital cutting is in the rest of Iraq, because it has not been the subject of a comprehensive study.

UPDATE: Mark Durie observes that the above translation of Umdat al-Salik is itself deceitful, as its editors have attempted (futilely) to soften the barbarism of the practice for non-Muslim consumption. Durie writes:

"The Reliance of the Traveller, a respected manual of Shafi'i jurisprudence, states "Circumcision is obligatory (for every male and female) by cutting off the piece of skin on the glans of the penis of the male, but circumcision of the female is by cutting out the clitoris" (section e4.3). [The English translation by Nuh Ha Mim Keller (certified by Al-Azhar University) disguises the true meaning of the Arabic text by offering the following bogus English 'translation': "For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women, removing the prepuce (Ar. Bazr) of the clitoris (n: not the clitoris itself, as some mistakenly assert)."