Muslim Women Against Femen claims that Femen’s protest against the oppression of Muslim women tarred all Muslims as either oppressors or oppressed. Their Leftist allies even claim that Femen was being “racist.” Note that they’re using in this case exactly the same tactics that Islamic supremacists and Leftists use against Pamela Geller and me, and any foe of jihad and Islamic supremacism who dares to speak out against Sharia-justified oppression: that we’re “painting all Muslims with a broad brush,” that we’re “racist,” etc. No one who speaks out will be exempted from this treatment — as the atheist writer Sam Harris recently found out when, after fastidiously distancing himself from all the supposedly “right-wing” and supposedly “fascist” and supposedly “Christian extremist” foes of jihad and Islamic supremacism, he found himself charged with exactly the same things they’re charged with. No one, no one, will be spared.
“Muslim women who enable sisters’ oppression,” by Pamela Geller in WND, April 9:
A group of courageous women have come out against the oppression of women under Islamic law — and Muslim women are siding with their oppressors.
Last week I reported deep concern for a young Tunisian Muslima who had disappeared after she posted topless photos of herself to protest the Shariah oppression and subjugation she suffered as a Muslim girl. One controversial image showed the young Muslimah, Amina Tyler, smoking a cigarette, baring her breasts, with the message in Arabic written across her chest: “My body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honour.”
A Muslim cleric in moderate Tunisia called for her stoning death. Tunisian newspaper Kapitalis quoted preacher Almi Adel, who heads the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, saying: “The young lady should be punished according to Shariah, with 80 to 100 lashes, but [because of] the severity of the act she has committed, she deserves be stoned to death.” And: “Her act could bring about an epidemic. It could be contagious and give ideas to other women. It is therefore necessary to isolate [the incident]. I wish her to be healed.”
There were rumors that her family had her locked up in an asylum. Amina now fears for her life.
Such is the life of millions of Muslim girls who want to be free in Islamic society. Thankfully, Amina’s story went viral and gained international attention. One of the more outrageous reactions was from the Ukraine-based feminist group, Femen, which staged a Topless Jihad Day to stand in solidarity with Amina. It’s not what I would do, but I loved the moxie and in-your-face action to call worldwide attention to misogyny under Muslim rule. These feminist activists held “International Topless Jihad Day” in major European cities, including Berlin, Kiev and Paris. They painted their bodies with slogans such as “bare breasts against Islamism,” and they protested outside of mosques in various cities.
“We”re free, we”re naked, it’s our right, it’s our body, it’s our rules, and nobody can use religion, and some other holy things, to abuse women, to oppress them,” Femen member Alexandra Shevchenko said during a demonstration outside a Berlin mosque on a freezing day.
Finally, a well-publicized response to the crushing subjugation of women under the Shariah. But what happened next was “¦ unforgivable. Reminiscent of the Muslim women who hold down their daughters for FGM (clitoridectomy), a group of Muslim women came out against the Amina Tyler supporters. “Muslim Women Against Femen” was formed to show that Femen “does not speak for all members of their community.”
The members of Muslim Women Against Femen encouraged other self-defeating supporters to participate in Muslimah Pride Day. They are posting pictures of themselves on social media, declaring that they are not oppressed. Well, bully for them. Are they really that selfish? Self-absorbed? Inhuman?
If they are not oppressed, then this campaign has nothing to do with them.
Millions of women under Muslim rule are oppressed like Amina Tyler and suffer unspeakable brutality under the honor violence code of Islam. What about them? How can these Muslimahs turn their back on their sisters?
“Muslim Women Against Femen” may very well choose to wear the niqab or burka or hijab, but that is their choice. They can wear purple hair for all we care. But what about the millions of Muslimahs who are forced to wear it? What about the millions of Muslimahs who are forced into marriage, beaten or honor-killed?
The utter disregard of these Muslimahs for the fate of their sisters in other lands is either a depraved lack of humanity or a strange Stockholm syndrome. The mission statement of these supremacists is: “We are making our voices heard and reclaiming our agency!” This exclusive self-reference, typically encountered among adolescents, accounts for the scorched-earth policy of Islamic supremacists. These Muslim women have no interest in the fate of Muslimahs victimized by the Shariah, because what happens to those unfortunate Muslimahs has no impact on the daily life or goals of Islamic imperialists.
Why are these Muslim women fighting those who wish to help Muslim women? Femen was not demanding Muslimahs remove their cloth coffins or head pieces. They were trying to help the oppressed.
Here’s the thing — this whole “Muslim Women Against Femen” is based on a false premise. Nobody is stopping these girls and women from wearing head and body coverings. But what about women who don’t have the liberty to choose? That’s the point.