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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Pakistan: Islamic supremacists warn that it’s “un-Islamic” for women to vote

May 5, 2013 12:17 pm By Robert Spencer

Oddly enough, Western feminists are completely silent about this.

Actually, it isn’t odd at all. I have taken feminists to task more than once not only for their failure to stand up for Muslim women, but for their active excuse-making for the oppression of those women. See, for example, my article in FrontPage, “Feminists Betray Muslim Women,” on how the feminist writer Laura Briggs justifies the oppression of Muslim women.

See also “Two Women Stoned: Feminists Mum,” by David Horowitz, Janet Levy and me; “A Response to Feminists on the Violent Oppression of Women in Islam,” by David Horowitz and me; and my article “The Conservative Vanguard of the Feminist Movement” in National Review.

Other articles I’ve written in FrontPage on issues revolving around women’s rights in Islam include “Covering Up the Plight of Muslim Women“; “There Must Be Violence Against Women“; “Muhammad Mended His Own Clothes!“; Open Season on Muslim Women“; “Women Are Treated Better in Islam?.”

Also there are my articles in Human Events, “Unveiled Women and ‘Uncovered Meat’“; “Media Ignore Abuses of Women in Islam.”

I also coauthored the monograph “The Violent Oppression of Women in Islam,” which was published by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

“Pakistan’s women face battle for the right to vote,” by Tracy McVeigh for The Observer, May 4 (thanks to Richard Dawkins):

Fears over the safety of women voting in next week’s elections in Pakistan are rising after letters have been circulated in regions of the country warning men not to allow their wives, sisters and daughters out to the polling stations.

In an increasingly fraught and violent runup to the 11 May vote, leaflets are appearing stating that it is “un-Islamic” for women to participate in democracy.

Now a group of young female activists are planning to challenge what they call the government’s inability to protect women’s right to vote by organising their own protection teams at individual polling stations in tense and volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the four provinces of Pakistan, formerly known as the North West Frontier Province.

In what is being called Pakistan’s youth election — almost a third of the electorate is between 18 and 29 — a growing tide of young women are determined to overcome cultural and political obstacles to make their voices heard.

Saba Ismail, 23-year-old founder and director of Aware Girls, a peace group for and led by young women to train girls in leadership skills, said they already planned to monitor 30 polling stations with volunteers who would support women who came out to vote and hoped to reach many more.

Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old activist for girl’s educational rights who became an international figure after being shot and badly injured in a Taliban assassination attempt last October, was one of those trained by Ismail’s group.

“Malala is not the only one who has been so brave, but she is a hero to all of us now,” Ismail said. “Such a strong young woman and a true role model, I was very impressed by her. Many women and girls will feel empowered by Malala to come out and vote. It has been made very clear that women in Pakistan should not vote and those in rural areas are the most vulnerable, so we will be putting volunteers out to try and help women feel they can come out on this important day.

“For the 2008 elections, many polling stations were torched and women were told it was vulgar for them to cast a vote. This time we want Pakistan to have a free and fair election and for women to be able to vote in secret, not be told who to vote for by her family.

“Even those few women who are inside the political system are ordered about by their family. They are wives or daughters of men who want them to do their bidding, they are there just to make up quota numbers and have to do what they are told. It would be better to have quality not quantity.

“Recently on Pakistan TV we had three female politicians in the studio for a debate. They were asked questions like ‘Should women really be allowed to work because they take more time to come to the office because they put make-up on?'”

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Filed Under: Pakistan, Sharia, Useful idiots, women's rights in Islam


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