“Not long ago, there was news that in Israel a shopping center for trafficking in women had opened, and the video of [the center’s inauguration] was shown worldwide. The report showed that they sat the women like merchandise in the store windows, with price tags on them.”
Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani issued this lurid libel in a letter to the contestants in a Quran memorization contest for women. This epitomizes the Iranian regime as a whole: ostentatiously pious in its Islamic observance, and built on hatred and lies.
“Iranian Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani: The Zionist Regime Has Opened A Shopping Center For Trafficking In Women,” MEMRI, February 19, 2019:
In a letter to the contestants in the 12th Dar Al-Quran of the Imam Ali contest – a Quran memorization contest for women – which opened December 15, 2018 in Jamkaran, near the holy city of Qom in Iran, Iranian Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani, a senior Shi’ite scholar and part of the Iranian ruling establishment, stressed the appreciation of the merit of women in Islam and their importance in the Quranic tradition. He contrasted this with the denigrating and humiliating treatment of women in pre- and post-Islamic cultures, in both the East and the West.
Opening his letter with Quranic verses about women’s equality to men, and directing a warning to humanity about the “Zionist regime’s” treatment of women, he went on to say that this regime had opened a shopping center for publicly trafficking in women. He added that it also was murdering people and selling their organs, as was its protégé, the Islamic State (ISIS).
The following are highlights of Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani’s letter to the contestants:[1]
“Our teacher [Ayatollah] Alama [Mohammad Hossein] Tabataba’i [leading Shi’ite Quran commentator, d. 1981] said in his ‘Al-Mizan’ commentary that these [Quranic] verses [on equality between men and women] descended in the era when it was thought that a woman who transgresses must take responsibility and be punished, but if she does a good deed, her husband should get the credit. This stemmed from the fact that women [were considered] base and disgraceful, and unworthy of receiving credit. These verses reject this thinking.
“But barbaric views of this kind have not been limited to the era [of the Prophet Muhammad] or to the Arabian Peninsula, and the humiliation and degradation of women has a sad history worldwide, throughout many generations….
“All these are examples of the oppression and cruelty that were women’s lot before the revelation of our dear Islam. With the rising sun of Islam, and the merciful call of the Prophet of Mercy, Mohammad, the spirit of joy and hope filled humanity. He always mentioned the important, high place of women in Muslim society, and their attributes. He conveyed to the people many of the Quranic verses regarding the important merit of women and their great value in society…
“We hope that the women in our society, and all women in the world, will keep in mind that the Zionists and colonialism still want to objectify women. Not long ago, there was news that in Israel a shopping center for trafficking in women had opened, and the video of [the center’s inauguration] was shown worldwide. The report showed that they sat the women like merchandise in the store windows, with price tags on them. This is actually the same thing that ISIS, the protegee of America and Israel, did in Iraq and Syria: they abducted many girls and sold them in marketplaces, and now the Zionist regime has officially opened a shopping center for trafficking in women, before the very eyes of billions of people in the world!!…
“Why are the UN and the other international communities silent in light of this activity against humanity by Israel? Have they too lost their identity? God, we appeal to you.”