Friday, August 14th, 2009
By Mona Eltahawy
International Herald Tribune
July, hot and usually slow for many of us, was a month of humiliation and pain for 164 Muslim women sentenced to a public flogging for “crimes” as varied and absurd as wearing trousers in public to having sex outside of marriage in countries as far afield as the Maldives, Sudan and Malaysia,
The most famous of those 164 is Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese journalist who was among 13 women arrested by police at a Khartoum café on July 3 and charged with violating the country’s “decency laws” by wearing trousers.
Ten of those women accepted a fine and flogging but Ms. Hussein and two others contested the charges, which they’re now fighting in court. The Sudanese regime barred her from traveling to Lebanon earlier this week to give a television interview on her trial, which resumes on Sept. 7.
It’s bizarre to use the word “lucky” to describe a woman facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers, but by virtue of her position and clout, that’s exactly what Ms. Hussein is. She is also brave and defiant: Ms. Hussein resigned her position as press officer for the United Nations, which could have earned her immunity from the charges, to stand trial.
And most importantly she is a Muslim woman who knows that a flogging for wearing trousers is sheer and utter nonsense; she has said she was ready to “receive (even) 40,000 lashes” if that’s what it takes to abolish the law.
Not so lucky have been the thousands of other Sudanese women — Muslim and non-Muslim southern Sudanese women. They have served as the whipping girls for the Sudanese regime’s cheap game of flogging women to show off its “Islamic principles.”
The International Criminal Court has indicted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. His janjaweed allies in Darfur have been accused of rape. Trousers are “indecent” but rape is just another reminder of how useful women’s bodies are in conveying the message.
Mr. Bashir is an unabashed dictator. How then to explain the silence of the Maldives’ liberally-inclined President Mohamed Nasheed at the flogging sentences handed out to 150 of his countrywomen in July for extramarital sex?
It’s depressingly simple. To appease Islamists he needs for his ruling coalition, he offers up the easiest chips to bargain with — women. Ruling according to “Islamic law,” courts in the Maldives sentenced about 50 men along with those 150 women to flogging.
Why is the ratio of women-to-men to be flogged 3-to-1? Men can escape a flogging for extramarital sex just by denying the charges. Women who become pregnant after the sex find their babies used as evidence against them. According to official statistics from the Department of Judicial Administration, the Maldives sentenced a total of 184 people to flogging in 2006 — 146 were women.
Claims that courts in the Maldives rule according to “Islamic law” are hollow at best and at worst a moral offense to the justice and compassion that we are taught are central pillars of Islam. The Maldives no longer cuts off the hands of thieves. Instead, it pours its zeal for “Islamic law” into flogging, a punishment that seems to be designed to torment mostly women.
If you want to know what a public flogging is like, search online for a video showing the Talban flogging a screaming woman in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.
For the faint of heart, there is Amnesty International’s description from the Maldives of the public flogging of an 18-year-old woman on July 5. She received 100 lashes after being accused of having sex with two men outside of marriage. Local journalists reported the woman fainted after receiving the lashes. The court ruled the woman’s pregnancy was proof of her guilt; the men involved in the case were acquitted, Amnesty said.
Also on July 5, an “Islamic court” in Malaysia sentenced a Muslim woman to be flogged with a rattan cane for having a beer with her husband in a nightclub.
As Zainah Anwar, a Muslim Malaysian feminist who is project director of Musawah, the global movement for justice and equality in the Muslim family, reminded her country’s authorities, “Neither the Koran nor the Hadith [sayings of Prophet Muhammad] prescribes any form of punishment for drinking alcohol … Islamic teachings emphasize forgiveness, compassion and positive personal transformation. So why punish in the first instance?”
Flogging is a cruel and inhuman punishment that is banned by international law and conventions like the one against torture, to which the majority of countries in the world are signatories.
It is time for the international community to take away the pass to the international club from countries that duck out of their international obligations under the pretext of “cultural or religious” reservations.
One hundred and sixty-four women were sentenced to flogging in July alone. Where is the outrage?
Comments (11)
Malachi said:
I’m outraged!!! But what can we do to stop it? Why do women always bare the brunt of abuse and corruption? The powers at be think that women are weak and easy to target but ALL people in their countries, MEN & WOMEN alike need to stand up and SAY NO to the vicious and continued abuse towards women! THIS IS NOT ISLAM AT ALL!! NOT EVEN CLOSE!!
August 14th, 2009, 5:42 pm
Jeunelle Foster said:
The public mindset and conditioning within Islam needs a reversal. Men who see this corruption should stand up and act as most women there are unable to defend themselves because of the restrictions placed upon them by the laws governing that region. Unfortunately not too many men do act in that region of the world and so the abuse and corruption continues and their sons will continue on the abuse and corruption witnessed by their fathers. I’m glad I don’t live in that part of the world because I would act and they would seek my removal. My women there commit suicide because they become severely depressed at their state of living and feel helpless to do anything about it. Shameful
August 14th, 2009, 6:42 pm
kinzi said:
Lubna Hussein is a actually a Christian.
I am outraged. Trousers worth flogging, rape unpunishable?
August 15th, 2009, 1:07 am
Zahrah said:
You said it best, why is there are 3:1 ratio? I don’t get why these “Islamic” countries punish women when it comes to adultery, yet the men seem to slip through the cracks in the “justice” system. Last I heard, it takes two to tango! I think aspects of Shari’ah cannot be implemented in todays day and age. It is twisted and shaped by Mullahs and Sheikhs into something that ultimately favours men. I doubt men in Sudan are flogged for wearing shorts or showing their navels? This double standard in a lot of islamic societies disgusts me. Islam comdemns rape yet its considered to be adultery on the females part unless she has witnesses in many countries. I wish progress was more swift, and It’s frustrating as a Muslim woman in New Zealand, so I imagine it truly must be suffocating to be a Muslim woman in Saudi Arabia. Mona you truly have inspired me! You are voicing exactly what I am thinking. I find it frustrating how we are told often to to question Shari’ah as it’s Gods will. I’ve realised now that It is possible to be a muslim, yet disagree with a lot of Islams archaic practices related to women.
August 15th, 2009, 3:54 am
Ahmed said:
I have seen many Muslims turning against you for speaking up. Some have compared you to others that are viewed unfavorably all because u dared to publically question some forms of Islam and because you are a woman. Don’t let them get to you.
What relationship do Islamists have with women? It appears that women are the bargaining chips? Why?
August 16th, 2009, 5:41 pm
MJB said:
Hopefully more outrage will ensue thanks to your constant efforts to bring these types of activites to the public eye. I think we all know it goes on, but to what extent and for what ridiculous reasons is something that should get more attention from the mainstream media.
Keep fighting the good fight, Mona!
August 17th, 2009, 8:04 am
Delarue said:
A few of us, here in France, are considering starting a campaign to ask tourists to boycott the Maldives until the local (democratically-elected, it seems) government decides to stop flogging women (and some men). Some Maldivian politicians apparently disagree with these sentences, like MP Eva Abdulla. And tourism, of course, is a key industry in the country.
British and US papers, including IHT, with your beautiful article, have denounced these outrageous floggings. I have posted messages on several women’s forumsin France and on our own website, and we will try to get French journalists interested in the next few days.
Thank you again.
August 17th, 2009, 10:23 am
Paradox said:
As a young Mormon reader in the United States, I want to thank you for this post. It has served as a reminder to me that the world is in great need of women who will speak for those who cannot.
August 21st, 2009, 5:53 am
MensEtManus said:
I came across your website on a fluke and I must say this is the one of the happiest moments I’ve encountered in quite sometime.
Egypt has taken a turn to the worse. I recently returned to Egypt after many years abroad and every day I cry for what they have done to our beautiful country! The tension and anger of men in the streets is unimaginable. Men have a carte blanche to act like animals – Did you know that until recently, there was a law that approved of rape. If a male raped a female, but then offered to marry her, all charges were dropped?
I found out about that law because one of the guys at work told me he raped his second wife repeatedly, but after a year she told the police and he “had” to marry her!
They are all hypocrites. They pray all day and yet treat women like a toilet to piss in whenever they want! What happened to the era were most doctors were females in Egypt? What happened when you would walk in the streets and feel safe?
During my childhood, Egypt was the center of all cultures. It didn’t matter your color, religion, or gender. Everyone was happy and treated with respect!
I wish in my lifetime more young girls like you stand up and take back what is rightfully yours. Who knows, maybe the next Safia Zaghloul or Hoda Sharaway?
All the Best,
MetM
August 24th, 2009, 3:55 pm
F1Helper said:
I fail to see the correlation between Islam and the injustice that you’re trying to establish in your article. Those incidence you describe happen under ruling of dictator that turned the life of their people into hell. Now reciting the forms of this injustice that occur to women and then inserting the word Islam in the middle gives the reader the impression that on the other hand men are having great time, and that Islam is a tool used to oppress women, while the truth is everyone is suffering under their dictators ruling whether those dictators wear the beard of a Muslim (Bashir) or the suit of a secular (Mubarak)!
August 30th, 2009, 9:30 pm
Nasser said:
I hope to help this discussion along by proposing a distinct differentiation between old cultural practices and Islamic principles which decry these practices and abolishes them but some so-called clerics continue to uphold some traditions that do oppress women by blind-siding some male crimes or using intentionally vague definitions of Quranic principles to male advantage which are also politically expedient to the government.
Islam is a tolerant religion which not only upholds but also, if properly implemented, enforces, human rights and especially women and childrens rights. Criticising Islam because of some peoples individual practices, or even cultural, is ignorant and comparable to criticising Christianity, or any other religion, for the same as no group or country is without criminals, ignorants, bigots, rapists, thieves etc.
September 14th, 2009, 2:01 am
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