Status of women in Islam today's great moral challenge?

[scheherazade_79]

I think 'great moral challenge' is a little too kind in this situation.

How about some of these:

• ludicrous idea devised by men who can't keep it in their pants
• reason why a Margaret Thatcher-type female leader is needed in the Muslim world
• best excuse for being a male chauvinist prick
• greatest proof that if organised religion were allowed to develop unchecked, misogyny would reign supreme

And I'm NOT going to back down from or apologise about any of these points. Keeping women permanently covered up, banning them from leaving the house without a male escort, stopping them from working, driving and living an ordinary free life falls into the same category as female circumcision in my mind. How long before extremists start arguing in favour of that, too?

 

[Pure]

Case in point: Calling all cultural relativists. FGM

Apparently the fellow below was found guilty and sentenced to several years for aggravated assault, but the story is not yet on the 'net.

I'm somewhat 'relative,' but I say, He's in our culture, yes, convict him. All "FGM"-inclined families coming to US, UK, etc should be warned up front, of course.


http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=163212&Disp=0

Title: Dad stands trial over daughter's mutilation (TROP - Atlanta)
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

URL Source: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2006/10/21/1022metAdem.html

Published: Oct 22, 2006
Author: LATEEF MUNGIN
Post Date: 2006-10-22 19:44:21 by supertracpak
17 Comments

A father stands accused of the unthinkable: brutally cutting his daughter's genitals.

The girl was only 2.

Monday, activists from all over the world will be focused on a Gwinnett County courtroom as Khalid Adem, accused of cruelty to a child and aggravated battery for allegedly circumcising his daughter, goes on trial.

Adem, 30, was charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children more than three years ago and, if convicted, could face 40 years in prison. He was born in Ethiopia, where circumcision is a common procedure for young girls.

Adem's trial may be a landmark case for health and human rights activists fighting against the African custom they call genital mutilation. But for those close to the victim, this trial is about vindication and healing for a little girl who was forced to endure unbearable pain.

"When I saw that child I saw myself. I could see the pain in her eyes," said Soraya Mire, a filmmaker and activist who was circumcised when she was 13 in Somalia. Mire is known for her 1994 documentary "Fire Eyes" in which she chronicled her struggles after having the procedure.

Mire, who now lives in Los Angeles, was asked by Gwinnett authorities to counsel the victim in 2003 when it was discovered that she had been circumcised.

"She hugged me, and I just burst into tears," Mire said. "Since that day, I've been obsessed with finding out who did this to that child."

Police say Adem circumcised his daughter with scissors in his Duluth apartment, while someone else held the girl's legs.

Authorities said the circumcision occurred sometime in 2001 but the mother didn't discover it until two years later. The mother told police she learned about it while arguing with Adem about female circumcision. The mother told police that she told Adem she didn't want that to happen to their daughter, but Adem implied the circumcision had already occurred.

The mother went to a doctor who confirmed that the girl had been circumcised. The girl then told Gwinnett authorities that her father had done it. He was arrested in March 2003.

Adem has said through his defense attorney W. Mark Hill that he was innocent. Hill said the allegations stem from a bitter divorce and custody battle the couple was going through at the time. Hill has said the family of the girl's mother, Fortunate Adem, also is from Africa and could have performed the circumcision.

Georgia law changed

The African practice of female circumcision has been denounced for decades by health and human rights activists. In some areas in Africa, it is considered a coming-of-age ritual.

Opponents claim the procedure, which may involve the removal of the clitoris or all of the external genitalia, is extremely painful, medically unnecessary and unsafe. It is illegal in the United States and has been condemned by the United Nations.

The centuries-old practice is performed for many reasons, including to curtail sex drive and preserve virginity. It also is a prerequisite for marriage in some cultures, experts say.

After Adem was arrested, activists and educators flocked to metro Atlanta to denounce genital mutilation. A four-day conference on the practice sponsored by international women's rights group Equality Now was held in Atlanta three months after his arrest. The conference was originally supposed to be in Nairobi, Kenya, but was moved to Atlanta because of the national interest following Adem's arrest, said Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of Equality Now.

It is difficult to document the number of female circumcision prosecutions in the United States. Although Congress passed a law in 1996, many states still do not have their own laws forbidding the practice. But experts who follow the issue say arrests for female circumcision are rare.

"To our knowledge, this was the first documented case of [female circumcision] in the United States," said Bien-Aime, whose organization, which has offices in New York, London and Africa, has been following the issue since 1992. "We will be monitoring the trial and hope that it will help bring awareness to the issue."

Adem's arrest also had an impact on Georgia law. In 2003, there was no state law in Georgia that addressed female circumcision. That's why Adem was charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children.

After her ex-husband's arrest, Fortunate Adem worked with Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) to get a law passed outlawing female circumcision. The law was enacted in May 2005.

If Khalid Adem had been arrested after the new law was in place, he could have faced an additional 20 years for the genital mutilation charge.

Fortunate Adem refused to comment for this article but has said her daughter suffered severe pain since the circumcision.

"Her whole life has been changed," she said. "She is going to be traumatized psychologically. Parts of her body have been taken away from her without her consent. They need to look at this child the same way they would if she had been raped."

Father claims innocence

Hill will handle the defense case and plans to call eight to 10 witnesses. He said he is trying to get three of Adem's sisters to Gwinnett from Ethiopia to testify that they had not been circumcised.

Another key piece of evidence will be the taped interview of the victim in which she told Gwinnett authorities that Adem cut her with scissors. It's unknown whether the girl, now 7, will be called to testify.

Gwinnett Assistant District Attorney Marty First will handle the prosecution's case. First declined to comment or give any details about the case.

"I will try this case in the courtroom, not in the media," First said.

While much has been heard from Fortunate Adem through her efforts in changing Georgia law, this will be the first time that Khalid Adem will publicly tell his side of the story.

He will testify and proclaim his innocence, Hill said.

Adem bonded out of jail a week after he was arrested and continues to work as a clerk at the same Snellville gas station he did before his arrest, Hill said.

Hill said there are major problems with the prosecution's case and that Adem was arrested primarily on the word of the then-2-year-old girl who could have been coached by a mother desperate to get custody. Another problem in the case, Hill said, is that the alleged circumcision, which took place in 2001, wasn't discovered or reported to police until two years later.

"What mother would not know that this has happened to their daughter for two years?" he said.

Hill said the couple's history of problems also led him to question the prosecution's charges.

Khalid Adem immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia when he was 16, Hill said. Fortunate Adem moved to this country from South Africa when she was 6, according to court documents. The two met at Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston. The couple was married, and their daughter was born on Sept. 8, 1999. The couple had a contentious marriage and was divorced by August 2003.

Fortunate Adem was awarded full custody of the child. Adem was not granted visitation rights.

The trial is expected to last about two weeks. Jury selection will begin Monday morning.

Mire, who plans to follow the trial, said this case is about finding the truth for the little girl she once held and cried for.

"My main focus is the girl," Mire said. "I hope that she gets everything that she needs. I am a survivor of this. I know the pain that she is still going to feel. It is brutal and terrible. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy."

 

[shereads]

Today's Great Moral Challenge Closer to Home:

Status of women in the United States under a future evangelical Christian theocracy.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Status of women in the United States under a future evangelical Christian theocracy.

A diversion and a distraction. Not going to happen. You've been reading too many fundraising letters from liberal interest groups. In a pluralistic society and polity like the U.S. certain trends can go only so far before they are reversed, because the further they go the greater the resistance. It's like trying to exceed the speed of light - the closer to C the more energy is required to go the next increment faster.

Meanwhile, thousands of women are still in prisons in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Islamic world for complaining about having been raped.

 

[Pure]

a western agenda:

supposedly 'thousands' of women are in prison in Pakistan for adultery (real or imagined).

however 26,000 Pakistani women died last year and each year before, from pregnancy or childbirth.

do you really think your Western feminist agenda highlighting the 'injustice' according to your liberal feminist values resembles that of the average Pakistani woman?

any evidence that she shares your concerns, and prioritizes them as you do?

 

[shereads]

A diversion and a distraction. Not going to happen. You've been reading too many fundraising letters from liberal interest groups. In a pluralistic society and polity like the U.S. certain trends can go only so far before they are reversed, because the further they go the greater the resistance. It's like trying to exceed the speed of light - the closer to C the more energy is required to go the next increment faster.

If you say so. Personally, I'm not willing to trust the rights of future generations to your belief that America is uniquely immune to religous tyranny.

Who thought there would ever be serious consideration of a constitutional amendment that singles out one group of people for fewer rights than others - on the grounds that government has a duty to protect the "sanctity" of something? How did I end up helping fund with my taxes a White House Department of Faith-Based Initiatives? (A Department of Religion might have been a tougher sell, and unconstitutional.)

This administration has proven two critical points: (1) given enough fear, anger and uncertaintly, people will turn their backs on all kinds of stuff they wouldn't otherwise stand for; (2) the more audacious, the better.

"Too bad habeus corpus wasn't born in 1990. Then it would be 16 years old and people would get pissed off when politicians started fucking with it."

~ Get Your War On

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

If you say so. Personally, I'm not willing to trust the rights of future generations to your belief that America is uniquely immune to religous tyranny.

Who thought there would ever be serious consideration of a constitutional amendment that singles out one group of people for fewer rights than others - on the grounds that government has a duty to protect the "sanctity" of something? How did I end up helping fund with my taxes a White House Department of Faith-Based Initiatives? (A Department of Religion might have been a tougher sell, and unconstitutional.)

This administration has proven two critical points: (1) given enough fear, anger and uncertaintly, people will turn their backs on all kinds of stuff they wouldn't otherwise stand for; (2) the more audacious, the better.

"Too bad habeus corpus wasn't born in 1990. Then it would be 16 years old and people would get pissed off when politicians started fucking with it."

~ Get Your War On

The faith based initiative stuff isn't so bad; silliness it the worst threat from it. To the extent it is bad it's an argument against having replaced the civil society institutions of compassion with a welfare state.

I hate to say it, but the amendment is the kind of thing that happens when you use extra-democratic processes (lawsuits and judges) to push society faster than it is willing to go. Democratic processes may be slower but they are more sure, and don't result in this kind of backlash. The people are moving in the direction you and I want them to go; trying to skip the hard work of accomplishing it democratically by using judicial shortcuts was bound to cause bigger problems than it solves. All that said, I don't think we'll get a U.S. constitutional amendment, but these state-level ones are bad enough.

This is all unfortunate, but when you set aside the fundraising letters for a bit and place it in context of what real oppression looks like, I'm sure you will realize that the comparisons between the two are really not tenable. I believe you know history and know the wider world, and will appreciate what I'm saying here.

 

[Pure]

sher,

likely no constitutional amendments are required for many arbitrary or discriminatory measures.

the recent example is of increase of Presidential power as "commander in chief,' with 'inherent powers' e.g, to arrest at will, the whole US being the battlefield.

'sexual orientation' is not really enshrined in the constitution; and indeed the women's rights amendment failed.

privacy rights are not well enshrined, nor elaborated in the constitution. hence it's only a couple SC court decisions that ensure birth control or access to abortion.

i must agree with Roxanne here:
RA [the 'marriage amendment' is] the kind of thing that happens when you use extra-democratic processes (lawsuits and judges) to push society faster than it is willing to go.

P: many states do not want special rights for blacks, women or gays; hence it's only 'democratic' if the people's elected officials curb the judicial activism that 'constructs' (invents) such rights