Yesterday Jihad Watch reported that Muslim hardliners had attacked Women’s Day marchers in Pakistan. It is not surprising that this has happened in other Muslim countries as well: “While the world…celebrated International Women’s Day with joyful events and colourful initiatives, women’s marches were attacked in Muslim-majority Asian countries, namely Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Turkey. In some cases, police dispersed assembled crowds with tear gas; in others, groups of Islamic radicals armed with bars and sticks attacked participants.”
In normative Islamic law, women are inferior, but not every Muslim leader will admit this, for reasons of expedience. Take, for instance, the words of Sheikh Abdullah Makwinja, who wrote an article that was provided by “the Embassy of Iran” to The Herald in Zimbabwe:
Islam declares gender equality to be an intrinsic part of the Islamic faith….. “Women in Islam” is among topics that have been approached by mixed attitudes, from some Muslims who whitewash their local/cultural discriminative practices against women under the label of Islam, to the non-Muslim outsiders who don’t bother to analyse and distinguish different cultural and religious elements in the various Muslim societies.
While Sheikh Abdullah Makwinja thumbs his nose at “non-Muslim outsiders,” the Quran, Hadith and Islamic law present a different picture: a woman’s testimony in court is worth half that of a man, child brides and the sex slavery of infidel women are permitted, and female genital mutilation (FGM) is a requirement (Umdat al-Salik e4.3). The same inferior status applies to women in matters of inheritance and, for that matter, everything else. The ultimate dictate of a woman’s worth is the Qur’anic command for women to cover up, despite pervasive misinformation that the veil is merely a cultural practice (Quran 24:31, 33:59). Unfortunately, “dialogue” often consists of deceptions about Islam, and any questions raised that get too close to illuminating the truth are deemed to be “Islamophobic” by mainstream Muslim groups, thus indicating that they have no genuine interest whatsoever in “dialogue.”
So while the world celebrated International Women’s Day “with joyful events and colourful initiatives”, the expected happened in these three countries: women’s marches were attacked. But there has not been much discussion among feminists about such incidents, or about the Islamic texts that render women inferior, nor about the plight of women in Islamic states. Instead, Sharia-inspired abuses are all swept under the carpet in efforts to stop “Islamophobia.”
Last year, Pakistani lawmakers stated that women’s marches were anti-Islam.
“Marchers attacked on International Women’s Day in Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Turkey,” Asia News, March 9, 2020:
Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – While the world yesterday celebrated International Women’s Day with joyful events and colourful initiatives, women’s marches were attacked in Muslim-majority Asian countries, namely Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Turkey. In some cases, police dispersed assembled crowds with tear gas; in others, groups of Islamic radicals armed with bars and sticks attacked participants.
Yesterday people took to the streets around the world to celebrate women, focusing on certain issues, such as domestic violence, child marriage, and so-called honour killings. Marchers stressed the principle of equal pay for equal work, women’s solidarity, equality between men and women, and respect and mutual understanding within couples.
In Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, a group of masked men attacked the 8 March rally that had brought together scores of women to protest against domestic abuse and “bride kidnapping,” a widespread but unspoken practice.
By the time police arrived the assailants had fled, but the agents had the time to arrest protesters, at least 70, for illegal gathering and breaking the ban on assemblies purportedly to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. So far, no case of the Covid-19 has been reported in the Central Asian country.
In Istanbul (Turkey), police used tear gas to disperse a few hundred women protesting at the edge of Taksim Square. Agents stopped women from entering Istiklal Street, the district’s main pedestrian avenue. Istanbul’s governor Ali Yerlikaya also closed down Taksim metro station and parts of nearby Sishane station.
The authorities said that protesters did not have a permit to hold a protest at their chosen location. This is not the first time that women’s rallies are forcibly ended.
In Pakistan, the day was marked by some peaceful events, but others that ended in violence….