I read recently that Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, had signed into law the right of a man to beat his wife. (Yahoonews.com) He did it, he explained, because the order was in accordance with Sharia law.
Apart for the immorality of using religion as a pretext to abuse women and promote the presumption they are inferior to men, history proves that presumption wrong. Catherine the Great of Russia, for example, was a woman and it was she who granted Muslims enormous freedom in her country, going so far as to allow her justice system to punish offenders of the faith. (“Moscow and the Mosque,” by Robert D. Crews, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2014 pg. 130.) The result is that Russia has one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe. (Ibid pg. 126)
What’s more, thanks to Catherine’s benign rule, the bulk of Russia’s Muslims have remained benign as well. Today, the militant portion of the faith stands at 14% (Ibid pg. 126) while the majority live in harmony with their society. In fact, according to a 2010 survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, Russian Muslims were found “to be generally less enthusiastic about [their]religious holidays, literature and rites than Orthodox Christians.” (Ibid pg. 133)
Ironically, Muslim women pose the greatest internal threat to Vladimir Putin’s dreams of empire. Pensioners who live mainly in the countryside and are fervent practitioners of their faith are angry at the way the President has thrown money at the Olympic Games in Sochi and plans to spend more to consolidate his victory in the Crimea. (Ibid pg 133) If he underestimates the fury of this constituency, he could well create a spark that might become a brushfire.
Russia is one small example of the roles women have played and continue to play in the lives of men. On a personal level, a Muslim male who persist in the notion that females are inferior should bear this in mind: A woman gave you life, bore your children and will stand at your gravesite when you are buried. Sharia law can do nothing against the laws of nature.
(Picture of Muslim woman beaten after give birth to a girl ourtesy of thegodlessatheist.tumblir.com).
