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Friday, August 7, 2009

[chottala.com] Evicted Palestinians sleep rough in protest [ IN VIDEO ]



 
 
Evicted Palestinians 
sleep rough in protest
 
 

The Hanouns, a Palestinian family evicted by Israeli authorities from their home in East Jerusalem, are protesting their eviction by sleeping on the street outside the house that was for decades their home.

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem where the Hanouns are sleeping rough in protest.



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[chottala.com] Whipping a woman for wearing trousers is a public insult to Islam



Whipping a woman for wearing trousers is an affront to Islam

Sarah Joseph

  • Last Updated: August 07. 2009 9:25PM UAE / August 7. 2009 5:25PM GMT

First, it was the teddy bear called Mohammed and now it is the woman in trousers called Lubna. Why the Sudanese authorities desire to make the religion of Islam a laughing stock around the world is quite beyond me; but that's what they are doing.

I recall my travels to Sudan fondly. I have been three times and I remember a people of smiles. I remember the women, too: strong, powerful women. They were leaders who would shake a man's hand firmly and engage him in conversation. Yet now we are in a place and time where a woman, Lubna Ahmed Hussein, faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers. And she is not the first. Ten women have already been whipped for the same "offence".


As I write this piece I am wearing a pair of trousers. They are black, from a London suiting company. Along with my blue Ede and Ravenscroft shirt and white scarf, I really think I am as far away from "indecent" as it is possible to be. Yet, the present Sudanese regime would think I should be lashed too. As a woman, passionately committed to my faith, and passionately committed to a sense of a duty to contribute to the world, I wonder how the faith of Islam was hijacked in this way.


I am slightly wary of the word "feminist", as it is a loaded term with negative connotations in many people's minds. It has been said that feminism emasculated men and masculinised women; that it destroyed the relationship between men and women; that it broke up the family; that for women to advance they had to put men down. All of this is far too harsh, I feel, but there is no doubt that there have been problems and that feminism is being reconstructed for the modern era; that the model of the 1960s has not worked entirely and that a post-modern, dare I say more feminine feminism is emerging.


There are also cultural-specific feminist models, for the needs and issues of women vary across the world. If you are trying to find food or water for your family or protect them from bombs and missiles, then your issues will be different to those of women who are trying to become top executives in their companies. Among these culture-specific feminisms, there is also the emergence of what some call Islamic feminism, a move for Muslim women to take their rightful place in the world.


The example of Madinan society at the time of the Prophet Mohammed was one where men and women strove together to create a more just social framework. It stood against slavery, female infanticide and the ownership of women by men. It followed the Quranic dictum that men and women are "protecting friends of one another".

If there was competition within the relationship, it was in the endeavours towards good and right. Indeed, the Quranic and Prophetic paradigm of male/female relationship is not ruthless competition but mutual co-operation. And while differences of sex are recognised in places, the common humanity and ultimate purpose of each soul to worship God regardless of sex is paramount. Inspired by this, modern Muslim women are actually drawing on their faith and heritage to find a reality that calls on women to engage in their society on a par with men.


Despite this richly inspiring example, we are subject to the cultural pull of the negative combative behaviour between men and women. It begins in the playground, "girls are better than boys/boys are better than girls."

Sadly, this childhood model continues into adulthood – as stand-up comedians will attest: jokes against the opposite sex get the laughs. Indeed, sometimes we are presented as if we were two different species: "Men are from Mar and women are from Venus," some say. There is definitely a culturally acquired mode of behaviour where "the battle of the sexes" is the de-facto norm, even among Muslims.


All this is a far cry from the Quranic description of the relationship between men and women. "They are a garment for you and you are a garment to them." (2: 187) A garment shields you from adverse elements. A garment beautifies you, covering up faults and flaws. A garment protects. If we are garments for one another then surely one does not whip the other for wearing trousers!

Years ago in Sudan, women turned to communism to obtain social justice. Then Hassan Turabi published a book called Women in Islam and Muslim Society. In it he wrote: "The greatest injustice visited upon women is their segregation and isolation from the general society. Sometimes the slightest aspect of her public appearance would be considered a form of obscene exhibitionism."


The book inspired and revolutionised women in Sudan and they turned in droves to Islam as a means to liberate themselves.

It has been a while since I last went to Sudan, but from the outside it would seem that any liberty gained was short-lived.

Turabi also wrote in the same book, in a chapter entitled The Resurgence of Women: "A revolution against the condition of women in the traditional Muslim societies is inevitable." I do not know if what he says will come to pass, but I do feel the winds of change, a change true to faith, but where that faith inspires contribution. Such liberty should not be viewed as an imported thing, a western intrusion; it is there, authentically, within the Islamic traditions.


I was speaking to a Saudi lawyer. He had been researching and documenting the history of his family village. Among the historic papers he found literally hundreds of documents where women were jurists, property owners, business people, scholars. "We do not need to look elsewhere for women to be liberated, we have it within our history," he remarked.

Likewise, Dr Amira Sonbol, of Georgetown University in Washington, has identified dozens of ancient Islamic court documents that present Muslim women in a wholly different light from their counterparts today.


In the same vein, Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, went in search of women scholars of the early era. He hoped to find "30 or 40"; he found more than 8,000 biographical accounts.

While there are women who have rejected faith in order to find freedom, many more Muslim women are drawing on their religious heritage. They know that the current status quo is not right, not Islamic. Some are angry; some are calling for scholarship to be completely rewritten, for "feminist reinterpretations" of the textual sources. I am not sure all of that is necessary; you don't need to reinterpret to find women's emancipation: I think it is there in black and white.


Lubna Ahmed Hussein cannot be lashed for wearing trousers. It would be an affront to Islam. Mohammed came as a "mercy to mankind" and as such Muslims across the world should be affronted by her prosecution. Muslim women and men across the world should be calling on Sudan to stop this fiasco.

And wherever there is injustice we must stand against it, regardless of whether the injustice is towards a woman or a man, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a woman or a man, for as the Quran says: "Justice is the closest thing to God consciousness." And if you want to call this Islamic feminism, so be it.


I just call it Islam.



Sarah Joseph is editor of emel, a lifestyle magazine for British Muslims.
 
Comments:
R B wrote:
As a Muslim woman, I think this is unconscionable. It is totally against the teachings of Islam. Islam places great emphasis on self-guidance and self-responsibility. A person is answerable to God (and to God alone) for his or her person actions. This is just an excuse to use religion as a means for holding women back and exerting control. Terrible!!!
August 4, 2009 4:21 PM BST on UK-TimesOnline
 
In court on Tuesday Mrs Hussein will dare judges to have her flogged. 

Whipping a woman for wearing trousers is an affront to Islam

The National - Sarah Joseph - ‎14 minutes ago‎
Yet now we are in a place and time where a woman, Lubna Ahmed Hussein, faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers. And she is not the first. ...
 
New York Daily News - Afrik.com

Sudan trouser woman 'ready for 40000 lashes'

AFP - ‎Aug 2, 2009‎
Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who works for the media department of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, is to be judged on Tuesday after waiving the immunity ...

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 10:52 AM, Syed Mirza <mirza.syed@gmail.com> wrote:
 

Women in sharia ruled country should move in the streets inside a moving tent called Burkha. Police in Nigeria rightfully beaten those women for their unislamic dress. What's wrong in it? Allah wanted this dress for Muslimah, is not it?
 
SKM

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 1:06 PM, S A Hannan <sahannan@sonarbangladesh.com> wrote:
 

Dear sirs,
 
 Assalamu Alaikum.The prohibition of trouser was un-necessary.It does not violate Islam if it is not tight and if the lady  otherwise covers herself. May be the authorities wanted to keep traditional  under dress..In my view the state has no right to prescribe indecent dress but can  prescribe decent dress .Decent dress  does not violate religious law and fundamental right.
 
The journalist could follow the law.Apparently she has tried to arouse plitical passion .She could go to constitutional court and fight her case that trouser  does not violate Islamic law.
 
Shah Abdul Hannan
 

Police beat women opposing Sudan dress code trial

By MOHAMED OSMAN and SARAH EL DEEB (AP) – 19 hours ago

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Sudanese police fired tear gas and beat women protesting at the trial Tuesday of a female journalist who faces a flogging for wearing trousers in public.

Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein could receive 40 lashes if found guilty of violating the country's indecency law which follows a strict interpretation of Islam. The 43-year-old says the law is un-Islamic and "oppressive," and she's trying to use her trial to rally support to change it.

"I am not afraid of flogging. ... It's about changing the law," Hussein said, speaking to The Associated Press after a hearing Tuesday.

Hussein said she would take the issue all the way to Sudan's constitutional court if necessary, but that if the court rules against her and orders the flogging, she's ready "to receive (even) 40,000 lashes" if that what it takes to abolish the law.

Hussein was among 13 women arrested July 3 in a raid by the public order police on a popular cafe in Khartoum. Ten of the women were fined and flogged two days later. But Hussein and two others decided to go to trial.

In an attempt to rally support, Hussein printed invitations to diplomats, international media, and activists to attend her trial which opened last week. She also resigned from her job in the U.N.'s public information office in Khartoum, declining the immunity that went along with the job to challenge the law.

Around 100 supporters, including many women in trousers as well as others in traditional dress, protested outside the court Tuesday.

Witnesses said police wielding batons beat up one of Hussein's lawyers, Manal Awad Khogali, while keeping media and cameras at bay. No injuries were immediately reported.

"We are here to protest against this law that oppresses women and debases them," said one of the protesters, Amal Habani, a female columnist for the daily Ajraas Al Hurria, or Bells of Freedom in Arabic.

While the police broke up the demonstration outside the Khartoum Criminal Court, the judge adjourned Hussein's trial for a month to clarify whether her resignation has been accepted by the United Nations.

The 1991 indecency law was adopted by Sudan's Islamic regime which came to power after a coup led by President Omar al-Bashir in 1989. It follows a strict interpretation of Islamic law that imposes physical punishment on "those who commit an indecent act that violates public morale; or who dress indecently."

Trousers are considered indecent under the law. Activists and lawyers say it is implemented arbitrarily, and leaves the definition of "indecent acts" up to the implementing police officer.

Hussein said the law is unconstituational, and is not supported by Islamic text. Flogging is a common punishment for drinking and making alcohol, and whatever else the law enforcer deems indecent. Recently, a famous Sudanese singer, who took to the stage under the influence of alcohol, was flogged.

"Flogging is an insult to human dignity," Hussein said. "If the (rulers) claim this is based on Islamic Shariah (law), can anyone show me a verse in the Quran or in the prophet's teachings that speak of flogging women because of their dress code?"

Rabie Abdel Attie, a government spokesman, called the uproar over the case politically motivated and said only the constitutional court can decide to repeal the law.

"There is no need for all that noise. There are clearly political motivations behind this thrust," he said.

The public order police force patrols the streets of Khartoum, enforcing an alcohol ban and often scolding young men and women mingling in public.

Hussein said many women endure the flogging in silence, because they fear the stigma associated with being tried under the indecency law.

Hussein wore the same clothes Tuesday that she wore when arrested, including the dark-colored pants that authorities found offensive. She said she is required to wear the outfit to court so officials can see the clothing when making their decision. But Hussein said she's also been wearing the outfit every day, even when not in court, to highlight her case.

Her trial opened last Wednesday but immediately adjourned to give her the opportunity to resign from her U.N. job.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply concerned" about Hussein's case and that flogging is a violation of international human rights standards.

The U.N. Staff Union urged authorities last week not to flog Hussein, calling the punishment cruel, inhuman and degrading.

El Deeb contributed to this report from Cairo.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Associated Press

A Sudanese activist march in support to Lubna Hussein, who faces a punishment of 40 lashes on the charge of "indecent dressing." Tuesday Aug. 4, 2009, outside a Khartoum court where Hussein is going on trial for wearing trousers in public, a violation of the country's strict Islamic laws. Arabic slogan read as " Lubna case, is all women case". (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)

Map





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