Project Syndicate article on women reflected ignorance and prejudice

Dear Editor,

In your Wednesday edition (28.5.08) there is a Project Syndicate article entitled ‘Wars against women.’ It informs us that “Under Shariah law” women who are raped are “prosecuted for adultery or fornication.”  This is an unfortunate falsehood.

That such absurdity would have existed in a religion where matters of social and sexual relations are the subjects of an extensive legislation and commentary is unlikely, unthinkable. It is possible that the authors may have had in mind certain cases in Pakistan, one of the few countries to have established Shariah law. As in every other judicial system there is misconception and miscarriage of justice. The cases where women pleading rape became themselves objects of prosecution arise from particular circumstances and do not represent jurisprudence in the Muslim world.
The conception of rights, liberties and the role of the individual in the communal web varies from state to state and from culture to culture. The consequences yield unexpected news. In Saudi Arabia recently a rape victim was sentenced to prison and the lash for her role in contributing to the circumstances that led to her violation and the trouble to the public order that the event represents.

Contrary to what many commentators understood, her crime did not consist of making herself available to be raped, but in sneaking out behind her husband’s back, arriving at a rendezvous with a man whose intentions were far from honourable, dissimulation, casting the faith in a bad light, etc. In the circumstances of societies that choose to sanction such behaviour there is little liberty to dishonour oneself and the society.

Notwithstanding these genuine differences in the way the individual liberties are conceived, there are aberrations and judicial curiosities on all sides. Again, in Pakistan, the man overheard by a wife murmuring in his sleep “I divorce you” or some such thing, was forced to annul the marriage in the first instance. In a society in which women are victim, the list of victims would spread to emigrants, minorities, the feeble, the social outcast, etc. In short, these are societies with diverse problems.

The authors of the article in question start in Darfur, go to Nigeria and Rwanda, Kosovo, the cases  of the old enemies from WWII and the Cold War… all are cited as those who raped women in wars. This is poor research and a skewed presentation of facts.

The Japanese are mentioned in passing. The case of the Japanese “comfort women” of Korean origin is global news. The fact that France had similar comfort stations in Algeria and Morocco and Indochina is not mentioned at all. The terrible toll taken on women by the colonial occupation forces is not mentioned at all. In short this is the usual self-exculpatory eurocentric and sub-standard work we expect from a certain level of journalist.

A search in any library or on the internet would make clear the Islamic position on rape. With all its variations, cultural colourations and jurisprudential sub-strata. What we got from the authors is laziness perhaps, but it seems more to arise from ignorance and prejudice.

It is no more likely that Islam is responsible for the fact that women suffer in some places than that Christianity in its essence is to be blamed for the fact that America is still said to be uncomfortable with the idea of a female president. This goes to show that in matters of ideology and culture care has to be taken. The historical fact of female heads of government on the Indian sub-continent does not negate the other fact that women’s rights need to be developed protected and guarded there. But, as everywhere else, there are rights of all sorts and adhering to or detached from all sorts of other categories that need a similar vigilance. The recent history of the Western legal system and American Indians or Aborigines or Blacks, or political dissidents, speaks eloquently of the need for the world to continue getting better, exercising these concerns for rights, without going overboard of course.

Yours faithfully,
Abu Bakr