How many Muslim women martyrs do we need before Muslim leaders speak out?
By Cristina Odone World Last updated: October 18th, 2012
Enough is enough: women pay tribute to Malala
A 20-year-old Afghan girl has been beheaded, by her in-laws, for refusing to become a prostitute. Her mother-in-law and and a hired man cut off Mah Gul's head in the province of Herat last week.
The horrific case has confirmed the plight of women and girls in Taliban-strongholds such as Herat: it comes in the wake of the Taliban's attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who campaigned for girls' education in Pakistan.
Surely, enough is enough? How many women martyrs do Muslim leaders need before they speak out against such misogyny?
Human Rights Watch, in its report on Afghanistan, does not mince its words: "The situation for women’s rights is particularly bad, with threats and attacks by insurgents on women leaders, schoolgirls, and girls’ schools, and police arrests of women for 'moral crimes' such as running away from forced marriage or domestic violence." That report was published two years ago, but the situation has not improved in the intervening years: so far this year, 100 attacks on girls and women have been reported.
But why is it left to western organisations like HRW to blow the whistle on violence against women in countries where Islamic fundamentalists hold sway? Why are Muslim leaders in those countries – and this one – silent on the plight of half their population? The Muslim Council of Britain are the self-appointed leaders of the Muslim community in the UK. They have yet to come out and oppose these vicious misogynist practices. Yes, the Council issued a statement condemning the attack on Malala Yousafzai – though only once she had been airlifted to Birmingham. But listen to the weak wording chosen by spokesman Farooq Murad: "Sinister groups are creating havoc in the country leading to such sinister events."
Not the kind of whole-hearted condemnation the Muslim community needs to hear from its leadership. Nor does the Council say anything about rejecting the practice, still current in Britain's Pakistani community, of taking girls out of school once they hit puberty – lest they be corrupted by boys and/or Western culture.
Earlier this year, two British Pakistani parents were sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering their teenage daughter, Shafilea Ahmed,because she had succumbed to a "Westernised" lifestyle and defied her parents' wishes for an arranged marriage. Again, where were the Muslim leaders' angry condemnations of this young girl's murder?
Muslim communities in this country are taking action into their own hands: schools and local organisations have protested against the continuing plight of Muslim women around the world. Malala's arrival in Birmingham, where she is being treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, has prompted a lot of soul-searching among South Asian families there.
“Malala is a role model because even though we are not facing the Taliban here in the UK, there are a number of girls who face that backward mentality. So I think definitely she has become an inspiration for standing up against force at such a young age,” says Sabbiyah Pervez, a young mother and university graduate in Bradford.
Ms. Pervez, who coordinates projects to empower young Muslim girls, stresses that although many British Muslim girls are excelling academically, some girls are still being removed from school by their parents at 16 for fear that an education will see them challenge their parents.
How frustrating for these ordinary Muslims to see their self-appointed leaders stay silent on such crucial issues. That silence can be misinterpreted as collusion. How painful, then, for ordinary Muslims to see the world tar all of Islam with the misogynist brush. Maybe it's time to change the leadership.
