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NEWS & LETTERS, April - May 2007Politics of veilingThis information came from the National Secular Society who co-sponsored this seminar on "Islam, Women's Rights and the Veil" at the University of London Union on March 15. * * * London--Feminist writer Taslima Nasreen gave a moving account of the persecution she suffered at the hands of the religious authorities in her native Bangladesh because she refused to accept the role of an inferior human being. Driven from her homeland under threat of death, she aches to return. Her dream is that one day that will be possible on her terms and not those of the mullahs who demand that she squander her education and experience by confining her to what would be, in essence, house arrest. Maryam Namazie, feminist and human rights activist, spoke passionately against the veiling of Muslim women, calling for it to be banned. She said the veil "is not just another piece of cloth, not just another item of clothing." She likened it to a body bag, chastity belt, or the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis. "It isn't a fashion accessory like a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes, it is like footbinding that was used to stop women from wandering." She said it creates sexual apartheid and represents women's enslavement. Iranian women's activist Mina Ahadi has been instrumental in saving several people from execution. Founder of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Germany, Mina said the group's purpose is to highlight the difficulties of renouncing the Islamic faith, which she said is misogynist and tyrannical. She has been subject to endless death threats and stressed that renouncing Islam can carry the death penalty in a number of countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and Mauritania. Mina said there is no way to modernize Islam, the only way is to leave it and fight it. She says there is enormous support for secularism amongst those who have fled Islam, which is hidden and suppressed. Though you might have the label "Muslim," it cannot automatically be assumed you are religious. Ann Harrison from Amnesty International gave a summary of the legal situation of women in Iran and the terrible injustices that they have endured. |
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