HUMAN RIGHTS : RIGHTS FOR MUSLIM WOMEN

A Pakistani lady, who dose not want to disclose her name, says, “ Since the dawn of Abrahamic faith, the women had been seen as the evil temptress, the vile seducer of men, the sobbing myth driving men to their follies and demise. Her menstruation made her unclean and impure, the juices flowing from her vagina are the lures of the devil. She is blamed for fall of man and the trials of humanity”. This statement shows the hidden anger aroused by the injustice and discrimination faced by a woman, who has no courage to speak about the matter, but wants to show her feelings hideously.

This is a picture of all the discrimination women are facing since prehistoric era till today. For men, a woman is an object to use as a sex toy when needed, a machine of child birth and a property to possess on, however he believes her to be a wicked thing and a messenger of devil. Actually I would say that it is a gimmick of the man oriented society to keep women under their control. Even they feed these beliefs in the minds of women for the centuries that they accept that they are really a wicked thing and it is an obligation of men to allow her to live in the society, so he has a right to beat her, to torture her, to rape her or to do what he wants to do with her, when he wants.

In this man oriented world, women structurally are always been vulnerable to systematic violence and discrimination. The scene is not changed even in today’s world. If we take a look, statistics would tell us the real story.

In 2003, 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced either physical or sexual violence.

In Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the United States intimate partner violence accounts for between 40 to 70 per cent of female murder victims.

More than 64 million girls worldwide are child brides, with 46 per cent of women aged 20 to 24 in South Asia and 41 per cent in West and Central Africa reporting that they married before the age of 18. Child marriage resulting in early and unwanted pregnancies poses life threatening risks for adolescent girls worldwide. Pregnancy related complications are the leading cause of death for 15 to 19 year old girls.

In Nigeria a treatment centre reported that 15 percent of female patients requiring treatment for sexually transmitted infections were under the age of 5. An additional 6 percent were between the ages of 6 to 15.

Approximately 140 million girls and women in the world have suffered female genital mutilation.

Trafficking ensnares millions of women and girls in modern day slavery. Women and girls represent 55 percent of the estimated 20.9 million victims of forced labor worldwide and 98 percent of the estimated 4.5 million forced into sexual exploitation.

Rape has been a rampant tactic in modern wars. Conservative estimates suggest that 20,000 to 50,000 women were raped during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while approximately 2,50,000 to 5,00,000 women and girls were targeted in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

Between 40 to 50 percent of women in European Union Countries experience unwanted sexual advances, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment at work.

In parts of India and South Asia, there is a strong preference for having sons. Girls can be perceived as a financial burden for the family due to small income contribution and costly dowry demands.

In India prenatal sex selection and infanticide accounted for the pre-natal  termination and death of half a million girls per year over the last 20 years.

In the republic of Korea, 30 percent of pregnancies identified as female fetuses were terminated. Contrastingly over 90 percent of pregnancies identified as male fetuses resulted in normal birth.

According to China’s 2000 census, the ratio of new born girls to boys were 100:119.

In Mexico, the high murder and disappearance rate of young women in Ciudad Juarez has received international attention for the last 10 years, with an alarming recent resurgence.

In India and Pakistan, thousands of women are victims of dowry deaths. In India alone there were almost 7000 dowry deaths in 2005, with the majority of victims aged 15 to 34.

These are the very few of the statistics which I found while researching on the subject. Every society and every culture in every country of the world has it’s own reason and it’s own justification for the crimes taking place against women. They hide what they can and try to present a perfect picture, in which they seem to be an angel and rest of the world as devil.

But when we chose to decry another culture and another religion as being abusive and dangerous to women, we are actively disengaging and distancing our selves from the greater world of gender violence. Doing this allows us to raise our hands and say, “ Not responsible,” when the reality is that gender violence was not born of specific region or culture, and must be something for which we are all responsible.

Now, lets talk about Islam. 1400 years back, when Islam born, it introduced many of the social reforms. The status of women in Islam was much higher than the one granted by other religions. Islam gave women the legal right to own property, to marry and divorce. Her status in the community was very much like a man and determined by her deeds. In early Islam, women excelled in scholarship, medicine and warfare. However, with the passage of time and due to it’s basic teachings of tolerance and respect for other religions. Islam absorbed much from the local cultures of the countries where it had gone, and changed it’s view. Islam absorbed the culture of patriarchal values with support female inferiority and these values were transmitted to the younger generations, resulting in family violence tolerated as the male right to control those who are dependent. Hence Islam in most countries of the world today is the male interpretation of uneducated or semi educated Maulanas (ulemas or preists). This interpretation came to include all the negative implications of other religions and cultures. Today picture is very different than the starting times of Islam. Let us see what the statistics tell us.

According to Amnesty International Report, September 2000, discrimination against women impact upon and compounds the wide range of human rights violation commonly reported in Saudi Arabia. These violations which have been described in detail in two recent Amnesty International reports on Saudi Arabia, a justice system without justice and a secret state of suffering include, arbitrary arrest and detention as facilitated by the wide ranging powers enjoyed by the arresting authorities, vogue written and unwritten laws, secret and grossly unfair trials, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the use of the death penalty.

Anecdotal evidence is supported by extracts from US State Department Reports focuses on rape and domestic violence, oppressive dress code, lack of legal protection for women, female genital mutilation, child abuse and child marriage.

This prejudice stems from beliefs regarding the supposedly dangerous nature of female sexuality, and the roots of these beliefs are briefly detailed along with their implication. Of note the continued assumption in these societies that females are responsible for any sexual attack they experience. The result is that shame cling to the victim, following an assault and some victims are even stoned.

Beating the women is common in the Muslim world, but in Saudi Arabia, police don’t take action as it is supposed to be a personal matter. In Saudi Arabia women suffer from inequality with men and are vulnerable to discrimination both in law and in practice. Domestic violence against them is rarely punished in any real way. Arab legal codes, such as those in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates allow men to use violence against women. Similarly those guilty of rape, rarely punished.

In many countries in the region, no specific laws or provisions exist to penalize domestic violence, even though domestic violence is a widespread problem. Domestic violence is generally considered to be out side the state jurisdiction. Battered women are told to go home if they attempt to file a complaint with the police. Few shelters exist to protect women who fear for their lives.

Husbands in Egypt and Bahrain can file an official complaint at the airport to forbid their wives from leaving the country. In Syria, a husband can prevent his wife from leaving the country. In Iraq, Libya, Jordan, Morocco, Oman and Yemen, married women must have their husband’s written permission to travel abroad, and they may be prevented from doing so for any reason. In Saudi Arabia, women must obtain written permission from their closest male relative to leave the country or travel on public transportation between different parts of the kingdom. More over legal codes uphold this inequality in Muslim world by claiming to be acting in defense of obedience or “honor” of the women.

Now let’s take a look on the condition of the women in our Indian subcontinent. Here in India, women are in a far better position. According to Human Rights Watch, India has strong legislation to protect the human rights. But entrenched corruption and lack of accountability foster human rights violation.

The Muslim Women Survey reported that approximately 20 percent of respondents experienced verbal or physical abuse in the marital home, over 80 percent of this in the hands of their husbands, and Hindu women experienced greater level of violence than Muslims. Besides this rural women worse off than urban women, poorer women worse off than better off women.

It has been seen that marriage at a younger age make women vulnerable to domestic violence. Consequently both in India and in Pakistan, women are generally treated as second class citizens and wives are battered for misconduct and minor mistakes. The Domestic Violence Act 2005 applies to Muslim women in India but the tradition and customs are so rigid that they do not allow women to seek justice, even when she has the legal right.

Many Muslim women endure domestic violence because they do not have the financial means to support themselves or their children. In most cases, husbands are the sole breadwinner and the wife becomes highly dependent on him for financial support. She would rather take the abuse than try to become financially dependent.

Domestic violence is closely related to honor. Honor killing is a common practice worldwide. Honor killing occur when women are put to death for an act that is perceived as bringing shame to their family. This can mean killing as punishment for adultery or even for being the victim of rape. Honor killing is tends to predominate in societies where individual rights are circumscribed by communal solidarities, patriarchal authority structures and intolerant religious and tribal beliefs. In such an environment, a women who refuses to enter into an arranged marriage, seeks a divorce or fails to avoid suspicion of immoral behavior will be viewed by her family as having dishonored them so grievously that her male relative will be ostracized and her siblings will have trouble finding suitable spouses. Killing is the only way, the family can restore it’s honor. Although Islam does not specifically endorse killing female family members, some honor killing involve allegation of adultery, which are punishable by death under Islamic law. Thus the belief that women who stray from the path can be rightly murdered is consistent with such Islamic teachings.  Worldwide, honor killing is a very common practice.

In Pakistan nearly 5000 women a year are the victims of honor killing. In a study of female deaths in Egypt, 47 percent of female rape victims were then killed because of the dishonor, the rape was thought to bring to their families.

In 2000, the United Nations estimated that there are 5000 honor killings every year, but the number is much greater. In 2002, 315 women and girls in Bangladesh endured another form of violence against women, acid attacks. In 2005, even after the introduction of more serious punishments for the crime, over 200 women were attacked. Palestine, 25 honor killings were recorded in the first 9 months of 2013.

Honor killing is associated with namoos or izzat, which means honor. If a man losses namoos because of a woman in his family, he may attempt to cleanse his honor by punishing her. In extreme cases the punishment can be death. The suspicion alone for a woman’s wrong doing can be enough for her to be subject to violence in the name of honor. In 2007, in Saudi Arabia, a young woman was murdered by her father for chatting with a man on face book. The case attracted a lot of media attention. Conservatives called for the government to ban face book, because it incites lust and causes social strife by encouraging gender mingling

The motivation for honor killing is different in different regions and based on codes of morality and behavior that typify some cultures, often reinforced by fundamentalist religion dictates. Most honor killings are rarely prosecuted or when prosecuted result in relatively light sentences. As honor killings are associated with honor, they are a family collaboration. Worldwide two third of the victims killed by their families of origin. Murder by the families of origin was at it’s highest 72 percent in the Muslim world, while statistics are notoriously hard to come by due to the private natures of such crimes and the fact that very few are reported. In the Middle East and South West Asia many women group suspect that the victims are at least four times the United Nations world figure of 5000 deaths a year.

Though honor killing is not a common practice among the Muslims in India, but in the absence of reliable data, it is difficult to derive an actual conclusion. Recently a news paper reported that two Muslim women in a northern Indian town have been arrested on accusation they killed their daughters for dishonoring the family by eloping with Hindu men.

Marriages between Muslims and Hindus are not common in India, and are frowned upon by both communities. Across India marriages are arranged by families. But with the booming economy and more women entering in the work force, such traditions are slowly giving way to love marriages. However, centuries old caste and community barriers still come into play, and there has been a spurt in “honor killing” in recent years across northern India.

There is one more form of violence associated with honor and purity of women, which is female genital mutilation (FGM) or female circumcision, causes serious injury to millions of young women every year. It is the removal of all or part of the women’s genitalia for non medical reason. It justifies as the procedure for the family honor, insurance of virginity until marriage and social integration.

Between 100 and 140 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation world wide and 3 million girls are at risk of the procedure each year in Africa. A 2005 study found that in Egypt some 90 percent women aged 15 to 49 had undergone FGM. More than 5000 cases of rape and sexual mutilation have been reported to the Syrian Network of Human Rights. In Sudan12.1 million of women are victims of female genital mutilation. 98 percent of women and girls undergo FGM in Somalia. In Djibouti 93 percent of women have been subjected to FGM.

It is a traditional practice that continues unabated in at least 28 African countries. According to the Minority Rights Group International, 90 percent of women in Northern Sudan, Ethiopia and Mali, and nearly 100 percent in Somalia and Djibouti undergo ritualistic genital excision. In these countries women are also infibulated, the two sides of the vulva sewn together with catgut or held with thorns, a matchstick shoved in place to ensure an opening the size of a pinhole. Lesser mutilation are performed on women in parts of the Middle East and Pakistan and among some Muslims in Malaysia, India and Sri Lanka.

For infibulated women, sexual intercourse becomes a practically unbearable burden, especially on the wedding night. Consummation may take weeks, beginning with the husband having to open his wife’s infibulation with fingers or a knife or a ceremonial sword. The women must lie still with legs spread through repeated bloody penetration until a large enough opening becomes permanent. Many women see pregnancy as an escape from these painful and pleasure less sexual encounters, yet childbirth itself is traumatic. Scar tissue is often ripped up as the baby pushes out. Those who have access to hospitals need both anterior and posterior episiotomies. Many infants die or suffer brain damage in the second phase of delivery, because thick scarring prevents sufficient dilation of the cervix. In many countries custom demands reinfibulation after each pregnancy to ensure women remain “tight as a virgin”. Hanny Lightfoot – Klein, a social Psychologist who spent six years studying female genital mutilation in Sudan, notes that women without reinfibulation fear their husbands will leave them. Some claim to prefer it. In her 1989 book “Prisoners of Rituals” she writes, “A tight fit makes the most of what is left after an extreme excision.”

The Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadia, author of “The Hidden Face Of Eve: Women in The Arab World” wrote about the terrifying experience of her own circumcision at the age of six. She also describes her work as a doctor, “There I very often had to treat young girls who have come to the out patients clinic bleeding profusely after a circumcision. Many of them used to lose their lives as a result of the inhuman and primitive way in which the operation, savage enough in it self, was performed. Others were affected with acute or chronic infections from which they sometimes suffered for the rest of their lives.

Various, often contradictory explanations exist for the tradition. In the main, rationales reflect prevalent mythology, ignorance of biological and medical facts, and religious obscurantism. Almost every reference links the custom to the family’s fear that their daughters would not be marriageable. Unmutilated young girls are ostracized, labeled as “unclean” or branded as whores. Children born to unexcised women are considered bastards in many societies, and unscarred genitals are associated with prostitution. Often unmutilated women are cosidered illegitimate, they can not inherit money, cattle or land, nor do they fetch an adequate bride price. One Somalian women defended her grand daughter’s wish to be infibulated, saying it, “Takes away nothing that she needs. If she does not have this done, she will become a harlot.” Girl’s father, a college educated businessman, expressed his uncertainty, “Yes I know it is bad for the health of girls. But I don’t want my daughter to blame me later on because she could not find a husband”.

In India, FGM is widely practiced by the Dawoodi Bohra community, a sect of the Shia Muslims, who are led by the Syedna. Locally termed as “Khatna”, this practice has no medical justification at all, but has cultural justifications as family honor, increasing sexual pleasure for the male, enhancing fertility, social acceptance (especially for the marriage) and preservation for virginity.  The Bohra Muslim community in India is a well educated and rich community. It is surprising that atleast 70 percent or more among Bohra Muslims follow the practice without questioning it.

The procedure is tradition carried out by an older woman with no medical training. Anesthetic and Antiseptic treatment are not generally used and the practice is usually carried out using unsterilized basic tools such as knives, scissors, piece of glass or a razor blade. Often Iodine or a mixture of the herbs is placed on the wound to tighten the vagina and stop the bleeding.

Even a Bohra doctor admitted that there have been cases of infection, swelling, severe bleeding, shock, tetanus. In some instances circumcision has been a contributory factor in cases of frigidity as well. However, there has been no systematic attempt to do away with this practice. Though some of the Bohra doctors working within the confines of the community had tried to take up the matter with the clergy, but without success. An activist of the Bohra Women’s Action Forum, founded in 1989, stated that the practice of female circumcision is disgusting. As it is being seen today reformist women have not come to question female circumcision organizationally, but individually a lot of women are opposed to it, and have made sure that it is not done to their daughters.  

Physical and sexual abuse of girls is a serious concern across the globe and many cultures are involved in the act. But in many Islamic countries child marriage is a very common practice. Girls far bellow the age of puberty are often forcibly marry to older persons (sometimes in their 50s or later) for various personal gains by the girls guardians or with the intention to preserve family honor by helping her avoid premarital sex.

Whatever the Islam says about girls consent in marriage, but the fundamentalist dictates of Islam made it obligatory so the child marriage and forced marriage became legal according to them and it is not a crime anymore. Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi wrote about the matter, “A marriage can be executed by just two words, e.g. a person says the following words in the presence of witness, “ I give my daughter to you in marriage”. The person who is addressed replies, “ I accept her in marriage”. In doing so the marriage is valid……If a boy or girl is immature they do not have their own choice. The wali (guardian) has full rights over such a boy or girl”.

According to Islamic leader and former president of Iraq Ayatullah Khumeini’s religious teachings on marriage, divorce and relationships, “A man can marry a girl younger than 9 years of age, even if the girl is still a baby being breast fed. A man however is prohibited from having intercourse with a girl younger than 9, other sexual act, such as foreplay, rubbing, kissing, and sodomy is allowed. Aman having intercourse with a girl younger than 9 years of age has not committed a crime, but only an infraction. If the girl is not permanently damaged ( just see the words, used) the man must provide for her all her life, but this girl will not count as one of the man’s four permanent wives.

In a report “Stolen Lives, Empty Classrooms: An Overview on Girls Marriages in The Islamic Republic of Iran”, published on the occasion of the 2013 international day of the girl child, last October, WLUML’s partner Justice for Iran (JFI) wrote that in 2012 alone atleast 1500 girls below the age of 10 were forced to marry. According to statistics from 2005, 45 percent of women were married by the age of 15 in Bangladesh. More than 3000 women and girls in Germany, most of them from Muslim families and many of them minors, faced forced marriage in the course of a year. Northern Nigeria has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. In 2003 the International Centre For Research on Women estimated that more than 51 million girls under 18 years were married and they expected the figure to rise to over 100 million within the next 10 years. While forced and early marriages are becoming increasingly less common among the wealthiest sectors of the society in all regions of the world, they are most common still in Africa and South Asia, but also persist in certain areas of Central and Eastern Europe and other parts of the world. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission estimates that in Afghanistan over 38 percent of women have been victims of forced marriage. UNICEF stated that 54 percent of Afghan girls are victims of early marriage.

Reliable statistics are difficult to compile due to the unofficial, and therefore undocumented nature of most forced marriages victims resist to speak out against their typically closed families or communities, poses another obstacle to reliable data. In south Asia UNICEF estimates that among women ages 15 to 24, 48 percent were married before the age of 18. The absence of a birth certificate can also mean that victim has no way of proving that they are a victim of child marriage.

Forced and early marriages are recognized as human rights violation. Early marriage involves elements that are akin to a situation of sex slavery. Child marriage is a form of violence, which rapes and robs a girl’s future and forces her to dropout of the school and give birth the children when her body is not ready. According to Human Rights Watch many unmarried women and girls run away from their families in order to avoid imminent forced marriage. These women often end up in prison, charged with so called “moral crimes” such as running away or “attempting zina”.

The data made available to an RTI applicant has raised serious questions abput the status of women in        India. According to the data 18,033 marriages were performed during 2001-2002, out of which 352 involved girls aged 13 and 14 years, while 918 were those aged 14 to 15 years. In all 2450 marriages involved girls aged 15 to 16 years and 7450 were in the age group of 16 to 17. the bulk of the marriages happened in 17 – 18 year age group that year were total 15,282. similar figure has been recorded for 2002- 2003.

Interestingly while bulk of the marriages involved Muslim girls, for instance in 2008, while 4249 of the 4955 brides in the child marriage were Muslims. According to PTI, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh have earned the dubious distinction of being at the top two spots in the list of child marriage in the country accounting for 40 percent of such incidents in a single year.

Although the legal age of marriage in India is 18 for girls, it’s 24 million under age child brides in Hyderabad, where two third of residents live below the poverty line. Wealthy men from both inside and outside India take advantage of such rampant poverty by offering cash to parents if they sign temporary marriage contract. They marry the girl, stay in Hyderabad for a brief period during which they rape and abuse her, and then leave town and their bride behind. It is common for girls to be forced to marry multiple times.

The politics on this delicate matter is goes on, and if the marriage happen within Muslim community, they claim to be out of the jurisdiction. Arguments made to justify the practice of child marriage, including religious and cultural beliefs and deep rooted traditions.

Recently the Supreme Court observed that it was impossible to arrive at the straightjacket formula on marriageable age of the girls to fit every case. The comment was made while dismissing a petition by the National Commission of Women against the verdicts of High Courts of Delhi and Andhra Pradesh, permitting two pre-age marriages as specific cases in 2006 and 2005 respectively. The judgment evokes two fundamental questions that must be asked if India is to ensure the right to equality and equal treatmentof all it’s citizens :- are Muslim girls not human? Or are Muslim girls in India not Indians? It is ironical that just when India, in an attempt to address child sexual abuse, proposed to raise the age of consent for sex from 16 to 18 years, the High Court judgment has decided that Muslim girl do not need any such legal protection.

Human trafficking is also a big issue faced by lots of women and girls for various purposes. Every year lots of women and girls trafficked to Arab countries in the name of marriage or for working as a domestic help, or commercial sexual exploitation. Women from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippine, Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia and many other countries voluntarily travel to Arab countries as domestic servants or other low skilled laborors, but some subsequently servitude, including restriction of movement, withholding of passport, threats, physical or sexual abuse and nonpayment of wages.

Iranian women are trafficked internally for prostitution and forced marriages and involuntary servitude as beggers or laborers to pay debts and provide income. Iranian women and girls are also trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, France, Germany and United Kingdom for commercial sexual exploitation. The head of Iran’s Interpol bureau believes that the sex slave trade is one of the most profitable activities in Iran today. The criminal trade is not conducted outside the knowledge and participation of the ruling fundamentalists. Government officials themselves are involved in buying, selling and sexually abusing women and girls. The girls orphaned in earthquake in Bam, have been kidnapped and taken to a known slave market in Tehran, where Iranian and foreign traders meet. Popular destination for victims of the slave trade are the Arab countries in the Gulf of Persia.

Syria is principally a destination country for women and children trafficked for the perpose of domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation. Women from Iraq, Eastern Europe, former Soviet States, Somalia and Morocco are recruited as cabaret dancers and subsequently forced into prostitution.

Some Arab men also use legally contracted “temporary marriages” in countries such as Mauritania, Yemen, Indonasia or India, as mean by which to sexually exploit migrant workers. Females as young as 7 years old are led to believe they are being wed in earnest, but upon arrival in Saudi Arabia subsequently become their husband’s sex slaves, are forced into domestic labor and in some cases prostitution.

In the Times of India, September 4, 2005, under the title of, “One Minor Girl, Many Arabs” Mohammed Wajihuddin wrote, “They are old predators with new vigour. Often bearded, invariably in flowing robs and expensive turbans. The rich, middle aged Arabs increasingly stalk the deprived streets of Hyderabad like medieval monarchs would stalk their harems in days we wrongly think are history. These Viagra enabled Arabs are perpetrating a blatant crime under the veneer of Nikaah, the Islamic rule of marriage. Misusing the sanctioned provision which allows a Muslim man to have four wives at a time, many old Arabs are not just marrying minors in Hyderabad, but marrying more than one minor in a single sitting…..The broker procured Farheen Sultana and Hina Sultana, aged between 13 and 15, for twenty thousand rupees.   Then he hired Qazi Mohammed Abdul Waheed Qureshi to solemnize the marriage. The Qazi ( an Islamic judge, usually spelled qadi in English), taking advantage of an Islamic provision, married the girl off to the Arab. After the wedding night with the girls, the Arab left at dawn”.  

Besides this women and girls are subjected to rape in all regions in the world. According to Muslim fundamentalists, rape not has any existence or the women who raped are themselves responsible for the sexual assault they face, so they are punishable. Badaria Al Bishr, a novelist and columnist from Saudi Arabia says, “ Sometimes girls are being to blame for harassed”. According to her, “Any girl who exposes his eyes or face or wear her Abaya in an unusual styleor goes out with her colleagues to have lunch near her work place must blame themselves for being harassed by men”.

That is the reason that rape is not recognize as a serious crime in most of the Muslim countries. According to a report from Human Rights Watch in Syria, Government forces and armed militias sexually abusing women during home raids and in detention centers. In Saudi Arabia rape victims risk being charged with adultery. In Yemen no law deals effectively with rapes. In Somalia 1700 women were raped in camps for internally displaced people in 2012. The Bahrain Penal Code says a rapist can avoid punishment if he marries his victim. Penal Code in several countries in the region also contain provision that authorize the police and judges to drop charges against a rapist if he agrees to marry his victim. Victims often don’t report rape fearing they will tried for adultery. Girls as young as 13 have been stoned to death for adultery.

In most of the countries, including India, spousal rape has not been criminalized, husbands have an absolute right to their wives bodies at all times.

Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. Though most of the cases of rape remain unreported because of the honor of the family and the woman herself, and if a woman shows courage to go to the police and report the rape, she accused to be shameless and treated as a harlot. In most cases of rape women themselves are accused to not dressed properly or misconduct.

Contrary to popular belief, most rape do not occur in dark alleys or unfamiliar settings, in fact, approximately 60 percent incidents take place in the victim’s home or the home of a friend or relative. More often than not victims are familiar to their assailants.

Here I would like to mention the story of Imrana, a Muslim women from a village in Muzaffarnagar, raped by her own father-in-law, and how the whole matter was treated by the society and the fundamentalist Maulanas. She was brave enough to file a criminal complaint against her father-in-law, for which she and her poor laborer husband were ostracized by her father-in-law and his neighbours who accused her to file a false complaint. In spite of all hardship she continued her pursuit for justice. Finally the father-in-law was convicted. The main twist in the story was the “Fatwa” given by Darul Uloom Deoband which says, “In view of the rape, the women has become “haram” to her husband and would now have to live with the rapist father-in-law.

That was the view of our fundamentalist Islamic leaders on the sexual assault faced by a woman. Let’s see what other leaders say on the issue of rape.

Sheik Taj Din alHilali, senior Muslim cleric, compared unveiled women with meat. In a Ramadan sermon in a Sydney mosque, he suggested that a group of Muslim men recently jailed for many years for gang rapes, are innocent. He said, “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street or in the garden or in the park or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it, who’s fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat.”

Likewise, Samajvadi Party leader Mr. Abu Asim Azmi said on the Delhi gang rape case, “Rape is punishable by hanging in Islam. But here nothing happens to women, only to men. Even the women is guilty….Solution is this, any women if, whether married or unmarried, goes along with or without her consent, should be hanged.”

Rapes are not always the matter of lust. Sometimes they used as a weapon to give a lesson to the victim, as we can see in some cases, the rape used as a symbol of power and aggression in communal riots, where women are gang raped before killing. During partition of India, some 100,000 women were claimed to have been kidnapped and raped. There have been allegation of rape and mass rape in Jammu and Kashmir. Reports have shown that rape has been carried out by both Indian armed forces and Islamist militant groups. In recent years, variety of rapes have taken place during the communal riots. During 2002 Gujarat riots rape was carried out by rioters. Even Muslim women’s bodies were specifically targeted sexually by Hindu fundamentalist forces in Gujarat. Thirteen rape and assault cases were reported during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar  riots. This is the ugly face of men oriented society which oppress women by any means.

The young girls involved in sexual Activities are keep their health in risk. Worldwide approximately 14 million women and girls between the age of 15 and 19 give birth each year. Early pregnancies and child birth have severe consequences for adolescent mothers including complications of birth, obstetric fistula and death. Child brides face higher risk of death in child birth. Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in child birth than women aged 20-24. Cross generational sex poses numerous risks to young women. Girls and women involved in cross generational sex have a severely reduced capacity to negotiate condom use, putting them on high risk for HIV infection. As such, young women 15-24 years old are three times more likely to be infected with HIV than young men aged 15-24.

Dowry is a gift has given to the bride by her family. It is an ancient custom in many of the countries. But now dowry has made a burden on the brides family especially in south Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. as it is expected and demanded by the grooms family as a condition to accept a marriage proposal. Dowry actually is not a part of the Islamic culture but now is a common practice even in Muslim families. Muslims who are living in India, and neibouring countries are effected by this evil custom, and slowly incorporated the payment of dowry in their lives.

In India and Pakistan, thousands of women are victims of dowry deaths. Greed among the Muslims community seems to be overruled everything including the tenets of Shariat or even the inviolable terms of model nikahnama, passed by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. Dowry is a gift but it becomes a cause of violence when it is demanded. If the bride can not meet the financial demand of her dowry, she is subject to torture, harassment and death by the groom’s family. Dowry is responsible for  the murder of thousands of women every year. UNFPA estimates that 5000 women worldwide are burnt to death in murders disguised as “kitchen accidents” each year because their dowry was considered insufficient.

Divorce is another curse of women’s life in this male dominated society. A man whenever he wants, can throw a woman out of his life only by saying talaq thrice. Though there are some rules to regularize this behavior, but they are hardly in practice. And while husband can divorce their spouse easily (often instantaneously), wives access to divorce is often extremely limited, and they frequently confront insurmountable legal and financial obstacles. In Lebanon, battered women can not file for a divorce on the basis of abuse without the testimony of an eyewitness. A medical certificate from a doctor documenting physical abuse is simply not good enough. Although women in Egypt can now legally initiate a divorce without cause, they must agree not only to renounce all rights to the couple’s finances, but must also repay their dowries. In Bahrain, where family law is not codified, judges have complete power to deny women custody of their children for the most arbitrary reasons.

In Mumbai at 18th of December, 2012, at a public hearing titled “Jiski Kahaani Uski Zubaani” held as part of the national convention of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan ( BMMA) at Marathi Patrakar Sangh, over a dozen women victims of one sided talaq narrated their stories. Many of them broke down while sharing their experiences.

Saba from M.P. said, “My husband was a drunkard. Whenever I asked him to stop drinking he would beat me up. When I continued to protest his drinking habits, he divorced me. I have a son and I don’t know how I will bring him up.”

Nikhat from U.P. who was married in 2010 and has three children, said that her husband has deserted her and she has not seen her kids in months. She said, “My hisband told his relatives that he divorced me, but he has not told me.”

BMMA’s founder member Noorjehan Safia Niaz, who also protested the practice of Halala, said, “In most cases qazis and muftis are on the side of the men. The women are not given alimony after divorce, and the compensation, if given at all os inadequate.”

BMMA has started campaigning against unilateral and oral talaq common practice among Muslims. It was found that the system of dowry and practice of polygamy were used increasingly against women. Polygamy is legal for Muslim men under the terms of Muslim Personal Law Application Act of 1937. Justifying injustice done to most Muslim women by religiously flavored cultural arguments.

In cases where the solution is divorce from an abusive relationship, the quandaries of remarriage and financial support need answers. It is not practical for women to live a single life. Even when offering polygamy as a solution, hardly any men are willing to marry a divorcee with children.

In 2013, Organization of Islamic Corporation noted that many Islamic member nations restrict education opportunities for girls. UNICEF notes that out of 24 nations with less than 60 percent female primary enrollment rates, 17 were Islamic countries. Literacy rate in the Arab world are around 55 percent according to UNDP report. An overwhelming number of women are illiterate in Afghanistan. In Yemen, as a conservative society would usually object to the girls being educated by male teachers and mixed sex education. In Jordan enrollment is excellent as 86 percent, however girls drop out in secondary school because of early marriage.

In India, a report by Muslim Women’s Survey tells that close to 60 percent of Muslim women report themselves to be illiterate, while the school enrollment rate for Muslim girls is 40.66 percent. The proportion to illiterate Muslim women is substantially higher for the rural north than it is for the rest of India. Less than 17 percent of Muslim women completed 8 years of schooling, less than 10 percent completed higher secondary schooling, which is below the national average. The proportion of Muslim women in higher education is only 3.56 percent, that is lower even than that of scheduled castes , which is 4.25 percent. Of the women who completed their studies, 26 percent felt that they have to overcome obstacles in order to continue. On the whole a slightly higher proportion of Muslim women than   Hindu women reported that they faced   obstacles in their schooling.  

There is a huge range of barriers, women face to get an education. Parents don’t send their daughters out to school if they can be kidnapped and raped. Sometimes parents say that they don’t send their daughters to school because it is wrong and irreligious.

They should stay at home to prepare for their married life. A general devaluation of continuing education for girls is also linked to the desirability of early marriage, which is a low 15.6 percent, in the rural north it dips even further, to 15 years. Early marriage was cited as an important reason for dropping out of school.

Islam has decided the share of women in property and assets of their husbands, parents and guardians, but unfortunately the reality on the ground is often different from the teachings of Islam. It has been seen that many Muslim women receive no share of inheritance, and some are forced to return inheritance to their brothers. In India, for the Muslim women the law of inheritance still remain inequitable amd are made of uncompromising terms. The law governing Muslim women in India is under the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act1937, which is regarded as the custom/for usage the purposes of division of all properties except agricultural land. These injustices go unnoticed and can be tried for years in court.

Women worldwide face systematic discrimination in education, health care, employment and control of assets. Statistics show that women represent 70 percent of the world’s poor. They face low wages, poor working conditions and limited employment and professional opportunities.

Vast majority of women surveyed across India irrespective of educational level, claimed to be unaware of any program directed towards women. Lack of information is an important reason why most welfare provisions pass women by, most women did not know of the existence of special loans and grants to women.

Where, there we talk about women, especially Muslim women, the world seems eager to tell them how to live, how to dress and how to behave. If we see the Quran and Hadith, they never say a woman to cover from top to toe. Hadith says that both men and women to dress and behave modestly in public. However the requirement of top to toe covering has been interpreted in many different ways by Ulemas and Muslim dictates. On the other hand, the western leaders and sociologists want Muslim women to undress as the women in their western societies do. No one cares to know that what Muslim women want themselves. I think that the dressing is the matter of personal choice and requirements. Why they leave them alone to do what they think is better for them.

Although, the women endured all the discrimination always but slowly they are understanding their rights as the human being. However there is a long long way to go. They need to be educated, and           I would say every man and woman needs to learn Quran, Hadith and Fikah to know his and her rights and to come out of the slavery of  false beliefs and customs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Work Cited:-

Nikah in Islam, written Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi Rahmatullahi Alaihi, Darul Uloom Deoband, Accessed from  http://darululoom-deoband.com/english/books/nikah.htm

10 bizarre comments on rape, by TNN, Times of India, 8 June, 2014, Accessed from, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/10-bizarre-comments-on-rape/articleshow/36249990.cms

Facts And Figures: Ending Violence Against Women, Apandemic in diverse forms, by UNWomen, Accessed from, http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures

Wmen’s rights in Saudi Arabia, Feom Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, Accessed from,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia

Violence against women ‘wielded mercilessly’ in Muslim countries, written by Pamela Geller, on 13 June, 2013, Accessed from, http://pamelageller.com/2013/06/violence-agaisnt-women-wielded-mercilessly-in-muslim-countries.html/

Muslim girls struggle for education, by Safa Faisal, BBC Arabic Service, Accessed from, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3130234.stm

10 extreme examples of gender inequality, written by Rushfan, on 20^th November 2008, Accessed from,

http://listverse.com/2008/11/20/10-extreme-examples-of-gender-inequality/

Gender inequality and violence against women and girls around the world, by Advocates for youth, Accessed from, http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/publications-a-z/1556-the-facts-gender-inequality-and-violence-against-women-and-girls-around-the-world       

An end to discrimination against women in the Middle East by Michael Curtis, at January 2, 2014, accessed from,  http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/01/an_end_to_discrimination_against_women_in_the_middle_east.html

Muslim violence against women, Maha Zimmo, accessed from, http://newswire.mediamonitors.net/layout/set/print/content/view/full/65372

When domestic violence strikes in Saudi Arabia, by Badria Al Bishr, December 6, 2013, accessed from, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2013/12/06/When-domestic-violence-strikes-in-Saudi-Arabia.html

Contemporary pedophilic Islamic marriages, from Wiki Islam, the online resource on Islam, accessed from,  http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Contemporary_Pedophilic_Islamic_Marriages

Are child marriages allowed in Islam, edited by Zafar Khan, accessed from, http://www.islamawareness.net/Marriage/Child/childmarriages.html

Muslim women groups demand ban on oral talaq, by Mohammed Wajihuddin, at December 18, 2012, accessed from,  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Muslim-women-groups-demand-ban-on-oral-talaq/articleshow/17657859.cms

Don’t wrong a right, by Flavia Agnes (women’s rights layer), Asian Age, July 25, 2014,  http://www.asianage.com/columnists/don-t-wrong-right-802

Current Issues- early marriages, by Sophia Abdi Noor and Fatema Outaleb, accessed from,  http://www.wisemuslimwomen.org/currentissues/earlymarriage/

Forced and early marriage: A focus on central and eastern Europe and former Soviet Union countries with selected laws from other countries, Expert paper prepared by Cheryl Thomas, Director, women’s human rights program, the advocates for human rights, Minnesota,  USA, accessed from, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw_legislation_2009/Expert%20Paper%20EGMGPLHP%20_Cheryl%20Thomas%20revised_.pdf

Fact box: women’s rights in the Arab world, by Karrie Kehoe, November 12, 2013, accessed from,  http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/11/12/us-arab-women-factbox-idINBRE9AB00I20131112

Current issues: Economic equality and inheritance rights, by Nabila Freidji, Nani Zulminarn, Zainab Paiman, Shahnaz Taplin-Chinoy, Sarwat Malik, Ayesha Mattu and Nadia Malik, accessed from,  http://www.wisemuslimwomen.org/currentissues/economicequality/

The crime of female genital mutilation, reprinted from Women and revolution No. 41, summer/autumn, 1992, accessed from, http://www.icl-fi.org/english/womendrev/oldsite/FGM.HTM

Thousands women killed for family “honor”, by Hillary Mayell for National Geographic News, February 12, 2002, accessed from,   http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/02/0212_020212_honorkilling.html

The bride price: dowry abuse, by Amatullah Abdullah, November 28, 2005, accessed from,  http://www.islamawareness.net/Marriage/Dowry/dowry_article004.html

Strategies for combating the culture of dowry and domestic violence in India, Expert paper prepared by Madhu Purnima Kishwar, Manushi, India, accessed from,  http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/vaw-gp-2005/docs/experts/kishwar.dowry.pdf

Worldwide trends in honor killing by Phyllis Chesler, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2010, pp. 3-11, accessed from, http://www.meforum.org/2646/worldwide-trends-in-honor-killings

Does Islam give women rights? By Pakistani feminist, at Rationalhub.com, accessed from,  http://www.rationalhub.com/blogs/sobeks-digest/2012/07/04/does-islam-give-women-rights/?fb_action_ids=720474021367893&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=feed_opengraph&action_object_map=%7B%22720474021367893%22%3A10151074130787594%7D&action_type_map=%7B%22720474021367893%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Hindu vs. Muslim honor killings, by Phyllis Chesler  and Nathan Bloom, Middle East Quarterly, summer 2012, pp. 43-52, accessed from, http://www.meforum.org/3287/hindu-muslim-honor-killings

IV. Overview of the attacks against Muslims, accessed from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_Muslims_in_India

Domestic violence: why women endure, by Umm Reem (Saba Syed),March 12, 2012, accessed from,  http://muslimmatters.org/2012/03/12/domestic-violence-why-women-endure/

Current issues: stigmatization of rape and honor killings, by Raja Rantisi Hamayel, accessed from, http://www.wisemuslimwomen.org/currentissues/stigmitizationofrape/

India: when did child marriage become politically correct? By Jason Overdorf, Global Post Blogs on India, June 21, 2012, accessed from,  http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/india/india-child-marriage-politically-correct

A fatwa on all Fatwas, by Flavia Agnes, Deccan Chronicles, August 7, 2014, accessed from,  http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140806/commentary-op-ed/article/fatwa-all-fatwas

Female circumcision anger aired in India, by  AFP, DAWN.com, 23 April, 2012, accessed from, http://www.dawn.com/news/712748/female-circumcision-anger-aired-in-india-fm

Wedding crashers shine a spotlight on child marriage, from Global fund for women, accessed from, http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/impact/success-stories/62-general/2148-wedding-crashers-reveal-child-marriage-in-india

Female genital mutilation: an open secret in India, by Pinak Pani Datta, Youth ki Awaz, 17 April, 2012, accessed from, http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2012/04/female-genital-mutilation-an-open-secret-in-india/

Dowry on rise among Muslims, by Manjari Mishra, TNN, Times of India, 10 September, 2006, accessed from, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Dowry-on-rise-among-Muslims/pmredirectshow/1973765.cms?curpg=2

What is the impact of child marriage, health, from Girls not brides, accessed from,  http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/themes/health/

Women are responsible for rape by Ayesha Ahmed, Islam review, presented by the pen vs. the sword, Accessed from, http://www.islamreview.com/articles/WOMEN_ARE_RESPONSIBLE.shtml

Muslim women’s survey, a summary of the ORG-marg, Muslim women’s survey, carried out in 2000-2001, accessed from, http://infochangeindia.org/women/books-a-reports/muslim-womens-survey.html

One minor girl, many Arabs, by Mohammed Wajihuddin, The Times of India, September 4, 2005, accessed from, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/One-minor-girl-many-Arabs/articleshow/1219601.cms

Document- Saudi Arabia: Gross human rights abuses against women, Embargo, 27 September 2000, by Amnesty International, accessed from, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE23/057/2000/en/409b9c37-dea6-11dd-b378-99b26579b978/mde230572000en.html

Violence against women in south Asian countries, by U. Niaz, 17 April, 2003, accessed from, http://www.researchgate.net/publication/6265485_Violence_against_women_in_South_Asian_countries/links/09e4150730e8b24a92000000