The Denigration of women in Islam.

has the shariah councils in enland actually awarded custody to any father?

i thouht 99% of their work was in awardin women divorces from opressive husbands?

and the majority of the muslim community dont use the shariah courts and wouldnt o to them, it is only the youn revivalists under 30s that would tbh, so im not sure who they would be cut off from? certainly not their families?

and there are plenty pf oranistaions in the uk that are not silent on these issues, just the thin is they tend to be islamic oranisations who are sayin we dont want muslim women treated like this and this is not islam, so non muslims tend to stay away from them.

www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/saudi-arabia-urged-release-woman-arrested-following-driving-campaign-2011-05-24

www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/indonesian-government-must-repeal-caning-bylaws-aceh-2011-05-23

During the recent Scottish election I attended a hustings organised by members of the local Muslim community. There were approx 150 people there, seven of whom were women, none of them Muslim. I can only speculate why this would be and if anyone of the faith or who has knowledge of the community can enlighten me, I would be very interested. Would the men present forbid their wives or girlfriends to attend? Would not one Muslim woman would want to be present at an event where local election candidates were being called to account in a public forum?

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As I personally know many muslim women in the UK who are not beaten, mutilated, forced to cover up, stopped from driving or taking paid employment and who have had a free choice in who they marry, it is clear that the rules of what is acceptable within islam are open to a great degree of interpretation and are highly dependent on the attitude to emancipation in the country they find themselves. So religion = bad is simplistic rubbish. If the same misogynistic, oppressive, 'mediaeval' cultures were to suddenly become atheistic on a mass scale, without doubt the women within them would still be on the receiving end of the same treatment. Other rationales would be found.

The challenge is to improve the lives of women. The solution is not to ban islam.

And, yes, I do think that an awful lot of muslim (and catholic) women are brainwashed into doing what the patriarchy/religion says. Why on earth would any scripture written at a time of deep-seated misogyny be useful today to any woman?

I disagree. Religion = bad. Religion is used as an excuse for an awful lot of nastiness and discrimination and misogyny is inherant in all religion, although I think that Islam is the worst, maybe because it is the dominant religion of some of the worst of the patriarchal societies. I think that it is very difficult to criticise Islam in any way without being accused of racism. Personally, I think all religions should be banished forever and especially any that openly discriminate against women. It is one of the reasons I find the Catholic religion so distateful, and because Islam openly discriminates against women, I find Islam distasteful also.

If something bad is done as part of a religion (any religion) then it must actually be bad men doing it and not part of the religion at all. If you point to women in the same religion who agree with it and claim it to be an important part of their religion then they don't count and are just brainwashed by the evil (non-religious) men.

Religion good - Men bad.

Of course we're allowed to criticise Islam. But it's a mistake to assume that a lot of the abuses carried out against women are directly attributable to Islam when, in reality, they are carried out for all manner of reasons.

Because nobody is allowed to criticise Islam.

Women are not 'silent on these issues'. Women's rights are supported in Middle Eastern countries, often putting activists in great personal danger. In UK terms, there are strong equality laws that we can draw upon to protect all women and there is a new & welcome impetus to pursue incidents of 'honour killings', enforced marriages, and related abuse - rather than attributing it to cultural differences. We could always do more, of course. What muslims will point out is that it is not islamic teaching necessarily that has created a misogynistic system, but the traditions of various, rather ignorant, male-dominated, oppressive societies where islam happens to be the main religion. Blasphemy is used in these societies to oppress all kinds of people, rather than simply women, for example, and Shariah law is not even consistent across the nations that employ it. There are several versions.