|
 I've
just returned from Barcelona after attending the Parliament of
World Religions conference – the largest
interfaith gathering in the world. One of the highlights was the
plenary address by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi who is
prominent in our local news as the lawyer retained by the Kazemi
family in Iran to find justice for the murder for Canadian
photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who was tortured and beaten to
death.
In Barcelona last
week, Ebadi said:"human rights cannot be protected with
bombs” and denounced the despotic behavior of those “who
ignore human rights and democracy with the argument
of belonging
to a different culture and shadow dictatorial regimes with
religious and nationalistic arguments.”
As
an activist Muslim journalist and a woman, it does my heart and
mind good to hear Ms. Ebadi’s words. However, since Barcelona
I’m not sure how much has changed in terms of the rights of
women internationally and especially Muslim women. Zahra
Kazemi’s case only fans my fears.
With Kazemi’s
unfortunate and tragic death, dozens of questions have
resurfaced. I question why Muslim leaders all over the world
have not condemned this act of barbaric proportions; why the
plight of women was not front and center in Barcelona where 8000
religious practitioners gathered to discuss world ‘issues’;
why leadership by women is still an anomaly, why outspoken
Muslim women are a minority?
Iran’s decision
to suddenly end the Kazemi trial and keep a veil of secrecy over
the proceedings only proves the strength of the strong
patriarchal culture that pervades that society where the value
of a woman’s life is obviously very little. The situation is
similar
in Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan where women
are considered second-class citizens and their rights are
intentionally and systematically crushed while they remain
voiceless and powerless.
This trampling of
women’s rights is being perpetuated in countries that pride
themselves on being “Islamic”, giving both Islam and Muslims
a negative image. It’s ironical that Islam gives women
complete rights, which they are unable to put into practice. As
Shirin Ebadi said in her acceptance speech after winning the
Nobel Peace Prize “The discriminatory plight of women in
Islamic states, too, whether in the sphere of civil law or in
the realm of social, political and cultural justice, has its
roots in the patriarchal and male-dominated culture prevailing
in these societies, not in Islam”.
One of the panels
I attended in Barcelona was on the Right of Self Determination
for Muslims. Five eminent male scholars spoke at this panel and
at the end, I asked one simple question (they don’t call me a
rabble-rouser for nothing). “Can you comment on the right of
self determination for Muslim women” I asked “and tell me
why, 1400 years after the message of Islam, are they still
treated like non-entities throughout the Muslim world?” The
panelists looked uncomfortable, whispered among themselves, and
an Imam stood up and talked at length about women’s rights
under Islam. He repeated what I already know: that Islam gives
Muslim women the right to vote, inheritance, options for
marriage or divorce and most of all, keep her earned wages. He
avoided answering my query.
So I reframed my
question. “We have a rich legacy in Islam of strong women
leaders, yet history and the world has forgotten the Muslim
women rulers, warriors, jurists and Sufis who lived on the same
soil where today women are killed to protect the ‘honour’ of
the family, as in Iraq and Jordan. In Saudi Arabia, the same
location where the Prophet Mohammad proclaimed in his final
sermon that wom
en must be revered and protected, the opposite is
happening. Why?” I was told time for questions was over!
Outside the
confines of comfortable Canada, I was reminded in Barcelona that
women are the major victims of unrest in war torn areas of the
world; Aids has affected innocent women in Africa and, in Iran,
a land where they should follow the legacy of the Prophet and
his granddaughter Zainab to revere women and remember that
heaven lies at the feet of the mother, Zahra Kazemi was beaten
to death. Back in Toronto, I read in the latest time magazine
that in Iraq it’s all out hostility against women.
So I applaud and
support Stephan Hachemi for pursuing the cause to find justice
for his mother. We, women of the world must also keep the
flame alive so that Zahra Kazemi’s sacrifice is not in vain
and we will someday reinstate dignity and human rights for all
women. Shirin Ebadi reminds Muslim women that they must
take back the rights that Islam and the Quran give them –
because no one else will!
|
