Showing posts with label Nada Al-Ahdal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nada Al-Ahdal. Show all posts

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Linda Sarsour: Obedience Is Freedom

As of this writing, Linda Sarsour is the executive director of the 'Arab American Association of New York'.  Linda is a Muslim American woman, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

Here is a short video profile of Linda Sarsour —

At 1:19 in the video clip above Linda Sarsour makes the following statement —
"Oppression of women is absolutely shunned in the Islamic faith."
It seems that Linda Sarsour never read Chapter 4, Verse 34 from the Quran (one of the founding texts of the religion of Islam), which clearly states that 'righteous women are devoutly obedient', and that husbands can 'strike their wives' as a last resort, simply for 'fearing they are arrogant' —
http://quran.com/4/34
The Quran, Chapter 4, Verse 34

Is that what you think of as 'absolutely shunning' the oppression of women?

And notice that Linda Sarsour also claims to be a feminist (she states this in the first 10 seconds of the video above).

What an odd notion — that the subjugation of women by men would be considered consistent with a movement that was founded to promote the rights of women — i.e. feminism.

So now, according to Linda Sarsour, being a follower of a set of religious beliefs which explicitly state that 'men are in charge of women', and that husbands can strike their wives for arrogance, is in no way incompatible with feminism.

You could not make this up.  It would be difficult to find two beliefs that are more contradictory — feminism and Islam — and yet we have this fairly common, but bizarre spectacle of women defending a belief system which could not be more explicit about oppressing them.

Here is a page at WhiteHouse.gov promoting Linda Sarsour as a 'Champion of Change' —
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2014/04/white-house-champion-of-change-linda.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQYwq0cC_1g
Linda Sarsour on whitehouse.gov

It is just a little ironic that the Obama administration would honor someone who believes that an Al-Qaeda plot to blow up civilian aircraft, that was foiled in part by the CIA, was actually a plot by the CIA.  Here is a tweet by Linda Sarsour to that effect, along with links to two articles that attempt to explain what was really going on —
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-disrupts-airline-bomb-plot/2012/05/07/..._story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...-aqap-took-bait-dangled-by-saudi-informant/2012/05/09/..._story.html

https://twitter.com/lsarsour/status/200052719178883073
Linda Sarsour tweet of May 8, 2012, regarding CIA role in foiling bomb plot

And I wonder how the many young women and girls who are victims of Islamic religious practices (such as being beaten for supposedly being arrogant), would react to knowing that a woman in the United States is to some degree celebrated for defending the religion that oppresses them.

For example, consider the case of Nada Al-Ahdal, who I wrote about here, back in January of 2015.

Or consider the even more infamous case of Nujood Ali, who was married at 8 years old, and raped and beaten by her husband —

Or consider the terrible problem of child brides in general.   This 'Journeyman Pictures' documentary is specific to that Islamic practice in Yemen, but there is no indication that this problem is isolated to that country —

So much for Linda Sarsour's absurd claim that the religion of Islam shuns the oppression of women (as if Islam shuns the oppression of anyone).

And it should not be surprising that Linda Sarsour's organization, 'Arab American Association of New York' would receive funds from the New York City 'Mayor's Fund To Advance NYC', under Bill De Blasio, since Linda Sarsour campaigned for De Blasio —
     http://nypost.com/2015/10/23/taxpayers-should-not-be-funding-this-anti-american-hate-spewer/
     http://www.jewishpress.com/. . ./nyc-gives-500k-to-group-led-by-violence-glorifying-arab-activist/2016/04/04/

In my previous post about Nada Al-Ahdal back in January of 2015, I also mentioned Nujood Ali, and pointed to an article that quoted Nujood as being bitterly disappointed, because even after all of the international attention Nujood received for having the courage to seek a divorce from her abusive husband without the support of her family, she and others like her received no help.

Well, to Nujood I would say, sorry, but no one is coming — they are too busy celebrating the likes of useful idiots like Linda Sarsour, and their attempts to distract from the atrocities committed in the name of Islam.

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Sunday, January 25, 2015

Meet Nada Al-Ahdal

Nada Al-Ahdal is a young Yemeni girl who ran away from home in 2013, at the age of 11.  Here is a video of Nada, filmed by one of her friends in July 2013, and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), where Nada explains that she ran away from home to escape a forced marriage —

Supposedly there is some controversy regarding the truth of Nada's accusations against her parents, and their intent to sell her into a forced marriage — something they had reportedly done previously with Nada's older sister —
     https://archive.is/X6tCe
     https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/reportsfeatures/a-narrow-escape
Nada had an 18 year-old sister who had been engaged many times. Her parents accepted each new proposal and took a partial downpayment for a bride price. They would then postpone the marriage until the groom had enough money, eventually ending each engagement, not returning the money. The same story would start all over again with another suitor, and so it was that she had had nine fiancés.
Here is a quote from the Arab magazine 'The Majalla' that describes Nada as having been manipulated by her uncle as part of a publicity stunt.  Note that this article was written by a woman named Catherine Shakdam, and is entitled 'A Deception Comes Undone', even though Shakdam only offers vague hearsay as proof that Nada lied —
     https://archive.is/fI7Di
     http://www.majalla.com/eng/2013/07/article55243853
Most disturbingly yet, Seyaj says its investigations indicate that Nada had been coerced by her uncle into making the video as part of a scam to turn the young school girl into Yemen’s new Nujood, gain fame and make a profit. Nujood was a young girl who rose to fame in 2008 when, at the age of 8, she bravely refused to tolerate abuse from her husband and asked a judge to grant her a divorce.
Here is a polite article from CNN that includes the questions regarding the validity of Nada's accusations, and describes child marriage in Yemen with the euphemism: 'extremely complicated', rather than the more truthful:  'a human rights violation' —
    https://archive.is/HkeAE
    http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/30/world/yemen-child-marriage/
In deeply tribal Yemen, the issue of child marriage is extremely complicated.
Here is a video from the CNN article above, which includes Nada meeting with her family and Ramzia Al-Eryani, formerly one of Yemen's leading women's rights activists, and president of the Yemen Women's Union (Al-Eryani passed away in November 2013 - https://archive.is/u5zTz).  Notice the intensity of Nada's impromptu responses in this video —


I believe Nada's accusations against her parents — not because I think there is no possibility that she could be lying, or because I think it would be difficult for an 11 year old girl to fake the reaction in the video above as part of some kind of ongoing publicity stunt, at the request of her uncle — but because there is nothing surprising about her claims.  Young girls are forced into marriage all the time as part of Islamic tradition, so there is no good reason not to believe Nada.

It would be more surprising if Nada's claims were false.

In the video below, Nada Al-Ahdal appears on Lebanese TV in September 2013, in a segment translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), with an Egyptian cleric, Sheik Abu Yahya.  Sheik Abu Yahya states without hesitation that a female child can be married as soon as she is born, as long as her husband doesn't have sex with her until 'the woman is ready to bear it' — which he couldn't define, other than to say: 'this varies from girl to girl.' —
    https://www.memri.org/tv/yemeni-child-nada-who-fled-forced-marriage-and-egyptian-cleric-debate-child-marriage/transcript
Egyptian cleric Sheik Abu Yahya: There is a difference between contractual marriage and consummated marriage.  A contractual marriage can take place from day one.  From the moment the baby girl is born, takes her first breaths, and is given a name, her guardian, who is her father only – and there is consensus about this in the Muslim world – is allowed to marry her off.  This is an accepted custom, and perhaps even my grandparents and your grandparents married this way. The boy is kept for the girl, and vice versa.  This marriage – a contractual marriage or engagement – is permitted [at this age].  As for consummation of the marriage – it is not permitted until the woman is ready to bear it.  A guardian who acts otherwise is harming the girl under his charge.
The cleric's statements begin at 2:54 in this clip — notice that he is completely comfortable discussing young girls in the same way that a sane person would discuss breeding farm animals —


If you are familiar with the Quran, you aren't surprised by Muslims speaking this way, since the Quran clearly states that men are in charge of women in Chapter 4, Verse 34 (http://legacy.quran.com/4/34).

For further demonstration of that Muslim belief, consider the infamous case of Nujood Ali, another Yemeni girl who was forced into a marriage — at 8 years old.

Here is a 'Journeyman Pictures' documentary telling Nujood's story.  It is chilling to hear Nujood matter-of-factly describe how her husband raped her, while his mother helped hold her down --
https://www.journeyman.tv/film/5951
"He sexually assaulted me on the wedding night.  His mother was holding me," remembers Nujood.  Traumatised, she sought refuge from her relatives but was turned away for fear of shaming the family.  With no one to rely on but herself, she took a taxi to court where a judge, outraged by her story, granted her a divorce.  But Nujood was lucky in a country which does not recognise marital rape as a crime and has no minimum marriage age.  A reform to introduce it was blocked last year by Yemen's Muslim Brotherhood.  "Islam doesn't specify an age for marriage.  Why make a problem out of nothing?" asks one member of Yemen's parliament.  Nujood is set on fighting child marriage in Yemen when she grows up; but with an estimated half of all brides aged below 18 and many families hoping to alleviate poverty with dowries, she faces a bitter struggle.

And of course, Yemen's Muslim Brotherhood opposes any restriction on the practice of forced child marriages.

Here is Nujood quoted in August 2009, describing her disappointment at receiving no help after her ordeal attracted so much media attention — including her being chosen as one of 'Glamour' magazine's 2008 women of the year —
     https://archive.is/IiqkU
     http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/08/26/yemen.divorce/
"There is no change at all since going on television. I hoped there was someone to help us, but we didn't find anyone to help us. It hasn't changed a thing. They said they were going to help me and no one has helped me. I wish I had never spoken to the media."
This is the book Nujood co-wrote in 2010 to tell her story (ghostwritten by Delphine Minoui) — her share of the royalties were supposed to help pay for her schooling, and her ambition to become a lawyer —
     http://www.amazon.com/Am-Nujood-Age-10-Divorced/dp/0307589676

It is not surprising that Nujood's father may have spent the money he was receiving for her from her book sales on himself, since he had already demonstrated that he viewed Nujood as an unwanted burden —
     https://archive.is/6tBEw
     http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/12/child-bride-father-cash-spend

If you are inclined to believe that such things only happen in less developed countries like Yemen, you would be wrong.  Here is a story from the Australian news program 'Four Corners', profiling four women from Australia and their experiences with forced marriage —
     https://archive.is/XW0oA
     http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/03/29/3466537.htm
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEh6V5XAjZg
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkKmaxKONdw

No mention of Islam is made in that program, but it is no surprise that the women profiled all have parents from Islamic countries.

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