A young woman I know attended her first protest rally covered in sheets. She wore one around her body and one to cover her head. She carried a sign 'Avoid Rape, Dress Sensibly'. The other women at the rally were dressed similarly. They carried the same sign. It was a rally to support women's right to dress how they wanted to dress, to not be blamed for rape, to live their lives in freedom. The women's rally called on governments and churches to take a stand. The rally was 32 years ago in Brisbane's King George Square and I was the young woman.

The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. For women anyhow. Your male columnist calls a (male) religous leader "impertinent" for instructing women to cover up and do as they're told if they want to avoid rape, for likening rape victims to uncovered meat attacked by cats. Male judges in law courts have made similar comments many times over the last 30 odd years. It's time to accept that women's rights are human rights. And behave accordingly.

Dear anna52,

I have nothing but respect for you. I am least bothered what you wear viz. hijab/jijab/veil etc.

However, when I found the reason for wearing such things, which the sheik and many islamic scholars reiterated, I have no respect for the veil.

Do you know sheik once said:

"The two cheapest things in Australia are the flesh of a woman and the meat of a pig," .

And he compares white women (or women in general) to meat. He says all muslim men are like cats.

If uncovered meat (women without veils exposing legs/hands/faces) are kept outside (walking on road, travelling in train/bus, in beach)
cats (muslim men) will eat (rape) meat (women esp. white women). So, it's the meat's fault.

This statement was established again and again by many muslim rapists; when they were questioned in courts, they say these "white-women" deserve rape for not wearing veils. Got it?

My eyes are opened now as a muslim woman Shakira speaks about her experiences:

Eyes opened by Islamic chauvinism

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20673860-601,00.html

" Mustafa - tried to drag her under their control in the name of Islam."

" As soon as we made contact, he said I should be living under my father's roof, or with my grandmother, or an aunt.

"I didn't realise how serious he was. I just told him that I wasn't interested."

"He (Mustafa) would berate me about that, in part because she was Jewish, but also because I was living out of home," she said.

"Eventually I told him to get lost, mind his own business. But he would come to the house, knocking on the door, to insist I come home with him, to live under our father's roof."

"where a young man, a relative, would decide how I should live, or dress, or behave."

"We should know from London that young Muslim men are feeling disenfranchised - they do not fit into their own cultures, or into Western cultures - and we should not have leaders encouraging them toward this frightening, controlling behaviour."

I am sure this is happening in almost all muslim families.

Dee
Sorry, now it’s “Muslims worldwide behaviour you fear being repeated in Australia”? That’s your concern? Is this the part where you explain the joke to me? How can you fear something that has not occurred? And if it has occurred please feel free to outline how this behaviour is a) worldwide b) being repeated in Australia c) something tangible to fear.

The problem with you lies in your conceptualisation. You see the West as one entity and Islam as another. You’ve fallen straight into the hands of government propaganda. Congratulations!

Not only is it impossible to generalise the entire Muslim population but to give the “we’re all Christian and democratic” line is comical. We’re not all Christian in the West and we’re not all democratic. We don’t practise the values of the Enlightenment period (which we claim to be the founding of Western society).

It was 1946 that France accorded equal voting rights for women. Progressive. 6% of women in France are represented in parliament. Wow. (I mean if we go by your generalisations, clearly it doesn’t matter if the US and France are like chalk and cheese...it’s all the same if it’s on the Western side of the world right?!)

The other problem is that Children being locked up in detention centres may have been trouble makers inside their kindergarten and preschool environments but I hardly see that as warranting such barbaric and inhumane treatment. Perhaps you see differently when it comes to children from the East. Either that or you believe all refugees are criminals. I suppose that would make sense given some of your comments.

“All Muslims who are foolishly accepted in every Western Country are violent troublemakers” – it’s easy to take a person out of context isn’t it?

Yes lacking in respect seems to be what the Sheik is doing. Making an uneducated statement and trying to pass it off as being somehow religiously inspired when it’s not. Expressing an opinion that a lot of people disagree with. Saying it in a smug manner. What else? (Perhaps refer to Today tonight for inspiration).
(continued)

But you know what? Cardinal George Pell does the same thing almost every week in his column. He offends everyone with his stupid views. He’s even gone so far as to say that women should be in the home, in the kitchen, having babies – where they belong. I find this offensive too. But am I calling for him to deported? Do I want him sacked? Or do I just accept that he is part of an institution that may or may not advocate his views and we just have to deal with it?
What does being an “aussie slut” have to do with not dressing appropriately? Now YOU are the one making the link between the two. The media is ridiculously sensationalising the entire matter. Trying to bring up comments from other sheiks (about the skaf case). Tying it all together so that people no longer differentiate between events relating to Muslims in Australia.

Wrong wrong wrong. Muslim countries are hell holes because the US and Great Britain have maintained the current status quo for as long as they have had control over the region. If you think religion is the problem in the middle east then you are seriously displaying your ignorance here. You name one country in the Middle East where you believe Islam is at the forefront of the problem and I’ll give you a myriad of reasons explaining why the US is really to blame.

India being subjected to British Imperialism for hundreds of years DID set them back considerably. What an oafish comment to make! Indians suffered not just because of the British but because religious tensions were exacerbated BY the British who knew that if there was disunity amongst the populace they’d be less inclined to want independence – and they were right. And it worked. Coincidentally enough the partition of India coincided with the good riddance of Britain and the good times were not rolling for India when all of this occurred. But of course, you only imagine problems when Islam is the primary religion to blame.

flu,

I think you are typical PC bend-over which took the country to this stage. You say that muslim countries are in the state because western countries UK, USA occupied them. What a load of crap! I wonder what Indians will react to your slurs but I can give you a link which shows how Indians respect UK.

"Today, with the balance and perspective offered by the passage of time and the benefit of hindsight, it is possible for an Indian Prime Minister to assert that India's experience with Britain had its beneficial consequences too. Our notions of the rule of law, of a Constitutional government, of a free press, of a professional civil service, of modern universities and research laboratories have all been fashioned in the crucible where an age old civilization met the dominant Empire of the day. These are all elements which we still value and cherish. Our judiciary, our legal system, our bureaucracy and our police are all great institutions, derived from British-Indian administration and they have served the country well.

Of all the legacies of the Raj, none is more important than the English language and the modern school system. That is, if you leave out cricket! Of course, people here may not recognise the language we speak, but let me assure you that it is English! In indigenising English, as so many people have done in so many nations across the world, we have made the language our own. Our choice of prepositions may not always be the Queen's English; we might occasionally split the infinitive; and we may drop an article here and add an extra one there. I am sure everyone will agree, however, that English has been enriched by Indian creativity as well and we have given you R.K. Narayan and Salman Rushdie. Today, English in India is seen as just another Indian language. ............"