WHILE doing some research yesterday, I stumbled across an astonishing comment posted three years ago on Jihadwatch by Heba Reisy, an Iranian “Muslima” living in Washington DC.
Reisy runs the Sisters in Islam blog, set up to:
Show other women the beauty of Islam and that Islam respects women and limits men so that they do not dishonour or disrespect women. Islam has punishment for men who do anything against women. In Islam men do not have the freedoms against women that they do in the corrupted Christianity and Judiasm (sic).
This is what Reisy says in her Jihadwatch comment:
In the USA a woman who is raped is given no respect. Her rapist, who usually goes free for so called lack of evidence because US courts do not trust women, will only face maybe 5 years in prison. In Islam the rapist man is stoned slowly and painfully to death. This punishment takes about an hour to administer and after the man is dead he is tormented in hell untill (sic) Allah is satisfied.
I wish a worse punishment was given, that of amputation of the weapon that the man used and then of the rest of his limbs joint by joint, then skinning, and then burning alive. However, Allah is merciful in his punishments.
I am glad that there are women here who support me in my belief that men should be very, very harshly punished for rape and other crimes against women.
If you want to learn more about Islam and women’s high place in our beautiful religon (sic) I can explain more at sisterinislam.blogspot.com … I wish to dispel the myths about Islam.
Fast forward to November 2009, and this headline on the RAWA (Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan) website: UN: Rape in Afghanistan a Human Rights Problem of ‘Profound Proportions’
According to Norah Niland, the United Nations’ human rights representative in Afghanistan, field research conducted late last year and early this year found rape affected all parts of Afghanistan, across all communities and social groups.
Samia, a 14-year-old Afghan girl victim of gang-rape by warlords in Sar-e-Pul province in Northern Afghanistan. She told to an Afghan TV Channel on November 24, 2009, that the warlords not only raped but also imprisoned her father and brother when they publicised the issue and asked for justice.
Women and girls are at risk of rape in their homes, in their villages and in detention facilities. It is a human rights problem of profound proportions.
Niland said feelings such as shame exacerbate the problem and are often attached to victims rather than perpetrator.
Rape occurs within the family and beyond and victims are often prosecuted for committing adultery. It’s also a problem because there is very little possibility of finding justice, there is no explicit provision in the 1976 Afghan penal code that criminalises rape.
An overview of the oppression suffered by women under the heel of the “Beautiful Religion” is published on the Australian Atheist Foundation’s website.
The author of the piece, Voula Papas, concludes:
Islam’s psychotic obsession with female chastity, modesty and virginity has rendered men incapable of viewing women as equal and worthy companions. How can we expect these men to treat women decently when their religion and culture forbids it! In fact, Muslim men can relax only when their foot is firmly placed on their women’s necks!
In Muslim societies religion governs all aspects of life and has priority over secular laws and local customs, therefore, the excuse that tradition alone is responsible for women’s oppression is untenable. Unless Muslim apologists are prepared to back their claims by a campaign to reform their religion and improve the situation of women, their assertions that Islam is blameless in oppressing women, are null and void.
There is a risk that multiculturalism and freedom of religion will ensure that tradition and religion remain eternally immutable. Should respecting other cultures mean that we should turn a blind eye to sadism, torture and brutality?
How long I wonder, will the world continue to tolerate the gender apartheid in the Islamic world and still persist in calling itself civilised?
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
December 4th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Heba Reisy — Talk about turkeys voting for Xmas.
Also, American courts ‘do not trust women’? What’s that again in Shari’a that states you need two women in court to equal the testimony of one man?
December 4th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Her rapist, who usually goes free for so called lack of evidence because US courts do not trust women, will only face maybe 5 years in prison.”
Oxymoron perhaps?
December 4th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Apparently there is less rape in Islamic societies, but strangely more cases of adulterous women who enjoy being dragged to a dark alley, physically beaten and then voluntarily having aggressive sex with a number of anonymous strangers.
Their families must be so ashamed. Stoning is too good for them.
(Reading over what I’ve just written the Poe-etic nature of it is terrifying)
December 4th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Heba Reisy must have been well indoctrinated by the inmans, or I as I suspect she is mentally ill. How on earth can a woman write – and believe what she writes – such vile and perverted nonsense.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:41 am
@Angela_K:
a clear case of mass Stockholm syndrome.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Heba Reisy highlights something I’ve noticed when talking with Muslim fundies. For them, most issues boil down to a lack of understanding / imperfect application of their religion. This perspective likely arises from the dogma of infallibility (of their holy book, specifically). I’ve heard some Muslim scholars demonise “culture”, although their gripe seems to be with cultural traditions which conflict with Islamic law / tradition. If you asked Reisy about widespread rape in Afghanistan or the pitiful way the problem is dealt with currently, she’d likely say that these are “cultural” problems that conflict with the application of Islamic law. If Islamic culture and Islamic law were given ‘true’ primacy in Afghanistan then women would be protected from rape and rapists would be getting more old school justice-by-stone treatment. Whilst this perspective obviously ignores the religious underpinnings of patriarchal culture and male violence, it does stand impervious (at least in their minds) to arguments about honour killings, rape-victim-as-adulterer stonings and so on. Using examples that fundies consider side-effects of cultural distortions of Islam in a debate on gender issues does little to sway them, and in fact just gives them a sense of comfort that we really don’t understand
theirthe truth(tm) at all.I find the best way to approach these arguments is to not play into their culture vs religion binary by steering clear of examples they may easily brush aside as “un-Islamic”. Getting through to people whose minds are so indoctrinated is a slow process because you’re not just debating with them, but subtly assisting in a kind of deprogramming, in my experience.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I could be very, very wrong, of course – since this article is all I know of any of this – but I’m guessing that Reisy converted to Islam after she’d been raped and the rapist wasn’t convicted?
December 4th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Gutts –
You make an excellent point. At the islam exhibition at the London Mayor’s building, (Tower Bridge), this was exactly the tack they chose: any perceptions about the primitive, backward nature of islamic societies was because of deep-seated cultural traditions, and could not be attributed to islam per se.
Makes you wonder why ‘The Truth™’ has had such a hard time unseating these ‘cultural practices’ (like stoning, for instance).
December 4th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
To be fair all religions try and pull this “it’s not the true…( fill in religion of choice )” stunt, it’s just that Moslems are probably the biggest offenders and they are abetted in this by too many liberal minded apologists who seem to have completely swallowed the ‘religion of peace’ nonsense.
December 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Tim,
It’s not a reflection on Islam, but the devious whispers of Shaytan!
I find it amusing that they can keep a straight face whilst giving the baby-out-with-the-bathwater spiel about culture and then go on to ascribe various artistic, architectural and scientific achievements to Islam. Any human accomplishments considered positive are conveniently placed under the banner of that religion, ignoring that many of those ideas were acquisitions from diverse cultures and civilisations which were conquered by the Islamic empire. But then imperialist historical perspectives aren’t the sole preserve of Islam, or religion per se. It just makes it all the more difficult to pry those crescent-shaped goggles off the believer, as they offer such a comfortable view of the misery their fellow religionists perpetuate.
Interrupting the flowery historical narratives most believers hold about their religion is another effective way to open chinks in their mental armour to give space for new ideas to be considered.
December 4th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I wonder if this woman has daughters?(shiver).
December 4th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
my ex was given a pamphlet in Coventry on ‘women’s rights in Islam’ by someone trying to convert her – what hit me [if you will excuse the pun] was a statement to the effect that women have the right not to be struck in the face by their spouse the implication being…
December 4th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
And yet, rog, lots of women do marry into Islam – why do they do it? Anybody know of any research findings on this? It’s hard to believe any woman in the West thinks her new husband and his extended family will be paragons of kindness. I mean, they might be, but that’s not the way to bet. So, why do thousands of Western women marry Muslims?
December 4th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
@valdemar I can only imagine that the woman are seeing the person that they are going to marry and not the religion; I suspect that many people do not strictly adhere to their original faith & yet are capable of seeing alternative ‘paths’ as having equal validity.
December 4th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Gutts, yet again.. Nail. Head. Hit. BTW, you’re new here (I think) so the following may not make much sense to you, but, interesting you mention architecture, because a certain Bob Hutton has just left a comment on my architectural blog.
Anyone here like to take a guess at what it says?
December 4th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Of course, the question that begs asking is this: Why does Reisy choose to live in the wicked, decadent and unjust United States of America if she would be treated so much better in her homeland of Iran? Methinks it’s very easy for her to spout off from a safe distance!
December 5th, 2009 at 12:28 am
In Islam the rapist man is stoned slowly and painfully to death.
Is there such a thing as a “rapist” in Islam? Didn’t they just pass laws that require women to submit anytime under any circumstances under penalty of beatings and/or death?
How anybody can defend Islam as being good for women is beyond me.
December 5th, 2009 at 12:58 am
When I read “Infidel” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, she wrote that she was taught that if women didn’t cover up, men would go crazy and start raping women right and left, creating chaos in society, and nothing would get done.
I find the implication scary: as if men are expected to be so barbaric as to drop everything and rape women at the sight of an elbow or an ankle…doesn’t that send a message to the men that it’s ok if they act like that?
of course it was her fault, I saw her upper arm and I simply couldn’t restrain myself…that whore…
December 5th, 2009 at 2:29 am
off topic, but, just when you thought you were safe from sarah palin…
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzo.....y-america/
Sarah Palin meets with Billy Graham, calls for more Godly America
December 5th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Tim
I guessed it and for once I was right what do I win?
I take it from your response you won’t be accepting
jesus as your saviour then!
December 6th, 2009 at 1:41 am
There’s something disturbing about that wording. It’s not “women have rights and are protected”, it’s “if someone hurts a woman they’re killed.”
Focusing on the punishment of a crime, rather than trying to prevent it in the first place, seems a pretty common thing in religions in general.
December 7th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
The problem of rapists is common to all societies.
However, the percentage of it differs according to what extent the rule is scary for rapists and to the actual application of the rule.
So I believe I would exterminate any convict rapist who touches my sister, wife or daughter , I would probably kill him in a rage seizure.
Anyway – If a rule is pretty much effective in one society – why not import it ? Similarly we import herbs and medicines from other countries.
At the end rules are man-made and can be adjusted!