The last episode I saw of 60 minutes had an interview of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a friend and collaborator of the Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh who was slain by a fundamentalist Muslim upset over his controversial film “Submission.”
I respect Ali for not letting fundamentalists intimidate her or stop her from expressing her opinions. She should have every right to say what she wants, and if people disagree they should express their opinions in a civil manner. However, she strikes me as a self-serving individualist. In the name of woman’s rights, she manages to stigmatize the minority groups she claims to help. Her criticism of their lack of integration into Dutch society only further alienates them. She also aligns with groups bent on disempowering them politically. To her, there is no way dialogue will bring mutual understanding between the two, not because anyone in the Dutch mainstream has any flaws, except for naïve liberals, but rather because you can never educate religious people so inherently pathological. Rather than clearly differentiating misogyny from religion, or religious ideals from relative cultural norms, her project is to completely secularize Muslims. This means that none of their practices or beliefs contribute to her newly chosen society. Indeed, some of the beliefs and practices of the fundamentalists are quite vile, but isolation or strict assimilation will only make them more hardcore.
To me, Mukhtaran Bibi is a true hero. A tribal council ordered her rape as a “punishment” for the indiscretions of her brother who was seen with an upper caste girl. The Mastoi clan accused him of committing sexual crimes (some believe this was a cover up for their crimes against him). When she was called to intervene on his behalf she was taken into a tent and gang-raped by four men, then thrown out with her clothes torn off and forced to walk through her village naked. Shar’ia, or at least its applications in hudood ordinances, comes down hard on women, and often there is double punishment rather than protection under the law. There is a tradition of “shura,” which is a consultation between families of the victim and the criminal. In theory this is not a bad idea, because it would mean that there is compensation for the victims in accordance with the sentiments of those primarily affected by the crime. In practice, however, shura means that the men who run the household agree to take money as recompense, and this is done to appease the stigma of shame and family dishonor.
Luckily, an influential imam heard Mukhtaran’s story, denounced the incident in public, and urged her to seek justice. Her case was taken up by a human rights commission and she faced her accusers head on, taking her appeal to the high court of Pakistan. Even though the federal government system is more secular than in her local area, they too have an elitist, feudal mentality that discriminates against the poor. But she won, and she didn’t stop there. She used the money she received to open schools for girls and boys, knowing that this is their best shot at empowerment.
Those in the West who honor reformist Muslims invariably focus on the likes of Ayaan Hirsi and Irshad Manji. At the dinner reception for the "Glamour Woman of the Year" award, Mukhtaran Mai said she felt ignored, and it wouldn’t surprise me if many Americans have never heard of her.
It’s clear that Muslims who see it as their religious duty to fight for equality and human rights are given short shrift, while outspoken reformists who want a westernized version of Islam are hailed in the media. Consider this article from Islamica Magazine about how the US government banned Tariq Ramadan from a teaching position he was offered at Notre Dame University.
(http://www.islamicamagazine.com/issue-12/why-tariq-ramadan-13.html)
