Don’t Men Think About Anything Else?
A list of controversial “dos and don’ts” regarding sexual relations in Islam has been published on the Web site of the Directorate of Religious Affairs. According to the much-debated list, people should avoid having illegal, extra-marital affairs and engaging in relations, such as flirting and dating, that can lead to adultery.
The Web site also cites the actions of the Prophet Mohammed as exemplary behavior, warning men not to stay alone with women in enclosed areas…. Women who wear perfume outside of the home are also described as immoral…
Such statements about the morality of women have been criticized as justifying sexual harassment, by presenting women as responsible for it…. [and] as targeting working women and discouraging them from working outside the home…
The morality of abortion and contraception is also debated on the site… Moral decline causes increases in abortions, which are defined as murder by the Religious Affairs Directorate on the site.
JW: Next thing you know, women will be required to stay at home, as under the Taliban, because the sound of their slippers drove men to distraction. Maybe men should be put under some form of control, instead of women. The problem of self-control appears to be on their side. Of course, they blame it on the devil.
I am sorry, but I have to ask: why are men blamed here? How about blaming religion itself, or unreformed religion, say, Sunni Islam? Or, if it has to be personified, how about orthodox clerics or, say, the Islamists who push this stuff as a matter of personal choice and liberty now, and of high morals then? These Islamists come in both sexes you know.
Now now, don’t resort to sarcasm. We know all about you Westerners. Our PM told us what not to import, our enlightened post-Islamist politicians likewise warned us about the evils that lurk in all this feminist talk. Even our glorious spiritual leaders whose ‘moderate Islam’ has been talked up by the NY Times, tell us what the likes of you offer women:
“Most champions of woman’s rights and freedom only excite women with physical pleasures and then stab her spirit.”
Kidding aside, I wonder what happened to the Directorate’s project of revising the list of sayings of the prophet. They were supposed to try to get rid of some ‘misunderstandings’ of the sort the TDN piece quoted.