The New Muslim suffragettes of the United Kingdom An increasing number of Muslim women activists are receiving death threats, fatwas and even hate-mail from extremist male and female Muslims. Their crime: Rescuing fellow Muslim women from violent and life threatening situations. With heightened media sensitivity surrounding forced marriage, honour based violence and domestic violence we are all too aware of the suffering experienced by vulnerable and marginalised Muslim women. But we know little about the Muslim women activists who risk their lives to fight for the rights of oppressed Muslim women. These women are the New Muslim Suffragettes (NMS) of The United Kingdom. As wives and mothers themselves, they stand alone in their communities and apart from other prominent Muslim organisations, in offering sanctuary and support for vulnerable and marginalised women. The NMS provide refuge, advocacy and access to the British legal and welfare system for women whose daily lives consist of beatings, imprisonment, torture and even marital rape, as well as the mental health ramifications that unfold over time. In fact there has been an exponential growth in Muslim women activists in the form of charitable women rights organisations. These organisations have emerged post 9/11 as a response to misogynist and extremist views which are contaminating the Muslim community. Like the suffragette movement in the late 19th and early 20th century, Muslim women activists are collectively gaining momentum in fighting for womens rights in oppressive and patriarchal contexts. But facing fierce patriarchal resistance - akin to that experienced by the early Suffragettes sympathy for the NMS does not always convert to action. In seeking justice for Muslim women whose human rights have been eroded through hyper-conservative interpretations of Islam, the NMS turn to British Law. But in affording marginalised Muslim women their rights the NMS are perceived by extremist Muslims as feminists, a term loaded in the Muslim world with connotations of modernity, resistance and westernisation, and perhaps more importantly a term which challenges the patriarchal underpinning of Islam dictated by extremist Muslims. So they face a backlash in the form of persecution, intimidation and death threats. Fearing for their lives the NMS are forced into hiding and prevented from undertaking the very work they set out to achieve to highlight and prevent the gross abuse of human rights many Muslim women suffer. Instead the NMS risk becoming the vulnerable and marginalised Muslim women that they originally set out to help and support. Its time for the public to be aware of the plight of the NMS in the United Kingdom. This is their story. My mobile phone rang, I could hear heavy breathing and a deep male voice I know where you live, Im going to find you, and then Im going to chop your legs off for taking my daughter away from me. This NMS received this threat along with a threat to bomb her car after she rescued a young woman from forced marriage and domestic violence. Fearing for her life, this NMS must check her car for bombs each day and cannot leave her home without a panic alarm. For the NMS, life has become intolerable. Sara Khan, from the counter-extremist and gender equality consultancy Inspire and Shereen Williams from the Henna Foundation spoke about the persecution perpetrated against them and work colleagues often directed at family members. According to Diana Nammi founder of the Iranian and Kurdish Womens Rights Organisation (IKWRO), the main motive behind the death threats is an extremist belief that the work of the NMS is shaming and dishonouring the Muslim community, particularly in cases where women are supported by the NMS in seeking legal redress for the wrongs inflicted upon them often by their own family members. Somewhat unsurprisingly the threats perpetrated by extremist Muslims cover an array of appalling crimes including obscene sexual offences, which have become an increasing problem in the blogosphere and according to Shaista Gohir (MBE) the NMS are frequently accused of destroying Islam or corrupting our women and like the Suffragettes over a century ago they are accused of being mad. While these accusations may appear banal and mundane to secular ears, they are devastating to women activists of faith who are accused of being apostates. In this case, these accusations lead to threats of Shaista Gohirs throat being slashed. Figures released by IKWRO reveal that nearly 3000 incidents of honour based violence were recorded by police forces across the UK in 2010, with an average increase of 47% across the 12 police forces which also provided data for 2009. Its clear from these statistics that the NMS have an invaluable role to play in discovering and tackling violence against women. But the sad reality is the NMSs are confronting these prevalent issues alone following a lack of support from the Government, attacks from extremist Muslims and turning of the other cheek by non-Muslim womens rights organisations. The early Suffragettes would turn in their graves if they knew that the sacrifices they made to bring about gender equality are now being systematically eroded through the gross misogynistic practices of an increasing number of hyper-conservative Muslims. However, there are a number of Muslim scholars, Imams, non-Muslim politicians and non-Muslim charitable organisations who are supporting the rebuttal of this systematic abuse of womens human rights. It is hoped that non-Muslim womens rights organisations, wider society and the Government will unite with the NMS in developing social, financial and legislative remedies to protect British women. http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/01/18/the-new-muslim-suffragettes-of-the-united-kingdom/ This is the elephant in the room in Europe. Critics of Islamists have to g into hiding for their very lives in Western Europe. Muslim immigration has made anywhere in Western Europe unsafe for those targeted for assassination by Islamists. Yet, their apologists drone on about anything else by the issue. _
Islam should be banned in every European country and in North America as well. http://www.politicalforum.com/polit...-islam-banned-usa-asked-us-citizens-only.html
Don't look now, but you can be CERTAIN there are secret group homes and escape hideouts for abused women in YOUR neighborhoods! Places where women and children can escape the beatings, abuse, rape and threats of murder by the men they have married or are in relationships with. Christian men! American Men! Native European men! THIS is the "elephant in the room in Europe" in "enlightened" Europe and USA that Islamophobes simply seem to not comprehend. EVERY religion and culture has domestic violence and murder. And when I worked with some of these places, the delightful men these women were escaping from threatened MY life as well. (To no effect, they were sad to discover.) Not a single Muslim among them!
Very reasuring to learn that there is no culture of domestic abuse in islamic communities. Nice to see that muslim wives and their little suicide bombers are nurtured on a diet of sweetness and light.
This seems a nice club to join . All the new style KKK nutters are here . Cross out Black Haters -- sub text for white supremacists --- and insert Moslem haters
Sorry, but that's a strawman argument. No one is saying that any culutre is free of domestic crime. Your defense of Islamists fails again. _
No. i think people who have no religious desire to harm or control people should not have their freedom of religion taken away
That is what you and Protectionist just said! Or are you and Protectionist suggesting we ban ALL cultures from the USA and Europe, and Muslim is ONLY mentioned in particular because ?
Religion should be banned period. It is not conducive to social development. All it does is encourages stagnation. Such as the religious resistance to science and scientific endeavors such as evolution. If it goes against the gospel, the religious people will do what they can to stamp it out. Because God must never change under any circumstances. And we must all bow down before God.
All you have to do is say "There is no Bod like Allah's, and Mohammed is her driver." Do that three times and the old girl will magically appear and drop her trousers.
Don't these churlish little girls - otherwise known as "jews" - realize we know why they're lying about Sharia Law? They hate Sharia Law because it prohibits the charging of interest, the "jews" main reason for living. "Jews" couldn't care less about equality for Muslim women. Otherwise they wouldn't have them murdered by the millions. And all adults with more than a double digit IQ know that's why American troops are in the Middle East: To replace all the NON-INTEREST-CHARGING Islamic banks with "jewish" Fed-like banking mafias so A BILLION MUSLIMS can be interest slaves for life like Americans. http://tinyurl.com/JewsLyingAboutMuslims
Haven`t the muslim money lenders worked out another system for charging on loans? One that tricks Allah?
Allah is trapped in the body of a woman, and must hide her identity from her misogynistic and homophobic followers. When she drops her drawers she'll show you 72 party favors that are to die for.
