Posts
Visiting the Islamic Women Jurists’ Association
by Le Anne Clausen
“This week, you will be meeting with women judges, doctors, candidates for Parliament. This did not happen overnight,” said the judge when she first sat down with us at the Islamic Women’s Jurist Association. She wanted to be sure that we understood this completely. “There have been women judges in Afghanistan for thirty years, even though the number hasn’t been very high.” There are perhaps 45 or 50 in the entire country. The Taliban fired the women judges; after the regime fell, UNIFEM re-trained 100 female judges and lawyers to resume practice in the country.
The office was arranged like a typical house with a formal sitting room, and our plates were loaded up with fancy cookies and large cups of green tea while she spoke. The organization is presently working on about 150 cases regarding women’s rights or legal concerns, such as a divorced mother’s custody struggles. They are also providing computer and English courses for another 100 legal professionals; legal awareness training to 400 high school students and teachers in Kabul, and working to promote family law in the Afghan constitution, networking with human rights groups worldwide and participating in CEDAW (the Convention to Eliminate Descrimination Against Women) and projects on women’s rights within Islam. In these activities they were thinking ahead to the Parliamentary elections, to take place in September.
In Islam, women’s rights are set forth more specifically than in other religions, she said. “There is no difference, men and women are equal.” However, she feels outside propaganda enforces the rules wrongly.
The judge listed as examples women’s entitlement to extra respect and special rights as breastfeeding mothers; and that there is no limit against women’s vocation: “Aisha became a judge in family matters.” Men generally engage in heavier labor, and women respect men’s responsibility and role to feed their families. Fathers and husbands are responsible for feeding and caring for the women. Women have the right to keep their own money and property. The women’s vote she traces back to the 14th century as coming from Islam. It’s okay to get to know a potential husband in Islam before committing to the marriage contract, and under Afghan law it is permissible to break the engagement if it’s not a good match–something which she says many families do not understand.
The organization works primarily on women’s problems which are most urgent–such as necessitating leaving the home. In divorce, separation, and custody disputes, there are cases of adequate feeding, questions of property, and how to resolve marital problems. One option available is to have the young children stay with the mother while the husband provides for the family’s food. After age seven for boys and nine for girls, the children may be given to the father if the wife remarries. If she doesn’t remarry, the children should generally remain with the mother if they are happy and receiving a good education.
If the husband doesn’t pay child support, the community is to pressure him into doing so. If he has no job, then he should pay out of his property; if he has no property, then he must ask a male relative to assume the responsibility for him.
There are three female judges in the women’s court, judgements are carried out if two of the three judges agree. One judge presides at the panel, but all have equal status.
Shari’a law is considered a complete code and base system for civil law in Afghanistan. However, cases like adultery are considered as criminal acts. Muhammed also ruled that adulterers may be stoned, however, if the woman proclaims her innocence, the case and punishment falls under each country’s own laws. A woman must confess her guilt ten times according to Shari’a, to remove any doubt of her committing the crime. There are different rules and sentences depending on whether the woman is a virgin, a widow, or married–instead, she may be jailed for a time (one to twenty years) or have her independence restricted. This was still quite difficult for our group to hear.
The judge had something else for us to consider, however. “When foreign journalists come to Afghanistan, they only film the negative aspects, the dirty areas, the burqas. They never come to us, we who are successful women.”
When asked about the burqa, she said it was developed in the Turkish and Indian cultures, and no explanation or mandate for it can be found in the Qur’an or Shari’a law. “It is not Islamic or Afghan.” She believe’s the Islamic pilgrimage dress is the ideal–covering in simple clothing which covers the limbs and hair in modesty, but allows for freedom of movement–for both genders.
“We ask why women still wear the burqa, and they respond, ‘I got used to wearing it and now I’m uncomfortable going without it,’ or that their family or husband requires it, or for security reasons.” She says it is much more common among women living in the villages. Meanwhile, all of the women in the office were dressed in stylish long suits with long, loose shawl head coverings.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Visiting Rabia Balkhi Maternity Hospital
Visiting Rabia Balkhi Maternity Hospital
A Conversation with Dr. Arafat, Assistant Director
by Le Anne Clausen
If I’ve grown up in an age where fathers finally do not wait outside the delivery rooms, imagine the impact of seeing seemingly hundreds of men lined up outside a hospital, waiting for their female relatives to emerge! I observed very few men inside apart from the hospital staff, which I surmise would create a more comfortable environment for women patients in the various rooms of an open-ward hospital.
The hospital’s departments include obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology, and internal medicine. They handle about 150 ob/gyn and 60-70 other patient consultations a day. Five or six Cesarean sections are performed each day, and perhaps five tubal ligations per week for mothers who don’t want more children. In a country ranked second highest in the world for women dying in childbirth, this can be a life-saving procedure. Family planning consultations, birth control, and IUDs also available.
The hospital is short of medication, anesthesia, and sutures, so the staff gives writes prescriptions ahead of time and sends the patients or their families to buy the supplies in the bazaar. There are several building problems in this older facility, including regular septic system breakdowns and variable electricity. They now have a generator and oil to fuel it donated by the International Medical Corps.
Dr. Arafat notes that among the patients seen at the hospital are often mothers who are malnourished or anemic. “They don’t eat enough good food,” she says, in a country where produce can be prohibitively expensive. In addition, new mothers are discharged after three hours if there are no presenting problems, because there is no room to house them in the facility. This can be quite difficult on women who have traveled from distant areas to receive care.
Patient mortality rates are quite high. Twenty-nine died after leaving the hospital due to complications. Death rates among the poor and villagers are much higher due to lack of access to healthcare. The hospital receives many patients in bad shape, she said, who are difficult to treat. Some die before admission, during the taking of vitals, sometimes arriving after receiving faulty operations elsewhere.
As a charity hospital, there is no charge to patient except transportation and prescriptions. According to the director, most of the funding comes from the Ministry of Health. Rabia Balkhi, the hospital’s namesake, was a tenth-century Afghan princess renowned for her poetry.
A Conversation with Dr. Arafat, Assistant Director
by Le Anne Clausen
If I’ve grown up in an age where fathers finally do not wait outside the delivery rooms, imagine the impact of seeing seemingly hundreds of men lined up outside a hospital, waiting for their female relatives to emerge! I observed very few men inside apart from the hospital staff, which I surmise would create a more comfortable environment for women patients in the various rooms of an open-ward hospital.
The hospital’s departments include obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology, and internal medicine. They handle about 150 ob/gyn and 60-70 other patient consultations a day. Five or six Cesarean sections are performed each day, and perhaps five tubal ligations per week for mothers who don’t want more children. In a country ranked second highest in the world for women dying in childbirth, this can be a life-saving procedure. Family planning consultations, birth control, and IUDs also available.
The hospital is short of medication, anesthesia, and sutures, so the staff gives writes prescriptions ahead of time and sends the patients or their families to buy the supplies in the bazaar. There are several building problems in this older facility, including regular septic system breakdowns and variable electricity. They now have a generator and oil to fuel it donated by the International Medical Corps.
Dr. Arafat notes that among the patients seen at the hospital are often mothers who are malnourished or anemic. “They don’t eat enough good food,” she says, in a country where produce can be prohibitively expensive. In addition, new mothers are discharged after three hours if there are no presenting problems, because there is no room to house them in the facility. This can be quite difficult on women who have traveled from distant areas to receive care.
Patient mortality rates are quite high. Twenty-nine died after leaving the hospital due to complications. Death rates among the poor and villagers are much higher due to lack of access to healthcare. The hospital receives many patients in bad shape, she said, who are difficult to treat. Some die before admission, during the taking of vitals, sometimes arriving after receiving faulty operations elsewhere.
As a charity hospital, there is no charge to patient except transportation and prescriptions. According to the director, most of the funding comes from the Ministry of Health. Rabia Balkhi, the hospital’s namesake, was a tenth-century Afghan princess renowned for her poetry.
Searching for Christians in Afghanistan
Searching for Christians in Afghanistan
by Le Anne Clausen
When my co-directors at Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) returned from their month-long delegation to Afghanistan in early 2002, they reported that they had been in contact with the indigenous Christian population. The church was not out in the open given the climate of persecution against non-Sunni religious groups, but they were indeed there.
Since then it’s been difficult to find solid information about the Christians and their history there. During my travels, I was repeatedly told that only foreign aid workers were Christians, and this seemed to be an answer given out of genuinely not knowing rather than out of animosity or denial.
A search of websites of mainline denominational relief organizations does not turn up information on the indigenous Christians. However, a number of evangelical Christian or ‘persecuted-Christian’ advocacy websites have picked up on their story and it is possible to glean some idea of their life from these sources. ‘Christianity Today’ magazine has also picked up on some of these stories.
According to the ‘Christian Oneness’ organization website,[1] the best estimate of Christians native to Afghanistan is around 3,000, although the information is dated and other numbers range from 1,000-10,000. This population is centered in Kabul and other large cities. The site asserts, “Persons who convert to Christianity in the countryside do not survive.” Formal public church meetings in Afghanistan were forbidden in 1976. “Everything that is happening is happening underground.”
No information exists on denominations among the current Christian population. The two missionary influences have been Western diplomats from 1850–1976, and the Assyrian church, some 1100 years ago. At that time, “there were missionaries in all of the cities along the Silk Road, but their flocks in the Afghan cities were always small and did not survive the intervening centuries.”
On persecution of Christians today, Christian Oneness writes, “though the legal system no longer imposes criminal sentences on Christians, it also does not interfere when a Christian’s family or tribe murders him for apostasy from Islam. The situation for native Christians in Afghanistan has not been much better under American occupation or the new elected (but firmly Islamic) regime than it was under Taliban rule.” Foreign aid workers who are Christian are, however, somewhat more free to operate than they were under the Taliban.
A problem with much of this information is that it seems to be coming from sources not very familiar with the country and its history. Christianity Today based one article on a pastor who had only spent ten days inside the country, and did not specify the auspices under which he was travelling. The pastor is quoted as saying, “For Afghan Christians, living in the country "is absolutely unsafe. If family members find out that you're Christian, they will force you to leave the faith or kill you.”[2]Another foreign Christian leader, writing anonymously from Afghanistan for another article in Christianity Today, expressed his hopes for more specific protections for Afghan Christians:
“In this new constitution in Afghanistan, we would like to see Christians being respected as a religious minority. In the old constitution, only the Jews, Hindus, and Sikhs are mentioned as a minority. If an Afghan were asked whether there are Afghan Christians in his nation, he would always firmly deny it. Afghans know now that many Afghans have become Christians. If they should mention them as a protected minority in the new constitution, it would be a very important step toward religious freedom. Such inclusion would not erase religious persecution. Afghans would still face a lot of dangers for leaving their faith, but at least there would be official acknowledgment of Afghan Christians, who could then claim their rights.”[3]
In a third Christianity Today article, written after the new Afghan constitution was passed, describes its shortcomings in providing such protections:
“Nina Shea, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, says the Bush administration did not push hard enough for language beyond an allowance of religious exercise.
"The U.S. government seemed to think that if you could go to church you were free," she said. "There was no concept that religious freedom means educating your children in the faith or being able to possess religious literature, Bibles, being able to designate your leaders, being able to meet with co-religionists, being able to carry out charities, being able to raise money, or to take collections."[4]
Given such circumstances for the Afghan Christian community, and the experiences of foreign Christians there, I wonder, what are the future imperatives for Christian-Muslim dialogue in Afghanistan? Is there a future for Christian-Muslim dialogue in Afghanistan? What will it look like? Why should energy be directed towards it? The review of current literature on Christians in Afghanistan was not encouraging. The websites with the most information on the indigenous church also included statements such as:
“In both countries, the source of the violent turmoil is spiritual; it is not the people or their leaders but the ancient spirits that inform and incite them and that have been given power by millenia of living in darkness. (Recall that Babel was in what is now Iraq, that Lucifer himself is identified as the "King of Babylon" at one place in Scripture, and that Afghanistan has historically been one of the most closed areas on Earth to the Gospel.)...“In both countries, the only hope for peace is the light of Christ reflected by their Christian minorities. Military might cannot defeat spiritual darkness (as the Crusades proved).”[5]
I believe these attitudes will only serve to foster support for more violence, from the ‘Christian’ superpower of the United States, as well as retaliatory persecution by armed Muslim groups against the indigenous Christians, and possible continued attacks against ‘non-Muslim’ elements from outside that may influence the country: aid workers, military, or attacks on the United States and other ‘Christian’ countries.
Still, in my travels I observed much energy for discussion between Christians and Muslims, and found myself how important it is to hear how issues are framed and perceived by differing parties to the dialogue. In our visit to the madrasa, the imam clearly articulated his understanding of the reasons for Islam’s opposition to homosexuality, a paradigm which, now stated, can be brought forth for fruitful discussion or debate. I found the paradigm to be similar to some of the Jewish and Christian Biblical texts that are considered sources for forming our internal debates on the ethics of homosexuality: questions of nature, disruption of relations with women, the perception that homosexuality is only an act between two males, devoid of a loving and/or consensual relationship. I challenge both the paradigms and the resulting conclusions, but at least with this information from the conversation, I have a starting point for articulating my part of the debate. This is a considerable improvement over the blanket ‘homosexuality is evil’ that I’ve heard previously, followed by the blanket ‘Islam is therefore inherently evil and backward’ lobbed back by the other side.
Also in my travels, in a group of many feminist activists, human rights activists, and GLBT activists, I found a sentiment that sought to ‘liberate’ women, GLBT people, and other suffering groups from the oppression of Islam, while the very people we were meeting with, Afghan feminists and human rights workers, were saying their Muslim faith was inherent to their feminism and commitment to justice and could not be separated from their struggle or identity. This summarizes for me the major disconnect I have felt between the Western (Christian, Jewish, or secular) left and activists of the East. While well-intentioned, our illiteracy in matters of Muslim faith and practice hinders our ability for constructive dialogue. I have not found many activists where I’ve been that can speak knowledgeably on either Christianity or Islam, when the local people are far more conversant, and eager to converse, in both. I don’t believe everyone has to have a master’s degree in religion in order to be constructive, but some background is essential to any significant progress.
What about the role of evangelism?
I came across a Christianity Today interview with Georg Taubmann, the director of Shelter Now, who was arrested along with the two now-famous young women in his organization engaging in evangelism. I found his perspective, compared to that of the two women, to be far more constructive towards positive future dialogue (transcript follows):[6]
Dayna and Heather told us (CT, July 8, 2002, p. 26) some workers with Shelter Now were like-minded in wanting to do evangelism. They said that was why they were there. Can you comment on that?
I do not use this word evangelism, and I never use especially the word mission...In Kabul, a lot of educated people who love us, who think we are honest people, come to us. You don't have to go out and do what we call evangelistic things. You just need to live your life as a Christian, and this attracts people, and they want to know more about what you believe in. People simply ask you, "Are you Muslim? Why are you not a Muslim?" And then you can talk. And it's plain to them why you're not a Muslim and what you believe in.
Taubmann also said he was not informed that Dayna and Heather were going to show the film which ultimately got them arrested:
“I wish I had been informed...I really want to know what people are doing. We are getting new people in. I don't know what people have in their minds when they come here, what they have heard. They don't know the culture. I don't want to say that Dayna and Heather were kind of wild people that just went around and did all kind of things. I think these girls tried hard. They didn't go around and show the Jesus film all over.”
The directors’ awareness and ability to mediate his own faith with the tense situation seem to be an appropriate response to approaching interfaith dialogue. The CPT delegates found that the various denominational relief organizations were able to be open about their faith background, without engaging in proselytization. The organizations were respected for the work they were doing in the country. The pastor featured in the Christianity Today article also said foreigners
"...are received well. The Afghan people are so open and readily converse about religious matters. They love to talk about God. It's very natural to discuss religious values. He recommended that foreign Christians move to Afghanistan to serve as teachers, administrators, and relief and medical workers.”
While his purposes are different, the strategies may be useful for building dialogue. I have considered, in my overflowing wish list, returning as a volunteer with Afghans For Tomorrow to dialogue and write about my experiences from there. Mennonite Central Committee has a project in Iran that might be equally useful in Afghanistan, recruiting a married Christian couple to spend three years at a Muslim seminary, learning the language and engaging in dialogue.
Christian Peacemaker Teams proposed, now several years ago, developing a long-term team for Afghanistan, to monitor U.S.-perpetrated human rights abuse and build peaceable relationships between North Americans and the Afghan people. However, they found themselves at the time prevented from doing so by logistical problems such as travel, translation, and rent. While the opportunity for this has passed within the organization, the idea still has merit. Short-term delegations of dialogue-friendly Christian scholars, clergy, and laypeople can also go far towards building understanding in the West about Afghanistan within its Muslim identity.
Employing careful dialogue and communication methods such as these, increasing positive exchanges between Afghan Muslims and North American Christians who are not seeking to proselytize can help build the trust needed to counter negative images of Western Christianity as portrayed by our military human rights abuses. They may also eventually open up space for the tiny local Christian community to worship freely again some day.
[1] “Christians in Afghanistan,” http://www.christian-oneness.org/announcements/Afghanistan.htm
Accessed September 17, 2005
[2] “Land of Warlords,” by Mark Stricherz, in Christianity Today, September 9, 2004
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/010/5.22.html
[3] “Letter from Kabul,” anonymous by Christian leader in Afghanistan, in Christianity Today,
April 21, 2003 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/116/11.0.html
[4] “Afghan Constitution Provides Little Protection for Religion,” by Rob Moll in Christianity Today,
January 15, 2004 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/102/42.0.html
[5] http ://www.christian-oneness.org/announcements/Afghanistan.htm Accessed 9/17/05
[6] “Return to Kabul,” interview by Stan Guthrie, in Christianity Today, January 17, 2003
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/001/7.52.html
by Le Anne Clausen
When my co-directors at Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) returned from their month-long delegation to Afghanistan in early 2002, they reported that they had been in contact with the indigenous Christian population. The church was not out in the open given the climate of persecution against non-Sunni religious groups, but they were indeed there.
Since then it’s been difficult to find solid information about the Christians and their history there. During my travels, I was repeatedly told that only foreign aid workers were Christians, and this seemed to be an answer given out of genuinely not knowing rather than out of animosity or denial.
A search of websites of mainline denominational relief organizations does not turn up information on the indigenous Christians. However, a number of evangelical Christian or ‘persecuted-Christian’ advocacy websites have picked up on their story and it is possible to glean some idea of their life from these sources. ‘Christianity Today’ magazine has also picked up on some of these stories.
According to the ‘Christian Oneness’ organization website,[1] the best estimate of Christians native to Afghanistan is around 3,000, although the information is dated and other numbers range from 1,000-10,000. This population is centered in Kabul and other large cities. The site asserts, “Persons who convert to Christianity in the countryside do not survive.” Formal public church meetings in Afghanistan were forbidden in 1976. “Everything that is happening is happening underground.”
No information exists on denominations among the current Christian population. The two missionary influences have been Western diplomats from 1850–1976, and the Assyrian church, some 1100 years ago. At that time, “there were missionaries in all of the cities along the Silk Road, but their flocks in the Afghan cities were always small and did not survive the intervening centuries.”
On persecution of Christians today, Christian Oneness writes, “though the legal system no longer imposes criminal sentences on Christians, it also does not interfere when a Christian’s family or tribe murders him for apostasy from Islam. The situation for native Christians in Afghanistan has not been much better under American occupation or the new elected (but firmly Islamic) regime than it was under Taliban rule.” Foreign aid workers who are Christian are, however, somewhat more free to operate than they were under the Taliban.
A problem with much of this information is that it seems to be coming from sources not very familiar with the country and its history. Christianity Today based one article on a pastor who had only spent ten days inside the country, and did not specify the auspices under which he was travelling. The pastor is quoted as saying, “For Afghan Christians, living in the country "is absolutely unsafe. If family members find out that you're Christian, they will force you to leave the faith or kill you.”[2]Another foreign Christian leader, writing anonymously from Afghanistan for another article in Christianity Today, expressed his hopes for more specific protections for Afghan Christians:
“In this new constitution in Afghanistan, we would like to see Christians being respected as a religious minority. In the old constitution, only the Jews, Hindus, and Sikhs are mentioned as a minority. If an Afghan were asked whether there are Afghan Christians in his nation, he would always firmly deny it. Afghans know now that many Afghans have become Christians. If they should mention them as a protected minority in the new constitution, it would be a very important step toward religious freedom. Such inclusion would not erase religious persecution. Afghans would still face a lot of dangers for leaving their faith, but at least there would be official acknowledgment of Afghan Christians, who could then claim their rights.”[3]
In a third Christianity Today article, written after the new Afghan constitution was passed, describes its shortcomings in providing such protections:
“Nina Shea, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, says the Bush administration did not push hard enough for language beyond an allowance of religious exercise.
"The U.S. government seemed to think that if you could go to church you were free," she said. "There was no concept that religious freedom means educating your children in the faith or being able to possess religious literature, Bibles, being able to designate your leaders, being able to meet with co-religionists, being able to carry out charities, being able to raise money, or to take collections."[4]
Given such circumstances for the Afghan Christian community, and the experiences of foreign Christians there, I wonder, what are the future imperatives for Christian-Muslim dialogue in Afghanistan? Is there a future for Christian-Muslim dialogue in Afghanistan? What will it look like? Why should energy be directed towards it? The review of current literature on Christians in Afghanistan was not encouraging. The websites with the most information on the indigenous church also included statements such as:
“In both countries, the source of the violent turmoil is spiritual; it is not the people or their leaders but the ancient spirits that inform and incite them and that have been given power by millenia of living in darkness. (Recall that Babel was in what is now Iraq, that Lucifer himself is identified as the "King of Babylon" at one place in Scripture, and that Afghanistan has historically been one of the most closed areas on Earth to the Gospel.)...“In both countries, the only hope for peace is the light of Christ reflected by their Christian minorities. Military might cannot defeat spiritual darkness (as the Crusades proved).”[5]
I believe these attitudes will only serve to foster support for more violence, from the ‘Christian’ superpower of the United States, as well as retaliatory persecution by armed Muslim groups against the indigenous Christians, and possible continued attacks against ‘non-Muslim’ elements from outside that may influence the country: aid workers, military, or attacks on the United States and other ‘Christian’ countries.
Still, in my travels I observed much energy for discussion between Christians and Muslims, and found myself how important it is to hear how issues are framed and perceived by differing parties to the dialogue. In our visit to the madrasa, the imam clearly articulated his understanding of the reasons for Islam’s opposition to homosexuality, a paradigm which, now stated, can be brought forth for fruitful discussion or debate. I found the paradigm to be similar to some of the Jewish and Christian Biblical texts that are considered sources for forming our internal debates on the ethics of homosexuality: questions of nature, disruption of relations with women, the perception that homosexuality is only an act between two males, devoid of a loving and/or consensual relationship. I challenge both the paradigms and the resulting conclusions, but at least with this information from the conversation, I have a starting point for articulating my part of the debate. This is a considerable improvement over the blanket ‘homosexuality is evil’ that I’ve heard previously, followed by the blanket ‘Islam is therefore inherently evil and backward’ lobbed back by the other side.
Also in my travels, in a group of many feminist activists, human rights activists, and GLBT activists, I found a sentiment that sought to ‘liberate’ women, GLBT people, and other suffering groups from the oppression of Islam, while the very people we were meeting with, Afghan feminists and human rights workers, were saying their Muslim faith was inherent to their feminism and commitment to justice and could not be separated from their struggle or identity. This summarizes for me the major disconnect I have felt between the Western (Christian, Jewish, or secular) left and activists of the East. While well-intentioned, our illiteracy in matters of Muslim faith and practice hinders our ability for constructive dialogue. I have not found many activists where I’ve been that can speak knowledgeably on either Christianity or Islam, when the local people are far more conversant, and eager to converse, in both. I don’t believe everyone has to have a master’s degree in religion in order to be constructive, but some background is essential to any significant progress.
What about the role of evangelism?
I came across a Christianity Today interview with Georg Taubmann, the director of Shelter Now, who was arrested along with the two now-famous young women in his organization engaging in evangelism. I found his perspective, compared to that of the two women, to be far more constructive towards positive future dialogue (transcript follows):[6]
Dayna and Heather told us (CT, July 8, 2002, p. 26) some workers with Shelter Now were like-minded in wanting to do evangelism. They said that was why they were there. Can you comment on that?
I do not use this word evangelism, and I never use especially the word mission...In Kabul, a lot of educated people who love us, who think we are honest people, come to us. You don't have to go out and do what we call evangelistic things. You just need to live your life as a Christian, and this attracts people, and they want to know more about what you believe in. People simply ask you, "Are you Muslim? Why are you not a Muslim?" And then you can talk. And it's plain to them why you're not a Muslim and what you believe in.
Taubmann also said he was not informed that Dayna and Heather were going to show the film which ultimately got them arrested:
“I wish I had been informed...I really want to know what people are doing. We are getting new people in. I don't know what people have in their minds when they come here, what they have heard. They don't know the culture. I don't want to say that Dayna and Heather were kind of wild people that just went around and did all kind of things. I think these girls tried hard. They didn't go around and show the Jesus film all over.”
The directors’ awareness and ability to mediate his own faith with the tense situation seem to be an appropriate response to approaching interfaith dialogue. The CPT delegates found that the various denominational relief organizations were able to be open about their faith background, without engaging in proselytization. The organizations were respected for the work they were doing in the country. The pastor featured in the Christianity Today article also said foreigners
"...are received well. The Afghan people are so open and readily converse about religious matters. They love to talk about God. It's very natural to discuss religious values. He recommended that foreign Christians move to Afghanistan to serve as teachers, administrators, and relief and medical workers.”
While his purposes are different, the strategies may be useful for building dialogue. I have considered, in my overflowing wish list, returning as a volunteer with Afghans For Tomorrow to dialogue and write about my experiences from there. Mennonite Central Committee has a project in Iran that might be equally useful in Afghanistan, recruiting a married Christian couple to spend three years at a Muslim seminary, learning the language and engaging in dialogue.
Christian Peacemaker Teams proposed, now several years ago, developing a long-term team for Afghanistan, to monitor U.S.-perpetrated human rights abuse and build peaceable relationships between North Americans and the Afghan people. However, they found themselves at the time prevented from doing so by logistical problems such as travel, translation, and rent. While the opportunity for this has passed within the organization, the idea still has merit. Short-term delegations of dialogue-friendly Christian scholars, clergy, and laypeople can also go far towards building understanding in the West about Afghanistan within its Muslim identity.
Employing careful dialogue and communication methods such as these, increasing positive exchanges between Afghan Muslims and North American Christians who are not seeking to proselytize can help build the trust needed to counter negative images of Western Christianity as portrayed by our military human rights abuses. They may also eventually open up space for the tiny local Christian community to worship freely again some day.
[1] “Christians in Afghanistan,” http://www.christian-oneness.org/announcements/Afghanistan.htm
Accessed September 17, 2005
[2] “Land of Warlords,” by Mark Stricherz, in Christianity Today, September 9, 2004
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/010/5.22.html
[3] “Letter from Kabul,” anonymous by Christian leader in Afghanistan, in Christianity Today,
April 21, 2003 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/116/11.0.html
[4] “Afghan Constitution Provides Little Protection for Religion,” by Rob Moll in Christianity Today,
January 15, 2004 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/102/42.0.html
[5] http ://www.christian-oneness.org/announcements/Afghanistan.htm Accessed 9/17/05
[6] “Return to Kabul,” interview by Stan Guthrie, in Christianity Today, January 17, 2003
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/001/7.52.html
Visiting the Afghan Women's Network
Visiting the Afghan Women’s Network
by Le Anne Clausen
The Afghan Women’s Network is a busy organization, running a library and net café for women; Women to Women International assists them with capacity building such as developing leadership and committees, parliamentary procedure, and training advocates for women and children in prison. We met with a young woman leader of the organization, who stressed the problems which women continue to face in Afghanistan today, as well as the value of understanding Islam as a solution to these issues rather than the problem.
Our speaker painted a grim picture of continuing problems for women in Afghanistan. Women face prostitution, rape, forced marriages. Economic and educational deficiencies drive the marriages between older men and young girls. Families don’t often want to take their problems outside the home to seek assistance. Sometimes families will bring troubled women to ‘holy gurus,’ leaving them for several weeks, where they have been sexually abused according to complainant’s reports. Suicides are rising.
Prostitution is hidden, not visible out on the streets. Street children are also vulnerable to prostitution. “The Afghan women’s NGOs are not currently able to address this situation, but the UN might,” she said.
The Network provides legal support for women who lack the finances. The situation for women in prisons, often for family law matters such as adultery or domestic disputes, is dire. There is no health care or education for women or their children with them in the prisons. There is violence between women prisoners, as well as self-inflicted violence.
Commanders or warlords and their families enforce tribal law throughout the country. “Since the beginning of Afghanistan’s history, women have faced problems. The laws of the Qur’an are not followed.
“Much un-Islamic behavior is carried out in the name of Islam. We respect what our religion says, not more. Arranged marriage is only semi-Qur’anic; independent women and men can choose their own spouses. Arranged marriage is different from forced marriage, where the girl is not happy.
“We want to keep our own culture, not to Westernize or modernize, but to eliminate the negative aspects of our culture. We need to be truly Afghan. The negatives are in the cultural traditions, not in our religion. We need to improve families, respect our elders, develop the hospitals and schools. She sees it as imperative to get women’s outreach workers beyond Kabul, though it is risky to do so. Many women staff have been killed and threatened.
Still, it is important to show the positives along with the negatives. AWN is comprised of 72 women’s NGOs, including 20,000 members. “Three or four years ago, women couldn’t go to the hospital or to school, now they also vote. It’s not 100% successful, there’s a lot more work to do, but we have several women candidates for the upcoming Parliamentary elections.”
by Le Anne Clausen
The Afghan Women’s Network is a busy organization, running a library and net café for women; Women to Women International assists them with capacity building such as developing leadership and committees, parliamentary procedure, and training advocates for women and children in prison. We met with a young woman leader of the organization, who stressed the problems which women continue to face in Afghanistan today, as well as the value of understanding Islam as a solution to these issues rather than the problem.
Our speaker painted a grim picture of continuing problems for women in Afghanistan. Women face prostitution, rape, forced marriages. Economic and educational deficiencies drive the marriages between older men and young girls. Families don’t often want to take their problems outside the home to seek assistance. Sometimes families will bring troubled women to ‘holy gurus,’ leaving them for several weeks, where they have been sexually abused according to complainant’s reports. Suicides are rising.
Prostitution is hidden, not visible out on the streets. Street children are also vulnerable to prostitution. “The Afghan women’s NGOs are not currently able to address this situation, but the UN might,” she said.
The Network provides legal support for women who lack the finances. The situation for women in prisons, often for family law matters such as adultery or domestic disputes, is dire. There is no health care or education for women or their children with them in the prisons. There is violence between women prisoners, as well as self-inflicted violence.
Commanders or warlords and their families enforce tribal law throughout the country. “Since the beginning of Afghanistan’s history, women have faced problems. The laws of the Qur’an are not followed.
“Much un-Islamic behavior is carried out in the name of Islam. We respect what our religion says, not more. Arranged marriage is only semi-Qur’anic; independent women and men can choose their own spouses. Arranged marriage is different from forced marriage, where the girl is not happy.
“We want to keep our own culture, not to Westernize or modernize, but to eliminate the negative aspects of our culture. We need to be truly Afghan. The negatives are in the cultural traditions, not in our religion. We need to improve families, respect our elders, develop the hospitals and schools. She sees it as imperative to get women’s outreach workers beyond Kabul, though it is risky to do so. Many women staff have been killed and threatened.
Still, it is important to show the positives along with the negatives. AWN is comprised of 72 women’s NGOs, including 20,000 members. “Three or four years ago, women couldn’t go to the hospital or to school, now they also vote. It’s not 100% successful, there’s a lot more work to do, but we have several women candidates for the upcoming Parliamentary elections.”
Visiting the Aschiana Children's Network
Visiting Aschiana Childrens’ Center
by Le Anne Clausen
We met the director of Aschiana in a dark room, empty of furniture except for a few rusted folding chairs. He took the broken one while giving the older participants in our group the better ones and those of us who were younger took the windowsill. It was a stark backdrop for the stark realities he was dealing with.
‘Aschiana’ means ‘nest,’ a meaning which is likely not lost on the beneficiaries of this massive shelter network, which provides housing and schooling for more than 900 street children in Kabul. However, the main program itself is now looking for safe shelter, having been recently evicted from its rented facilities, which we were now visiting. The landowner plans to sell the property to a luxury hotel chain. Now they have divided the displaced children among three other facilities, which means “three times the rent, three times the staff, and three times the vehicles,” according to the director.
As a stopgap measure, UNICEF provided rent for two centers, for four months of rent. European Union funding bolstered the budget through June. Still the need is unmet; it’s tough to take out a lease for less than one year. Rent is the biggest problem for the program, as rates are considerably inflated in Kabul.
Due to the high numbers of children, the center runs two shifts and provides lunch to each. They used to serve meat and fruit, but now they can only afford rice and beans. Individual soldiers from ISAF (International Security Force in Afghanistan) will take up collections for the center, but they do not receive funding from the government.
On another day, we visited a different shelter under the Aschiana network and found the children there thriving in the basic yet well-kept facility, studying painting, calligraphy, Dari, English, and the standard school curriculum. “If they learn painting, they can establish their own shop for income,” said the site director. There are also workshops at the school for fixing electrical appliances and carpentry. They hope to resume a bike-repair workshop when they have enough money and space, and add music and theater. They also teach banking and business education, and teachers offer weekly parent workshops on health, parenting, and basic educational tutoring for parents who did not attend school themselves.
The director emphasized that in addition to vocational training, they are also preparing students for university education. He expressed hope that some of his brighter students, female and male, would be going on to become engineers. While the center teaches both male and female students now, the director was jailed under the Taliban for tutoring girls during that time. This forced them to suspend the program until the regime was deposed.
50% of Afghanistan’s population is under 19 years old, and most are uneducated. According to the UN’s most recent statistics, there are 40-60,000 children out on the streets. 20,000 are thought to be in Kabul, and the number is rising. Many have lost at least one parent and are helping to support the family at the expense of their education. Usually they beg or collect scrap paper for fire kindling if they have no other skills. Our group of foreign visitors attracted dozens of such children at each place we stopped. Some of the children are sponsored and don’t have to work at the end of the day; others go out to peddle after classes. The school offers instruction on running a small business to these children so they can save for themselves and gain financial stability that can help them finish their education. These children will sell books or magazines and the center sets up savings accounts complete with bankbooks, if students wish.
Corruption in the local and international aid community was repeatedly mentioned as a major concern during our stay. The director estimated that 90% of Afghan NGOs soak up donations in ‘administrative costs.’ International NGOs, such as the U.S. Creative Associates, live in luxury while the people around them remain in poverty. These organizations are also accused of not hiring qualified Afghans to do the work at a living wage, instead of importing highly-paid foreigners and leaving Afghans out of work. The director suggests that two steps towards increased accountability include NGOs being required to produce financial statements and to be open with and about their donors.
The director was also skeptical about the merits of development funding being put into women starting businesses out of their homes. “Everyone already does it. They are subsidizing our cottage industry businesses, instead of helping the underprivileged or providing appropriate vocational training. These programs have lost the original intent of micro-credit,” which would be to give a more equitable starting ground to disadvantaged populations trying to support themselves without the ability to receive standard bank credit. The director believes it would be better to gather all similar microcredit networks together under the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and take the next step towards women’s rights. This might mean getting them out of their houses and establishing their freedom to fully participate in employment and civil society without threats to their security.
by Le Anne Clausen
We met the director of Aschiana in a dark room, empty of furniture except for a few rusted folding chairs. He took the broken one while giving the older participants in our group the better ones and those of us who were younger took the windowsill. It was a stark backdrop for the stark realities he was dealing with.
‘Aschiana’ means ‘nest,’ a meaning which is likely not lost on the beneficiaries of this massive shelter network, which provides housing and schooling for more than 900 street children in Kabul. However, the main program itself is now looking for safe shelter, having been recently evicted from its rented facilities, which we were now visiting. The landowner plans to sell the property to a luxury hotel chain. Now they have divided the displaced children among three other facilities, which means “three times the rent, three times the staff, and three times the vehicles,” according to the director.
As a stopgap measure, UNICEF provided rent for two centers, for four months of rent. European Union funding bolstered the budget through June. Still the need is unmet; it’s tough to take out a lease for less than one year. Rent is the biggest problem for the program, as rates are considerably inflated in Kabul.
Due to the high numbers of children, the center runs two shifts and provides lunch to each. They used to serve meat and fruit, but now they can only afford rice and beans. Individual soldiers from ISAF (International Security Force in Afghanistan) will take up collections for the center, but they do not receive funding from the government.
On another day, we visited a different shelter under the Aschiana network and found the children there thriving in the basic yet well-kept facility, studying painting, calligraphy, Dari, English, and the standard school curriculum. “If they learn painting, they can establish their own shop for income,” said the site director. There are also workshops at the school for fixing electrical appliances and carpentry. They hope to resume a bike-repair workshop when they have enough money and space, and add music and theater. They also teach banking and business education, and teachers offer weekly parent workshops on health, parenting, and basic educational tutoring for parents who did not attend school themselves.
The director emphasized that in addition to vocational training, they are also preparing students for university education. He expressed hope that some of his brighter students, female and male, would be going on to become engineers. While the center teaches both male and female students now, the director was jailed under the Taliban for tutoring girls during that time. This forced them to suspend the program until the regime was deposed.
50% of Afghanistan’s population is under 19 years old, and most are uneducated. According to the UN’s most recent statistics, there are 40-60,000 children out on the streets. 20,000 are thought to be in Kabul, and the number is rising. Many have lost at least one parent and are helping to support the family at the expense of their education. Usually they beg or collect scrap paper for fire kindling if they have no other skills. Our group of foreign visitors attracted dozens of such children at each place we stopped. Some of the children are sponsored and don’t have to work at the end of the day; others go out to peddle after classes. The school offers instruction on running a small business to these children so they can save for themselves and gain financial stability that can help them finish their education. These children will sell books or magazines and the center sets up savings accounts complete with bankbooks, if students wish.
Corruption in the local and international aid community was repeatedly mentioned as a major concern during our stay. The director estimated that 90% of Afghan NGOs soak up donations in ‘administrative costs.’ International NGOs, such as the U.S. Creative Associates, live in luxury while the people around them remain in poverty. These organizations are also accused of not hiring qualified Afghans to do the work at a living wage, instead of importing highly-paid foreigners and leaving Afghans out of work. The director suggests that two steps towards increased accountability include NGOs being required to produce financial statements and to be open with and about their donors.
The director was also skeptical about the merits of development funding being put into women starting businesses out of their homes. “Everyone already does it. They are subsidizing our cottage industry businesses, instead of helping the underprivileged or providing appropriate vocational training. These programs have lost the original intent of micro-credit,” which would be to give a more equitable starting ground to disadvantaged populations trying to support themselves without the ability to receive standard bank credit. The director believes it would be better to gather all similar microcredit networks together under the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and take the next step towards women’s rights. This might mean getting them out of their houses and establishing their freedom to fully participate in employment and civil society without threats to their security.
Talking with Reza at AINA, Kabul
Talking With Reza at the AINA Media Center
by Le Anne Clausen
“When you go home, just give a realistic report of this alarming situation,” he said. “If you forget again, it will explode again. Next time, it won’t be the Twin Towers, but all of New York.”
He is Reza Deghati, the famed photojournalist of National Geographic, perhaps best known for his coverage of Afghan Anti-Taliban warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated September 9, 2001. Now he spends his time at the AINA Media Center in Kabul, a nonprofit organization devoted to developing Afghan civil society through mass communication.
“The whole media can be run at cost of one bomb,” he said. He was quite blunt throughout our group visit in the courtyard of the center.
Why devote so much rehabilitation energy and resources to a media project, we asked. He responded the way a seasoned war photojournalist might. Wars continue to cause two types damage: the physical buildings and bodies–which one can photograph; and the deeper, main form of damage that perpetuates war–the identity and cultural destruction, the wounding of souls.
“You can build schools and hospitals in two or three months, but that doesn’t change people, they will just use schools and hospitals to build better wars. The Taliban trained in schools and were treated in the hospitals we built,” he says of the last round of U.S. invasion/ reconstruction/ abandonment, a quarter-century ago.
“These facilities get built because you can photograph them and get more money. Magazines are not photo-worthy.” Reza is especially passionate about the children’s magazine they produce, Parwaz (Dari for ‘to fly or rise’), which is distributed in schools throughout the country. It includes colorfully illustrated articles on science, culture, foreign language vocabularies, health, civic education, and letters sent in from young readers. The magazine is produced on heavy paper because the copies are passed through many hands, reaching unschooled children and their families as well. It only costs eighty cents a copy to produce, yet the project is in financial jeopardy, even despite the personal investment of Reza and other affiliated journalists.
“The children here have heard shooting from their first day of life. With this we can take them out of the confined world of war, and open the universe to them.” He sees it as treating the wounded souls through a form of peace education. “Material things can always be destroyed in war. What’s in your mind can’t be taken away, and this is the importance of this education.”
Reza sees new hope in the new generation of Afghans. AINA seeks to reach the ‘third generation,’ through societal, deep long term change, understanding the costs of war, instilling culture and pride.
Their other projects include eight mobile cinemas which go out to the villages to women audiences, showing educational films on women’s health and human rights. The documentaries are a strategy for educating populations who are largely illiterate. Also, he says, “Posters are not effective for women in burqas. On the street, you can’t see them if you can’t look sideways [due to the restrictive garment].”
The documentaries rely on Afghan folk stories to communicate today’s necessary messages. These are not new ideas, but forgotten ones. The cinema operators, men who are recruited from the target villages, show the films to the village elders ahead of time, and they routinely approve screenings for the rest of the population. “They never saw cinema before, it’s a medium that really sticks,” he says. In one day, they could reach all the women of the village in their own language. Topics include the need for peace education, ‘let the Loya Jirga work’--the more fighting the more scars destruction; sending daughters to school, and sending women who need medical care to the hospital, among others.
“This isn’t propaganda,” he says. They train volunteers at the center in drama in order to produce the films. The entire cost for the program is only $15,000--not $15 million, like the UN posters project. Still, there is not enough funding to keep going–even though they have all the equipment, and use workers from each village to develop the relationships necessary to being effective. They have not been able to stir up enough interest from donor agencies.
The journalist with his decades of experience left us with a last sobering thought. “The Taliban are regaining their footing among the people here because the U.S. and others said, “get rid of the Taliban, and we’ll bring you x, y, z...” But they have turned their backs on us and broke their promises.”
by Le Anne Clausen
“When you go home, just give a realistic report of this alarming situation,” he said. “If you forget again, it will explode again. Next time, it won’t be the Twin Towers, but all of New York.”
He is Reza Deghati, the famed photojournalist of National Geographic, perhaps best known for his coverage of Afghan Anti-Taliban warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated September 9, 2001. Now he spends his time at the AINA Media Center in Kabul, a nonprofit organization devoted to developing Afghan civil society through mass communication.
“The whole media can be run at cost of one bomb,” he said. He was quite blunt throughout our group visit in the courtyard of the center.
Why devote so much rehabilitation energy and resources to a media project, we asked. He responded the way a seasoned war photojournalist might. Wars continue to cause two types damage: the physical buildings and bodies–which one can photograph; and the deeper, main form of damage that perpetuates war–the identity and cultural destruction, the wounding of souls.
“You can build schools and hospitals in two or three months, but that doesn’t change people, they will just use schools and hospitals to build better wars. The Taliban trained in schools and were treated in the hospitals we built,” he says of the last round of U.S. invasion/ reconstruction/ abandonment, a quarter-century ago.
“These facilities get built because you can photograph them and get more money. Magazines are not photo-worthy.” Reza is especially passionate about the children’s magazine they produce, Parwaz (Dari for ‘to fly or rise’), which is distributed in schools throughout the country. It includes colorfully illustrated articles on science, culture, foreign language vocabularies, health, civic education, and letters sent in from young readers. The magazine is produced on heavy paper because the copies are passed through many hands, reaching unschooled children and their families as well. It only costs eighty cents a copy to produce, yet the project is in financial jeopardy, even despite the personal investment of Reza and other affiliated journalists.
“The children here have heard shooting from their first day of life. With this we can take them out of the confined world of war, and open the universe to them.” He sees it as treating the wounded souls through a form of peace education. “Material things can always be destroyed in war. What’s in your mind can’t be taken away, and this is the importance of this education.”
Reza sees new hope in the new generation of Afghans. AINA seeks to reach the ‘third generation,’ through societal, deep long term change, understanding the costs of war, instilling culture and pride.
Their other projects include eight mobile cinemas which go out to the villages to women audiences, showing educational films on women’s health and human rights. The documentaries are a strategy for educating populations who are largely illiterate. Also, he says, “Posters are not effective for women in burqas. On the street, you can’t see them if you can’t look sideways [due to the restrictive garment].”
The documentaries rely on Afghan folk stories to communicate today’s necessary messages. These are not new ideas, but forgotten ones. The cinema operators, men who are recruited from the target villages, show the films to the village elders ahead of time, and they routinely approve screenings for the rest of the population. “They never saw cinema before, it’s a medium that really sticks,” he says. In one day, they could reach all the women of the village in their own language. Topics include the need for peace education, ‘let the Loya Jirga work’--the more fighting the more scars destruction; sending daughters to school, and sending women who need medical care to the hospital, among others.
“This isn’t propaganda,” he says. They train volunteers at the center in drama in order to produce the films. The entire cost for the program is only $15,000--not $15 million, like the UN posters project. Still, there is not enough funding to keep going–even though they have all the equipment, and use workers from each village to develop the relationships necessary to being effective. They have not been able to stir up enough interest from donor agencies.
The journalist with his decades of experience left us with a last sobering thought. “The Taliban are regaining their footing among the people here because the U.S. and others said, “get rid of the Taliban, and we’ll bring you x, y, z...” But they have turned their backs on us and broke their promises.”
Finding Rumi in Afghanistan
Finding Rumi in Afghanistan
by Le Anne Clausen
We were surprised and fascinated to learn that within our guest house existed a longtime scholar of Sufism in Afghanistan, in the person of our guide’s father-in-law. Now serving daily as a guard for the guest house, he assisted in producing two Canadian film projects on the topic.
The father of Sufism, Maulana Jalaluddin Mohammed Rumi Balkhi, indicates a tribal name of Balkhi, ‘of Balkh,’ in Afghanistan. He was born there in 1207 CE and remained until the family moved to Baghdad to continue his father’s academic theological career. “Sufi is nothing more than another face of Islam,” summarizes our scholar. In the development of Sufi spirituality, he distinguished between exoterism, or the external respect of law as followed by adherents of a religion; and esoterism, or appreciation of the internal aspects of Qur’an–from which Muslim mysticism comes.
Rumi’s father was given the title, Sultan Ulama, or “King of Theology,” acknowledging his prominence as an exoterist. When the family moved to Konya, Turkey, for his father to continue teaching, Rumi met famous the dervish, Shamis Tabrez. The encounter changed Rumi completely, shifting him into Esoterism and Sufism. Rumi, who was following in his father’s footsteps, quit teaching as before. He began to explore chanting, music and dance not used in exoterism. Flutes took on special importance in his spirituality. A guiding reference is found in La Masnerii, the main collection of Rumi’s work: “Listen to the sound of the flute, how it tells its sorrows...”
Sufism sees humankind as cut off from its origins and always in search of it. This is the ‘purification of the ego’–the ego always in progression. In the first stage of the progression, the soul is consumed with evil and the desire for wrongdoing. By force of meditation, one can arrive at the second stage of reproaching oneself, asking, ‘Why do I do this?’ The third stage, fulfillment, evolves perfectly towards contentment. It’s also to achieve contentment that we work to achieve perfection of the ego, which is the goal of Sufism
Meditative chant and dance are some of the various methods used towards goal. The variations occur among the different schools of Sufism. The Naqshbandia use meditation and silence. The Qadriya originated in Baghdad, and practice mediation with vocal repetition of the 99 names of God, and movement. The Teshtia use music and voice together, meditation, and celebrations yearly in India and New Delhi. In Sufism, dance is not regarded as a material body performance but as meditation. These are the main schools; others pay attention to the breathing patterns or looking where one is putting his feet. The varieties spread among different countries, including those in Northern Africa.
Rumi’s impact is still alive today in Afghanistan. Although exact numbers are not available, a sizable minority of Sunni in Afghanistan still adhere to the Hanafi school of Sufism.[1]
[1]http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Discrimination_against_non-Muslims_in_Afghanistan, 9/17/05
by Le Anne Clausen
We were surprised and fascinated to learn that within our guest house existed a longtime scholar of Sufism in Afghanistan, in the person of our guide’s father-in-law. Now serving daily as a guard for the guest house, he assisted in producing two Canadian film projects on the topic.
The father of Sufism, Maulana Jalaluddin Mohammed Rumi Balkhi, indicates a tribal name of Balkhi, ‘of Balkh,’ in Afghanistan. He was born there in 1207 CE and remained until the family moved to Baghdad to continue his father’s academic theological career. “Sufi is nothing more than another face of Islam,” summarizes our scholar. In the development of Sufi spirituality, he distinguished between exoterism, or the external respect of law as followed by adherents of a religion; and esoterism, or appreciation of the internal aspects of Qur’an–from which Muslim mysticism comes.
Rumi’s father was given the title, Sultan Ulama, or “King of Theology,” acknowledging his prominence as an exoterist. When the family moved to Konya, Turkey, for his father to continue teaching, Rumi met famous the dervish, Shamis Tabrez. The encounter changed Rumi completely, shifting him into Esoterism and Sufism. Rumi, who was following in his father’s footsteps, quit teaching as before. He began to explore chanting, music and dance not used in exoterism. Flutes took on special importance in his spirituality. A guiding reference is found in La Masnerii, the main collection of Rumi’s work: “Listen to the sound of the flute, how it tells its sorrows...”
Sufism sees humankind as cut off from its origins and always in search of it. This is the ‘purification of the ego’–the ego always in progression. In the first stage of the progression, the soul is consumed with evil and the desire for wrongdoing. By force of meditation, one can arrive at the second stage of reproaching oneself, asking, ‘Why do I do this?’ The third stage, fulfillment, evolves perfectly towards contentment. It’s also to achieve contentment that we work to achieve perfection of the ego, which is the goal of Sufism
Meditative chant and dance are some of the various methods used towards goal. The variations occur among the different schools of Sufism. The Naqshbandia use meditation and silence. The Qadriya originated in Baghdad, and practice mediation with vocal repetition of the 99 names of God, and movement. The Teshtia use music and voice together, meditation, and celebrations yearly in India and New Delhi. In Sufism, dance is not regarded as a material body performance but as meditation. These are the main schools; others pay attention to the breathing patterns or looking where one is putting his feet. The varieties spread among different countries, including those in Northern Africa.
Rumi’s impact is still alive today in Afghanistan. Although exact numbers are not available, a sizable minority of Sunni in Afghanistan still adhere to the Hanafi school of Sufism.[1]
[1]http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Discrimination_against_non-Muslims_in_Afghanistan, 9/17/05
the Hazara Shi'a of Afghanistan
Discovering the Hazara Shi’a of Afghanistan
by Le Anne Clausen
In my travels, I heard repeatedly that the Hazara are traditionally considered to be the descendants of Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. I did observe that their features are indeed distinctly East Asian, as compared to the more Arab or Middle Eastern appearance of other ethnic groups within Afghanistan. They are typically concentrated in or come from Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh, and the aptly-named Hazarajat areas of the country. ‘Hazara’ is considered both an ethnic and religious distinction, as most Hazara are Shi’a. Not all Shi’a in Afghanistan are Hazara,[1] but they constitute the vast majority of the adherents. Shi’a make up 15% of the country’s religious population.
On the street, I observed Hazara working as gardeners, or as a sort of ‘hidden’ servants or even in roles similar to an ‘untouchable’ caste. Where I did not observe them was owning many shops or even waiting in restaurants. The currently popular novel by Khaled Husseini, The Kite Runner,[2] describes Hazara life similarly: the dominant class has generally considered them stupid, backwards, overly pious; and they are subject to mistreatment both individually and as a group.
This is certainly evidenced by the reports of human rights violations against the Hazara. Taliban leaders studied under the Sunni Deobandi seminaries in Pakistan “sought to ‘purify’ Islam by discarding supposedly un-Islamic accretions to the faith.”[3] Two fatwas were issued in Afghanistan’s history against the Hazara. The latter, issued by the Taliban reads,
The second fatwa, issued in 1998 by the Taliban Mullah Manon Niazi in Mazhar-i Sharif, blames all Hazara for the brutal deaths of Taliban soldiers the year before, when a failed attempt to capture the key northern city ended in the massacre of some 2,000 Taliban soldiers. "Hazaras! Where will you escape? If you jump in the air, we will still grasp your legs; if you sink into the earth, we will catch hold of your ears." The decree reads on: "Hazaras are not Muslim. You can kill them and it is not a sin."[4]
However, the earlier was issued in 1892 by the Emir Abdurrahman Khan, as:
“a detailed set of instructions to Afghan mullahs to drill home the message to all Afghans that Shi'a Muslims will not be tolerated. ‘With a view to bringing this stray flock to the true faith, I have ordered that [Shi'a] should be preached to and exhorted to give up their false religion. If they do not listen to the advice and preaching of the Sunnis, it will be absolutely necessary that they are put to death.’”[5]
Thus was the stage set for discrimination against the group prior to the rise of the Taliban, which Husseini also describes in the early chapters of his novel.
January 2001 saw the Taliban massacre of several hundred civilians at Yakaolang in central Afghanistan, after they took over new territories previously held by other warlords. The same report also cites forced expulsions and harassment of Hazara as Taliban forces conquered and occupied new areas.
Human Rights Watch states that the conflict between Hazara and Taliban is political and military as well as religious, and that religion is a significant, though not necessarily exclusive reason for repression. The organization also states that the Hazara have carried out human rights violations of their own.[6]
More recently, in January 2003, Hazara have had nearly 200 shops in the Lashkar Gah municipality confiscated and were denied the right to build a mosque there also. “While the Human Rights Commission and the UN had reached an agreement in February 2003with the Governor to compensate Hazara shopkeepers with land elsewhere in Lashkar Gah, the Governor had only partly honored this agreement by the end of period covered by this report.”[7]
In August 1998, Taliban forces carried out a massacre against the inhabitants of Mazar-i-Sharif, primarily populated by Hazara Shi’a, killing thousands of civilians and prisoners. The massacre was considered revenge for a 1997 massacre of Taliban forces.[8] In September 1998, 500 more Hazara were killed at Bamiyan; Hazaras regained control of the city in April 1999 after a long guerrilla campaign. However, the Taliban recaptured Bamiyan in May 1999 and killed more Shi’a residents[9]
I found several dozen websites memorializing these events, set up by individual Hazara, particularly young people. Hazara.org included an open posting page which expressed anger at being treated worse than the many other ethnic groups in Afghanistan, as well as calls for peace and unity in the country. Hazara.net is “dedicated to the souls of hundreds of thousands of Hazara men, women, and children who have lost their lives to religious persection during the 19th through 21st centuries in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere,” and contains a variety of human rights advocacy and cultural information. The ‘Nation of Hazara’ site emphasizes the community’s Shi’a religious heritage.[10] Otherwise, information is somewhat difficult to find, including only a handful of mostly out-of-print books.
So where does this leave me? I went to Afghanistan looking for the Shi’a, and I encountered this group of people with a long and difficult history. Still, I cannot speak on Afghanistan without doing justice to them, just as I find I cannot speak on Islam and Muslims without doing justice to the Shi’a tradition and people’s history of persecution. The history of a people’s suffering cannot whitewash their own violent actions, although proportion of violence done must be communicated authentically. I think the next step for me academically is to explore further the growth of Shi’ism beyond the Arab/Middle Eastern context into other nations and ethnicities.
[1]Afghanistan: International Religious Freedom Report, U.S. State Dept. Bureau Of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35513.htm Accessed 9/17/05
[2]Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Trade, 2004.
[3] “Status of Religious Freedom in Afghanistan,” article in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_religious_freedom_in_Afghanistan. Accessed 9/17/05
[4] “The Issue at Hand,” interview by Nyier Abdou, Al-Ahram Weekly, November 17, 2001. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/561/7war2.htm
[5] ibid.
[6] “Massacres of Hazara in Afghanistan,” produced by Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghanistan/afghan101-02.htm. Accessed 9/17/05.
[7] See ft. 1, “Afghanistan: International Religious Freedom Report,” 2004.
[8] ibid.
[9] “Abuses of Religious Freedom,” article in http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Discrimination_against_non-Muslims_in_Afghanistan, accessed September 17, 2005
[10] http://members.tripod.com/MillateHazara/
by Le Anne Clausen
In my travels, I heard repeatedly that the Hazara are traditionally considered to be the descendants of Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. I did observe that their features are indeed distinctly East Asian, as compared to the more Arab or Middle Eastern appearance of other ethnic groups within Afghanistan. They are typically concentrated in or come from Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh, and the aptly-named Hazarajat areas of the country. ‘Hazara’ is considered both an ethnic and religious distinction, as most Hazara are Shi’a. Not all Shi’a in Afghanistan are Hazara,[1] but they constitute the vast majority of the adherents. Shi’a make up 15% of the country’s religious population.
On the street, I observed Hazara working as gardeners, or as a sort of ‘hidden’ servants or even in roles similar to an ‘untouchable’ caste. Where I did not observe them was owning many shops or even waiting in restaurants. The currently popular novel by Khaled Husseini, The Kite Runner,[2] describes Hazara life similarly: the dominant class has generally considered them stupid, backwards, overly pious; and they are subject to mistreatment both individually and as a group.
This is certainly evidenced by the reports of human rights violations against the Hazara. Taliban leaders studied under the Sunni Deobandi seminaries in Pakistan “sought to ‘purify’ Islam by discarding supposedly un-Islamic accretions to the faith.”[3] Two fatwas were issued in Afghanistan’s history against the Hazara. The latter, issued by the Taliban reads,
The second fatwa, issued in 1998 by the Taliban Mullah Manon Niazi in Mazhar-i Sharif, blames all Hazara for the brutal deaths of Taliban soldiers the year before, when a failed attempt to capture the key northern city ended in the massacre of some 2,000 Taliban soldiers. "Hazaras! Where will you escape? If you jump in the air, we will still grasp your legs; if you sink into the earth, we will catch hold of your ears." The decree reads on: "Hazaras are not Muslim. You can kill them and it is not a sin."[4]
However, the earlier was issued in 1892 by the Emir Abdurrahman Khan, as:
“a detailed set of instructions to Afghan mullahs to drill home the message to all Afghans that Shi'a Muslims will not be tolerated. ‘With a view to bringing this stray flock to the true faith, I have ordered that [Shi'a] should be preached to and exhorted to give up their false religion. If they do not listen to the advice and preaching of the Sunnis, it will be absolutely necessary that they are put to death.’”[5]
Thus was the stage set for discrimination against the group prior to the rise of the Taliban, which Husseini also describes in the early chapters of his novel.
January 2001 saw the Taliban massacre of several hundred civilians at Yakaolang in central Afghanistan, after they took over new territories previously held by other warlords. The same report also cites forced expulsions and harassment of Hazara as Taliban forces conquered and occupied new areas.
Human Rights Watch states that the conflict between Hazara and Taliban is political and military as well as religious, and that religion is a significant, though not necessarily exclusive reason for repression. The organization also states that the Hazara have carried out human rights violations of their own.[6]
More recently, in January 2003, Hazara have had nearly 200 shops in the Lashkar Gah municipality confiscated and were denied the right to build a mosque there also. “While the Human Rights Commission and the UN had reached an agreement in February 2003with the Governor to compensate Hazara shopkeepers with land elsewhere in Lashkar Gah, the Governor had only partly honored this agreement by the end of period covered by this report.”[7]
In August 1998, Taliban forces carried out a massacre against the inhabitants of Mazar-i-Sharif, primarily populated by Hazara Shi’a, killing thousands of civilians and prisoners. The massacre was considered revenge for a 1997 massacre of Taliban forces.[8] In September 1998, 500 more Hazara were killed at Bamiyan; Hazaras regained control of the city in April 1999 after a long guerrilla campaign. However, the Taliban recaptured Bamiyan in May 1999 and killed more Shi’a residents[9]
I found several dozen websites memorializing these events, set up by individual Hazara, particularly young people. Hazara.org included an open posting page which expressed anger at being treated worse than the many other ethnic groups in Afghanistan, as well as calls for peace and unity in the country. Hazara.net is “dedicated to the souls of hundreds of thousands of Hazara men, women, and children who have lost their lives to religious persection during the 19th through 21st centuries in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere,” and contains a variety of human rights advocacy and cultural information. The ‘Nation of Hazara’ site emphasizes the community’s Shi’a religious heritage.[10] Otherwise, information is somewhat difficult to find, including only a handful of mostly out-of-print books.
So where does this leave me? I went to Afghanistan looking for the Shi’a, and I encountered this group of people with a long and difficult history. Still, I cannot speak on Afghanistan without doing justice to them, just as I find I cannot speak on Islam and Muslims without doing justice to the Shi’a tradition and people’s history of persecution. The history of a people’s suffering cannot whitewash their own violent actions, although proportion of violence done must be communicated authentically. I think the next step for me academically is to explore further the growth of Shi’ism beyond the Arab/Middle Eastern context into other nations and ethnicities.
[1]Afghanistan: International Religious Freedom Report, U.S. State Dept. Bureau Of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35513.htm Accessed 9/17/05
[2]Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Trade, 2004.
[3] “Status of Religious Freedom in Afghanistan,” article in Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_religious_freedom_in_Afghanistan. Accessed 9/17/05
[4] “The Issue at Hand,” interview by Nyier Abdou, Al-Ahram Weekly, November 17, 2001. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/561/7war2.htm
[5] ibid.
[6] “Massacres of Hazara in Afghanistan,” produced by Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghanistan/afghan101-02.htm. Accessed 9/17/05.
[7] See ft. 1, “Afghanistan: International Religious Freedom Report,” 2004.
[8] ibid.
[9] “Abuses of Religious Freedom,” article in http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Discrimination_against_non-Muslims_in_Afghanistan, accessed September 17, 2005
[10] http://members.tripod.com/MillateHazara/
A Blind Imam in a Kabul Madrasa
A Blind Imam in a Kabul Madrasa
by Le Anne Clausen
The imam sees it as his responsibility to serve the people of Afghanistan. He does a lot towards this goal, with 760 students attending classes. Female students come in the afternoons; boys in the morning. Students may or may not attend another school. “There is no discrimination here,” he says, “Children and adults can both attend at no cost.” The madrasa teaches Qur’an, tenets of the Muslim faith, and writing. “We also teach them to know themselves,” he says. “The mosque is essential, the education of youth begins there. It is a place of education and prayer.”
We were in for a long and later tense conversation, after the imam chided us for not asking more than polite questions. His answers about the tough controversial issues of our day gave me much to think about, especially in understanding how Islam might frame the root issues. It was a hot and dusty afternoon, and we sat on the floor in a simple receiving room. This imam was known for being enthusiastic about talking with foreigners, and I was quite grateful afterwards for the time. I have grouped his thoughts throughout the afternoon by the variety of topics covered.
On Violence:
“The first principal in Islam is to have character, so we cannot push people to be violent,” he said. “Violence is always used by people to do wrong. The justice of God is like the sun. Anyone who is aware of it will believe in it.
“Violent crime must be abolished, human rights must be respected. In Afghanistan, it is because of ignorance that we have seen so much war. One example is how the story of the desecration of the Qur’an at Guantanamo Bay. The manner in which the story was disseminated led to many deaths; they should have focused on bringing the perpetrators to justice in the U.S., not on destroying Afghans.
“We need prominent teachers, to teach wisdom and nonviolence, and the students will succeed in rejecting violence.
“If we give too much money to an ignorant person, he will do wrong and hurt others. But if we give it to the wise, they will use it for scholarship, to buy books, and so forth.
“Moderation is needed in Afghanistan. The violence is very bad. We need moderation in all things, especially conflict. If I use violence to punch a wall, I hurt myself also. The Qur’an advises using negotiation to resolve disputes.”
On Interfaith Relations:
“Islam and Christianity are the same, if anyone tries to divide them, that is neither Christian or Muslim. The prophets are the same, though people try to make them seem separate. The Qur’an came into the society which existed at the time, it mentions the Torah and the Bible, Christians and Jews. The Qur’an was sent to everybody, all groups. I challenge anybody to differentiate between Jesus, Moses, and Mohammed. Islam doesn’t accept differences. If prophets sent by the same God, how can they be different? I wonder myself, how can these teachings be brought together in a universal, unifying way?”
On Jihad:
“I am trying to improve myself first. When you struggle for something, you have to start with yourself. Anyone who wants to engage in jihad needs to start with self. The goal is to orient the self to God first, then others; to help others is neccesary to being closer to God.”
Of the Future Role of Women in Afghanistan:
“God can see every person oriented to equality. Women will have a future. Without this, both men and women will be without a future. Everyone must participate in building this future, not just one group.”
“If wisdom is pursued, then women’s rights will be respected. We will not be destroyed by Islam but by ignorance.
“God created man and woman and each person and we must decide our own lives for ourselves. Women have the right to assert their desire to work. Men still have the responsibility to provide for the family, he can’t shirk this. Kids do need a lot of attention, though, with breastfeeding in particular, but women still have the right to work outside the home. Women of course do work hard in the home already.
“Islam gives women three personal rights men do not have: property rights, a right to one third of the brother’s inheritance, which she can even bring into and keep if she marries; and half of her future husband’s property should be the right of the wife.
“Women’s rights are not respected in advertising, women should be sacred, not exploited.
“I am against the practice of rejecting women. Islam states that men and women should before marrying come to a good understanding of one another, with witnesses of the community surrounding and supporting them. If a man rejects his wife, there are tough consequences.
“Women’s rights are not that of bed to bed, that is, sexual freedoms, but of marriage, to enter into it with respect and understanding. Beyond the property women bring into a marriage, the man must provide for her well-being. She deserves respect; Islam doesn’t promote disrespect. This is the command of Jesus and Moses and Mohammed and Abraham and all prophets, that God commands all to do so.”
On Marriage and Divorce:
“In Islam, a man may have only one wife except in necessitating circumstances. Marriage is for life. Both parents benefit from children, it is mutual. Without family structure, we are doomed to fail. Divorce is difficult. A man has no right to deceive his wife, and vice versa; it is sinful for either to commit adultery. In this world we need love which is strong and clean, with people divorcing here and there, life is without purpose. Kids need education, and to be cared for. Love parents, because when they are old and powerless, love benefits them. Life is to be spent for one another. If there is lots of love in this world, it will abound in goodness.”
On Homosexuality:
“Islam is strongly opposed to homosexuality and believes it should be punished, because women’s rights are not respected in this way. If homosexuality is natural, why were women created? Islam has punishments for those who disrepect rights. Women are good; men’s and women’s characters complement one another. A man should not deprive a woman of sexual relations. The traditional punishment is to put them underneath a wall for this.”
On Domestic Violence:
“Neither men nor women should be violent towards each other. This world is created for love. Women shouldn’t leave without their rights, her property, and so forth. She is entitled, accounts must be settled.”
On Abortion:
“If intentional, abortion is a crime, and an example needs to be made of the perpetrator. All children have the right to live as well. This is democratic. Freedom to exist is democratic. It is not democratic to kill children or the elderly. The reason for such abortion is to cover up adultery, this isn’t an excuse. You should not be unfaithful without consequences. In other matters, the husband and wife should agree, as the child is the fruit of both. You can’t live without kids. The elderly don’t become young again.”
Should religious leaders (not) be involved in politics? What are their responsibilities?
“This is a Western concept; answer depends on the leaders themselves, so far I have not seen positive acts or examples here. Leaders seem to be after material goods and pacification of the masses. In scholarship, nothing should be falsified away from the truth, instead of making political alliances, should be pursuing wisdom in leadership.”
Who are the wise leaders in the world?
“I’m not that wise.”
by Le Anne Clausen
The imam sees it as his responsibility to serve the people of Afghanistan. He does a lot towards this goal, with 760 students attending classes. Female students come in the afternoons; boys in the morning. Students may or may not attend another school. “There is no discrimination here,” he says, “Children and adults can both attend at no cost.” The madrasa teaches Qur’an, tenets of the Muslim faith, and writing. “We also teach them to know themselves,” he says. “The mosque is essential, the education of youth begins there. It is a place of education and prayer.”
We were in for a long and later tense conversation, after the imam chided us for not asking more than polite questions. His answers about the tough controversial issues of our day gave me much to think about, especially in understanding how Islam might frame the root issues. It was a hot and dusty afternoon, and we sat on the floor in a simple receiving room. This imam was known for being enthusiastic about talking with foreigners, and I was quite grateful afterwards for the time. I have grouped his thoughts throughout the afternoon by the variety of topics covered.
On Violence:
“The first principal in Islam is to have character, so we cannot push people to be violent,” he said. “Violence is always used by people to do wrong. The justice of God is like the sun. Anyone who is aware of it will believe in it.
“Violent crime must be abolished, human rights must be respected. In Afghanistan, it is because of ignorance that we have seen so much war. One example is how the story of the desecration of the Qur’an at Guantanamo Bay. The manner in which the story was disseminated led to many deaths; they should have focused on bringing the perpetrators to justice in the U.S., not on destroying Afghans.
“We need prominent teachers, to teach wisdom and nonviolence, and the students will succeed in rejecting violence.
“If we give too much money to an ignorant person, he will do wrong and hurt others. But if we give it to the wise, they will use it for scholarship, to buy books, and so forth.
“Moderation is needed in Afghanistan. The violence is very bad. We need moderation in all things, especially conflict. If I use violence to punch a wall, I hurt myself also. The Qur’an advises using negotiation to resolve disputes.”
On Interfaith Relations:
“Islam and Christianity are the same, if anyone tries to divide them, that is neither Christian or Muslim. The prophets are the same, though people try to make them seem separate. The Qur’an came into the society which existed at the time, it mentions the Torah and the Bible, Christians and Jews. The Qur’an was sent to everybody, all groups. I challenge anybody to differentiate between Jesus, Moses, and Mohammed. Islam doesn’t accept differences. If prophets sent by the same God, how can they be different? I wonder myself, how can these teachings be brought together in a universal, unifying way?”
On Jihad:
“I am trying to improve myself first. When you struggle for something, you have to start with yourself. Anyone who wants to engage in jihad needs to start with self. The goal is to orient the self to God first, then others; to help others is neccesary to being closer to God.”
Of the Future Role of Women in Afghanistan:
“God can see every person oriented to equality. Women will have a future. Without this, both men and women will be without a future. Everyone must participate in building this future, not just one group.”
“If wisdom is pursued, then women’s rights will be respected. We will not be destroyed by Islam but by ignorance.
“God created man and woman and each person and we must decide our own lives for ourselves. Women have the right to assert their desire to work. Men still have the responsibility to provide for the family, he can’t shirk this. Kids do need a lot of attention, though, with breastfeeding in particular, but women still have the right to work outside the home. Women of course do work hard in the home already.
“Islam gives women three personal rights men do not have: property rights, a right to one third of the brother’s inheritance, which she can even bring into and keep if she marries; and half of her future husband’s property should be the right of the wife.
“Women’s rights are not respected in advertising, women should be sacred, not exploited.
“I am against the practice of rejecting women. Islam states that men and women should before marrying come to a good understanding of one another, with witnesses of the community surrounding and supporting them. If a man rejects his wife, there are tough consequences.
“Women’s rights are not that of bed to bed, that is, sexual freedoms, but of marriage, to enter into it with respect and understanding. Beyond the property women bring into a marriage, the man must provide for her well-being. She deserves respect; Islam doesn’t promote disrespect. This is the command of Jesus and Moses and Mohammed and Abraham and all prophets, that God commands all to do so.”
On Marriage and Divorce:
“In Islam, a man may have only one wife except in necessitating circumstances. Marriage is for life. Both parents benefit from children, it is mutual. Without family structure, we are doomed to fail. Divorce is difficult. A man has no right to deceive his wife, and vice versa; it is sinful for either to commit adultery. In this world we need love which is strong and clean, with people divorcing here and there, life is without purpose. Kids need education, and to be cared for. Love parents, because when they are old and powerless, love benefits them. Life is to be spent for one another. If there is lots of love in this world, it will abound in goodness.”
On Homosexuality:
“Islam is strongly opposed to homosexuality and believes it should be punished, because women’s rights are not respected in this way. If homosexuality is natural, why were women created? Islam has punishments for those who disrepect rights. Women are good; men’s and women’s characters complement one another. A man should not deprive a woman of sexual relations. The traditional punishment is to put them underneath a wall for this.”
On Domestic Violence:
“Neither men nor women should be violent towards each other. This world is created for love. Women shouldn’t leave without their rights, her property, and so forth. She is entitled, accounts must be settled.”
On Abortion:
“If intentional, abortion is a crime, and an example needs to be made of the perpetrator. All children have the right to live as well. This is democratic. Freedom to exist is democratic. It is not democratic to kill children or the elderly. The reason for such abortion is to cover up adultery, this isn’t an excuse. You should not be unfaithful without consequences. In other matters, the husband and wife should agree, as the child is the fruit of both. You can’t live without kids. The elderly don’t become young again.”
Should religious leaders (not) be involved in politics? What are their responsibilities?
“This is a Western concept; answer depends on the leaders themselves, so far I have not seen positive acts or examples here. Leaders seem to be after material goods and pacification of the masses. In scholarship, nothing should be falsified away from the truth, instead of making political alliances, should be pursuing wisdom in leadership.”
Who are the wise leaders in the world?
“I’m not that wise.”
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Real Curves
(in response to the Dove ads on the ‘campaign for real beauty:’
www.campaignforrealbeauty.com )
Real curves.
These real women have real curves. Not:
plasticized sexualized injected artificial heightened so-called 'liberated' sucked-in plucked colored-in obliterated violated under-the-knife hollow, lost, Styrene?
no extremes.
Just real curves,
comfortable in their skin.
Real curves.
These women have real curves. Not:
covered up romanticized burqa chador gloved hands so-called 'modest' invisible obliterated hit-with-rods immolated hollow, lost, "serene?"
no extremes.
what’s ideal?
There’s a spectrum in this mess, and in the middle must lie something
Real.
www.campaignforrealbeauty.com )
Real curves.
These real women have real curves. Not:
plasticized sexualized injected artificial heightened so-called 'liberated' sucked-in plucked colored-in obliterated violated under-the-knife hollow, lost, Styrene?
no extremes.
Just real curves,
comfortable in their skin.
Real curves.
These women have real curves. Not:
covered up romanticized burqa chador gloved hands so-called 'modest' invisible obliterated hit-with-rods immolated hollow, lost, "serene?"
no extremes.
what’s ideal?
There’s a spectrum in this mess, and in the middle must lie something
Real.
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