Ayoon Wa Azan (Not Among the Qualities of Arab Men)

There are two interesting news stories with me today: The first was carried by the Observer on 3/7/2011, entitled “Bosses join fight to seat women at the top table”. According to this story, a new British organization by the name of ‘the 30% Club’, comprising leaders of some of the largest British firms, was established with the aim of achieving a minimum of 30% representation for women in executive posts in major companies and their boards. The second story was published in the Independent two days later, entitled “Raped, stabbed, ignored: GP's daughter forced into marriage”. It is about a woman called Saima Ahmed, who grew up in a middle-class home (in England), the daughter of a doctor. According to the article, this did not stop her family from sending her to Pakistan to marry a man she had never met before – a man who raped her every night until she became pregnant. Finally, she fled back to England but her family soon sent a friend who stabbed her to death, also killing her unborn child. Thus, Western women reach the highest posts in their countries, while Arab or Muslim women are denied their most basic rights, facing oppression on a daily basis. Now I am not a fan of everything that has been achieved by women in the West. Before the news stories I mentioned above, there was news coming from almost every Western country about the so-called Slut Walk. This began when Constable Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto Police officer, suggested that to avoid rape, "women should avoid dressing like sluts." I pause here to note down something as a background to the topic, before I return to it. The above statement was in fact also made by a Muslim cleric in Australia. In the aftermath of this, a Likudnik website wrote a commentary on the statement entitled “the Religion of Rape” – i.e. Islam- which I had mentioned in this column at the time. But when the Canadian constable said the same thing, no one rose up to claim that Christianity or Judaism is a ‘religion of rape’. Returning to my topic today, ten weeks after the constable made his statement, many women in Canada gathered enough supporters to stage what was to be known as Slut Walk. Thousands of women thus protested in provocative clothes, revealing what should otherwise remain concealed, while shouting defiant slogans and demanding freedom and full equality with men. These rallies soon spread into many cities in North America, Britain, Australia and elsewhere, and there is news about Slut Walk marches every day in the media. Women in the West have attained their rights, are now on the return journey, while our Women have not even finished the first step in the one thousand mile march towards personal freedom. The Canadian constable used the word slut in the sense of promiscuous or someone who has loose morals. This is the modern meaning of the word, while the old meaning was dirty or slovenly, meaning someone who does not wash their hands or bathe, so perhaps this is the link between the old and modern meanings. I hope that Arab or Muslim women never reach such an extent of ‘equality’ that would allow them to walk nearly naked to express this, because this is debauchery, not freedom. However, I think we will not see this happen in our countries, neither today nor in the future. However, I also hope that Arab women will attain the status of full equality with men in rights and duties. Women represent half of the nation, and men have proved to be a failure at every level. Logic says that we should give women the chance to revive the nation. But then we are in the gutter exactly because logic is not among the qualities of Arab men. These men are governed by an inferiority complex or complexes. They see their lands being usurped and looted, their sacred places being attacked, and they cannot do anything about it. As a result, men turn to oppressing women, proving that they are no more sophisticated than porters on the street, or donkey herders, and there is a saying that goes, “A man who can’t flog a donkey, flogs the saddle”. Every single Arab woman, in every Arab country, who was given a quarter of a chance, has outsmarted men. In the end, denial is the ploy of the impotent, i.e. the Arab men alone. khazen@alhayat.com