In all muslim countries including the countries in middle east region , women suffer due to several acts of suppression in different form, and such conditions obviously imply that Islamic extremists do not recognize women as equal children of God as the men are.
by N.S.Venkataraman
The decision of the Taliban government in Afghanistan (A government under the control of Islamic extremists) not to permit women’s cricket team in Afghanistan clearly show how backward, oppressive and uncivilized the Islamic extremists are. Immediately after Taliban took over the Afghan government by force, there were some protests from muslim women in Afghanistan, who were enjoying reasonable level of freedom in Afghanistan before take over by Taliban. This clearly indicate how the women in Afghanistan are unhappy and highly concerned about their forcibly reduced status in the country by the Taliban government. After some initial protest, the protesting women were suppressed ruthlessly and silenced by the Taliban government.
In all muslim countries including the countries in middle east region , women suffer due to several acts of suppression in different form, and such conditions obviously imply that Islamic extremists do not recognize women as equal children of God as the men are.
In western countries , muslim women enjoy reasonable level of freedom and of late even in these countries too , women are living constantly fearing the eagle eye of Islamic extremists.
It appears that Islamic extremists think that muslim women must necessarily be kept under strict supervision of muslim men and they mistakenly believe that this is the decree of Prophet Mohammed , which is not so.
There are several women liberation movement all over the world in different countries but such movement are conspicuous by absence in Islamic countries.
Even in India, which is a secular democracy with all religions given equal importance and respect, muslim women largely still remain suppressed by muslim men. In the last few years , suppression of muslim women has become even more intense in India. This is amply revealed by the fact that many muslim women do not dare to move out of their residence and visit public places without covering their face almost fully with eyes alone being exempted. This is particularly so , in the case of women belonging to lower income group who are millions in number.
The muslim women dare not speak about their problems due to lack of freedom, as they all the time live in fear. Even in the mosques, muslim women are treated differently.
In view of such control on muslim women, several muslim women do not get the opportunity to go for higher studies and take up jobs in many cases. Further, many muslim men marry several women ,which is the height of lack of civilization and oppression of women.
Of course, some muslim women dare to defy the control of the men but they are few and far between. There are some muslim men, particularly educated ones, who treat the muslim women in a more civilised way and do not restrict their freedom. But ,even such muslim men ,with reformist ideas rarely protest against the treatment meted out to large population of muslim women, fearing Islamic extremists.
Progress of civilization and concept of human rights demand that muslim women should be empowered and they should enjoy freedom in their thoughts and actions and get themselves liberated from the control of the Islamic extremists. This is not happening and this is very unfortunate.
These days, number of Islamic extremists amongst men seem to be steadily increasing and they openly say that they have belief in violence and are committed to the spread of Islamic religion by jihad. In such circumstances, Islamic extremists have become a threat to world peace.
Large number of Islamic extremists have already entered several countries in Europe and in Asia particularly in India . In such conditions, ethnic violence has become the order of the day in several European countries and in India and even in muslim countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Empowering of muslim women can happen only if the Islamic extremism can be effectively defeated. In other words, the world should target empowering muslim women and such empowerment would mean that Islamic extremism would remain defeated.
There is no doubt that support for the freedom of muslim women amongst the world community would give courage to muslim women to assert their rights and defy the Islamic extremism. Empowerment of muslim women adequately would be the sure sign that Islamic extremism remain weakened .
It is sad that the Human Rights Commission under the United Nations Organisation has not taken note of the suppression of muslim women by Islamic extremists .
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