Leadership roles


It makes my head hurt. Bringing more women into leadership roles so that they can force women into more submissive roles. No not Sarah Palin, no not Michelle Bachmann – the women in the Muslim Brotherhood.

The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt has brought with it a new  group of female politicians who say they are determined to bring more women into  leadership roles — and at the same time want to consecrate a deeply conservative Islamic vision for women in Egypt.

But if they are determined to bring more women into  leadership roles then why do they want to consecrate a deeply conservative  Islamic vision for women?

Really, people, those two things do not go together. It’s like trying to eat and vomit at the same time.

Islamists who make up the majority on the constitution-writing assembly are  racing to try to finish the document in the coming weeks to put it to a  referendum. One of the biggest fights is over an Islamist-backed clause that  would call for equality between men and women but only if it does not contradict  Islamic law, or Shariah…

Omaima Kamel, perhaps the most powerful of the Brotherhood women, defended  the clause. Kamel is a member of Morsi’s advisory team and sits on the  constitutional panel.

In a recent interview on state TV, she said that without the phrasing,  certain rights that Shariah gives to men and not to women could be overturned — such as men’s right to marry up to four women or inheritance laws that give a  greater to share to men than women. Such polygamy and inheritance laws existed  during the Mubarak era and in most Muslim countries.

Kamel, a 51-year-old doctor, dismissed fears that hardliners would use the  clause to pass harsh restrictions on women, saying only rulings of Shariah that  are “firmly established, with no controversy around them,” like polygamy and  inheritance, could be applied.

Oh great – only stuff like polygamy and unequal inheritance, which are totes uncontroversial.

Kamel goes on to say that issues of FGM “do not bother anyone, we have bigger issues” – which is grotesque, given what FGM is and what the experience of it is like.

It’s terrible. Of course the MB wants women like that in “leadership roles” – as figureheads to persuade everyone that women are just delighted with theocratic rules that make them inferiors.

Happy Malala Day.

 

Comments

  1. Pierce R. Butler says

    Once they get this program rolling, we can call it the Muslim Sisterhood, and each member a Muslim Sister – then who could object if they all start reading Ms magazine?

  2. Acolyte of Sagan says

    This from the OP

    One of the biggest fights is over an Islamist-backed clause that would call for equality between men and women but only if it does not contradict Islamic law, or Shariah…

    is eerily similar to this quote from the BBC about the new Archbish of Cant

    “While he has rigorously defended the Church’s right to oppose single-sex marriages, he has also been keen to accommodate opposing views expressed from a position of deeply held faith.”

  3. says

    It is sad to say, that for whatever reason, there are always a small number of people in the oppressed class (whatever it may may be) who side with the oppressors against their fellow whatever it may be. Also, it is important to remember, that when a society has had its integrity mangled for so long from without that any group that promises autonomy for the locals is going to look good by comparison if only in that respect.

  4. says

    This doesn’t surprise me. During the 19th century in the US, some of the loudest voices against the suffrage movement were women.

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