I know, don’t give away the whole thing in the title. I don’t care; I am too angry.
Yesterday, I wrote of the success of Bulgarian women; part of their success, you may recall, was attributed to the absence of institutionalized (read: religious) structures supporting discrimination. There was discrimination, of course, but also optimism that change is coming swiftly.
Today, I see the other end of the spectrum. In a BBC report:
Human rights groups in Bangladesh have demanded a severe punishment for the husband of a young wife who allegedly cut off most of her right hand.
Police say Rafiqul Islam, 30, attacked her because she pursued higher education without his permission.
…
Police say that Mr Islam, who works in the United Arab Emirates, tied up his 21-year-old wife, Hawa Akther Jui, earlier this month. He then taped her mouth and cut off the five fingers.
I can’t imagine.
If there is any good news in this story, it is that the young woman is refusing to be deterred:
Ms Akther – who is eager to continue her studies – said that she wanted her husband to be severely punished for the attack.
“I have now started practising writing with my left hand. I want to see how far I can go. I never imagined that my fingers would be chopped off like this because of my studies.”
The attack is horrible, and reflects a truly sick mindset of misogyny. But given what “severe punishment” generally means in countries like the UAE (where capital and corporal punishment are in widespread use), I’m not comfortable with calling for anyone to be “severely punished” for anything, ever. As Gandhi put it, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind and toothless. Retribution doesn’t help; healing, reconciliation, and changing the culture do help.
I get more and more horrified every time I read one of these reports. I don’t understand. It’s just so fucking wrong. I wish I knew how to help make this kind of shit not happen to anyone.
#1 – Gandhi didn’t understand game theory. Tit-for-tat (that is, proportional retribution) is an optimal strategy. I’m not saying this guy should have his fingers cut off, but he should definitely be imprisoned so he can’t hurt anyone else.
Is she still married to him? Oh, and Walton, don’t worry–I doubt he will be punished severly, if at all. :-(
I can sympathize, walton, but I’ve never forgotten what my grandfather told me about entering Buchenwald the day it was liberated by 3rd Army, or his ultimate point about telling me those things. “It’s easy to think of causes worth dying for, but never forget there is a much smaller list of things worth killing for as well. Not nearly as many, but they may be more important.”
Violence, as deplorable as it is, and as costly as it is — my grandfather had nightmares for all his life about the people he’d killed — is not always about retribution. Someone whacked enough to tie up his wife and chop off her fingers (on his own authority, no less) isn’t safe and isn’t going to be reached by reason. I probably wouldn’t agree with maiming him in return, I’d suggest just painlessly killing the son of a bitch.
It’s sickening to hear about these stories… but conversely, we can take some satisfaction from that fact that we do hear them.
This stuff has been going on for millenia; the fact that we can finally shine a light on it, that the whole world can take a long hard look at what misogyny leads to — that’s a reason for hope.
Plus, this woman’s attitude kicks ass. I mean seriously, she makes all of us who skip school because it’s raining or there’s a mean looking spider by the door look pretty lame.
Given that amputation of important bodyparts seems to be quite central to Islamic ‘justice’, one wonders what they will do once it becomes feasible and affordable to build prosthetic limbs, hands etc that work about as well as the real thing. I don’t know if Ms Jui is inclined towards medicine and bio-engineering, but if she is, helping perfect such technologies might just be the best revenge.
What a hero. Honestly, if her husband’s crime made anyone despair about the state of humanity, her courage should redeem it.
#1. In some cases, the bastards deserve to be toothless and blind.
I hope they plan to press charges against “the other relative of Mr. Islam” that threw her fingers into the garbage.
Humanity wants to learn and grow. Islam doesn’t want people to learn and grow out of fear that they will outgrow Islam. Having lost the debate Islam resorts to violence to get its way.
Has anyone set up a scholarship fund for this woman? She needs to go to school far, far away from her “husband.”
Which means you have no claim to be a “better person” than he is. (Even aside from your use of misogynistic language.) Killing is killing is killing, and the “death penalty” is no different from murder.
Seriously, fuck off. I could argue with the violent retributivist-authoritarian fanatics on this thread, but I have better things to do.
Hey, Walton #13: You complained about someone’s “use of misogynistic language”. I guess that means you won’t be back to this blog after reading this post:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/cuttlefish/2011/11/10/am-i-making-myself-clear/
PS, try Google: the cuttlefish is very fond of using “bitch” as a pejorative.
Yes, but unlike some people, I have more than one thing I occasionally say.
Do you really think a post about a woman whose fingers have been cut off is the place for this, wigwam? You wouldn’t want to come off as petty, and detract from your cause, after all.
It’s ironic the guy’s surname is actually Islam. Islam is holding back this women from realizing their potential.
I frequently agree with Walton even when the in-group is bashing him but in this case I disagree. There are now more than 7 billion people in the world. We can well do without one who would chop off someone’s fingers for going to school. Really, we just don’t need him. He’s a cancer, a bit of gangrenous flesh. Excising him may not be pretty, may even be a bit sickening, but may also be necessary to save the body as a whole.