[AceOfHearts]

Misogyny: Pillar of Religious Fascism

The mullahs' totalitarian regime is based on the principle of velayat-e faqih. It derives its justification and theoretical basis from fiqh (jurisprudence) which encompasses all aspects of individual and social life. A review of this mindset in its totality, however, demonstrates that the pillar of this backward school of thought is gender distinction and discrimination. In other words, it is a gender-based ideology.

Theoretically, Iran's ruling fundamentalists establish their thesis on the differences between the sexes and the conclusion that the male is the superior sex and hence the female is a slave at his service. By this approach, they negate a woman's human identity.

The fundamentalist mind considers physiological traits as the determining factors in its value system. Gender-based differences are used to justify sexual discrimination and inevitably lead to enmity towards women. This is the bedrock of the fundamentalists' rationale, the leitmotif and cornerstone of their ideology which gives them inspiration and the power to mobilize their forces. The Quran, however, lays emphasis on the distinctive human characteristics - cognizance, free will and responsibility - that set the criteria.

Former mullahs' President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said: "The difference in stature, vitality, voice, development, muscular quality and physical strength of men and women shows that men are stronger and more capable in all fields... Men's brains are larger... These differences affect the delegation of responsibilities, duties and rights."

In truth, the fundamentalists do not believe women are human. To tone down such an outrageous view, however, fundamentalist ideologues have tried to equivocate in this respect. One such theorist, Morteza Motahhari, contends: "All women are fond of being supervised ... Men's spiritual superiority over women was designed by Mother Nature. No matter how much a woman wants to fight this reality, her efforts will prove futile. Women must accept the reality that because of their greater sensitivity, they need men to control their lives." ("The Order of Women's Rights in Islam," Morteza Motahhari).

The ultimate message of the mullahs' value system, laws and practices is that women are "weak" and properties of men who are superior to them as much as God is to mankind. The mullahs state explicitly: "It is a woman's legal duty to obey her husband. Such obedience, like other kinds of mandatory submissions, falls in the realm of obeying God."

Therefore, in the fundamentalists' view, women, as a second-class citizens, cannot and must not have any place in leadership, governance, judgeship and any serious post that deals with running society's affairs. They have gone as far as saying that "women must be kept uninformed to make sure they are obedient."

Former Judiciary Chief Mohammad Yazdi, who was a confidant of Khomeini and is now a member of the powerful watchdog Guardian Council, says: "In Islam, as we understand and practice it, women are banned from two things: serving as judges and governing. No matter how knowledgeable, wise, virtuous and competent they may be, women do not have the right to rule." Yazdi further stated: "If humans were not obliged to kneel before God only, women should have knelt before their husbands."

In the fundamentalists' view, therefore, women do not enjoy the right to participate in political and social life; rather, they serve as slaves to their husbands in their houses. In 1962 Khomeini vehemently opposed women's suffrage. He said: "Women have been allowed to work in offices and wherever they have gone, that office has been paralyzed... As soon as a woman enters a system, she messes it up."

A gender-based jurisprudence solidifies discrimination and inequality not only in social and political arenas but also in civil rights of women.

From this standpoint, the right to divorce is exclusive to men, and is justified as follows: "If the man does not put away his wife and remains loyal to her, the woman will also love him and remain loyal to him. Therefore, Nature has given the key to the natural dissolution of the marriage to the man." ("The Order of Women's Rights in Islam," Morterza Motahhari).

Accordingly, a woman's self esteem derives from the man, and so she does anything to gain his esteem. Her soul and flesh, feelings, even her basic identity, belong to and are identified with him. Man replaces God for a woman, a view plainly contradictory to monotheism, which Islam represents.

According to Islam and Islamic precepts, a woman owns her body and all her property. Under the pretext of the sanctity of the family, however, the reactionaries consider the husband as the owner of his wife's body and life, thus making her his slave.

Khomeini's theory of the velayat-e faqih begins with gender discrimination and ultimately tramples upon the most rudimentary human rights of women.

[Continued next post...]

[AceOfHearts]

Khomeini's confidant, Ahmad Azari Qomi, who received several key judicial appointments, said the following on the marriage of virgin girls: "In Islam, the marriage of a virgin girl is not allowed without the permission of the father and the consent of the girl. Both must agree, but at the same time the rule of the divine leadership supercedes that of the father and the girl on the issue of marriage and vali-e faqih can enforce his view contrary to the opinion of the father and the girl." This means a mullah could sanction the forced marriage of the girl over her own objection and that of her father.

The gender distinction is so evident in all aspects of the mullahs' jurisprudence, including in worship, in trade and in signing contracts, that no justification can conceal the philosophical essence and dualistic nature of the mullahs' gender-based ideology and distinctions.

As pointed out earlier, even in remarks by the more recent fundamentalist theoreticians who have sought to soften the harsh image of the regime, gender distinction and the denial of women's human dignity is far too apparent to be concealed.

Motahhari says paradoxically: "... Women and men are equal in their human essence, but they are two different forms of humans, with two different sets of attributes and two different psyches..." He then emphasizes: "Such differences are not a consequence of geographic, historic or social factors, but are enshrined in the essence of Creation. There is a purpose to these natural differences, and any practice which contradicts Nature and man's natural disposition will bring about undesirable consequences."

From the fundamentalist mullahs' perspective, sexual vice and virtue are the principal criteria for evaluation. The most ignoble and unforgivable of all sins is sexual wrongdoing; piety, chastity and decency are basically measured by sex-related yardsticks. Seldom do they apply to the political and social realms. Purity or corruption is essentially judged according to criteria that are in one way or another related to sex. When such a value system evolves into the social norm, the walls of sexual demarcation become taller, thicker and even more ubiquitous. Fundamentalism conceives of woman as sinister and satanic; she is the embodiment of sin and seduction. She must not step beyond her house, lest her presence in society breed sin. She must stay at home, servicing her husband's carnal desires; if she fails to comply, she is compelling her man to commit sin outside the home.

The fundamentalists look at the world and the hereafter through distorted, sex-tinted glasses. Throughout history they have fabricated their own fantasies as moral lessons and attributed them even to the Prophet Mohammad's ascension to Heaven. Predictably, the fabricated stories focus on the gravity of sexual sins and the severity of punishment meted out when such sins are committed. Here is one reactionary theorist's fantasy shamelessly attributed to the Prophet's me'raaj, or his ascension to Heaven: "I saw a woman hanging from her hair whose brain was boiling because she had not covered her hair. I saw a woman who had been hanged from her tongue and Hell's boiling water was being poured into her throat, because she had irritated her husband. I saw a woman in a furnace of fire, hanged from her feet because she had left home without her husband's permission ..." ("Hayat-al-Qolub," Mullah Mohammad Baqer Majlessi).

Such fantasies are nowhere to be found in the Quran. The Quran contains more than 6,200 verses, the great majority of which deal with the question of existence, history and the human being, and emphasize the responsibilities of the human race. The total number of verses focusing on religious precepts does not exceed 500, of which only a handful with sexual vice and virtue.

According to the Hadith (sayings of the Prophet), the Prophet enumerated seven mortal sins, namely loss of faith in God's mercy, homicide, robbing orphans of their belongings, sorcery and demagoguery, usury, and slandering virtuous women. A common theme runs through these seven sins, however diverse they may be: rather than being introspective, they all relate in one way or another to social relations and man's relations with others in society.

Looking at the list of the seven mortal sins, the question comes to mind that while one of the mortal sins is slandering women, why do fundamentalists exaggerate gender distinctions? Is this not simply a dogma persisting from the ancient times? That may be, but the mullahs see this as the only way to maintain a monopoly on Islam and seat themselves upon the throne of religion. The mullahs use gender distinction and highlight sexual misconduct to justify their misogynous outlook and apply it to all spheres of man-women relationships in society. In this way, they keep control.

Ironically, while it is the man who commits a sin or, to say the least, the sin is equally shared between a woman and a man, in the misogynists' world, it is the woman who pays the highest price, is constantly humiliated, and treated as subordinate and a second-class citizen just because she is a woman. In the mullahs' system, it is the women who have to wear the hejab to prevent sin and comply with the extremely discriminatory rules. Most important of all, it is the women who must feel shame from the day they are borne and be characterized as sinister, satanic creature.

In this way, in the fundamentalist mindset, gender distinctions leads to misogyny and hostility toward women. The fundamentalists derive their motivation from misogyny and set in motion a devastating anti-historic, anti-human force. Many have compared misogyny with racism and this is indeed an appropriate comparison. The difference is that misogyny and the fundamentalism emanating from it are far more inhuman and destructive than racism.

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Taken from:

Maryam Rajavi - Misogyny: Pillar of Religious Fascism

Pages 2 and 3.

[kenneth]

i could never be a good misogynist. I love women too much.

[Skinwalker]

Originally Posted by AceOfHearts

.




The fundamentalists look at the world and the hereafter through distorted, sex-tinted glasses. Throughout history they have fabricated their own fantasies as moral lessons and attributed them even to the Prophet Mohammad's ascension to Heaven. Predictably, the fabricated stories focus on the gravity of sexual sins and the severity of punishment meted out when such sins are committed. Here is one reactionary theorist's fantasy shamelessly attributed to the Prophet's me'raaj, or his ascension to Heaven: "I saw a woman hanging from her hair whose brain was boiling because she had not covered her hair. I saw a woman who had been hanged from her tongue and Hell's boiling water was being poured into her throat, because she had irritated her husband. I saw a woman in a furnace of fire, hanged from her feet because she had left home without her husband's permission ..." ("Hayat-al-Qolub," Mullah Mohammad Baqer Majlessi).

Such fantasies are nowhere to be found in the Quran. The Quran contains more than 6,200 verses, the great majority of which deal with the question of existence, history and the human being, and emphasize the responsibilities of the human race. The total number of verses focusing on religious precepts does not exceed 500, of which only a handful with sexual vice and virtue.

I do not believe in this hell. Great article man!

[ameen]

salam,

Thanks for posting : )

[IbnMardhiyah]

Totally irrelevant, since it deals with Shia Islam, and not with Islam.

[ABCDGIRL]

After reading the first two lines I dont feel like continuing because I know some dumb person has wasted his time and energy writing it and i dont want to do the same by reading it

[PhDGirl]

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

Totally irrelevant, since it deals with Shia Islam, and not with Islam.

You don't consider Shias Muslim?

[AceOfHearts]

Originally Posted by PhDGirl

You don't consider Shias Muslim?

He is a Sunni. Probably not.

Sunnis are 'Sunnis', a major reason for the Sunni-Shia division today is their additional scriptures written and added to the back of the Qur'an after the Prophet's death over some 600 years:

1) Sahih Bukhari
2) Sahih Muslim
3) Sunan al-Sughra (al-Nasa'i)
4) Sunan Abi Da'ud
5) Sunan al-Tirmidhi
6) Sunan Ibn Majah

Sunnis vouch for their authenticity. The Shias call the above books false, fabricated.

Shias four scriptures which they added to the back of the Qur'an:

1) Kitab Al-Kafi
2) Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih
3) Tahdhibu'l Ahkam
4) Al-Istibsar

Shias vouch for their authenticity. The Sunnis call the above false, fabricated.

Each one calls the other's sect false and rejoicing in their own sect thinking they have found the right path.

"Shall I seek other than God as a judge when He has sent down to you this Scripture fully detailed?" Those to whom We have given the Scripture know it is sent down from your Lord with truth; so do not be of those who have doubt.” [Qur’an 6:114]

[IbnMardhiyah]

Originally Posted by PhDGirl

You don't consider Shias Muslim?

Shias are Muslim by agreement of all the scholars, but certain concepts of their belief are alien to Islam, such as wilayat-al-faqeeh, which wasn't even there in the first iteration of Shia'ism, and their belief that the Imams are infallible.

So if some ignoramus comes along and writes or posts an article like the one above, it'll be rejected even before it gets past the first sentence.

[AceOfHearts]

bump...........

[UmarOMC]

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
لا اله الا الله محمد رسول الله

(Muhammad 'Asad) 49:12 O you who have attained to faith! Avoid most guesswork [about one another] for, behold, some of [such] guesswork is [in itself] a sin; and do not spy upon one another, and neither allow yourselves to speak ill of one another behind your backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Nay, you would loathe it! And be conscious of God. Verily, God is an acceptor of repentance, a dispenser of grace!

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اجْتَنِبُوا كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الظَّنِّ إِثْمٌ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ تَوَّابٌ رَّحِيمٌ

Allah knows best as I do not.

'aalaykum assalaamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh

[AceOfHearts]

Thank you for this reminder from the Qur'an.