2005-03-10-arab_women

2005-03-10—Commentary: Arab women's liberation

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Commentary

More Feminine Influence, Please

jewishsightseeing.com, March 10, 2005

By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

The Arabs have long been their own worst enemies. Just when the pro-democracy policies of George W. Bush are causing democratic breakthroughs throughout the Middle East, along come tens of thousands of pro-Syria demonstrators in Beirut to tell us how much they love
dictator Bashar Assad.

But an inability to shake off the tyrants is only the second worst of modern Arab sins. The foremost is the subversion of the maternal and nurturing instinct from within so many Arab women.

Arabs and Muslims were once the most glorious people on earth, leading the world in education and tolerance for minorities. Plainly, that is no longer the case today. How can Arab civilization be restored to peacefulness? Democracy is, of course, the key component. But primarily because in a society where all are treated as equals, the voice of women can finally be heard. And women are the ones who traditionally clamor for civility and peace. They don't want their sons going off to die in some stupid war.

After general Douglas MacArthur conquered Japan in 1945, and became its effective ruler, he announced that one of his first acts would be to grant the vote to women. Told by his staff that the Japanese would view the move as "worse than sexual assault," MacArthur responded, "I don't care. I want to discredit the military. Women don't like war."

Women civilize men and serve as a nurturing foil which subverts male aggression. Since women give birth to life, they teach men to value life. The idea was captured powerfully by Jacques-Louis David in his famous painting The Sabine Women, in which the women are standing
between the Romans and the Sabine men to prevent the two from slaughtering each other. In the United States it was specifically the women who held the "Million Mom March" on the Washington Mall to protest gun violence.

Nowhere in the world today are women more oppressed and marginalized than in the Islamic world. Even worse, extremist Islam has turned women like Hanadi Tayseer Jaradat, who killed 18 adults and three children in Haifa in October 2003, into human bombs. The Canadian
Globe and Mail described local reaction as follows: "Everyone was happy and proud of her,' said a neighbor in Jenin, the explosive refugee camp where she lived. 'We are receiving congratulations from people,' said her 15-year-old brother, Thaher. 'Why should we cry? It
is like her wedding today, the happiest day for her.'"

The perverse replacement of positive feminine goals with a bloodthirsty desire for murder has spread widely in Islamic Chechnya. According to The New York Times, between April and early August of 2003, more than 160 people were killed in seven suicide attacks. All but one of these attacks was carried out by women. The Times believed this pattern of using women as human bombs set in motion a new dynamic in the war against Chechen secessionists.

In the Russian city of Beslan, in September 2004, hundreds of parents and children were taken hostage for more than three days without even water. Veiled Islamic Chechen Black Widows walked around with bombs strapped to their bodies, intimidating and terrorizing the families.
As soon as the Russian troops moved in, these women were the first to blow themselves up in the crowded room, taking as many children with them as possible.

Even the most depraved extremists would have to admit that women were never meant to blow themselves up for the faith. If they were, Sura 55 of the Koran, which promises 72 virgins for martyrs, would have to be understood as promoting lesbianism.

Joseph Lelyveld wrote in The New York Times Magazine in 2001 of Ismail al-Masawabi, who blew himself up "along with two Israeli Army sergeants on June 22 His [mother] betrayed not a hint of sadness as she spoke of her departed son. 'I was very happy when I heard,' she said. 'To be a martyr, that's something. Very few people can do it. I prayed to thank God I hope my other children do the same.'"

In fact, rather than being seen as lacking any womanly or maternal instinct, mothers who send their sons off as suicide bombers gain recognition from organizations like Hamas, who give them the title "Hanas" – women who have attained a sacred level in Islam. Hamas uses these women in television interviews to encourage other mothers to encourage their sons to perpetrate terrorist attacks. The New Yorker's Nasra Hassan wrote that after a Palestinian suicide bombing operation," Often the mother will ululate in joy at the honor that Allah has bestowed upon her family."

Of course, Yasser Arafat's wife Suha famously declared how "she'd gladly see her son become a suicide bomber in the intifada against Israel."

With rhetoric like this, is it at all surprising that many Arabs are increasingly militant and hate-filled? Who is going to temper their rage?

One can only hope that as democracy begins to gain a foothold in the Arab world, its women, the bestowers and guardians of life, will use their newfound voices to promote a message of life and peace rather than martyrdom and bloodshed.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is a nationally syndicated radio host daily from 2-5 p.m. EST on the Liberty Broadcasting Network. His latest book is Hating Women: America's Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex.