The news from and about the Arab world is bad, or worse, to the point that we barely read any good news amid the daily killing in this country, economic collapse in that country, or subservience to the degree of surrender in other countries. The above is indeed bad, but what is even worse is the story published by our newspaper Al-Hayat on Monday, under the title “Jordan, forcing the victim to marry her rapist is injustice allowed by law and sanctioned by traditions”, by colleague Maher Shawabka, who begins by saying: Like sheep are taken to be slaughtered, Fatima, who is not yet sixteen, was taken to her rapist who is double her age […] to be married to him, in fulfillment of the desire of both parties to resolve the problem: First by undoing the shame that would have afflicted her family, and second to enable the offender to escape the punishment that awaits him, normally the death sentence. The story after that mentions that the Jordanian Penal Code prohibits the prosecution of rapists who marry the girls they had raped. I argue that this law thwarts justice, because it was enacted to protect the criminal not the victim, and the human monster who robbed Fatima of her innocence and youth should have been punished first by castration, and then death, as punishment for his crime and a deterrent to other offenders. You have been the best nation that has been raised up for mankind, but today you have become the “last” nation, to say the least. Once in the past we put the world on the road to renaissance, then we regressed at every level, and then we were left behind. The enemies defeated us and we lost Palestine and the third Holiest Mosque; so what did we do? We oppressed women. How do women in the world compare to our women? I choose the following news stories gathered on my behalf in recent days: - Young British men are falling behind young women in the race for university places, so much so that David Willetts, the Universities Minister, has warned over a 'striking' university gender gap. As we know, Arab women students outdo their male counterparts every year in exams, but are rewarded by being confined in the kitchen and the bedroom. - A study conducted by the Ghent University in Belgium has shown that women are stronger than men. Nature has given women a superior immune system that helps them resist germs, infections and cancer better than men. Perhaps the study then explains the mystery behind the fact that women live longer than men. - There was a picture published by newspapers of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William and his wife) with 14 women, mostly American, at the St. James's Palace during a charity reception. What do these 14 women do? They run, year after year, businesses that are worth 1.3 trillion dollars, i.e. the entire output of the Arab nation including oil revenues, over many years. - Despite the above, there is a problem between the sexes in Britain and many other developed countries. What is this problem? It is that many women now earn more than their husbands. There is an upcoming book and a movie on the subject in Britain, and also an American study that shows women to be ahead of men in employment, which struck me because it mentioned that successful American women are having trouble finding equally successful men to marry, and that black women graduating from universities are twice as many as black male university graduates. - As a reminder, three women had won this year's Nobel Peace Prize, including the Yemeni woman Tawakul Karman. - British studies that coincided with Eid al-Adha have shown that a hundred thousand Britons have converted to Islam since 2001, including 5200 last year. The median age of the new converts was 27 years, 55 percent Caucasian, including 75 percent who were women. Islam is great. It is a religion of moderation, not of genocide, war crimes and myths like Judaism, nor of peace to the point of surrender like Christianity. However, many Arab Muslims – certainly not all- do not rise to the level of their religion's greatness, oppressing women instead. Going back to Fatima, she is a living martyr who was wed by her parents to the nightmare that destroyed her life, only to sleep and wake up to the memories of her tragedy every day. God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. Improving the nation's conditions begins by giving justice to women. For one thing, they were given half a chance in education and yet they outperformed men, who hide with their impotence behind an honor that is often absent unless women are involved. As for men's honor, or the lack thereof, it is protected by laws drafted by men. [email protected]
