Daily Times, March 13, 2006
Domestic violence on the rise among American Muslims
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: Twenty percent of Muslim women in America are subjected to domestic violence, according to a new survey. The Council for Muslim Women, according to a report in an Urdu newspaper published in New York, says that the divorce rate is on the increase and more than 20 percent of women are subjected to mental abuse. A commentary in the weekly newspaper ‘Pakistan News’ by Faiq Siddiqi points out that Pakistani women suffer rebuke and mistreatment from early childhood and most husbands are always admonishing their wives. They hold them responsible for disappointments that they, the husbands, suffer and attribute their failures to those of their wives. If the wife reacts, she is threatened with divorce. A large number of Pakistani and Muslim men, who otherwise go to the mosque five times a day, show no sign of any softening in their behaviour towards their women. When they return home, “they call out to their wives as if they were the inmates of a jail, not a family home”. They also suspect their wives of errant behaviour, he said. If the wife puts at them any questions that they do not like, they accuse her of disobedience and warn her “of the fires of hell” that await her in the hereafter. Siddiqi recounts an incident where a Muslim husband pushed his wife out of a moving car. He hosted a programme on a Pakistani satellite channel recently on the subject of wife and women abuse. One of the men on his programme said that wife-beating is sanctioned by the Quran in Sura Al-Nisa. When Siddiqi told him that the Quran also mentions stoning for sinning men, which he should also read, the man expressed annoyance. The writer holds Muslim family elders responsible for tyrannies against women. He writes: “Violence against women is a growing problem in the American Muslim community and clerics should take this issue up during their sermons. The guiding light should be the life and conduct of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), who treated women with the greatest respect and the utmost gentleness.”
1 comment:
This is not a one way street but rather a two lane 2 way traffic highway. There are instances after instances where Pakistani women are doing just opposite of what is described by Siddiqi. There are many instances of women of Pakistani Origin who just got married to come to USA or Canada. Women doctor got married to a computer program who happens to be a US citizen. Once this women got her perm. Green card she left the man and their child because her main purpose to come to US was to support her family and the only quick and dirty way to come to America is get married. Another Indian Muslim women misused her restaurant owner American Citizen husband and got divorced as soon her “ Hara Patta” was ready, her former boy friend in India followed her soon after. This woman got half of the restaurant + the American citizenship as the result of this truncation. Rich jeweler lost most of his money as a result of frivolous 911 call followed by the divorce. Another Pakistani woman quit her husband soon after arriving in Canada. Reason I wanted to come to Canada to study, marriage was just a facade and EZ process. There are numerous instances where women get political asylum on the basis of fake Rape. This caused a big stir for Pervez Mushraff. But he was right there are some good apples and some bad apples. Perhaps Siddiqi (some one who is Truthful) should be a real Siddiqi and tell this side of the story too.
Badnazeer
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