In an earlier post I commented on the silence from NOW on this issue. While I don't see an official comment on their website yet, their NY state president is quoted in the following NY Daily News article:
Muslim TV mogul Muzzammil Hassan's alleged beheading of wife, Aasiya Hassan, may be 'honor killing' http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/02/17/2009-02-17_muslim_tv_mogul_muzzammil_hassans_allege.html ---snippet--- While Muslim leaders have urged against applying cultural stereotypes to the crime, advocates for women linked the killing to attitudes in Muslim societies. "This was apparently a terroristic version of honor killing, a murder rooted in cultural notions about women's subordination to men," said Marcia Pappas, New York State president of the National Organization for Women. She decried the scant national media attention paid to the story, which broke the same day as the commuter plane crash that killed 50 people in Clarence. While domestic violence affects all cultures, Muslim women find it harder to break the silence about it because of a stigma, she said. "Too many Muslim men are using their religious beliefs to justify violence against women," she said. After episodes of domestic violence, Aasiya Hassan, 37, filed for divorce Feb. 6 and obtained an order of protection barring her husband from their Orchard Park home, her lawyer, Corey Hogan, said. She and her husband both worked at Bridges TV, a satellite- distributed news and opinion channel. They launched the station in 2004 in an effort to counter images of Muslim violence and extremism. Nadia Shahram, a matrimonial lawyer in Williamsville, said that some Muslim men consider divorce a dishonor on their family. A teacher of family law and Islam at the University at Buffalo Law School, Shahram said that "fanatical" Muslims believe "honor killing" is justified for bringing dishonor on a family. While it has not been determined whether Aasiya Hassan's death had anything to do with fanatical beliefs, the community should address the attitudes that make divorce particularly difficult for many Muslim families, Shahram said. "I have not had one [case] where the husband wanted to settle outside of the court system," she said. In some interpretations, the Quran allows husbands to punish "disobedient" women, Shahram said, adding that this is a minority view. ---snippet--- On that minority view, Saudi Arabia has an interesting show on a few months back where it went into detail on how you can beat your wife and how think the stick should be. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:288875 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
