Dear Friends, I am truly offended to read stoning described as 'the jewish practice' based on what was going on--according to the New Testament, not a work of history but theology --- two thousand and more years ago. Judaism is a religion of re-interpretation and argument and evolution through debate, not the literal reading of the bible, and whatever was prescribed for "adultery" in the bible has long since -- like millenia ago -- been put on the shelf. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the only countries that today kill women for having sex outside of marriage are those governed by Islamic law -- Pakistan is not alone in having laws that provide for stoning, there's also Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the shariah-following states of Nigeria. I further note that replacing stoning, apparently un-Koranic, with "a hundred stripes," apparently Koranic, is not a whole lot of progress.
It is very strange to find stoning, unique to the Islamic world, described as "Jewish." The larger point is, ANY punishment of women for sex outside of marriage is against their human rights. Basically, punishment -- whether stoning or lashing or imprisonment or throwing women out onto the streets -- is about declaring women's bodies the possession of their family and community, and giving those the right to control it through violence. The four-witness rule that according to the writer below should protect women from "adultery" convictions, also makes it nearly impossible for a woman to get justice if she's raped--how often is a woman raped in front of four witnesses? And don't forget, according to the Koran those witnesses have to be male. That women should be equal (not complementary) to men, with equal rights and responsibilities as citizens, that they should control their own sexuality and fertility, and have an equal share in the public realm are modern ideas. They certainly do not represent the dominant view of women in the Old Testament, the New Testament, or the Koran, which are ancient books produced by and for patriarchal societies. Katha Pollitt On 6/11/02 10:02 AM, Pinar Ilkkaracan at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > I'm forwarding the following article titled "Stoning to death: Zia's > legacy" from the INRFVVP listserv (see below). I think it's a very good > article explaining that hudood is un-Islamic. In fact, a lot has been > written on this subject by Pakistani friends and activists in the past > two decades, for example by Asma Jehangir, Hina Jilani, Afiya S. Zia and > others. > > For a Western audience, it might be new, but there is no doubt among us > (as activists from Muslim societies) that Hudood has got nothing to do > with Islam. The point is that there are several other factors and > systems making it possible that such terrible practices are being > re-created, introduced or sustained through a combination of political, > social or economic inequalities in our countries, the seek of power by > fundamentalists and the support of fundamentalist agendas in the south > by northern powers, including the USA, for their own interests. > > I'm trying to say that the concentration on "culture" as a source of > such practices is misleading and we should try to see the whole picture > !!! > > ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
