June 15, 2005

A woman is ordered to marry her rapist and to become her husband's mother.

BBC reports:
An Indian woman who was allegedly raped by her father-in-law is now being ordered by a Muslim council of community elders to marry him.

The council says under Islamic law the rape has nullified her marriage, according to media reports....

When the incident came to the notice of the council, it ordered that she marry her father-in-law and change her relationship with her husband to that between a mother and son....

A representative of a top Muslim body in India, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said the case should be dealt under Islamic law.

"Under the Sharia law, whatever happened with the victim is wrong and if her father-in-law has raped her, he should be sentenced to death," the representative, Zafarab Geelani, said.

8 comments:

Mister DA said...

And they wonder why no one in the rest of the world takes Islamic Law seriously?

Ann Althouse said...

Don't miss the fact that the local community elders are out of line with higher authorities. You might still object to the death penalty for rape, but that is not that obviously unjust, though it would violate our 8th amendment. It was the law here too not all that long ago.

ploopusgirl said...

I love all the ignorant bigots on here! I'm so glad to have born in such a wonderful country as the U.S. of A. where white Christians reign supreme. And it is good.

Jeff said...

Ploopusgirl and yeah right; Sorry to inform you that we are not ignorant Islamophobic bigots. We have read countless news items on the internet on the barbaric treatment of women and on the intolerance of Muslims to other religions. Everyone should read the story of the Dutch Politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who with Theo Van Gogh (murdered by a Muslim fanatic) produced the film Submission. She says; "That to be a Muslim woman is to be born for the pleasure of men." She calls it "gender apartheid". She gets my vote for Person of the Decade. There is a good Nation article on her by Deborah Scroggins (Sorry do not have the link.

annie said...

I'm an American living in Holland and follow Ms. Hirsi Ali with great interest. Issues of feminism, immigration, homosexuality, human rights... fascinating.

Here's the story you're looking for, Jeff. Definitely worth reading:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20050609/cm_thenation/20050627scroggins

Ruth Anne Adams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alcibiades said...

Unfortunately these councils of village elders seem to have sway over local affairs despite the fact that they are ill educated apparently in everything, not just in Islamic law.

The case of Mukhtaran Bibi in Pakistan is similar. Nicholas Kristof noted how her case in being treated this week, where a Court in Pakistan let out all of her attackers apparently as a way to shut her up and to stop her from going abroad since the government is afraid her testimony about the true state of affairs on these issues will publicly defame Pakistan.

And these two cases, imagine, are only two that have been partially reversed by higher courts because their verdicts were so outrageous and became widely known. How about the others, where the women were far too intimidated to speak out and received no local support – they must be countless.

Consider that these councils of village elders have held sway for generation on generation.

mashar-cool12 said...

kathleen B is the only one with a brain here, or at least the only one who can read.

All these idiots simply point out how much they want their thoughts to be made official, by reading a report that has no source.