The AP ran a nice little fluff piece about how the Mad Mullah might accept some moves forward for women in Iran. Of course it’s all crap, but the AP never lets the facts get in the way of pretending that Iran isn’t the backwards, theocratic, misogynistic, insular little state that it is.
Iran Leader Signals Flexibility on Women
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s supreme leader has signaled a willingness to reinterpret Islamic law more favorably to women’s rights – but not by following Western conventions, state media and his official Web site reported Thursday.“Some issues about women, which exist in religious jurisprudence, are not the final say. It is possible to interpret new points through research by a skillful jurist,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Web site quoted him as saying Wednesday during a speech to commemorate national women’s day.
The comments by the Shiite cleric, who has final say over all state matters, came amid international rights groups’ criticism of Iran for giving prison sentences to several women’s rights activists.
Yeah, those prison sentences? They’re not just prison sentences. They include whippings.
On Monday, an Iranian court sentenced a women’s rights activist to almost three years in jail and 10 lashes for attending a banned rally, her lawyer said on Tuesday.
Gateway Pundit quotes an Iranian blogger on the sentences:
This is not silliness, this is not making order. This is BRUTALITY, pure brutality. I know Delaram VERY closely.
She is a volunteer teacher for Afghan children who do not have the right of going to school in Iran. She is going to spend three years of her life in prison and be tied to somewhere and be whipped for 10 times in her back just for believing in “women should be equal to men”. This tyranny is Unbelievable.
This is on top of the beatings the women got last year for having the nerve to protest on International Women’s Day—for women’s rights. And this is how those rights are portrayed in the AP piece:
Iran’s interpretation of Islamic law imposes tight restrictions on women, such as requiring them to have a male guardian’s permission to work or travel. Women are not allowed to become judges, and a man’s court testimony is considered twice as important as a woman’s.
Yet Iranian women have more rights than their counterparts in Saudi Arabia and some other conservative Muslim countries. They can drive, vote and run for most public offices.
Oh, so that makes it all better than. Because Iranian women aren’t as oppressed as the Saudis, they should celebrate this? Eff you, AP, for even implying that. But wait, because the AP is an important propaganda arm of the Khameini regime in this article:
Khamenei praised the role of women in Iran and said the emphasis on their maternal role in Islam “does not mean opposition to the presence of women in various aspects of social life at all,” the Web site reported.
He also said Westerners had “discredited” women by using them to fulfill “illegitimate” sexual desires, apparently referring to prostitution and premarital sex, which are banned by Islamic law.
And thanks for that explanation. Damn those Westerners and their refusal to go back to the laws and ways of the seventh century!
And damn AP for writing a puff piece on the cruelty that is Iran.
Gotta love that “Illegitimate” sexual desires line. Islam would never countenance prostitution, oh no. There is a custom among Shi’a in which a man marries a woman for an hour or two, or perhaps as long as overnight, then divorces her. Naturally he gives her a gift of money on the joyous occasion of marriage. This is a very popular practice among the religious students in Iran, at places like Qom for example. A Holy City indeed.