Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Imprisoned, Dead, Speaking Out, Listen Up

An Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence Tuesday for a journalism student [24-year-old Parwez Kambakhsh] accused of blasphemy for asking questions in class about women's rights under Islam. But the judges still sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
--Amir Shah reports Tuesday, October 21, 2008.

Gayle Williams, a 34-year-old dual British-South African national who helped handicapped Afghans, was shot to death as she was walking to work about 8 a.m on Monday, October 20, 2008. "Our (leaders) issued a decree to kill this woman," says Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman.
--Amir Shah, AP writer, reports.

While the absence of a woman's point of view for over 1440 years since the revelation began, clearly needs to change, it must be acknowledged that there are many men who have been supportive of the view of women as complements to themselves, as the completion of their human unity. To them, I and other Muslim women are eternally grateful. They relate to women as the Quran and Hadith intended. The criticism women have is towards those men who are not open to this understanding, who are exclusive in opposition to the Quran and Sunnah's inclusiveness.

Clearly the intention of the Quran is to see man and woman as complements of one another, not as oppressor-oppressed or superior-inferior or thinking-feeling. Consequently, in the introduction and translation, I address a main criticism of Islam in regard to the inferiority of women, namely, that a husband can beat his wife (4:34) after two stages of trying to discipline her.
--Laleh Bakhtiar, Ph. D., speaks out when introducing her translation, "The First English Translation of the Quran (Koran) by an American Woman"

You can hear more of "this modern, inclusive translation [that] refutes past translations . . . used to justify violence against women": Click here to listen up, by reading the reviews and by getting and reading your own copy of "The Sublime Quran."

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