Religion is like a rapist’s penis. It attacks women.

 

”Religion is like a penis. It’s fine to have one and it’s fine to be proud of it, but please don’t whip it out in public and start waving it around… and PLEASE don’t try to shove it down my child’s throat.”

 

Taliban poisons  drinking water. 150   schoolgirls were hospitalized in Afghanistan  yesterday. Girls education was banned under Taliban rule (1996-2001). After girls schools are  reopened, periodic attacks occur against girls, teachers and school buildings. It is not the first time Taliban poisoned girl’s school’s water, they did it before. In 2010, more than 100 schoolgirls and teachers were sickened in similar poisonings.

Taliban’s poison gas attack  is well known. In August 2010 it was revealed through blood tests that a mysterious series of cases of mass sickness at girls’ schools across the country were caused by a powerful poison gas.

Acid was thrown at the girls while they were  walking  to school. Taliban  have been blowing up girls school in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They  threaten to blow up girl’s schools if they refuse to close.   Taliban wages war against girls education.  They try everything to  destroy girls education.  They  burnt down  over 125 girls schools   calling women’s education un-Islamic.

“Female education is against Islamic teachings and spreads vulgarity in society,” Shah Dauran, Taliban leader said. Muslim Khan, Taliban spokesman said, “Female education is against Islam. They (women and girls) are required to sit at home and not venture out.”

The relationship between religion and patriarchy is deep-rooted. Patriarchy  wants   woman to  stay   at  home and  to  protect  her chastity.  A woman is nothing  but   her husband’s property.  It is  men’s   responsibility to provide food for his wives  and children and it is  women’s duty to obey her husband. It is only recently after decades of  feminist movement that women get the opportunity to go to school, to get  an education, to find   a job,  to make  money and to become economically independent.

 

Whenever Muslim fundamentalists flog women for wearing trousers or stone women to death for adultery,or punish girls for getting education, there are people who would  say, ‘it is not real Islam’. What is real Islam? Does real Islam believe in women’s equality?  Is real Islam pro-woman?   If real Islam is so pro-woman, it would not have said  woman was made from the rib of man  (Surah Nisa 4:1) or one of her bones was crooked. If real Islam is so pro-woman, it would not  ask  men to beat women.( Surah Nisa 4:34)  If real Islam is so pro-woman,  it would not say, a male shall inherit twice as much as a female ( Surah Nisa 4:11) , and the testimony of one man  would not be equal that of two women. If real Islam is so pro-woman,  women would get equal rights  in  marriage, divorce, and child custody, it would not permit  men to have  four  wives  (Surah Nisa 4:3)  and  it would not reward pious men  with 72 virgins in heaven and pious women  with nothing but the same old husband.

 

The life of Khadija, the first wife of Muhammad, tells us that  the   status of women was quite good  during  pre-Islamic period.  Khadija  was a rich businesswoman. Women could own and run a business. She was a widow.  She married Muhammad who was  15 years younger than her.  She had the right to hold and inherit property and was free to enter into a nuptial contract with the person she chose. Her polygamous  husband   could not marry any other women as long as she was alive.

It is true that Islam is not against women having ‘religious education’ but it definitely discourages women to leave home. It says, woman’s pray at home is better  than going to mosque. Woman should take the permission of her husband before going out. Evils are behind unnecessary socializing of unveiled women . Woman should not wear perfumes. Women  should wait behind men. Women should not walk in the middle of the road. Wives have great duty towards their husbands. Angels curses the disobedient wife. Woman should be grateful to her husband. Women should not imitate men in dress, movements, and way of speech. Women should cover her face in the presence of strangers and men who are not her close family members.

 

Despite all the  attacks of  the religionists, women in the Muslim societies are leaving home for schools or for  work, it happens not because  they embrace  Islamic rules, but   because  they disrespect  Islamic rules. Like all other religions, Islam is also anti-women. Today, Islam looks more intolerant and barbaric than  other religions.  It is because Islamists have been preventing  people  from being  evolved and enlightened. Time to change.

 

 

The guy’s guide to feminism

 

I finally found the book. A small green book. A guide. A to Z guide to all things feminist. It is called ”The Guy’s Guide to Feminism.”

I just love the book.

If you do not like to read books on feminism  by women, fine. Then read this one, written by two guys, Michael Kaufman and Michael  Kimmel. It’s funny. Remarkable. Straight to the point explanation how and why feminism improves men’s life.

 

There are fascinating  pieces —

”Do you believe that women should have the right to:

  • Vote?
  • Go to college?
  • Drive a car?
  • Open bank accounts in their own names?
  • Enjoy sex?
  • Work in whatever occupation they might choose, and get paid the same as men when they do the same work?

Did you answer yes?

Then you better lie down. . . . You’ve probably caught feminism.

The feminist contagion has spread far and wide.  It infects both women and men.  Most people in North America, Europe and many parts of the rest of the world have caught it. The terrible truth is that, nowadays, most of us support these rights and actually see them as basic rights of individuals in a democracy.”

 

”It’s true.  As that Harvard professor observed way back in 1873, when women get more education, they do have fewer babies.

It’s not because their wombs shrink.

It’s because their options grow.”

 

 

 

 

 

”Does  feminism Virus Target  men? The virus really has it in for men.  doesn’t believe that male biology causes men to rape or pillage or not listen or hog the channel changer.  It actually believes that men are basically good!!!!   It believes that men can (and should) be ethical, emotionally present, and accountable to our values in our interactions with women — as well as with other men.

Women who’ve caught feminism not only expect men to act in honorable ways, but have a deep belief in our ability to do so.

Beware, my friend.  This is very insidious stuff.”

 

 

”A minister, a rabbi, and an imam were having coffee.

The imam said, “This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.”

The minister said, “We’re all the children of Abraham.”

The rabbi said, “Yes, but which of his wives?”

The imam said, “Is that why feminists are so angry?”

The minister said, “What do you mean?”

The imam said, “They’re angry at us for several millennia of bad things that men have done.”

The minister said, “I like to tell my flock that women aren’t angry.  They’re just insistent.”

The rabbi said, “What’s so wrong about a little anger?  Imagine the world from their perspective.”

At that moment another friend, a Buddhist monk, arrived.  They told him what they were talking about.  The monk said, “See the world from women’s perspective?  Well, let me start:  How would you feel if every time you went out on a date, you worry you could join the one in four women who’d been sexually assaulted?”

The rabbi said, “Or what if there were people who wanted to make it illegal for you to have control over your own reproductive system?”

The imam said, “Or if you earned less for doing the same work as a man?”

The minister said, “If half the human race felt it was entitled to stare at your body or make comments about your breasts.

“And then, if you get angry, they accuse you of being a lesbian—”

“—as if that were a crime —”

“—or say how pretty you are when you’re angry.”

The four men thought about this for a moment.

“And it gets worse,” said the minister.  “Imagine that you start speaking out against these daily injustices and people start telling you to lighten up.  Stop taking things so seriously.  It’s only a joke.”

The rabbi said, “I wouldn’t just be angry.  I’d go ballistic.”

It was Friday, and the imam soon went off to Friday prayers.  “Anger,” he said to the worshippers, “is a rational response to injustice.  Anger can be a healthy emotion to feel, an expression that something is wrong.”

The next morning at Sabbath services, the rabbi said, “Anger can be a motivating force, an impulse to get up off your hiney and do something, to at least say this inequality is not okay.”

That afternoon, the monk said to those he had meditated with, “The problem isn’t anger, it’s finding appropriate ways to express it.  Perhaps only by expressing it, can we ever let it go.”

The next morning in his sermon, the minister told his congregants, “Anger can also be coupled with a desire to change things.  It can carry a belief that things can change for the better.  Resigned despair is what happens when you don’t think you can change things.  Anger can mean hope.”

On Monday, the four men got together again for coffee.  They were joined by another friend, a Hindu priest.

The priest said, “But you’re not saying that anger is the main thing that these feminists feel.”

Now, this coffee shop had a waiter who’d been serving perfect cups of coffee for years.  He’d heard the men talking the previous week and now heard this exchange.  He’d often had this very discussion about women’s anger with his girlfriend, so when the priest asked whether anger was the main thing feminists felt, he didn’t hesitate to jump in.

“Excuse me,” he said, “But when a woman feels angry, perhaps she is most angry that she has to feel anything but love and trust and how it feels to be an equal in the world.”

The minister, rabbi, imam, monk, and priest nodded sagely to each other.

And that is no joke.”

 

 

Cool.

By the way, not only I bought the book,  I bought a dozen of my male- friends the same T-shirts that says, “A Man of Quality Isn’t Threatened by Women’s Equality.”  They  love it.

 

 

Crimes against humanity

 

 

‘The right to life of women … is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions.’ — Hina Jilani

 

‘It is a tragedy, a horror, a crime against humanity. The details of the murders – of the women beheaded, burned to death, stoned to death, stabbed, electrocuted, strangled and buried alive for the “honor” of their families – are as barbaric as they are shameful.’

 

 

 

‘An  honor killing is a murder, carried out by a family to punish a female family member who has supposedly brought dishonor upon the family. The acts which are the cause of dishonor can be

  • refusing to enter into an arranged marriage
  • being the victim of a sexual assault or rape
  • seeking a divorce, even from an abusive husband
  • committing adultery or fornication
  • pre-marital sex
  • falling in love with men outside her tribe
  • flirting /chatting with men  on facebook

The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that dishonors her family is enough  to trigger an attack on her life.’

 

‘Men often use honor killings to maintain their dominant patriarchal status.  Women in the family often support the practice in order to preserve the honor of male family members.  Patriarchy is a system in which both  men and women participate. It privileges the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women.’

 

‘Honor killing  most likely originates from the belief that a woman’s chastity is the property of her families, a patriarchal culture  that comes  from  ancient  Assyrian tribes of 1200 B.C. A woman, who was considered by the tribes to be a machine   for making men, was forced through  honor  killing  to obey the husband’s family   and not to reproduce outside of the tribe or the extended family.  In Babylonian societies, women accused of adultery were forced to throw themselves into a river to prove they were innocent. In ancient Egyptian culture, imprisonment, flogging, or mutilation were common punishments for women who had been convicted of adultery. In ancient Chinese culture   husbands cut off the hair of adulterous women and then lead them to their death by an elephant trained to kill. Some Native American tribes punished adulterous women by cutting off their limbs and mutilating their bodies. In Persia, adulterous women were pushed into a well and left to die. ‘

 More than 20,000 women are killed each year because of honor based violence.

10,000 women get killed  each year  in the name of honor in Pakistan. 

‘The practice  of honor killings goes across cultures and across religions. It had been practiced in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Turkey, Jordan, Yemen, Syria,  Morocco, Lebanon,Iraq, Brazil, Ecuador, Uganda etc.   In many countries, murdering  female family members in the name of honor is NOT considered a crime. In some countries honor killing is like a  crime of passion, a crime often  not punishable.  In Pakistan, the practice of honor killing is supposed to be prosecuted under ordinary killing, but in practice police and prosecutors often ignore it  and often a man  simply claim the killing was for his honor and he will go free.  In Syria, men can kill female relatives in a ‘crime of passion’ as long as it is not premeditated. It is legal for a husband to kill his wife in Jordan if he catches her committing adultery. Crime of passion can be a full or partial defense in countries like  Argentina, Iran, Guatemala, Egypt, Israel, Peru,  etc.’

Honor killings take place in Western countries (UK, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Canada, USA)  among immigrant communities. Rape, acid attack are part of honor crimes.

 

These are just some informations. Another important information is Honor killing incidents are increasing rapidly all over the world.

 

There is no honor in killing. But  women are still oppressed, tortured and  killed everyday in the name of religion, patriarchy, tradition, culture, custom, family  honor etc.etc. etc.

Men  must stop  exploiting, abusing and  killing women in the name of hundreds of thousands of bullshit.

 

Let’s Eroticize Equality

 

“Pornography is the theory, and rape is the practice.”  — Robin Morgan

 

I am against  pornography because it  has  many  harmful effects:   encouragement of  sex trafficking, desensitization, pedophilia, dehumanization, sexual exploitation, sexual dysfunction,  inability to maintain healthy sexual relationships. Pornography is exclusively for men’s pleasure. Women  are used as sex objects. I know some women will   say, ‘we love to be sex objects’. Millions of misogynists are out there to  support the idea of the objectification of women.  I do not have to support this.

 

I am against pornography, because I am against abuse or degradation. But I am not against erotica. The definitions of pornography and erotica come from Diana Russell.

Pornography: Material that combines sex and/or the exposure of genitals with abuse or degradation in a manner that appears to endorse, condone, or encourage such behavior.

Erotica: Sexually suggestive or arousing material that is free of sexism, racism, and homophobia, and respectful of all human beings and animals portrayed.

 

 

I like what  Gloria Steinem says, “Pornography is directly linked to sex trafficking. It normalizes degradation and violence as acceptable and even inevitable parts of sex, and it uses the bodies of real women and children as its raw material. The difference between pornography and erotica is clear in the words themselves — porne means female slaves, eros means love — and we can see that pornography, like rape, is about violence and domination, not sex. Millions of lives depend on our ability to untangle pornography from erotica, violence from sexuality.”

 

Researchers say,   “Most female performers are coerced into pornography, either by somebody else, or by an unfortunate set of circumstances.  Pornography leads to an increase in sexual violence against women through fostering  rape myths. Such rape myths include the belief that women really want to be raped and that they mean yes when they say no. Pornography desensitizes viewers to violence against women, and this leads to a progressive need to see more violence in order to become sexually aroused.”

 

“The pornography industry is a lot bigger, more powerful, more legitimate, more in everyone’s face today than it was a quarter of a century ago. To the degree that it cannot exist without doing real damage, it could still be stopped in its tracks anywhere by this  law. Sexual objectification and violation does not happen all by itself. Real social institutions drive it.”

 

“Pornography, an industry of woman-hating dehumanization,  is implicated in violence against women, both in its production  through the abuse of the women used to star in it , and in the social consequences of its consumption by encouraging men to eroticize the domination, humiliation, coercion and abuse of women.”

We should rather  Eroticize  Equality!

 

Survey says, “porn does not stimulate men’s appetites–it turns them off the real thing.  ‘Not tonight, honey, I am logging on’. Internet porn is everywhere, even ‘nice’ guys are hooked.”

A psychotherapist told us about  Myth and facts about pornography.   I find it quite interesting. Porn is fake, girls are real.

I believe Pornography and prostitution are not necessary evils, they are unnecessary crimes.

 

Look what you watch.  Porn1, Porn2, Porn3  ….. Do you want to watch more? Leave it. Let’s listen to  a song . Let’s change the world