| Egyptian Woman Scarred by Hate
The following letter was in response to an article in Los Angeles
Times, published on May 3, 1997, on the rampant violence against
women in Egypt.
Dear Editor:
As a Muslim women of Egyptian origin, I was terribly offended
after reading the article. It is disturbing that the article even
remotely suggests that Egypt's epidemic of violence against women
is attributed to the practice of Islam.
Unfortunately, in all parts of the world, a common form of violence
against women is that committed by husbands on their wives. Despite
the outrageous claims made by some religious figures that there
are "situations when violence is legitimate," genuine Islam requires
just the opposite. Islam insists that husbands treat their wives
with respect and it prohibits any form of physical or emotional
abuse.
The Muslim Women's League acknowledges the suffering of the Egyptian
women who were scarred both physically and emotionally by the
cruelty of those deranged men. Furthermore, we would like to strongly
emphasize that violence toward women has no basis in Islam. Rather,
it is a societal problem that must be eliminated through education
and the empowerment of women.
Rania Abdellatif,
Muslim Women's League, Los Angeles, May 1997
|
