Personal Freedom
In the late sixties, a Kuwaiti lady from a respectable family,
returning from summer holiday in Europe, came out of the plane with
a small white dog she had bought as a pet. She disembarked with the
dog held on a leash next to her. The following day, on the five
o'clock evening news, she was obliged to apologize for her
unbecoming Western behaviour and abandoned the idea of owning a pet
dog.
In Iraq, in the mid-sixties, in the early days of the ascendancy of
the Ba’ath Party to power, Abdul Salam Arif, a one-time friend of
General Abdul Karim Qassim and later his executioner and successor
to government, launched an ethical campaign of morality. Any
schoolgirl or woman seen in public wearing above-the-knee skirt or
dress was stopped and brushed with whitewash paint from the knees
down to her ankles as a deterrent to unethical behaviour. To avoid
the 'painter's brush', a couple of schoolgirls, attempting to run
across the street, were hit by cars and killed instantly. Many other
schoolgirls were injured during that campaign. Besides the uproar
and failure of the scandalous scheme, it caused grief to several
families of good abiding citizens. Islamic culture seems to conflict
more than agree with Western culture.
In Saudi Arabia, pioneer of the Abode of Peace, female citizens are
not allowed to drive vehicles. Only men are allowed to drive.
Females either hire a taxicab or are driven by the family chauffeur
or a member of the family. A group of educated females launched a
street procession in late 1990. They demanded the government lift
its ban on women driving vehicles. They wanted the government to
issue female adults with a driving licence and allow them to drive
by themselves instead of relying solely on men. On November 6, 1990,
forty seven (47) Saudi females, mainly students and employees in the
educational sector, assembled into 14 vehicles and drove in the
streets of Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia and demanded
their legitimate right to drive vehicles by themselves. They
explained to the authorities this would minimise delay, remove much
inconvenience and give them a sense of independence and
accomplishment. They demanded that females be allowed to drive on
their own rather than be at the mercy of a hired male driver, a
family member or taxicab. That would give the females self-reliance
and independence to drive to work or place of business without
dependence on a male driver. To find themselves always dependent on
male drivers was totally unacceptable and humiliating. One gets the
impression that in addition to their driving privileges, male
drivers act as their protective guardians to save them from
mischief.
The police detained the Saudi female group. They were released the
following morning against guarantees from their spouses that such an
unbecoming act, on the part of their females, would not be repeated.
The Internal Security reminded their spouses that such acts were
contrary to their upbringing, conducts, and would not be tolerated.
They described the female activists as irresponsible and of ill
repute. They described their husbands as laic and communists. Women
in oriental countries are generally held in low esteem. When it
comes to a woman standing up for her right as equal to man, in
opportunity and management, she is looked at as inferior and treated
as such. Privileged are only those that come from the upper caste,
very wealthy, and whose families have traditionally been involved in
politics. Saudi females are still not allowed to drive. Christians,
in Islamic countries are generally not allowed to worship openly or
celebrate Christmas publicly in the traditional way. Wearing the
crucifix is banned. Classical music, Western musical concerts,
operas and public entertainment in amusement parks is foreign to
them (Pryce-Jones, 1989: p 272; Al-Jamal Publications, 1991; Aburish,
1995: pp 73-74, 92-93).
In May 2001, the Talaban Muta-we-ah in Afghanistan 'ordered foreign
women to stop driving vehicles out of respect for local
"tradition"'. According to their fatwa, issued by the Islamic
Shari’ah Court, women are prohibited from showing their faces in
public. They are barred from employment except in the health sector.
The Afghans seem to be following in the footsteps of their
counterparts, the Saudis, in reverting to traditional Islam,
clogging the wheel of progress.
As a rule, Muslim men cannot socialize with their spouses or
partners in public functions and entertainment centres. They rarely
participate in public celebrations and festivities. When they do,
they become very protective and irate. Muslim males prefer to mix
with other ethnic groups or communities without the accompaniment of
their female partners. They prefer to bring along non-Muslim female
partners for such functions and shows. According to their cultural
custom, they cannot mix with their own females publicly, whether as
individuals or a group. Those who live in cities live an urban life
with a tribal mentality. Most of their functions are segregated,
including their wedding ceremonies and celebrations.
People who lose their freedom stain their hands with blood in an
attempt to restore it. The mind of an individual, like an
independent country that fortifies its defences and raises armies to
defend itself, stands up to the challenge to defend its conviction
intellectually. Although sanguinary measures would be required as
the last resort to save the day, it is a very high price to pay.
Gold and wealth may regain it, but only with the hard currency of
spilling blood and self-sacrifice, can one regain freedom. Scores of
free thinkers, writers and intellectuals have suffered terribly for
expressing themselves due to heavy literary censorship. Several of
them have been threatened, others jailed and their books and
writings suppressed. Some have been forced to retreat and curb their
pen. Others have chosen to live in exile rather than compromise
their right to freedom of expression. Those who succumb and adhere
to the inevitable become bewildered and disillusioned. Because of
their frustration, they become loud and aggressive or lead a life of
reclusion. Religious leaders, in the Abode of Peace, inculcate fear
in their people in order not to be challenged. Some intellectuals
are prepared to discuss any topic except their own individual
freedom of choice. Since posing religious questions, generating
debate, and writing freely fall under the definition of apostasy,
hence a crime, many intellectuals stay clear of the clergymen to
avoid confrontation with ardent adherents of the faith (Hiro, 1989:
p 31). Yet, deep in their hearts, they feel betrayed for being
restricted in expressing their views on various aspects of life.
Since, in their world, there is no room for compromise on such
clear-cut matters, writers remain concerned but silent and carry
their guilt with them in mute anger for not trying harder on the
path of self-expression to free themselves from reactionary
elements. Like Nasr Abu Zeid, an Egyptian Muslim professor of
Islamic studies at Cairo University, who was declared an apostate by
the Islamic Religious Shari’ah Court, and ordered to divorce his
Muslim wife on the ground that Islamic law forbids a Muslim woman to
stay, married to an apostate. They become solitary prisoners of
conscience and lead a subdued life of intellectual misery of
unfulfilled expression of conviction.
Certain Islamic schools force Koranic teachings on their pupils
since childhood. Islamic schools instill in students the fear of
Allah by compelling them to learn the Koran by heart. They embed it
in their culture, rock solid, at a very early age. Many children
recite much of the Koran even before they reach the age of ten or
eleven. As they grow older, they become habitual believers.
Realizing the deadly risk of breaking away when they grow up, they
join the mainstream and become vocal and overt in their hostility
against other religions. In the Sudan for instance, Sudanese youths
are whipped and chained for refusing to memorize the Koran.
"Children are held in detention and have their ankles chained for
days for refusing to accept the Islamic faith".
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