ARAB SPRING? IN EGYPT? FOR WOMEN?

Hardly. Things will be worse for Egyptian women if the projected results of the current elections (by CBC, BBC, and Aljazeera) hold true. The Muslim Brotherhood will have the most votes (60 per cent first round vote) with the Salafists (ultra hard liners) and the Gamaa Islamiya, (more hard liners) taking most of the rest of the votes. Under these circumstances what can Egyptian women expect? Oh, the usual suspects…black robes for women, deschooling of girls and women, forced marriages of young women to old men as second, third, or fourth wives, death by stoning if women provoke jealously in their households, more honour killings. It means constant fear of men’s accusations of wrong doing, in other words, the complete captivity of women.

But wait a minute. Didn’t many young, seemingly well educated Egyptian women help start the Egyptians revolution, didn’t they work for it, risk their lives for it? Yes, and that was perfectly fine with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, and the Gamaa Islamiyas. But that was then, they seem to say, and this is now. Now that the battle is primarily won, it’s “Get back into your cages, women. And this time we will lock the gates good and tight”.

And many Islamists don’t necessarily cease to be hard line lslamists when they come to Canada. Islamic women continue to be treated as inferiors by their men in Canada in many instances. Remember the little girls in the Ontario school that holds Friday prayers for Muslims? And the young girls having their periods have to sit in the very back row away from the others? Boys in front, girls kneeling behind, then the menstruating girls, who are not fit to even kneel behind the boys in their supposed unclean condition and are delegated to the rear of the room.

What is wrong with Canada, with Ontario, to allow such a practice in public schools? Public displays of little girls being humiliated becaue of their life giving functions are akin, in a very real way, to pornography. And certainly it’s also akin to barbarism, that period of time when women were banished to special huts, away from any possible damage to men when the women were bleeding. I think Canada has gone bananas with trying to demonstrate how wonderfully political correct we are.

Enough is enough. Immigrants should adjust to Canadian society, not try to transform Canadian laws and social mores into what they left behind. The misogyny of Islam is notorious throughout the world. Why do we try to pretend that this isn’t so?
And how did Mohammad Shafia ,( Muslim from Afghanistan, making news right now for killing three of his daughters and his first wife) even get into Canada with two wives? I understand the first wife was listed as a cousin on the family’s immigration papers. How could a cousin be allowed entry into Canada when so many parents and adult children of immigrants are not allowed to be brought in with their families? Was it because Shafia is rich? Did immigration know or suspect the listed cousin was really the first wife and didn’t care because he was rich?

And how many other additional wives of rich Muslims families are allowed entry into Canada simply by being listed as cousins and aunts? This case is surely not the only one. And this case only came to light because the man killed his first wife along with his three daughters. Doesn’t Canadian immigration investigate the additional cousins and aunts that are brought in with these rich Muslim families? Especially since rich Muslim men are usually the only ones who can afford the two, three, or four wives that Islam allows. Curious minds want to know.