Political Islam the main obstacle on the way of secularism and equality

Medusa’s editor Azar Majedi was supposed to be here and talk to you today, but unfortunately she was not able to do so. But I would like to start my speech with a quotation from her first editorial, in which Azar Majedi highlights our aims in lunching our magazine. The paragraph reads:

“Medusa believes women rights are universal, that equality and women’s emancipation are in strong contradiction with religious powers and reactionary, patriarchal values. In order to guarantee women’s liberation, religion must be separated from the state and education.”

And this we have been loyal to since our establishment. During these years we have established the fact that we are strictly against political Islam and sexual apartheid that rules in Iran and the Middle East countries. We have always treated political religion and in particular the Islamic laws as the first and main obstacle in the way of women’s freedom and equality. While feminist organisations had been busy finding and supporting milder factions of Islamists, while the international media and the western governments tried to introduce less hairy mullahs as reformist and liberal, we insisted that there was no progressive side as far as Islam is concerned.

We have frequently been criticised and asked why Islam? What is it about Islam that makes it stand out among other religions? Surly other faiths don’t treat women any better than Islam? Aren’t there faith schools for many other religions as well as Islam? Isn’t it true that Jewish man thank God every day for not being a dog and a woman?

I do not dispute the fact that other religions do not treat women equally. In fact all religions are based on inequality and treat women as inferiors. But Islam is a political power, which for the past 30 years thanks to the western governments’ support has grown and made a hell of a life for women in the countries it has any power or influence. It has even managed to effect people’s lives in the western countries. (Take a look at the number of honour killings and forced marriages in Britain to see my point)

The Islamic governments have clearly and shamelessly defined women as inferiors in their laws. Women are imprisoned in a dark, mobile prison cell called the veil, paedophile is legalised as the age of marriage is reduced to nine for girls. Women have been stoned to death under Islamic rule for adultery. Women have been arrested and flogged for wearing make up. ……….

We women right activist are left with no choice but to fight Islam, as every step we take requires breaking a wall of Islamic rule that is built in front of any civilisation.

Islam and political Islam is indeed a power that has to be defeated in order to go forward and bring changes about women’s lives.

The myth of better factions of Islam, only misguides the women’s’ movement and astray it in a completely wrong direction. There is never possible to have an Islamic government in which women do not have to wear the veil or their rights would be protected. The history of Islam and especially its last thirty years of influence and rule have clearly illustrated an era of terror, fear, and sexual apartheid, sexual segregation and inhumane laws for women.

We are living in the 21 century in a very increasingly globalised world. What is happening in Afghanistan and Iran affects us here and we have no choice but to unite and defeat our most dangerous and appalling enemy. Political Islam must be defeated and pushed back to the backrooms of individual people, it has to be withdrawn from the government, taken out of the schools and cleared from the streets, or we will not witness any improvement in the women’s lives.