Story highlights
- A Taliban leader ordered a woman to be stoned to death after she fled forced marriage
- Salbi: Stonings are a result of the search for a new identity in a region plagued with turmoil
- Salbi: It is wrong to legitimize Taliban and ISIS stonings by calling them Islamic
Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi American author, founder of Women for Women International a humanitarian organization, and the host of The Nida'a Show, a one hour entertainment and current affairs talk show for women in Arab world. The opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author.
The stoning of Rokhsana,
an Afghan woman who was in her early twenties, this week in Afghanistan
shed more ugly light on the treatment of women by the Taliban and
religious extremists in parts of the Muslim world -- but to try to
explain this practice in religions terms will only give legitimacy to
those who are violating the very spirit and principle of religion
itself.
The
explanation of why women are still being stoned comes not from religion
itself but rather from the role of religion in the search for a new
identity in a region, plagued with turmoil, where women are a very
important symbol of a family's honor.
But
let's start at the beginning: Islam does indeed have the judgment of
stoning for those who are engaged in sexual activities outside of
marriage.
Firstly,
there must be four eyewitnesses to the actual act itself before
judgment can be passed -- something that is very hard to get anywhere in
the world. Second, both parties -- men and women -- should be treated
equally under this judgment.
Zainab Salbi
Both these facts are completely overlooked by fundamentalists who are adamant about picking only what they like out of Islam.
As
for the rest of Muslims -- the moderate majority -- though they are
familiar with the stoning issue, they know to take the spirit of what
applied thousands of years ago and apply its lesson in terms of
encouraging modesty among women and men in modern days, rather than the
actual stoning.
I
asked young women from Jordan, Syria and the UAE about the stoning of
Rokhsana after her attempted escape with a man her age, and their
response had nothing to do with stoning -- though all are religious and
wear the headscarf.
"There
is a reason for everyone's behavior -- her escaping without her
parents' approval is wrong, but that can be dealt with in different ways
other than punishment," Manar, 21, said. "No one does stoning anymore
-- these were other days."
Those
who are still stoning are in the minority, but they're also the loudest
in their selective implementation of the religion. For them -- whether
it's the Taliban or Daesh (also known as ISIS) -- the only way to gain
power is to claim it from a very particular part of religion, and only
in the areas they deem necessary. And to these groups, women are the
lowest denominator, used to prove their masculinity and their claim to
power -- to themselves and to the world.
12 photos: Unveiled: Afghan women past and present
Never
before in Islamic history have women been so brutalized, whether it's
stoning in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, kidnapping by Boko Haram in
Nigeria, or assassinations in Libya.
This
crossing of the line -- physically attacking women in such savage ways
-- has spread in the last two decades, but it's really taken off with
the rise of ISIS.
This
new massive violation of women has been a shock to Muslim women
themselves, who are respectful of the religion but not in the ways
extremists are attempting to define it: as a complete silencing of
women's' expressions, from the social to the political realm.
Though
horrifying for the Muslim world and the larger world alike, it is
dangerous to acknowledge any extremist Muslims' behavior as Islamic. To
do that is to legitimize their claim on religion, despite most Muslims
not abiding by their rules.
Ensuring
that Muslim women's voices are heard in all political discussions for
peace and security in various countries is the only way to help tilt the
balance away from the Taliban and their like and back towards the
moderate majority who are inventing, creating and seeking a decent life.
