ORLANDO SENTINEL: Although the principle that "the personal is political" was first popularized by the American Women's Movement of the 1970s, the same wisdom may have much to teach us about relations between the West and Islam. The widely-publicized and ongoing tragedy of Ameneh Bahrami and Majid Movahedi offers a glaring example of precisely how.
At first glance, Bahrami's story seems like a tale of medieval injustice. After the Iranian electronics student resisted the persistent and unwanted advances of Movehedi for more than two years, he blinded and disfigured her in a 2004 acid attack.
Such attacks are still all too common in much of Asia -- most notably in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. They are often orchestrated against women who refuse to don the hajib or who resist unwanted proposals of marriage. Such attacks are barbaric. However, Iranian law provides for an equally barbaric remedy. Under the Islamic rule of qias -- roughly translated as equivalence -- the victims of such attacks may demand identical treatment for their assailants. Bahrami, now receiving free medical care in Spain, has demanded that Movehedi be blinded too.
At her request, an Iranian court recently ordered that sulfuric acid be dropped into one of his eyes. (Apparently, since Iranian law does not view men's eyes and women's eyes as having equal value, Bahrami must pay 20,000 Euros if her spurned suitor is to lose both eyes.) >>> Jacob M. Appel | Special to the Sentinel | Monday, March 30, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
