The following report by Clare Lopez was published last month by Sharia TipSheet.

Women Attacked, Violated, Disempowered, and Silenced Under Sharia

by Clare M. Lopez

The stories we bring to you this month focus on the status of women who live under Islamic Law (sharia). The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan are among the world’s regimes under which some of the most horrific human rights abuses against women occur. Islamic Law consigns women to a second-class status under which the rights of men are accorded a superior status. Such unequal treatment derives from the Qur’an, which allows Muslim males to marry up to four women in addition to those “that your right hands possess” (i.e., sex slaves, Q 4:3) and to grant male children inheritance “equal to that of two females” (Q 4:11). In Surah 4:34, the Qur’an tells Muslim men that if they “fear disloyalty and ill conduct” from their wives, they should admonish them, refuse to share their beds, and “beat them”. Muslim men are told in Q: 2:223 that “Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how you will” (no such thing as marital rape under sharia). [Editor’s Note — ‘tilth’ is cultivated land ready to seed.]

Regarding the requirement that women must cover their hair and wear concealing clothing, this derives directly from Surahs 28:31 and 33:59, which connect covering up with not being “molested” (i.e., raped, by Muslim men). In this spirit, the IRI is cracking down on women and girls who have been in the forefront of the uprising against the Tehran regime since the September 2022 murder by the so-called “morality police” of the young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, for supposedly allowing some hair to show under her hijab.

• “Two Iranian women arrested for not covering hair after man attacks them with yoghurt”, BBC, 1 April 2023
• “Two women attacked with yoghurt in Iran arrested for not covering hair: Country’s chief justice says unveiled women will be prosecuted ‘without mercy’ after defiance”, The Guardian, April 1, 2023
• “Iran Escalates Targeting of Women Who Refuse to Wear Mandatory Hijab”, Foundation for Defense of Democracy (FDD), April 17, 2023
• “Women not wearing hijab to be banned from Tehran metro — reports”, The Guardian, 10 April 2023
• “Iran installs cameras to identify women breaking dress code”, CNN, April 8, 2023
• “Chemical attacks on Iranian schoolgirls resume”, Jerusalem Post, April 16, 2023

Next, regimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan are restricting the rights of women and girls to attend school/university—to confine them to the home where they are more closely under the domination of husbands, brothers, and sons but also to limit their ability to pursue a professional career outside the home.

• “Taliban Bans Women From Working at U.N., Putting Afghan Aid at Risk”, Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2023
• “Afghanistan girls’ education: ‘When I see the boys going to school, it hurts’”, BBC, 27 March 2023
• “Afghanistan: Girls’ education activist arrested by Taliban”, BBC, 28 March 2023
• “UN says Afghan girls’ education activist arrested in Kabul”, Washington Times, March 28, 2023

Finally, we’ll recall that the Ayatollah Khomeini infamously said that “There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam.” Well, apparently under the Taliban in Afghanistan, that goes double for music during Ramadan.

• “Taliban shutters women-run radio station for playing music”, NBC News, April 1, 2023

Previous posts by Clare Lopez at Sharia TipSheet: