No Submission

 
Over at Dr. Sanity's new page, she notes that they're celebrating International Women's Day in Iran. If 'celebrating' is the right word. They arrested the women (and the men who accompany them) for shouting "Na roosari, Na toosari!" (No Veil, No Submission).

According to the article cited in her post, the protesters were hauled away to waiting buses. Given the fact that Islam itself means "submission," and this was the very condition they were refusing, this was obviously a subversive and threatening group.

It is demoralizing to watch and be able to do nothing here. But at least we can reject the all-too-common rationalization made by and for Muslim women that their position in Islam is anything more than servitude. As Dr. Sanity notes,

It is astonishing to me that there are women who justify Islam and even describe it as "liberating" because it "frees" women from having to worry about issues like fashion or looks. By that line of reasoning, you could say that Death "frees" people from having to worry about Life.

She also doubts that Islam and equality for women are compatible:

But if it is, then it {Islam} will have to stop beating up 50% of its population in order to act out male fantasies of superiority, potency and power in the other 50%. Because if an individual, nation or religion has to act those fantasies out, the truth is that they are covering up the pathetic and desperate soul of a murderer.

The good doctor is correct in her diagnosis. Islam has more than one kind of fascism. The ingrained tyranny of the family is truly malignant tyranny. The hand that rocks the cradle is also the hand that kills when daughters step out of line.