SEX AND POLITICS
No sex-slaves please, we're Muslim
BY SHELINA ZAHRA JANMOHAMED, JUNE 20, 2011
Muslim women rarely talk about sex in public. To do so is considered
by the cultures they inhabit – not by Islam – as one of the great
taboos. So what on earth possessed Salwa al Mutairi, a failed
politician from Kuwait, to declare that female "sex-slaves" were a
solution to meet the needs of lusty Kuwaiti husbands?
According to Al Mutairi, Kuwait is jam-packed with men whose excessive
virility means they are aroused to a frenzy by the sight of female
domestic help wielding a vacuum cleaner or stacking a dishwasher. Her
solution to their uncontrollable libidos: buy women from war-stricken
countries to be their sex-slaves. She suggests Chechnya, where female
prisoners of war are in plentiful supply, and who will be grateful for
being saved from starvation.
Predictably her comments have been seized upon by Islamophobes. And no
wonder. She's managed to wrap up every possible stereotype of Muslims
into one mind-boggling story: men who treat women as possessions;
oppressed wives; women who buy into the worldview that men are there
to be satisfied at all costs and that the Arab desire for conquest is
still rampant. And she's quoted some "specialists of the faith" to
make it look as though this is a religious position that all Muslims
hold.
Here's what I think of Al Mutairi's views: bonkers.
Her opinion is about as representative of Muslim thinking as the Pope
is a Muslim. That is to say, not at all. Yet because she feeds into
existing prejudices, she has received wide coverage. It's a bit Sarah
Palin: all hype and no sense.
Just to be clear, Muslims don't condone the buying and selling of
women, or any human beings. We're opposed to it. Islam doesn't see men
as ravaging sex-beasts, rather men should treat their wives with
compassion and respect. Muslims are not out to conquer the world, or
take prisoners of war. Instead, Islam counsels peace and harmony with
its neighbours, and that Muslims should act as a refuge for those who
have been afflicted by war.
Of all the craziness that props up Al-Mutairi's strange notions, the
one that really bothers me is that men are beholden to uncontrollable
lust. And that's a notion that pervades both eastern and western
cultures. Let's get rid of the idea that men are hostages to their
libido once and for all.
I'm fed up with excuses rolled out for men that they are so feeble and
lacking in self-discipline that they are incapable of controlling
their sexual desire. But, strangely they are not incapable of being
the head of a household or running a country. My view: if men can't
control what's in their pants, then their argument that they should
control society is on pretty shaky ground.
Men who have power and wealth believe that they can treat women as
possessions; that "manly' men who are overloaded with testosterone
must inevitably engage in affairs. Al-Mutairi's views fit into this
same power and lust paradigm as the Dominique Strauss-Khans of this
world, or the Arnold Schwarzeneggers. It's the same wrong-headed
thinking that sees women in war as legitimate targets for abuse
through the wielding of power and sex, as we've seen in the recent
allegations that Qaddafi used rape as a weapon of war.
Let's get away from this sleazy, skin-crawling, dirty tone that sees
women as sex objects. It's a pernicious paradigm that men as well as
women must challenge. And no taboo should hold us back from saying so.
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and
writes an awardwinning blog at spirit21.co.uk, where this article was
originally published.
http://www.altmuslimah.com/a/b/a/no_sex-slaves_please_were_muslim/#When:11:53:19Z
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