Shariah doctrine – the totalitarian, discriminatory doctrine of Islamic law – is waging a war on women. Shariah doctrine as practiced in the real world is a form of “gender apartheid” that targets women and girls as second-class citizens, as little more than property of their husbands and families. Shariah is a centuries-long, daily war on women.
The End the Shariah War on Women campaign’s goal is to educate citizens and policymakers to stop the war. Sadly, some of our leaders refuse to criticize the Shariah doctrines that kill, imprison and oppress women, and they support the Islamist organizations and governments that enforce Shariah doctrine.
SHARIAH WAGES BRUTAL INSTITUTIONALIZED VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. Women are being attacked with honor killings, spousal abuse, and female genital mutilation of girls. Girls are forced into marriages at ages as young as nine and suffer from early childbirth and high maternal death rates. Women are beaten, burned with acid or fire, or imprisoned for seeking education or freedom. Read stories of women in America and worldwide who are the targets of this violence.
SHARIAH DOCTRINE TAKES WOMEN’S CHILDREN AND HOMES. If women end up divorcing their husband they lose custody of their children immediately in some cases, and for all children older than nine years of age in all cases. They give up any property settlement or at best take their dowry back from the marriage – even when they have contributed to the marriage through their earnings. And their husband can divorce them simply by saying “I divorce thee” three times.
SHARIAH MAKES WOMEN PRISONERS OF WAR. Rape victims are imprisoned in Pakistan. Women accused of blaspheming against Shariah law or Islam as a state are imprisoned in many Islamic states. Women accused of adultery (which includes many rape victims) are impriosned, beaten, hanged, lashed or threatened with stoning to death. Experts estimate that thousands of women are held as actual slaves under Shariah doctrine, for payment of debts or compensation for crimes. Girls disappear into forced marriages and don’t return to 7th or 8th grade.
SHARIAH MAKES WOMEN PRISONERS OF SILENCE. If they protest or attempt to escape, they can be killed. If they try to leave Islam or even to practice Islam without complete adherence to Shariah, they are called apostates and can be imprisoned or killed under Shariah law.
SHARIAH WAR ON WOMEN IS REACHING THOUSANDS OF VICTIMES – With the so-called “Arab Spring” putting in power Islamist Shariah-based governments, women in those countries are now losing what rights they had. Repressive Shariah measures are being proposed across the Middle East. In country after country, news reports tell of more women imprisoned, more women killed, more women simply disappearing when they speak out.
And in America, the long arm of Shariah law is also reaching Muslim women. We see more news reports every year about family honor killings. Researchers have found dozens of divorce and child custody cases where U.S. judges impose Shariah over American laws. Estimates are that each year, thousands of American women convert into Islam, or keep their faith but marry into Islam without knowing Shariah’s dangers. And too many American political leaders, bullied by Islamist lobbies or influenced by Middle Eastern petrodollars, shout down any criticism of Shariah’s war on women.
YOU CAN CRITICIZE SHARIAH AND STILL SUPPORT YOUR MUSLIM NEIGHBORS’ RIGHT TO WORSHIP. You can criticize Shariah and still support Muslim’s equal rights under the Constitution. You can criticize Shariah and still support Muslims’ right to personal, pietistic practice of their religion of Islam. You can criticize Shariah and still accept personal religious practices such as wearing the hijab headscarf, praying, attending the mosque or fasting on Ramadan.
Women’s right to fight back against Shariah’s war is the most important civil rights battle of the 21st century.