My wife and I were discussing the rights of Muslim women last night. The topic came up quite unobtrusively, after she had just finished reading the book Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi. The book is an autobiography of sorts that describes the author's fight for freedom in a world governed by strict Islamic laws. After being forced to resign from her job as a professer, she invites her best female students to participate in book studies of Western literature. Through these discussions, women find comfort in each other and discuss the indignities that the Iranian government has imposed on them, and constantly living in fear of the Mutaween - a "morality police force". You can read reviews and discussions about the book here.
Stories of Muslim women overcoming the obstacles set before them are starting to come out. An article in today's Toronto Star talks about a Cairo sex therapist who is taking sex talk out of the hush living room, and onto the airwaves, despite crushing resistance from the male clerics.
One must note the courage and determination of these women. It is so very easy for me, a male in an otherwise free society, to take for granted many rights and freedoms that other people (let alone people of the opposite sex) must fight for every day.
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