Nawar Fakhry Ezzi
The Taliban used to be the most prominent example of women’s oppression in modern times, but Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) seems to have surpassed their level of viciousness and exceeded all expectations. Sex slavery has been the highlight of the atrocities they have been committing against women, not to mention domestic abuse, rape and child marriage. Furthermore, according to Mosul’s forensic medical center, the bodies of 837 women executed by Daesh have been received from Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh since Daesh occupied the city last year. These women included parliament and municipality candidates, government employees, lawyers, hairdressers and a few housewives.
Misogynistic traditions and laws seem to be the common denominator among many totalitarian theocratic governments throughout history. These laws are said to be nonnegotiable because they have been enacted under the name of God by men who monopolize the interpretation of His words. To further brainwash their nations, several tactics have been used over the years, such as deeming women to be evil by nature, unfit for anything other than reproduction, or simply considering them to be deficient in intelligence and religion. In this way, shutting them out of education and public life is justified because of their "natural incompetence", which leads to further weakening their position and making them dependent on male protection for financial and physical support.
In this way, a totalitarian theocratic government secures its power, creating a chain of oppression which manifests in a patriarchal fashion starting from the head of state going down the chain until it reaches the little child in a family unit. Deliberately silencing half of society with the assistance of the other half would definitely secure this chain and keep it from breaking. This might indicate that these theocracies are especially oppressive toward women because they are aware that empowering them leads to empowering an entire nation, which would be the beginning of the end of their control over the word of God and thus over the masses.
Scholars have speculated about the reasons behind the emergence of patriarchal societies in general and men’s systematic and constant oppression of women throughout history. Maria Mies in her book, Patriarchy and Accumulation of a World Scale, suggests that men’s role as hunters in the early days, which required their expertise in making weapons, in addition to the need of women to have more children when nomadic tribes emerged, created the foundation on which patriarchal societies were built. As a result of men’s freedom from providing constant care to the young and their superior physical strength, they started invading other tribes, which gave them control over food and wealth and power over women and children.
Another theory is by Steve Taylor, who argues in his book, The Fall, that a psychological disorder, which he calls "humania" or "ego madness" is behind men’s oppression of women. According to his theory, men oppress women to gain power, which increases their significance. In this way, they take away power from women and control them in every way they can. Thus, one can imagine that when the power of the rule of God is added to the mix, a man gets to legitimately raise himself into a higher being and deems women as unworthy.
Sadly, women and children are usually among the first groups to be adversely affected by the emergence of any social or economic instability. However, this is not to say that women are as fragile as children are, but rather a testimony of women’s bonding and connection to their children through childbirth and rearing sometimes to the extent that they are willing to sacrifice their lives, not only their most basic rights, in order to protect and care for their offspring.
On the other hand, when given education and the chance to participate in public life, women have proven that intelligence and willpower have nothing to do with gender differences. This is why it is surprising to find that during this past year several Muslim women, including Western women, have willingly traveled or were caught while attempting to travel to support Daesh, which is an issue that will be discussed further in the next article.
The writer can be reached at nawar81@hotmail.com
