من الغلاف إلى الغلاف..... Price Of Honor

Quote: There is, perhaps, also a psychological explanation that accounts for the willingness of men to treat their womenfolk as property. Strangely enough, Muslims insist that their honor revolves around their women: the entire family (or tribe) can be dishonored by the inappropriate behavior of a woman. Invariably, this reduces to sexual fidelity. In an effort to ensure the fidelity (NOT chastity!) of their women, Muslim men reduce them to slaves while enjoying vicarious sexual life through "co-wives." The most puzzling question here is: Why should women suffer for the weaknesses of men? Even the prominent fundamentalists say that men can be easily tempted and led astray by women. They conclude, in a bizarre fit of un-logic, that it is necessary to reduce the sexual attractiveness of women, hence the burqa, hence the prohibitions, hence the degradation. However, it seems to me that the obvious solution here is to educate men, not imprison women. The Bible (of all things!) has a better injunction: "if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell" (Mark 9:47). As an atheist, I find it strange to use the Bible to illustrate a point, but clearly the solution advocated here makes much more sense: it is "your eye" that should be plucked out if it causes you to sin, not the one that causes the eye to sin. (I should note that in verse 42, on the other hand, the same Bible advocates throwing the ones who cause the believers to sin into the sea "with a large millstone tied around his neck." So there you go, not as tolerant as one would have hoped for after all.)