Old Men and Little Girls

Despite the promise of 'reforms' to the barbaric practise of child 'brides' in the Yemen (and elsewhere in the Muslim world), there are still stories like this one of a 13-year-old Yemeni dieing of internal bleeding three days after being 'married', occasionally emerging from the dark ages that pass for a civilisation in those parts.

One day reform will finally get through to these peoples, but how much blood and suffering do their women have to endure before then?

Slow Reforms In Yemen And Elsewhere

'Fairs, fair' as they say, and just because I dislike those parts of the Muslim world that persist in socially backward and violent ways, doesn't mean that I should not acknowledge the tentative attempts at reforms that do occasionally occur. 

So in an attempt to redress any imbalance that might have crept in to my observations, I will discuss some little heralded reforms that are being attempted in the Islamic world. 

Firstly; In the Yemen, there are on going attempts to tackle the disgrace of children being 'sold' as brides to old men .... this practice is justified by the Mullahs because their prophet also took an nine year old girl as his wife (this fact acutely embarrasses some Muslims, as its hard to put any sort of spin on it, but for the radicals its a point of faith), however its likely to have been an existing social practice before Islam. So despite opposition from the religious who have declared the reformers 'apostates' i.e. eligible to be killed, a law is being pushed forward to raise the age of wedding to 17 and 18 for boys and girls respectively. 

And Secondly; In a 2006 video that's only now being circulated, Buthayna Nasser a brave female newscaster in Saudi Arabia took on a religious leader who insisted that female newscasters should be entirely or mostly covered if they go on television. The 2006 debate on Memri TV is just now being circulated and have made her sort of famous ..... in a kinda suicidal, 'Rushdie fatwa' kinda way .... but gutsy!

Note: The female Lebanese presenter in the video apparently doesn't the same issues, but with the Muslim world generally moving towards radical Islam that may not remain the case for long. 

Finally: Another Saudi woman is causing a stir from beneath a veil in a poetry contest in which she is challenging the Mullahs grip on her life. Hissa Hilal is already challenging convention by being at once a journalist and a wife and mother of four children. But it is her withering criticisms in the form of nomads traditional poetry - recited while dressed in a traditional head-to-toe abaya cloak and broadcast on traditional Arabic television - that is really defiant. 

In her poems the conservative Mullahs are described as "vicious in voice, barbaric, angry and blind". Her poems also talks of some of the clerics "wearing death as a robe cinched with a belt" - an apparent reference to suicide bombers' explosives belt. "What made me so angry is seeing the Arab society becoming more and more kept to itself, not like before - loving and caring and sharing and open and welcoming everyone," she told the BBC's World Service. "Now, even if you want to be simple and nice with others, people are asking themselves whether it is haram [forbidden] to say hello to strangers," she said, adding: "I blame those who have led the people, and directed them this way." 

This is heady stuff and is causing much comment in her homeland as well as the rest of the Arab world where the TV contest is being broadcast. Of course in the Islamic world, a death threat is only a Mullahs pause away, and her poetry has also sparked death threats on Arab websites, with some outraged commentators saying she is acting shamefully. 

Still she has received much support from both men and women in the Arab world and this must be taken as a sign of hope.