We have yet another example of the perversity of justice under Sharia law. The latest case comes out of Iran where university students have filed a criminal complaint against famed actress Leila Hatami, who recently starred in the Oscar-winning film, A Separation. Some Iranians were outraged when Hatami accepted a customary peck on the cheek from Gilles Jacob, the President of Cannes Festival, as she arrived at Cannes Film Festival to serve as a member of the prestigious jury. Not only is such a sign of affection a crime in the Islamic Republic but (gasp) Hatami was wearing a head scarf that did not entirely cover her hair from being seen by men. She is now subject to jail and flogging under article 638 of Islamic Criminal Justice. The Sharia law calls for 50 lashes.
One would think that a nation like Iran would be overwhelmed with pride at the success of a citizen on the international stage. Hatami is one of just five women members on the Palme d’Or prize jury. However, in a country where women are segregated and flogged in the name of Islamic morality, many view Hatami with disgust and anger. That includes the Hizbullah Students, a group of university students with links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that first brought the criminal complaint. They are demanding that Hatami be flogged.
The petition, supported by many officials and citizens, declared “We, the undersigned, who are a group of student Muslim brothers and sisters, ask the cultural and media branch of the judiciary to prosecute Leyla Hatami for her sinful act of kissing a strange man in public, which according to article 638 of Islamic Criminal Justice carries a prison sentence. Furthermore, the action of this film star has hurt the religious sentiments of the proud and martyrs breeding nation of Iran and as such we also demand the punishment of flogging for her as stipulated in the law.”
Hatami has been denounced in the media as committing a “an affront to the chastity of women in Iran” and Hossein Nushabadi, Iran’s deputy minister of culture, declared Hatami to be in open “violation of religious beliefs.” He went on to say that she had disgraced the nation and the faith by such an immoral act and that, unlike Hatami, “Iranian woman is the symbol of chastity and innocence.” And of course Iranian courts are the symbol of cruelty and ignorance.
Source: Telegraph
Annie:
You are deliberately misunderstanding me. I hear the military bashed all the time as having a high rate of sexual assaults. I am merely pointing out the similarity with college campuses, where sexual assaults are also rife. This does not only happen in the military.
I come from a very long line of those who’ve served, and I am very proud of our military. I don’t look the other way when stories come out about sexual assaults, but I don’t pretend it’s not a problem everywhere that young men and women are mixed together. When I went to frat parties, the “rule” was that you couldn’t go without a large group of girls, and no one was to get separated. I mention this because you mentioned women banning together for protection in the military. You said they were more wary of their fellow military than they were Afghanis.
I’ve had so many friends and family serve, and am so proud of them. Your story about the grave, constant peril military men posed to their female counterparts makes it sound like living in Haiti, where women wore pants under their skirts to slow down the rapists. Heck, you claim our own boots on the ground were the biggest threats on base.
Polygamy is performed by the 85 Sharia Law councils in the UK. These marriages are just not reported. They operate in a semi-official status. You’ll note that she did not disagree with me when I gave her more information. So, I think my competency is just fine commenting.
Did I read that right, Annie? Did your daughter serve in something like a ‘college campus’ in Afghanistan?
Also, we had a Brit on here yesterday. She said polygamy is not legal in Britain. Yes, there are nuances since welfare benefits are allowed.
So far as I know, there is no one here who is competent to comment on law and Sharia councils in the UK.
We have a hard enough time agreeing on our own legal system.
Karen
Regarding Sharia councils in UK per Wiki
The Islamic Sharia Council is a London-based, quasi-Islamic court that provides legal rulings and advice to Muslims in accordance with Islamic Sharia based on the four Sunni schools of thought. It primarily handles cases of marriage and divorce and, to a lesser extent business and finance.[1] According to BBC News, thousands of Muslims have turned to the Council to resolve family and financial issues. According to the Council, it deals with 200-300 cases monthly.[2]
The council has no legal authority or jurisdiction in the United Kingdom,[1] and can not impose any penalties. However, many Muslims voluntarily accept the rulings it makes.[2]
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For goodness sake. This country has nothing to fear. The council has no legal authority or jurisdiction in the UK. To sound an alarm is to indulge in prejudice and fear mongering.
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To say Jimmy Carter contributed to the overthrow of the Shah is to ignore 95% of history. Carter did refuse to send more weapons to Iran when the people were protesting the Shah because he was known for his strong support for human rights. It will be helpful if you begin the history of Iran with the CIA and Brits who overthrew the democratically elected Mossadegh. It will also be helpful if you recall the Shah’s oppressive regime, torture and SAVAK. The people of Iran threw out the Shah. It was called a revolution. You might as well wish that GWB had protected Saddam. Or Ike had protected Baptista. Come to think of it – we do prefer our dictators! And for a long time, we also preferred South Africa under apartheid.
As for Afghan security and Army yes, they didn’t trust them because of the green on blue attacks, some of which happened during my daughter’s year there. The Afghan WORKERS were not allowed on base until they were searched for weapons.
And Karen, my daughter was told this by her superiors, not other women Marines and Corpsman. It was REQUIRED by her superiors. It was hardly a college campus scenario. She was caught in the middle of the attack on Camp Bastion, just yards down the road from where she and her roommate lived. Look up the Attack on Camp Bastion in 2012 before you tell me it was like a college campus.
*Trip*
Karen, I am not talking about the Afghans OFF of the base, I’m talking about Afghan workers ON the base. On the base the male and female Marines and Corpsmen carried their weapons on them at all times. Yes indeed it was dangerous going off base, m daughter had to on occasion leave the base on a blood run, I felt better when she told me the teip was on a helicopter rather than on a road.
Strange that they were not wary of Afghanis. One of my friends who served said that there was not a single time that their caravan was NOT hit by an IED. And there are all those times Afghani security turned on the military.
Sounds like, at least where your daughter served, the military was like a college campus, where they have “rape phones” every hundred feet.
Synchronized swimmers must REALLY have synchronized menses.
Nick – women athletes tend to stop having menes while they are training.
Annie – tell that to the thousands of college freshman girls who miss their period, think they are pregnant and go running to the student health center for a pregnancy check, only to find they are synced with their roommate.
Karen, the jury is out on the synchronization of women’s periods.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/menstrual-synchrony-do-girls-who-go-together-flow-together/
As for female military members and a sisterhood, absolutely yes, women do band together for protection in the military. When my daughter was in Afghanistan females did not walk to the latrines or jog after dark alone, they weren’t wary of Afghanis, it was male military that had attacked females. One of the first things that m daughter was told when she got to Camp Leatherneck.
Sheesh. Are PMS jokes banned? And it is biologically true that women sometimes sync cycles.
I think it would be hilarious if the religious police got their butts kicked by a bunch of women. I know female soldiers have said they enjoy standing up for the “sisters” against the “superior” male bullies in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Karen – my thinking is that if the SEALS are double tough, think how tough a battalion of PMSing would be. 🙂
Warspite:
I agree with you on the separation of Church and State.
But I disagree with – “While the general population probably would have been fine with a State Religion”. This country was founded by those who were unable to practice their religion under the Anglican Church. The other large group were the Dutch who founded NY, who basically wanted the right to free commerce.
There was already a diversity of Christian denominations by the time of the Founding. The freedom of religion was one of the aspects that made America unique. A single State Religion could never have happened.
“This country was founded by those who were unable to practice their religion under the Anglican Church.”
I would suggest that this country was founded by those who were seeking to escape the legal taxes and fees of their King’s government. Smugglers who may have descended from seekers of religious freedom but who themselves never lived without religious freedom or any other freedom they could arrange under the nose of the King.
I would further suggest that this country was founded by Freemasons who were seeking to establish a nation free of any Religious influence but not so as to worship freely but so as to institute their “religion” as the national religion. One we can’t see and that does not involve faith as such.
“The freedom of religion was one of the aspects that made America unique. A single State Religion could never have happened.”
I agree that a single state religion could never have happened but not because religious freedom was a hallmark of the new nation. Rather because Freedom was the cover reason for forming this new government. Without the concept of freedom for the common man, there would have been no Revolution and no American Aristocracy to rule the new nation. As is was only about one third of the colonists were in support of the Revolution. Most folks actually thought that Old King George was a pretty good guy. He was actually very liberal in his treatment and taxation of the American colonies.
On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 5:17 PM, JONATHAN TURLEY wrote:
> Karen S commented: “Warspite: I agree with you on the separation of > Church and State. But I disagree with – “While the general population > probably would have been fine with a State Religion”. This country was > founded by those who were unable to practice their religion” >
angry – I agree that smuggling was America’s number one industry prior to the American Revolution, but I cannot buy into the rest of your argument. It has a conspiracy vibe to it.
Feynman:
“how many House Republicans voted to uphold Obamacare during the 5200 votes the Republicans launched to repeal ACA?”
Well . . . since they oppose it . . . zero. They promised their constituents that they would fight Obamacare, since it cancelled their health care and doubled premiums of replacement policies. Took away doctor choice.
No, that’s all the Democrat’s albatross. Democrats believe in Obamacare SO strongly, that they postponed the employer mandate until after the election. Even they know if it all hit at once they’d never win an election again.
So definitely do keep making it clear that this is all the Demcorats’ fault.
I knew a US-born Persian girl who went with her family to visit The Old Country, Iran. They still owned some property there. She had never been. Her father warned her that if she ever has a problem with the religious police, do NOT allow them to take her to jail without contacting him. He might never find her.
Her cousin (mother’s side) was giving her a tour of the city when they were stopped by the religious police. She was arrested for wearing nail polish, and for being in a car with a boy who had a different last name than hers. They refused to allow her to call her father, and dragged her off.
Luckily, he was able to bribe a judge by GIVING him the house he owned in Iran. That got her out. For wearing nail polish and being in a car with her cousin.
When Christians try to flog women for a peck on the cheek, by all means, let’s call them out.
Hahahahaha! A woman is going to get her back shredded by 50 lashes for accepting a smooch on the cheek by the Cannes president, and it is compared with the “plight” of women without copay-free contraceptives!
Warspite:
If only Carter had not contributed to overthrowing the Shah, who knows what Iran might have become?
The Shaw nationalized the bazaars, which were traditionally the purview of the imams. He made them essentially a coop, owned by the sellers. He gave thousands of Crown acres to the people for private ownership. He gave women more rights and freedoms.
And as for the Iranian religious revolutionaries who marched, there is a lesson to be learned. A despot often rises by the will of the people. Professor Turley has written several articles about the unprecedented abuses of power by our sitting President.
If you forget the past you are doomed to repeat it.
So, fear of Sharia Law being incorporated into our legal system is “ginned up” but fear of Christians taking it over is perfectly reasonable?
Cue the apologists jumping in to claim Christianity is just as bad . . .
You may notice that Turkey has been in the news lately as extremists object to their more secular government. And it has been spreading elsewhere. The Arab Spring, as predicted, afforded the Muslim Brotherhood an opportunity to change the government of Egypt from secular, friendly to tourists, to extremist.
Pretending it isn’t happening will not stem the tide of Islamic Extremist Expansion.