Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, is the latest victim of Sharia law and the denial of basic rights to women in some Muslim countries. Ghavami has been in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for over 40 days after committing the unpardonable sin of try to enter a stadium to watch the Iranian national men’s team was playing Italy. She was part of a large group of women who simply wanted to be able to watch a soccer game but under Sharia law in Iran it is a crime for women to even be at a sporting match with men. The world community has gone to Facebook and other social media sites to demand her release but she continues to languish in a prison known for its torture and raping of inmates.
Ghavami was released after the arrest at the stadium but then arrested again when she went to the police station to collect her belongings a few days later. She studied law in London and has dual Iranian and British nationality.
Iranian women have been protesting for years to be allowed into stadium. They are barred even when women from other countries like Korea are allowed into the stadium.
Evin is a particularly frightful place for dissidents and civil libertarians. It has been used for journalists and human rights activists who have asserted their rights of free speech or equality.
Source: Independent
And cue the Christian bashing. Because anytime the Muslim extremists do some atrocity, someone has to point out that Christians are “just as bad.” Even though, when you look at beheadings, suicide bombs, flogging or stoning rape victims, and the murder of gays, we’re really not.
We don’t need to Christian bash-most Christians didn’t participate in the Crusades and like the Muslims of the MENA region, Christians were as much victimized by the ones claiming religious authority as were non Christians. Now Islam has the same kind of bad actors and claimants to heavenly authority. They don’t have any more right to it than past claimants did.
So far as this woman is concerned, it is a secular law or a local custom that she offended. Nothing in the Quran forbids her presence there. This rule apparently just keeps IRANian women from attending. Which is an example of stupid human laws. Right up there with the rules about women driving in KSA(which isn’t even a LAW!)
Sad. I pray for her release, and I hope she’s not harmed in prison. Poor lady.
Locking a young woman in a cage for the audacity of watching a soccer match is abhorrent, but when a person is visiting a foreign nation as a guest it is their responsibility to follow the host nations laws and cultures lest you find yourself locked in a cage for actions considered mundane in your home country.
A very easy thumb-rule to follow when traveling abroad is the time tested method of:
When in Rome do as the Romans would do.