Domestic Violence

The report “Rania Al-Baz Lashes Out at Abuse of Women” (April 12) reveals many worrying facts. Such thugs are worse than animals. Where are the Islamic scholars and judges while atrocities of this kind go on? How come there are no fatwas quoting the Qur’an and the Sunnah explaining how these men are violating the teachings of Islam? The impression one gets is that the scholars are very selective. I wonder how many Saudi and foreign women are abused each day and their plight goes unheard because they don’t work with Channel 1. Many may choose to remain silent because of the fear of more abuse if they go public and tell their stories.

It was good to read that the recently established Human Rights Association has taken note of Rania’s case. But that is not enough. They need to take up the issue of all battered wives — and sisters and mothers. They need to establish a hotline so that battered women can call in to report abuses and get counseling. Channel 1, the media, intellectuals and socially aware people must form a support group to help these unfortunate women. This group can take up the cases, investigate them and put pressure on the authorities to address the problem.

I hope the demand for justice for women will not meet the familiar response: “We cannot follow the Western system in dealing with abuses. We must hide our scars and fractures under an Islamic veil.” Let us not kid ourselves. The world has seen enough. Let us stop talking and pretending, and do something tangible for a change. Make a difference for Rania Al-Baz and all abused women. Don’t let their suffering be in vain.

M. K Hafiz • Riyadh, published 16 April 2004

Iraq Occupation

Linda S. Heard’s article “How Could They Be So Ungrateful?” (April 13) did a good job of seeing through all the smoke and mirrors. My question is, when will Israel obey UN resolutions? My personal view is that getting rid of Saddam and his sons was a good thing for the people of Iraq and their country. But, invading Iraq was not a good thing. Where are those WMDs?

Occupying Iraq is not a good thing and handing over “power” — whatever that means — to a group of Washington-picked council members is not a good thing. Everyone knows that this group will not be seen as legitimate by anyone. Now that this quagmire has been created by the West, it’s a lose-lose situation for everyone until Iraq is truly free from all outside forces — unless Iraqis themselves invite them into their country to help with reconstruction. I want the people of Iraq to live free in their country and decide how they want to live — on their own without control from Washington or Britain or any outsiders. From the start, Washington should have helped the Iraqis (with help from Arab neighbors) to liberate themselves from Saddam — if that is what they, the Iraqi people, decided to do. We should not have made that decision since Saddam was not a direct threat to the US. The question is, now that Iraq is in turmoil from an outside invasion that should not have happened — where do we go from here?

Robert • Wisconsin, US, published 16 April 2004

Domestic Violence - 2

What the incident shows is that, in this society, undiagnosed psychopaths are living freely and happily at the expense of their spouses and families. These psychologically derailed individuals are harmful to their families and society as a whole. How can a husband hit his wife in such a cruel manner? She is the mother of his children. The emotional damage the children suffered because of the traumatic experience must be serious.

Women are abused in every country. In mine, those involved are generally drunkards and, in most cases, people with poor education and low income. But here, it happened in an educated upper middle class family. The fact that domestic violence, though condemned by all cultures, happens in every one of them proves that at moments of stress man surrenders himself to his primitive instincts. Though we boast — and also really believe — that we are marching into the 21st century and reaching for Mars, animal instincts are still in us, ready to break out into the open at the first excuse.

In the case of Rania’s husband it was something more. He is a man with criminal tendencies and a record of violence. Such people need to be given psychiatric treatment and their families should keep an eye on them. I hope the police will find him and punish him. One way of battling domestic violence is to show through punishment the perpetrators that they will have to pay a price for it.

Shaji A. Hydrose • Riyadh, published 16 April 2004

Domestic Violence - 3

The report “Rania Al-Baz Lashes Out at Abuse of Women” (April 12) was painful to read. Does it take a woman to be beaten to near death for Saudi society to acknowledge that women are abused? Will the government address this issue by opening shelters where women and children can go to find havens of safety and support? Will men continue to be exonerated? Women need to have the choice and freedom to seek refuge and protection before they are in the same condition as Rania. The pain and frustration of having nowhere to turn for help and legal protection is a feeling that any woman can well imagine. I speak on behalf of all decent women in the Kingdom and condemn the attack on Rania and commend her for speaking out. We hope some good will come out of the abuse that she has endured.

Susan Schuster Zaidan • Jeddah, published 16 April 2004

EU Promise

In his article “Cyprus: A Crisis of Inertia, Hypocrisy and Feebleness” (April 13), Peter Preston wrote, “At Copenhagen, in December 2002, the chieftains of our union made Turkey a solemn promise: Action by Christmas 2004.”

That is wrong. The EU never promised Turkey it would give it a definite date for talks. The promise was conditional. What the EU said was that if Turkey could show that it was implementing certain reforms to its political and social structures it would be given a “date for talks”. So far Turkey has not made satisfactory progress in this regard.

Faris Barakat • Istanbul, published 16 April 2004

Arab Help for Iraq

Iraq is on the verge of civil war, a war that could wind up killing hundreds of thousands of people, possibly engulfing the entire region. Yet so many in the Arab world are so eager to see George Bush’s coalition fail that they would rather rejoice in gleeful “I told you so” and cheer on lawless insurgents who have now slaughtered several thousand Iraqis than step in and make an honest effort to improve the situation.

There is one political way forward in Iraq. It is for Iraqis themselves to hold elections, write a constitution, and choose a government — and for the Americans to leave as soon as possible. No world leader has proposed any alternative to this. It is in everybody’s best interest for this program to succeed (especially the Americans, for whom the annual costs of occupation are several times the GDP of Iraq).

So shall we root for the program to fail? Shall we sit back and mock Bremer’s clumsy attempts to bring order to Iraq? Or shall we send in thousands of peacekeepers, negotiate with rebel groups, and do everything possible to calm the situation on the ground?

Why aren’t Arab governments doing more to save Iraq? I suspect the answer is something along the lines of “because George Bush is an arrogant buffoon who should not expect us to clean up his messes.” Yet it is precisely because of Bush’s shortcomings that the rest of us need to do everything in our power to make sure Iraq succeeds. The alternative is simply too horrible to imagine.

Scott Sheffield • United States, published 16 April 2004

Election Gimmicks

India is catching up with the United States — at least in election gimmicks. When candidates have nothing to offer their electorate on record, sponsors finance publicity blitzkriegs for them. This has been happening in the United States for a long time, and now it has come to India and is doing quite well.

For example, half-page ads sponsored by supporters are appearing in Andhra Pradesh dailies asking people to vote for Chandrababu Naidu and Asaduddin Owaisi. On what basis are they asking votes for them? Neither has done anything for the development of their constituencies, even though they have been MLAs for more than 10 years. Naidu has developed the city only and has done nothing for the development of villages. The poor are suffering more and more privation. It is only the rich who are enjoying themselves in Babu’s raj. Prices of essential commodities and basic necessities have skyrocketed. The issues that concern the people are the power tariff hike and water scarcity. What will they do with computers, imported cars and so on when they don’t have food, water and electricity? Again, how on earth can Naidu be called secular when he has been supporting the BJP and has done nothing for the minorities? All these political parties notice minorities only when the election period starts. Before or after, they don’t even exist.

The less said about Asaduddin Owaisi and his family the better. They have been using the minorities for more than 25 years. I don’t want to go into the detail about their achievements. The people of Hyderabad know all about that power- money- and fame-hungry family.

Shakeeb Mujtahedi • Jeddah, published 16 April 2004