Women Will Change Islam

I have written before about how technology and feminism will change the Islamic culture the same way it changed Christianity.

This news story is of another Muslim feminist that is trying to break down the tribal authority system. This is further proof that it is not necessary for Christian armies to invaded and occupy Muslim nations for change to happen in those Muslim countries.

“The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny; flattery to treachery; standing armies to arbitrary government; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy.” David Hume

Charles Tolleson

Excerpt; By John Hughes John Hughes – Thu May 13, 8:54 am ET
Provo, Utah – Indonesia’s Siti Musdah Mulia is a name to remember. That’s because she is showing Muslim women how to break out of bondage by using the words of the Koran.

Dr. Mulia was raised in a traditional Indonesian Muslim home and an Islamic boarding school. She was barred from contact with men. She was not allowed to laugh out loud. If she socialized with a non-Muslim, she was made to shower afterward.

Mulia is one of several courageous Muslim feminists who are challenging conservative male interpretations of Islam. As Isobel Coleman, a leading American authority on Islamic feminism and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told me: “Half of those men have never read the Koran in their own language.”

Mulia is one of several Muslim women in Arab and non-Arab Muslim countries profiled in a new book by Dr. Coleman, “Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East.”

Instead of blatantly waving the banner of democracy, certain to raise charges of being tools of Western cultural imperialism, these women are quietly working within the culture, rather than against it, citing progressive interpretations of Islam itself as justification for women’s empowerment, particularly in education and the workplace.

Update- August 13, 2010

By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Sports Writer Michael Casey, Ap Sports Writer – Fri Aug 13,
SINGAPORE – When Jihan El Midany leads the Egyptian delegation into Saturday's opening ceremony of the inaugural Youth Olympics, it will be a historic moment for her country."I'm hoping I can be a good role model," El Midany said Friday as she walked through the athletes' village. "I want to prove that the veil does not have to prevent girls from doing anything."