sum1

Article here: Female minister killed for refusing to wear veil-News-World-TimesOnline

Jerry D

Man, that's awful. I wonder what Muslims think of people like this that once again cast Islam in a completely negative light.

Many religions discriminated against women, because at the time they were founded, women were unfairly viewed as inferior to men, but this is the 21st Century, and it's so incredible to think that certain extremists would still have such a backward and reactionary view, and it's appalling that someone would kill a woman simply for not wearing an archaic and male dictated code of dress, and invoke the name of religion to justify such a heinous act.

sunnykerr

Not that we're going to get reason and rationality from a murderer of that kind, but if he has a "vendetta" against all female politicians, why quibble as to whether or not she's wearing a veil?

And Islam doesn't allow women to have leadership positions? What about Muhammad's wife, Khadija, who was not only Islam's first convert, but also is said to have actively supported Islamic missions and Muslim traders, who was a businesswoman herself, and who was so admired and beloved by her husband that he took no other wife while she still lived, despite being much younger than she? What about Fatima, Muhammad's daughter, who is said to be the leader of all women in Paradise, the mother of the Shi'a line of Islam?

Bleh. Fanaticism of any kind will always puzzle me, I'm afraid.

Papri

This is appalling. So many women in Pakistan don't cover their heads and why should they be forced into doing it by some thug who claims to be doing it in the name of religion? He's a misogynist, plain and simple. I don't know what form of Islam he claims to be acting for, but I know that the vast majority of Muslims will hold the view that killing someone is infinitely worse (and un-Islamic) than not covering your head.

And sunnykerr - exactly - the Prophet Muhammad's wife, Ayesha, and other women even took part in battle and were vital in terms of leadership and scholarship.

Jerry - I actually think that it's the other way for Islam - initially, and up until the Renaissance, women were given high status in the religion and society - it seems to have got progressively worse for Muslim women with the rise of extremism, and it's incredibly sad.

Jerry D

Ah, I stand corrected then, and thank you. No matter what, murder in the name of religious extremism is appalling.

sunnykerr

Thank you, Papri.

I was going on my very limited knowledge of Islam. We studied it in a history class, so obviously we didn't look at everything. I do remember that there is a list of honoured women in the Qu'ran, and that the Virgin Mary is on it, which I always thought was fantabulous inasmuch as it shows an open-mindedness.

Lexis

How sad. Progress gets made and some nutcase with a gun tries to ruin it.

S.A.S.H.A.

Ick, what a savage.

Sasha