Gripping rant of a post at Sunni Sister, about the double standard for Muslim men and women:
One genuinely nice brother said to me that it seems kind of… not petty, but unimportant to worry about women in his town praying in a substandard room or being kicked out of the masjid when Muslims are slowly starving and being murdered all over the world, “especially this week, with what’s going on.” And I mean, in the context of living or dying, in the context of babies and children being burned to death as they flee their homes, he’s right. I was holding my baby in my arms when I saw a photograph of a baby his same age, laying face down, burned beyond recognition, on a road in Lebanon. I’d rather have that baby alive and safe than go to the masjid. I know when they say the things they’re saying… I know they are saying that it’s only by chance that my child or myself are not the discount deaths they’re talking about. I know our lives as Muslims or as Arabs or Pakistanis or whatever, are not consdered to be as valuable as other lives. I know that this very core human right — the right to exist — is more important than how big a prayer space is. But…
But… if that’s the excuse, then it means that a woman’s place in the masjid will never be addressed. Because there is always going to be a war, and there will always be children being brutalized somewhere. There will always be something higher up on the agenda. I mean, it kind of strikes me as a cop out. “I’m sorry, sister. I can’t bring up your right to pray in the masjid in a clean space because what’s going on in (insert place here) is more important than that, wouldn’t you agree??” The only time it’s not a cop out is when the guy’s about to get on a plane to wherever to offer medical assistance or food or whatever help he can.
Read the whole thing.
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