The Plight of Womankind

Another "honor" killing has taken place in Pakistan. According to the AP wire, Nazir Ahmed slit the throats of his three young daughters and their stepdaughter (Muqadas) because Muqada's husband accused her of adultery. Said Ahmed, "I thought the younger girls would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated. We are poor people and we have nothing else to protect but our honor." Ahmed's younger daughters were ages 8, 7, and 4. Ahmed said he had no regrets except that he wished he had been able to kill the stepdaughter's lover. But there's little evidence that there even was a lover. According to the article, local people said that Muqadas had fled her husband because he had abused her and forced her to work in a brick-making factory. The claim of adultery was most likely her husband's form of revenge for leaving him. What can we say about a country, a society, a world in which "honor" is saved through murder? What can we say about the worth of a woman?

It would be easy for many of you to say that it's the fault of that lunatic religion, Islam, and their society, which spawns terrorists among other things. In some ways this would be correct. We all know stereotypes are a bad thing and anytime we step off that precipice to condemn an entire group of people for the actions of a few, we are also teetering on the edge of disaster. Because it never ends there. There's always another group to condemn, until no one is left standing and all the people that were good are long gone. But something must have gone horribly wrong with Islamic society along the way. Perhaps it was never meant to be like this, but it went wrong nevertheless. Things were left up to interpretation and there were fewer and fewer voices of reason.

However, to blame Islam for the woes of womankind is a bad move, because it allows us to ignore all the misogyny taking place in other places around the world, and in our own backyard. And, yes, don't doubt that it's there, because it is. Since the beginning of time man has trod upon the back of woman. You can give me some crap about it being all Eve's fault, but I don't buy that bullshit one bit. It has to do with power and control. Simple as that. Maybe it also has to do with low self-esteem, the bully on the playground that has to beat up little kids so he can feel better about himself. In any case it's been around for ages. Women are cattle, property, slaves, servants, prostitutes, abused, disrespected, murdered, raped, violated, mutilated, circumcised, sold as sex slaves, called hoes and bitches in songs, told they're not good enough, not strong enough, not smart enough, not worth enough, are paid 76 cents for every dollar the average man is paid. They are killed. Killed for the honor of a murderer. A child murderer. They are killed.