Abdul Haleem

“The ‘secular’ education of women is against Islamic injunctions… if a woman gets education, she would also seek a job, which Islam doesn’t allow in any way.”

Pakistani Islamic scholar/cleric maulana Abdul Haleem from the Kohistan region is several centuries ahead of the era in which he belongs. The cleric and former politician recently gave a sermon in which he stated that women who have higher education would be “doomed” to hell.

“It’s beghairti (immodesty) to equip girls with secular education,” Haleem stated. Such an absurd statement is par for the course for this Muslim; he was a legislator for and remains a member of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazlur Rehman Islamist political party. I don’t understand why Muslims are so afraid of women becoming educated… oh wait, it’s because educated women realize Islam is a heap of bull and leave the religion and the husbands their religion forced upon them. “When [men] permit their women to work, they give them a free hand to mix with unrelated men – by doing so, the girl’s father, brother or husband become dayyooth [someone who accepts female family members’ wrongdoings, thus able to be condemned to hell] in the eye of sharia law.” So it’s not just guilt that’s an issue in Islam now, it’s guilt by association. I have no idea why people choose to be Muslims; they can’t do anything and neither can their friends, otherwise someone’s gonna be going to hell.

“Some women from [relief] NGOs visit our houses frequently, mobilizing naïve Kohistani women to follow their agenda in the name of health and hygiene education,” Haleem said. He threatened married NGO workers with “dire consequences” – namely, married female NGO workers would be sent home to their husbands, and unmarried female NGO workers would be forcibly married to area men. Apparently giving women the power to choose is too much for the small minds (and penises) of Muslim men to handle. Haleem also said that men only owe their wives “sustenance,” not an education, and said that women should stay home and take care of their children.

Here’s Haleem’s most disturbing fatwa: “Killing of women in the name of honor is a local custom and religious practice in Kohistan… if someone witnesses female relatives roaming with people other than close relatives, he can kill her without producing four witnesses.” Wow. So peaceful. So tolerant. So totally compatible with western values. As for killing women being a local custom – I hope all the women get together and get out of that hellhole!

Cue left-wing silence about all of Haleem’s horrifying fatwas.