Yesterday in Australia was White Ribbon Day. It is a day marked every year to campaign against violence towards women and girls.
Despite the movement around White Ribbon day which has gathered pace over the last few years, and the commitment of significant government funding to combat and prevent domestic violence, the West is allowing institutional forms of violence against women to creep in and in some cases, is supporting it.
Sharia Law institutionalises and legitimates violence against women, whether through forced marriages, female genital mutilation, or so-called ‘honour’ killings. Sharia courts, whether formally allowed as they have been in the United Kingdom, or operating ‘extra-legally’ elsewhere institutionalises violence and discrimination against women, even in what has unfortunately become a mundane affair in Western culture – namely divorce settlements.
Sharia Law with its corrupted sense of ‘justice’ and ‘honour’ needs to be resisted.
The experience of Sabatina James who suffered from Sharia violence is commonplace in Islamic societies, and is also happening all too often in the West. Sabatina tells her brave story of escaping Sharia violence in the video below. Like other forms of domestic violence, Sharia violence is often hidden from the gaze of neighbours and the wider community.
In her book, Only the Truth Sets Us Free Sabatina states unequivocally:
“Sharia is now finally with us,” she said. “And the victims are primarily women. A parallel justice system is being practiced, one which maintains the mantra: either women submit to systematic violence, or they will be liquidated.”
Within her own context, “In the midst of Europe we’re talking about thousands of women living under a death sentence. Even within my family.” Sharia’s corrupt form of honour, and its violence against women is not accidental or incidental. But is put forth, and prescribed under Islam’s Sharia Law.
Sabatina suffered brutal violence at the hands of her own mother for refusing to conform to the life Islam prescribed for her. What’s more five thousand women are killed every year by their fathers and brothers in the name of ‘honour’. Yet we have not seen this statistic mentioned in any White Ribbon Day material or in the many impassioned speeches given yesterday by political leaders and activists.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has just committed a $100 million package to combat domestic violence in Australia which will also involve an education program in schools.
But if Australia wants to get serious about violence against women, whether locally or globally, we need to inform ourselves and reject the violence experienced by women and girls living under Sharia Law.
Photo by jason ilagan 