Mira Al-Bitar, Ruba Mansour:

     We do not find it necessary to elaborate on the rhetorical statements aimed at justifying the pursuit of equality between women and men, as equality is self-evident and does not require delving into seas of proof and justification, and it is stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Women in this region are burdened by the clash between ancient traditions and modernity, They are still considered servants in the home by day and slaves in bed by night, or whenever the man desires, Furthermore, they have recently begun to practice traditionally male professions such as teaching, medicine, and others , However, despite this, they remain vulnerable to the erosion of their dignity, for example, through polygamy and similar concepts and practices that diminish their human rights and reduce them to commodities to be bought and sold (temporary marriage, or Misyar marriage, etc.), They are ostracized, rejected, and considered deficient in intellect and religious understanding, and even considered to be corrupting prayer, They are controlled by a neurotic, patriarchal mentality that distorts them, diminishes their social role, and reduces them to mere objects necessary for marriage and procreation, Their sexual needs are not acknowledged; these needs are monopolized by men, Therefore, female genital mutilation is practiced based on the mistaken belief that it alleviates their sexual needs, But where is the logic in all this when polygamy is permitted, which supposedly fulfills the man’s sexual needs? One of his wives was menstruating, knowing that intercourse with a menstruating woman is possible, as Aisha said, since the sexual need is only for the male  , As a result, it can be said that this mental neurosis abolished her humanity, abolished love, and turned married life into an animalistic life.

To defend polygamy and other disastrous practices, a group of pseudo-men of worldly and religious authority claim that, statistically, polygamy is not that disastrous, It is very rare and limited to a few isolated cases and to a few segments of society, which constitute 30% of marriages in rural Damascus, We do not know statistics on the prevalence of polygamy in Upper Egypt, for example, so this small minority cannot cause a significant social imbalance, Polygamy is a debilitating phenomenon because of the impossibility of being just between wives! A marginal phenomenon! Despite its marginality, these pseudo-men of worldly and religious authority insist on maintaining it for a reason that does not align with its marginality and lack of social necessity, Here, we want to emphasize that the 30% figure is very high and very disastrous, not marginal!    

Polygamy is not just a statistical problem, but it expresses a state of suffocating schizophrenia of the principle of equality, It is a legitimate privilege to practice what is called “adultery.” Even if positive law prohibits polygamy, which despises women, or if polygamy is a rare statistical case, the psychological state of the male is generally disturbed, even if he marries one woman. Masculinity wastes the dignity of women in several ways, including, and one of the least of them, official polygamy, The objectification of women, which pretends to be official polygamy, has other disastrous aspects, no less savage and ugly than the practice of polygamy.

The masculinity of the Bedouin is charged with violence and the desire for domination and possession, Polygamy is actually a result of those contemptuous concepts and not a cause of them, Imam Al-Ghazali wrote under the title “Mention of the Lives of Women and Their Customs” the following: I know that women are of ten types, and the description of each one is like some animals, The first is like a pig, the second like a monkey, the third like a dog, the fourth like a snake, the fifth like a mule, the sixth like a scorpion, the seventh like a mouse, the eighth like a bird, the ninth like a fox, and the tenth like a sheep, The sheep was the final touch for Imam Al-Ghazali, the destroyer of philosophy and the first man of decadence, who was not content with rejecting the dog-woman, but rather with rejecting every masculinity that believes in the human value of women and their role as a mother, educator, and partner, How can a crushed, rejected, and despised woman perform the task of a loving and affectionate mother when she does not feel the presence of someone who loves her, respects her, and is affectionate towards her and for her.

This abnormal, pathological situation has generally led to psychological disturbances and family breakdowns that are reflected on girls and boys, distorting them and emptying them of human feeling, The male son becomes more distorted than the crushed girl, This situation exposes the female and male to emotional emptiness and to the animalization of sex and the problems of impotence, frigidity and frequent divorce that follow,Sex without love is animalization, Correct sex cannot be practiced except within the framework of correct love,Sex in brothels is deficient, and what it lacks is love and creative affection that accompanies true sexual desire.

The people who talk the most about women’s rights and equality between men and women are the Salafis from various religious schools , Their throats almost burst from screaming in pain over women and their rights, and their tears have turned into rivers and seas as a result of their obsessive crying over women, In reality, we see them dealing with women as something shameful, to the point that their presence is an obstacle to performing prayer.   “A dog, a donkey, or a woman interrupts a person’s prayer,” But when a woman abandons the bed of the beast, the angels chase her and curse her until she returns submissive and compliant.

Every attempt to humanize the treatment of women is met with fierce resistance from pseudo-men of the world and religion, Sometimes, the woman is deemed to be in violation of the text, Sharia, Hadith, and interpretation, and at other times, she is seen as imitating the innovations of the infidel West, It is as if the West is the one that ordered the beating of women to discipline them, divorced them with three pronouncements of divorce, imposed the hijab and niqab on them, and turned them into an “object” to be bought and sold, The West is the one that allowed polygamy, established Sharia courts, permitted temporary marriage, and pleasure marriage, The West is the one that eliminated the name of any female candidate in any election,In short, the West is the “scapegoat” that pseudo-men of religion and the world cannot do without!