Dozy bints - Western handmaids of Allah

"Why are Western women sympathetic to Islam? Why are we not repulsed by an ideology that classes us as inferior, that could have married us off at nine, that allows our husbands to beat us and our three co-wives, and would have us stoned to death for “adultery” even when this results from rape? I can understand – barely – the attraction of Islam for Western men, particularly those who are not keen on uppity women. But for women? It defies common sense.

Women’s inferior status in Islam has been fully documented. Their wretched half-lives are lived out in all Islamic countries, and the more Islamic the country, the worse it is for them. Moreover, the treatment cannot be ascribed merely to culture or custom as it derives from the Koran itself and from the example of Mohammed. By way of illustration, on seizing power in Iran, one of the first laws Ayatollah Khomeini passed was to lower the age of “consent” for “marriage” of girls to nine, on the example of Mohammed, who, as attested in the authentic Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim, consummated his “marriage” to Aisha when she was nine years old.

Women and girls unfortunate enough to live under Islamic law, or even in nominally secular countries where Islam holds sway, have little choice but to submit to their fate. To speak out against it is to invite at best ostracism and at worst honour killing. However, in the West, in the free world, where the individual is valued and where women are starting to attain something resembling equal rights, we do have a choice, and a duty to exercise our freedom responsibly. For Western women, the only rational response to Islam should be revulsion, with a smattering of contempt and mockery. Fear, lest this ideology come to power, is also rational. But respect, even tolerance, for Islam, is irresponsible and dangerous. Western women who freely embrace Islam, or who speak favourably of it are misguided or wilfully ignorant and occasionally wicked. I call these women dozy bints..."