Women-only city planned - What do you think?

[aishah]

nowhere in islamic law does it say that women should not be able to get divorced, or that fasting should be compulsory. it disgusts me that there are countries that enshrine that in law and call it islam. and it frustrates me that people use that as a reason to talk about how terrible islam is.

[aishah]

lusciouskiwi asked me to post this publicly so i'm posting it here. (it's a pm i sent.)

fasting isn't obligatory if someone is elderly, sick, pregnant, menstruating, etc. that's why the laws making eating during ramadan illegal make absolutely no sense to me. i can't fast because of health reasons. there are about a million reasons why someone could be exempt from fasting - and islam is not supposed to be compulsory. it makes me angry that it's shoved down anyone's throat.

nowhere did i say i was angry with you. i said i was disgusted with countries that take things that are not islamic at all and enshrine them in law and call them islam. (probably about how moderate and progressive christians in america feel towards people who are busy getting completely unchristian things enshrined in american law.) and i'm frustrated that every discussion about anything remotely related to islam devolves into a discussion of how awful the laws are in certain countries.

to clarify the last comment - i mean - it is really frustrating that everything related to islam has to be about how awful islam is (or certain countries are), and how discussions about one particular issue in saudi arabia mean that a million other things are brought into the conversation.

[aishah]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...heir-own-city/

this article has an interview with samar fatany, who is a prominent saudi woman.

eta: apparently the project itself was proposed by a group of saudi businesswomen.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-e...cle3765551.ece

[mariamma]

Thank you for sharing this Aishah. It illuminated a lot. I'm going to enjoy watching this city unfold and develop. Hopefully the women who are single parents will find solace in a city with sisters of a similar background. It would be fascinating to see this city in 50 years and see how the people who live there grow and change.
I wish the makers of this city all the ease of the world in creating it. The world needs places for women to raise children (probably alone in this city) and a place for business women to thrive.

Originally Posted by aishah

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...heir-own-city/

this article has an interview with samar fatany, who is a prominent saudi woman.

eta: apparently the project itself was proposed by a group of saudi businesswomen.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-e...cle3765551.ece

[Words]

Originally Posted by aishah

nowhere in islamic law does it say that women should not be able to get divorced, or that fasting should be compulsory. it disgusts me that there are countries that enshrine that in law and call it islam. and it frustrates me that people use that as a reason to talk about how terrible islam is.

Exactly.

All of a sudden, everyone's an expert on Islamic Law...yet in most cases, they can't be bothered to actually read up on it and see what it actually says.

Which begs the question...why?

Words