Thank you, dear Muslimaat

By
KK Shahid
-
123
1133

A letter of gratitude to #MuslimahPride social media jihadis

Dear Muslimaat,

I don’t have words to express my gratitude and appreciation for your noble battle against evil. Your #MuslimahPride movement against #Femen was a slap on the collective face of Western imperialists who believe that Muslim women can’t fight for a cause. It was also a resounding reminder for the rest of the world that you have what it takes to spark a revolution. What the ignorant world does not realise is that once you have the permission of your husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles, the approval of your neighbours, in-laws, their relatives and the consent of your spiritual guardians, their God and their scriptures, you can be quite the rebels.

It takes a lot of courage to ridicule something that is already taboo where you live. It takes volumes of bravery and valour to bow down to the status quo, and toe the lines that have been forced upon you. It takes unbelievable amounts of gallantry to act out a script that someone else has written for you. And it must take guts and the proverbial cojones to take a stand against cruelty and the personification of tyranny that a horde of topless women is.

Who on earth are those damn Europeans to try to steal your voice? Do they not realise that your lives were defined a million-and-a-half ago by the Arabs, who protected your rights and guarded your modesty by ensuring that you don’t have much of a say in most things? Who are those unabashed infidels to protest on your behalf? Do they not realise that you are not allowed to express, let alone clamour in favour of, anything that contradicts the ostensibly divine scriptures? Who are those shameless activists to try and liberate you? Do they not realise that you can’t be liberated without the permission of your mehrams?

I can’t thank you enough for choosing to be more offended by naked bodies than dead bodies. And since there are so many different kinds of you to thank, I’ll try to address you one by one.

Dear ‘guardians of modesty’ Muslimaat, thank you for letting patriarchal societies define ‘modesty’ for you. Thank you for accepting contrasting definitions of modesty for men and women, and for not being a source of strength for your sisters and daughters, vindicating the men’s claim of you being the weaker sex. Thank you for teaching your daughters about the sin that having sex is, throughout their lives, and then compelling them to do it immediately with a man they first met a couple of hours ago, after signing a few papers and getting the clergy’s approval. Also, thank you for blaming your fellow women when they are raped, since men have the divine license to refuse to keep their emotions in the right place. And thank you very very much for being more misogynistic than any male chauvinist can ever possibly be.

Dear ‘feminist’ Muslimaat, thank you for being a ray of hope for bacon-eating vegetarians, god-fearing atheists and peace-loving terrorists. Thank you for reiterating the fact that your mehrams choose to overlook the divine orders and allow you to think freely and take your own decisions. Thank you for citing your personal example to highlight how you wear the hijab by your own choice, ignoring the fact that an overwhelming majority of Muslim women are coerced into doing so. Thank you very much for making the whole debate about you, when it was always about the torment and suffering that most of the Muslim women are going through.

Dear ‘liberal’ Muslimaat, thank you for defying the orders of your deity by choosing to not cover your heads. Thank you for disregarding other restrictions that your religion commands, and then having the audacity to condemn someone who is critical of these very commands. Thank you for cherry picking the commandments and making your ideology sound compatible with the 21st century, only to castigate those that take the same ideological orders literally and implement them. Thanks a lot for elucidating that you don’t need liberation and for paying no heed to the fact that the most of the women in your country do. And thank you very much for clinging on to those very shackles that have enchained the prospect of women empowerment in your country.

Dear ‘revolutionary’ Muslimaat, thank you for ignoring the life threats that Amina Tyler and many others like her are facing, after choosing to protest against the harassment that they have to bear on a daily basis. Thank you for overlooking other lesser issues like terrorists attacking a 15-year-old schoolgirl; female genital mutilation; women being raped with judicial approval just so they don’t die virgins; two-year-old girls being forced to wear veils because the disgusting men in your country have no self-control; and fathers legally getting away with raping their daughters by paying a few riyals. Thank you very much for screaming bloody murder over half-naked women’s claim of representing you, but accepting rapists, pedophiles and sorry excuses for human beings as your state leaders and role models.

#MuslimahPride is not just a hashtag, it’s a symbol of integrity and pride. It’s about taking pride in inequality, in half testimonies, in blaming rape victims and in gender discrimination. It’s about taking pride in chauvinism, where men have divine permission to beat and rape their wives, marry multiple times and possess slave girls. It’s about taking pride in patriarchal societies where husbands are categorically told in detail how they should punish their “disobedient” wives, while not a single text exclusively tells women what they should do with unfaithful husbands. It’s about taking pride in not being allowed to vote, let alone lead your nations, and about finally being allowed to ride a goddamn bicycle – under a mehram’s supervision – in the year 2013 AD.

The #MuslimahPride jihad will be written down in history as the moment where Muslimaat made it clear to the world that no one should protest on their behalf, half-naked or otherwise. Thank you, dear Muslimaat, for saving the rest of the world’s time by clarifying that you’re fine living in the 7th century AD, and no one should push you towards the enlightened times, regardless of whether they have clothes on or not. Thank you for being a source of inspiration and an illuminating example for everyone. We all know that you have what it takes to transform the plight of the women and change the dynamics of the world, as long as you are back home before sunset.

More power to you.

PS: I hope being addressed as ‘dear’ does not land you in trouble with your oversensitive male guardians.

Yours thankfully,

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

The writer is a financial journalist and a cultural critic. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @khuldune

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123 COMMENTS

  1. Wonderful Satire. Maybe Pak media is getting another great after NFP. Loved every bit of the article and does come across as courageous too.

  2. It seems some one has managed to land a few punches on his face by a mehram after trying to chat up a mulsimah 🙂 . No matter what one should keep on trying till one finds a truly liberated muslimah.

  5. A resounding slap on the face of hypocrite muslimaats and the inventors of their faith!!
    No one can do it better than you Mr. Kunwar Khuldune Shahid. More power to you!

  9. Well said. Why any woman would choose to be a Muslim is beyond me. It's akin to an African American joining the KKK or a Jew joining the Nazi party.

    • The problem is no one chooses what to believe. What happens is the brain evaluates propositions based on prior experience. Many women have undergone childhood indoctrination with religion from authority figures.

      So they don't actually realize they are being fooled. "A slave only notices her chains when she tries to move".

  10. Brilliant piece of writing! Hope more sane voices like you emerge in Pakistan. Best wishes from a hopeful Indian.

  12. Richard Dawkins tweeted this article. This was an amazing read. In the West, many of us have the opinion that Pakistanis are an ignorant and tribal people that literally believe in a religion invented during the Byzantine era. This is so refreshing to see such a modern, well thought out satire of those hypocrites!

    I am going to now go and read everything I can by you. Good work.

    • In the West, many of us have the opinion that Pakistanis are an ignorant and tribal people that literally believe in a religion invented during the Byzantine era.

      Fascinating!!! Just goes to show how ignorant people in the west are, even their "intellectuals"……LMAO

  14. Like this a lot. I find it incredibly annoying that nudity is treated as if it's a bad thing. Bodies are just bodies. They're not inherently sexual things, they're not obscene.

    One thing I don't get though is this: "female genital mutilation"? Why the "female"?

    Surely cutting the body of anyone who doesn't give fully informed consent is wrong, female or not? It's not about the extent of the damage, it's about consent. Female genital cutting can be consensual, in which case it's not mutilation. In contrast, male genital cutting can be forced, in which case it is mutilation. The key issue is that the person it is done to is in agreement with it.

    • Excellent point. I see more and more people realizing this. The movement against male circumcision is growing, as I think feminists all over the world are realizing that it's hypocritical to fight against mutilation of girls, but support mutilation of boys. You can't liberate women without also liberating men. One after another, medical organizations have been changing their position and saying that male circumcision is harmful, or at least not beneficial. There are even religious Jews now speaking out against circumcision, which is a very big deal.

    • Yes, why can't women's rights revolve around men? This, indeed, is the real travesty.

      *violent eye roll*

  16. I read this after seeing it re-tweeted by Richard Dawkins”…so well written; a brilliant read!…good luck to all involved trying to highlight injusticies throughout the world. All my best wishes.

  19. I also got the link from R Dawkins, was expecting a serious, straight blog as I hadn’t read your work before so to instead find satire was a brilliantly pleasant surprise. An excellent read, keep up the good work!

  21. His entire article rests on a flawed premise. The Muslimah criticizing "white knight" activism that tries to act on their behalf instead of being a resource for their concerns is neither equivalent nor related to supporting continued oppression of Muslim women.

    Somebody else (FEMEN) trying to save Muslim women is not empowerment for Muslim women. If FEMEN wants to help Muslim women, FEMEN should be a resource *under* Muslim women as they empower themselves. The reason Muslimah *appear* more upset about FEMEN than other issues is because it literally just happened, and therefore is a hot topic that gets a sudden spike of attention, as opposed to an oppression that has been around ceaselessly and gets a constant high rate of discussion. Muslim feminists do actively protest against the oppression of Muslim women, and it's actually shameful to equate their criticism of FEMEN with supporting their oppression.

    Finally, his "satire" is not satire. While well-intentioned, it's actually oppressive. A satire would ultimately achieve the empowerment of Muslim women. What did this do to empower them? Nothing, it told them they were wrong for speaking up, they were wrong for voicing their concerns over how other people were ignoring their autonomy in order to try to save them. This article told them they were wrong for saying "Let us empower ourselves. Listen to us when we tell you what we need." And then it equated them wanting to empower themselves with them consenting to their own oppression.

    • @a sane voice after all in the wilderness of free thought of WEST………i agree with your argument mr russell more than the flawed premise of my own countryman intellectual liberal SATIRIST…………………lauded out for what i dont know…………a literary jigsaw of discrimanatory and offensive words

  22. What utterly facile proto-orientalist rubbish. Pure misogyny wrapped in the guise of self-righteous anti-theistic bunkum. Part of the same line of New Atheist dogma that regards anything remotely associated with religion as being inherently anti-modern and oppressive. Part of the same blinkered thinking of Dawkins et al that refuses to see history, culture, politics as part of a holistic whole. No, lets just bash them Muslimahs! Why they angry at White Lady? Surely White Lady never done no harm to irrational Muslimah have she? There aint never been no such thing as colonialism or the orientalist gaze!

    And the tone. So hideously condescending while pretending to hold their best interests at heart.

    I hope you're happy with the badges of liberal honor from dawkins and other wine-sipping dilettantes. Kick some Muslim woman in the mouth while you're at it.

    This deserves a much longer reply. You'll get one.

    • Yeah, the Islamophobes will eat this up. As evidenced by the comments. As for the Pakistanis who seethe with their own Islamophobia, good luck. I'm so happy you are a miniscule minority that is amplified by the media and the West that will eat you up.

    • I would love to meet you in real life and hug you for this comment! My anger and shock at reading this article and all those endorsing it has been channeled and delivered in a way befitting for what this article actually deserves. Bravo, buddy.

  23. Sounds like yet another man shaming women for speaking out. Heaven forbid that a woman speak her mind and not say the thing you want her to say.

    • I think the point was more:
      Heaven forbid you get as worked up about something that actually MATTERS like women's rights in the muslim world, or lack thereof.

  24. I guess what aggravates the muslim believer is that another fellow muslim has turned on them and ridiculed their beliefs. Kudos to you Kunwar for writing such a wonderfully articulate sattire. The Muslimah need to know that by rejecting support from around the world, they’re denying the love n concern of people who look beyond religion and race and are willing to reach out and help in any way they can to stop this injustice against them.

  25. Got it from Dawkins retweet. I doubt the brainwashed can see the reality, a brilliant writeup none the less.

  26. A novel gesture to teach and bring misguided people to the proper way of living. Welldone; carry on.

  27. In response to Russell above, his argument applies to almost all people who try and support others in their quest for freedom for tyranny. Almost all revolutions include a degree of support from outsiders. Revolutions can’t indeed be imposed.

    In his response he misses the point of FEMENs involvement. They aren’t trying to impose their femininity on muslim women, rather draw attention to the plight of women who do choose to stand out. They were responding to the death threats against Amina, who I hope the dearest Russell considers a legitimate ‘revolutionary’ and not someone imposing herself on the muslimaah. Showing support for women who stand up tall against the patriarchy is exactly what he claims FEMEN should be doing, while lambasting their effort to draw attention to the plight.

    What he misses entirely is that all revolutions require someone to do something so shocking, so against cultural norms that it stands out and demands attention. The Tunisian revolution was sparked by a man setting himself on fire. No one can ignore that. As it so happens Amina chose precisely that method, to state her opposition to the link between a man honour and her breasts by writing it on her breasts. Thanks Russell for being a hypcorite and contradicting yourself.

  28. This article is absurd to the extent that it tells u ur doomed if u do and ur doomed if u dont , ur generally doomed for being a muslim. how are u any champion of freedom when u r going to continue ridiculing those who are liberal and those who are conservative. Those who cover at their own will are wrong bcoz it just hurts u to not have women speak out that they are being forced to cover…. The author makes no attempt to draw a line bw Islam and muslimmah, so much for satisfying ur athiest counterparts…

  29. Wow, way to support women by being incredibly condescending and telling us how to feel and act 🙂 You must be a very liberal man, who has no interest in controlling the behaviour of women 🙂

    I don't know what I'll do now, knowing that there's no way I could make you happy (as you appear to dislike and talk down to conservative, moderate, and liberal women alike). How can I live with myself knowing that a man won't approve of the way I think or act? I'll have to restructure my entire life now, thanks for making that apparent to me.

  31. That's one strong opinion Mr. Shahid. Unfortunately, though I am not ornate as you, nor as sharp, my opinion conflicts with yours equally strongly. For you, your religion and for me, my religion.

  33. Oh how i wish i cud mutilate you inch by inch, break every bone in ur body, gouge ur eyes out n slit ur throat so deep, chop ur fingers off one by one… U miserable, lonely man tch tch…

    • ROFL why so open about your true violent nature? Using my freedom of speech , i would say that you are a snot mark on the name of humanity but i still wouldnt have you killed because unlike you, i am a human being and not a psychopath looking for fulfilling my base evil thoughts. You need help

  34. *slow clap* SNOOZE YAWN HEARD IT ALL BEFORE DARLING. AS A SASSY MUSLIMAH MYSELF I HAVE TO SAY HONEYCHILD, YOU ARE NOT BREAKING ANY GLASS CEILINGS HERE, I AM A FREE WOMAN YA'LL WHETHER YA'LL LIKE IT OR NOT. I WEAR MY HEEJAB WITH PRIDE WHETHER YA'LL LIKE IT OR NOT. I COVER MYSELF COS THATS MY FASSSSHIIION AND I LOVE IT YA'LL. YA'LL CANT UNDERSTAND IT COS YA'LLS JUST NOT SASSY ENOUGH. MENS NOT SASSY ENOUGH. MENS CANT REALLY BE EXPECTIN' TO COMMENT ON THIS ISSUE WITHOUT LEARNING THE SASSY WAYS HONEYCHILD. as it stands, everything you wrote it nil and void cos your not a muslim woman, you don't know how we feel but you always want to put words in our mouths and tell us how we SHOULD feel. you know what? **** u for that, you dont know me and you shouldn't condescend to say that you know me. how dare you. how very dare you.

  36. *kmt* kunwar needs to learn some respect for his muslim homegirls. ain't nobody got time for this mook.

  37. KUNWAR I HAVE A SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR YOU FROM MY SASSYYYYY LADY PARTS: OOOOHH HELP ME!! IM BEING OPPRESSEDD!!! HELP ME HELP ME!! MY OWNER KEEPS USING TESCO OWNBRAND DELAPIDATORY CREAMS INSTEAD OF NAIIIIIRRRRRRR :(((((((((((((((((((

  39. guys guys i think kunwar has a point, is girls is wearing a scarf on theys heads…they is derrrrmmmmmm and terrosits. we must kill terrorits. derpa derpa.

  40. errmm to kafoodie who said: Well said. Why any woman would choose to be a Muslim is beyond me. It's akin to an African American joining the KKK or a Jew joining the Nazi party.
    I'm a black jewish muslim convert WOMAN i.e. sammy davis jnr if he had then converted to islam and was actually from the tribe of beta-israel and was a woman or at least a post-op transgender person. does that mean I should now apply to join both the kkk and the nazi party? if so, how do i apply? will there be hazing rituals because if there will be, could you kindly tell your friends im allergic to eggs. also, are womens allowed to join kkk? also godwins law FTW!!!!

  46. Basically, you're still saying Muslim women don't have a right to speak for themselves, missing the entire point of Muslimah backlash against Femen's campaign. Ridiculous. What makes you, telling them because they disagree with what Femen did they can't possibly be speaking with their own voice, any better then the oppressive cultural practices and misogyny endorsed by the patriarchs you speak against? Answer: There IS no different.

    You are also basing their supposed inability to act independently off of their disagreement with Femen. But if they did agree with Femen suddenly they would be speaking with their own voices right, because YOU liked what Femen did, and they would be agreeing with what you do. If they agree with Femen they are free, if they don't they are oppressed, and it actually has nothing to do with being oppressed or free but more to do with agreeing with what you do. The logic is infallible.

    • If we agreed with Femen, he'd probably call us hypocrites. There's no pleasing this kind of man, who wants women to be independent but completely subservient and agreeable at the same time.

    • The point here was, FEMEN was speaking for women who are truly oppressed, i only see this as Amina, the victim being held in psychological assylum for speaking out her mind and is fearing death row or something of that sort, If women fail to see this , that it was NOT a hit on their pride but they are trying to smother down a voice that wants to speak out for the right of those oppressed then it makes articles like these properly justifiable.
      If you cannot see and feel pain of those oppressed than wtf, why are spwaking against it Do you see any strong capmpaigns coming from these muslimas that though this is not what represents Islam, we still condemn what happened to Amina for speaking out her mind. But i know, you cannot understand the mind of the oppressed or you wouldnt be saying things llike this.

  49. Read to the end of the first paragraph and new it was utter rubbish not deserving my time. Sarcasm is not sattire. Your father didn't teach you any manners, hon.

  51. Does Mr.Kunwar hold Hinduism as much responsible for the brutal rapes and domestic abuses prevalent in his favorite country India as much as he despises Islam for “imposing” hijab and Male Dominance on Womenfolk ? No….the object of his selective anti-religion tirade got to be Islam only. BTW,Mr.Kunwar Singh, your articles please Hindu fundamentalists in India a lot 😀 …… See.how a happy bunch of them are commending u in comments here.

    A Muslim from India.

    • Mr. Kunwar doesn't have to. I'll say it. Here you go- many Hindu customs and traditions *also* can be held responsible for the un-equal treatment of women in India.
      Now it's YOUR turn to admit that Hinduism in India has seen many reformist movements which seek to correct the old ways , and that India has no dearth of activists and groups which are open critical of the disagreeable aspects of Hinduism.
      Go on, you can admit it 🙂
      An Indian from India.

  52. You have clearly no understanding of what muslimah pride is about. And oh, kudos to you for writing something so … unique! I mean, no one has ever quite attacked Muslim women in this horribly condescending way.

    And if you think baring your breasts is 'courageous' and makes you a 'rebel', I'll just say you have horribly low standards.

  53. Richard Dawkins' tweet brought me here. I am an ex-muslim and its great to swee that the power of the internet is far reaching and ultimately win against the oppressive and tyrannical hand of religion.

    Please write a satire on genital mutilation. While muslims claim that Allah created humans and perfected them, they are the first to abuse this claim by genitally mutilating their children without consent, at an age when they cannot possibly give an informed consent.

    It is we atheists who guard and protect our children against all sorts of abuse, including physical abuse such as tattoing skin, piercing the ear, genital mutilation etc. I believe this puts us way above any religious people in terms of our ethics.

  54. as a proud sassy muslimah like the one commenting above, i love my sassy hijab and my sassy religion however there are MANY injustices being WRONGLY carried out under my sassy religion's name. now what i don't understand is why people like koonwar immediately jump onto the hijab issue and the men control everything issue rather than earnestly trying to stamp out FGM for example in africa and asia? the way i see it, people like koonwar and all the other new atheist crowd are just out to make a quick buck. every one of them just wants to make a LOT of money out of religion. in fact i'd wager to say that the careers of dawkins and no doubt now, koonwar's, is based solely on critising islam and trying to rid the world of religion. with no religion koonwar, how will you make your money honeychild? because ain't nobody wanting to be reading about how the world is such a nice place.

  55. the way i read this was: i hate muslim women. Kunwar i saw that you wrote on twitter you support women pride you just don't support muslimah pride. since muslimah is translated as female muslim, does that make you an islamophobic misogynist? kunwar, you're not much of a liberal if you support the rights of one type of women then disregard the rights of another type of woman just because of her creed. that downright disgusting and frankly we don't need your nasty misogynist types around here.

  56. kunwar, as a lady of the muslim persuasion from london, i have to say i'm rather disappointed in your rhetoric. it just isnt strong enough, you're argument is so…. so flaccid. pulitzer winning it is not.

  57. kunwar, your quite the little hypocrite aren't you? telling muslim women we are imbeciles for bowing to the pressures of our muslim communities in one sentence then practically TELLING us to rip our hijabs off with glee and enjoy the bacchanal buffet of life. oh how i love cynicism. see two can play at that game. although did your mother never tell you that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit? oscar wilde you are not.

  58. guys, lets remember this article for what it really is. a tragic flaccid failure. it need some zanotab.

  59. all these new atheists saying that the world is better off without religion, that me point you to north korea girls, cos thats where freedoms at!!! YAAAAYYYYYYYY KIM JONG UN IS MY HOMEBOY

  60. My comment has not been posted. Why do you practise censorship on this website. I did mention that I was ex-muslim, perhaps thats why my comment got censored out.

    • Dont worry sister, guess the Amina Tyler fans will only cater truths of bare-chested women 😉

  63. the sad thing is kunwar, IM A TROLL AND IVE CONTRIBUTED TO AT LEAST 96% OF THE COMMENTS ON YOUR ARTICLE. IT HASNT CREATED THE WAVES OF TENSION YOU EXPECTED. FLACCID MATE. JOG ON.

  66. Muslim Women are all oppressed and there is nothing good about Islam,its barbaric, archaic and we especially need to save women from it. Muslim women have no agency at all, everything they say is moot as long as they practice this religion. If you buy that premise then this is a top-notch article.

  67. This seems to have gone global. What's this bit about being able to ride a bicycle under a mehram's supervision? I did a search for it on google and kept on coming back to this article – which seems to have been published and republished.

    Bicycles were a big liberation force in the Western world in the early twentieth century. Bicycles gave women independence of movement, and also got them wearing less cumbersome clothing. Women who rode on them at first were often met with hostility.

  68. Kb player, its referring to the part about how saudi arab police only allows women to drive a bicycle of theyre supervised by a muslim male. Theyre not allowed to drive cars

  69. MUSLIM WOMAN PREACH IT SISTER!!! THE REAL OPPRESSORS ARE GUYS LIKE KUNWAR WHO TELL US WE DON'T DESERVE TO HAVE AN OPINION THAT WE AREN'T ALL INDIVIDUALS, THAT WE SHOULD ALL BE DEALT WITH COLLECTIVELY, I.E. GAS THEM ALL WE HAVE NO NEED FOR IMBECILE MUSLIM WOMEN. HOW DARE YOU KUNWAR!! HOW DARE YOU TELL ME HIJAB IS NOT MY LIBERATION BECAUSE IT ENSLAVES OTHER WOMEN. AM I OTHER WOMEN? SHOULD I UNWILLINGLY OBJECTIFY MYSELF SO THAT I CAN FREE OTHER WOMEN? IS THAT YOUR SOLUTION?

  70. The author is Sick ! Some People Deserve DFM Awards.
    DFM = Dur Fittey Mounh …. (those who dont know what DFM is, go consult a good Punjabi speaker) !

  72. And I suppose you see yourself as brave for writing what goes with the mainstream imperialist agenda, kudos. Also, as a man speaking for women, also quite amazingly differentiation from sexists mullahs. Here is an article with links to other great articles on this topic that address people like you who think you are being refreshing atheist but both as an atheist and as a feminist female, I find yours and others orientalists and gendered politics offensive. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/…

  73. Muito bom o artigo, mas querendo lembrar que sou Ocidental, brasileira e casada com um paquistanes muçulmano, e minha escolha, em usar um hijab, não teve influencia de ninguem e sim do Deus que eu sirvo, nem por isso deixei de ser menos mulher, sou revertida ao islam há 8 meses e minhas profissões principais são de policial militar e enfermeira.
    Ostento com orgulho a bandeira do islam, não por ordem de ser humano algum, mas por amor a Allah que é quem me guia a Senda reta .

  74. Stupid is what this is. Stupid and overall, childish. Please do yourself a favor and go find another hobby–perhaps one that’s of benefit to you and your atheist/life-less fans.

    (I promise you this, Kunwar, EVERY SINGLE, CYNICAL WORD you’ve written in this article he been recorded in your book of deeds and you will no doubt be asked about it one day. You might want to start preparing your excuse now as you never know how much tome you’ve got left. TC)

    • "I promise you this, Kunwar, EVERY SINGLE, CYNICAL WORD you've written in this article he been recorded in your book of deeds "

      I promise you it has not. Feel free to prove otherwise.

  76. This article will obviously sting to those women who think they are mis represented but acually they have successfully made a story that was of a victimized child who wanted a free world all about themselves. How it is always about themselves and not about that child or many others raped, coerced and controlled with all their lifes choices.

  77. RIDZI: I BEG OF YOU SHUT UP UR CHATTING ACTUAL B O L L C R OCKS — BASICALLY U'VE SEWN MY MOUTH SHUT BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING IN THIS WORLD. I CAN'T BE HAPPY BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING??? IM GONNA GO AND HANG MYSELF NOW I SUGGEST U DO THE SAME.

  78. This is the best think I have ever read I think. I am a woman and I am annoyed at women denying choices to others because they are happy to go without them. What an eloquent way to express the frustrations that others amongst us can't because we must be politically correct. Absolutely stunningly brilliant! To the critics who think this is islamophobist, the point is not to deny women's own choices of following the existing status quo, the point is:

    "Thank you very much for making the whole debate about you, when it was always about the torment and suffering that most of the Muslim women are going through"

  81. Intellectualism these days 😛 Its truly humorous !
    I wonder how narrowly one can promote "Awareness" .

  82. Judging purely by the generally low caliber of comments opposed to the article, versus the gravitas of comments in favor of it…

    ..it's fairly obvious which side the educated population is on.

  83. This is such a pathetic article! It takes WAY MORE courage to speak out against injustice done to Dr. Aafia and all those killed in drone strikes than to talk about boston bombings! It takes way more courage to support the truth when everyone else has taken the side of falsehood. And, mind you, speaking ill about my sisters, only shows what kind of a "narrow minded" person you are.
    The author being a man, should know better, that his article against woman is an act that could be considered blasphemy in feminism!

  84. Ur an absolute disgrace Mr. Shahid. I’m not going to bother correcting you seeing as being a journalist one does their thorough research before making such a bold statement. Clearly you lack such panache.

  86. you clearly didn’t understand the article for it was the most misogynist bull i’ve ever read. kunwar basically snotted all over muslim women’s heads and told us all to put up or shut up about femen’s campaign. the guy is a fundamentalist nutter who compulsively spouts zealous pamela-gellar-isms at every chance. his satire is sad, tired and flaccid having been trundled out and beaten into EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE HE HAS EVER WRITTEN IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE. seriously, i’ve followed this guy’s career – pulitzer winning it is not! Also, choice feminism? seriously? are we debating the validity of women’s choices and also calling ourselves libbers in the process? WHAT A JOKE

  87. this is disgusting. Why would any female chose to be a Muslim?? It's the CULTURE that is oppressive. I am a white Muslim convert and I have never felt more liberated

  88. lets just not judge the religion by the people who dont even bother following it, leave alone following, even reading and understanding it.

  90. One of the best polemics I have read. The Hitch would be proud. Utterly brilliant satire with a very sharp tongue (and keyboard). Congratulations!

  92. At first, I thought the tone of your blog was a little condescending. Then, I realised that you were probably looking at ungrateful Muslimah feminists, perhaps with a bit of a superiority complex; and that must be really frustrating for the true reformers and brave voices like yours.

    Reading something like this from Pakistan is refreshing and gives many reasonable-minded people hope that ideas and opinions of your sensibility can pull the country from the brink.

    I bow to your bravery.

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