Part IV: Touching Stephen Ogilvie's Face. Touching the Face of Islam 

Christian women can take a bit of teasing (that), "Eve ate the apple."  It is generally light-hearted, but it is a stale product.  My father - being a practical man - once said to me, "Eve may have been deceived but Adam knew exactly what he was doing." Case closed.

Aisha - might have done more than biting into the apple.  And collapsed into the story of Aisha's necklace is the reason why Muslim women are still punished today.  Veiling and covering is not about adoration.  It is punishment.  And that punishment is enforced by the males.

What is the story?

Qutb works for me. The link below is sufficient.  If you do not know who he is, his history and body of work, this is probably not the blog site for you.  "Milestones" has a powerful style of delivery.

https://www.arabnews.com/node/235738

Synopsis:

Aisha spent the night alone in the desert with a man other than her husband. She was accused of adultery.  This placed Prophet Muhammad's followers in a fuge state.  Two things happened.  Women were ordered to be veiled.  And Allah conveniently delivered another revelation.   This pronouncement  quelled the rumors.  

https://quran.com/24/26

Virtuous people are attracted to each other. And the final Messenger of god cannot possibly have an adulterous wife.

Female genital mutilation, covering of women, and allowing that women only be in the company of men if male relatives are present all dove-tail into the story of Aisha's necklace.

Women have suffered worse than the veil. I have been seated in the presence of women who have suffered FGM. Spoken to a surgeon in my region who probably performs the procedure.  I actually viewed the perineum of a woman from Egypt (what was left of it) in the Recovery Room once.  She had needed a urinary catheter for a hysterectomy.  A urologist had to be called in. Her labia majora, labia minora, and clitoris had been removed when she was a young child. What was left had the look of mangled meat and the R.N. had been unable to insert the catheter.  Viewing this atrocity is the only time in my career that the room started to go black and I felt myself passing out.

Did I mention that I have advocated heavily for Muslim women?

Damn you, Islam.

I have also found myself in the presence of veiled women who have been raped.  They were called "sluts" by their female relatives.

You see, the only way for them to be virtuous is for them to be veiled, possibly snipped, and never... ever... ever... allowed to be alone in the presence of a man, unless that man is a relative.  And surely, they must suffer their rapes in silence.

Naturally,  Islam does not want to consider that a woman may be raped by her uncle or her father, and she is in danger of being assaulted by her brother-in-law if they are alone together.  Bloodline sex crimes can be of the worst type.   Islam denies that they exist.

Islam is vastly unfair to women, of course.  When a girl begins to menstruate, she must cover.  And yet when a maturing boy has nocturnal emissions or his first erection, he is not covered in like manner.  Every Muslim man knows that if he has a dirty thought, it is the woman's fault.  She is not the virtuous woman.  He, of course, is just like the Prophet.

Oh, Eve!  Why did you eat that apple?  Oh, Aisha! Oh, Aisha....

Isn't it time for Islam to give women their freedom?  And isn't it time for the men to move into the 21st century?

Do not - to my face - tell me of the glories of Islam.  I will laugh you right back into the seventh century.