Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

26 January 2018                

                     

Have Muslim Women Earned Gender Equality in Marriage?

Eye-catching topic from Asia News, introduced as follows:

[A group of Muslim women on Monday stood in silent protest against the country’s Islamic marriage law which discriminates against women.

Organised by the Muslims Personal Law Reforms Action Group (MPLRG), the rally was held in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, near the Ministry of Justice.

Protesters urged Justice Minister Thalatha Athukorale to recognise their right to "justice and equality". They want the Ministry to update the status of a report on Islamic marriage that has been nine years in the making.]

As a practicing Hindu, I oppose ‘Buddhism foremost’ clause in the Sri Lankan constitution. I have equal rights as a Buddhist to contribute to National governance through Hindu culture. Those rights are earned by contributing to the feeling of Independence promoted by Equal Opportunity principles and laws. This Australia Day morning I received confirmation of this earning through a message from a fellow Australian of Lankan origin in appreciation of my article ‘Australia Celebrates Boat Arrivals !’:

‘Dear Gaja,

Thanks for this perspective. I too have been contemplating in the last few years or so what Australia Day actually means to Australia and to me (as I am a full Australian Citizen too).’

I responded as follows:

‘Thank you…… To me Australia Day is about celebrating illegal immigrants who arrive through waters in which we cannot visibly demarcate country borders. Whoever comes of their own free will by water are Global citizens by their Truth.’

The Australian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, was revealing actual practice of his culture which celebrates Boat arrivals. As a senior / elder in that culture of illegal boat arrivals – he was telling Sri Lankans for which ‘telling’ the Natural Powers came from his own culture.  As an official enjoying Diplomatic Immunity, the Australian High Commissioner has the responsibility to not Administer the Australian law directly in any nation. Diplomatic immunity confirms Governance powers – in this instance global governance. Hence what was practiced there was the culture of arriving illegally by boat and planting one’s claim by physical occupation when the land seemed unoccupied. Truth being eternal – It manifests when we are weak in practice of laws applicable to our current position and someone needs the manifestation at that level.

Within Sri Lanka the Muslims Personal Law Reforms Action Group (MPLRG) is the Diplomat of  the Muslim community in this issue. If majority Sri Lankan Muslims are accepting of the male being the breadwinner of the family, then by practice Muslims accept specialization – with women being the homemakers of Equal status which is usually through Separation of Powers between the Palace and the Harem.

In Muslim and Hindu families known to me through direct involvement, successful women-homemakers takeover leadership of the family in the second half of the marriage. A sacrificing woman automatically promotes herself in the natural structure to eventually become the positive Energy that cures and supports all those who have faith in her. By contrast a man enjoying excessive pleasures due to custody of powers loses control of his mental balance and becomes dependent on juniors including his wife and mistresses.

Every woman who enjoys pleasures beyond her earnings in that marriage – is effectively a mistress even though she wears the official status of wife. No law can protect her from that deterioration. On the other hand, a woman without any protection of the law – be it cultural or national – sacrificing pleasures to uphold the Common Structures of her home-environment is a most respectable divine wife. She will be recognized by every good spouse as a highly respectable leader.

As per my observations in Sri Lanka – Muslim women continue to wear more  clothing relative to other cultures, to cover their faces, hands and legs when they are in public. Until majority Muslim women feel comfortable with ‘general clothes’ marriage equality within Muslim cultural groups in Sri Lanka is bound to   make them feel unprotected by their male-folks. Their  male-folks who have taken on the main carers’ positions, in turn would tend to feel led down and demotivated. This also contributes to looking for other avenues through which to ‘show’ their superiority and hence resorting to armed rebellion – as happened with Tamils in Northern Sri Lanka where more and more women started becoming the breadwinners of the family. More and more sexual abuse after the war is also confirmation of this phenomenon.

Muslims who did not register their protest against ‘Buddhism foremost’ clause in the Constitution – do not have the entitlement  to claim equal opportunity rights in religious marriages.