Blogger Khadiza Shahid responds to an article in The Telegraph by the journalist Jessica McAllin who blasted Muslim men for being misogynistic based on her experiences of harassment in Turkey.
In a warning about Muslim immigration following the sexual attacks against women in Cologne, Jessica McAllin insists there are far too many Muslim men who hold misogynist views.
Although McAllin seems to attempt to cover her back with comments such as “not all Muslim men behave this way” and “the West is not always a bastion of sexual equality and respect” as she leaps onto the bandwagon of feminism, she is determined to rely on her own personal experience to infer Muslim men are disproportionately misogynistic.
More strikingly, it became apparent she was not the only one to hold this view. The recent Charlie Hebdo cartoon suggested the refugee crisis only brought the problems of sexual harassment and attacks against women into refugee-friendly countries through the depiction of Aylan Kurdi as an adult sexual molester.
Considering the fact that misogyny cuts across all cultures, including the proclaimed liberal espousing Western culture, the idea that Muslim foreigners are migrating misogyny with them is rather farcical.
British misogyny
The problem has existed worldwide for centuries on end. Indeed, the prevalence of misogyny in even western societies remains vast.
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The UK is a prime example.
Within our great nation, we have seen a particular shocking rise in police recorded sexual offences of 41% from 2013/14 to 2014/15. The latest figures for rape (31,621) and other offences (63,861) are reported to be the highest since the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002/03.
Although the figures do not seem to offer a disaggregation by sex, it is not surprising the majority of victims are indeed female. A previous government report revealed 1 in 5 women reported being a victim of a sexual offence since the age of 16 and 1 in 20 was a victim of a serious sexual assault.
While it is possible the police are taking violence against women seriously, the rise in these statistics is more than enough to shed light on the prevalence of women haters in the UK.
So does this mean male Britons should be prevented from travelling and migrating abroad just like Muslim men should be denied entry here?
Although McAllin’s personal experiences are traumatic, it cannot be generalised that Muslim men are disproportionately misogynists nor are sexual attackers. Surely, to say that, is devaluing the traumatic experiences of such women who have been assaulted and abused by men of other faith or no faiths.
Violence against women
Much of the violence women are subjected to is behind closed doors and consequently most undoubtedly a hidden epidemic.
The 2013/14 Crime Survey in England and Wales revealed 28.3% of women (approximately 4.6 million) had experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16 in comparison to 14.7% of men (roughly 2.4 million). This included partner or family non-physical abuse, the use of threats, force, sexual assault and stalking.
However, I am not suggesting by any means that violence against women is exclusive to the home. It is rather a common occurrence for women and girls to deal with misogynist jokes and banter in their pursuit of education in schools all the way through to universities.
Many women also continue to endure sexism in the workplace including serving in the army. The Ministry of Defence’s report last year found 39% of servicewomen had received unwelcome comments about their appearance, body or sexual activities and 12% of women received unwanted attempts to be touched.
Although an underground phenomenon, trafficking disproportionately claims women as victims as well. While it is difficult to discern trends due to limited available data, women and girls are the most vulnerable. By and large, they make up 62% of the adults and 48% minors who were referred between April to June 2015 to the UK’s National Referral Mechanism, which was introduced to determine whether immigrants may be victims of trafficking.
In addition, statistics from 2012 indicated victims trafficked for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude were virtually all female, at 93% and 86% respectively. Indeed, last summer, the police discovered a gang of 11 traffickers that ran 50 brothels across the UK where hundreds of women were exploited. What is worrying is 4 gang members were women.
It clearly shows the extent to which Western women themselves participate in fuelling the manifestation of misogyny.
Sexualised society
In a society in which women are allowing themselves to be indoctrinated by a sexualised capitalist society to undergo cosmetic surgery; and to starve their bodies to the point they develop anorexia in order to look like celebrities and models in fashion magazines, is it any wonder many women no longer know when they are actively normalising their own sexual objectification which reinforces sexist views among men?
One would think there can’t be any more misogyny in a Western society like the UK. But it hasn’t evaded from our politics.
Even though it’s ultimately the result of EU regulations, the UK taxes women’s sanitary products as a “luxury” by 5%. To justify their lack of effort to challenge the ludicrosity of the tampon tax, the Tories cunningly thought it would be a positive move to use £5m of the £15m from the tax proceeds to fund women’s health and support charities, effectively making women including victims pay for the consequences of violence against women.
At the same time, the Conservatives ironically consider it justifiable and appropriate to slash the government’s funding to support these much-needed initiatives.
In a bid to “liberate” Muslim women, David Cameron further announced his plans to spend £20m to improve Muslim women’s English skills in the irrational hope it would tackle threats of extremism and radicalisation.
While he proclaims to empower Muslim women, he is undoubtedly on the other hand exercising his power to control the freedom of movement of this particular minority group of women with the threat of deportation.
It is quite hysterical to contemplate £20m is better spent on a small group of women to learn English as opposed to supporting survivors of misogynistic violence across all communities throughout the country.
The influential reach of Cameron’s supposedly liberating hand doesn’t seem to stop there for Muslim women. He has now also declared his support to introduce rules to legally require Muslim to remove the veil in public institutions.
Although it is reasonable to temporarily remove the veil for identity purposes, the introduction of a law regulating the wearing of the veil is yet another form of control over women’s body – in the same way many criticise Muslim societies as misogynistic for enforcing the veil upon women.
So before the likes of McAllin jump on their high horse, it would be wise to assess how far the West has really come in the name of feminism and liberalism. Because it’s not really far at all.
