Islam, Rape and Forbidden Love

Vin Ienco


In Islam, proving rape is designed to be next to impossible under the rules of sharia. The burden of avoiding sexual encounters is not a matter for a man to trifle with. It is purely a woman’s duty. Rape can only be proved if four devout adult Muslim males are produced as witnesses. The background for the sharia requirement of four witnesses to adultery is here:

Bukhari 5:59:462 - Muhammad's favorite wife, Aisha, was accused of cheating [on her polygamous husband]. Three witnesses corroborated the event, but Muhammad did not want to believe it, and so established the arbitrary rule that four witnesses are required.

Koran 24:13 - "Why did they not bring four witnesses of it? But as they have not brought witnesses they are liars before Allah."

There is also a verse that wipes out the possibility of accusations of rape within marriage:

Koran 2.223: Your wives are as a tilth (prepared soil) unto you; (to cultivate), so approach your tilth when or how ye will; but do some good act for your souls beforehand; and fear Allah. And know that ye are to meet Him (in the Hereafter), and give (these) good tidings to those who believe. In late 2006, the then Mufti of Australia, Egyptian born Taj El-Din Hilaly, delivered a sermon during Ramadan at a large mosque in Sydney. The integral part of his speech was:

“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

Hilaly also stated that: "In the state of ‘zina’ (adultery or sex out of wed-lock), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the ‘igraa’, the weapon of enticement.”

He has caused further controversies by showing support for Hezbollah, referring to Jews as ‘cancer’ and has been jailed for goods smuggling and various other offences. If there is any doubt about how his community views Hilaly, he was nominated for - and awarded – the title of ‘Muslim Man of the Year.’

Punishment for a woman found in the company of a man other than a close family member (khalwat) can range from flogging to jail time to execution. The execution method also varies depending on where in the Islamic world you are. Beheading or stoning is a popular method, while in ‘modern’ Iran, hanging the accused from a boom crane is preferred.

In November 2006, a 40 year old woman named Nurbibi was caught with a 38 year old man named Turylai. They were stoned to death in a public assembly using large stones after being found guilty of non-marital sex. Turylai was dead within ten minutes, but Nurbibi was still alive and a member of the frenzied crowd dropped a large rock on her head, killing her.

Mr. Wali, head of the Office for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prohibition of Vice expressed satisfaction with the execution: "I am very happy, because it means that the rule of Islam is being implemented". These executions, as well as hand amputations for convicted thieves, are regarded as religious occasions and are not normally viewed by non-Muslims.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in late February of 2000, an unmarried citizen of Indonesia named Kartini Karim was working as a housemaid when she became pregnant. She and a man from India were charged with adultery. She was placed on trial without a lawyer or a translator and barely knew a word of Arabic. He fled the country before he was arrested.

She was not told that she had a right to contact her embassy and as a result, they had no advanced knowledge of her trial. She was sentenced to death by stoning. The Indonesian government hired a lawyer and translator to appeal her case. A month later on appeal, her sentence was reduced to one year in prison, followed by deportation.

In Nigeria in January 2001, a teenage single mother, Bariya Magazu claimed at trial that she was raped by three men. The court assumed that she was guilty, because she could not prove that her father pressured her to engage in sexual activity with the men. She was found guilty of having pre-marital sex and bringing false charges against the men that she claimed were responsible. Her sentence was 100 lashes.

Another case in Nigeria in October of that year involved Safiya Hussaini, a 30-year-old pregnant woman. She had asked a sharia court in Sokoto state to charge a man that she alleged had raped her as payment for her daughter's naming ceremony. The court refused and then charged her with engaging in sexual intercourse outside of marriage. She was sentenced to be stoned to death. The man that she allegedly had sex with was freed by the court for lack of evidence. She had not been given any legal representation and the court had failed to establish the basic facts of the case.

Condemnation came from many International rights groups as well as European Union members who described sharia court sentences as ‘barbaric’ and ‘a violation of fundamental human rights.’ Nigerians were bitterly divided over sharia which was introduced to some northern states in 2000. On the 26th of March 2002, the stoning sentence was overturned and at the time another woman was condemned to die for illicit sex.

In September 2006, The Guardian Newspaper online reported that up to 80 per cent of women in Pakistan's jails are charged under rules that penalize rape victims. Pakistan is considered to be the most dangerous place on earth for a woman. This is our ally, a country that we send billions of dollars in aid to. According to a 2006 report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a woman is gang-raped every eight hours in the country. However, because of social taboos, discriminatory laws and the treatment of victims by police, campaigners believe the real figure is far higher.

This is yet another way that women are demonized and subjugated by the rantings of an over sexed and narcissistic misogynist. Over 1400 years later and ever-resistant to reform, the heinous teaching of Islam continues to reverberate to the present day.

Family Security Matters Contributing Editor Vin Ienco is a commentator and analyst on the effects of Global Islamism and a vocal opponent of sharia law. Visit his website at http://vinienco.com/.