An Iranian Dream: "Why Can't I Dance?"
A Muslim mother in the sharia-ruled country of Iran, was talking about her 10-year-old daughter: "She asked me, 'Why can't I dance? We dance because we are happy. How can being happy be wrong? Why is dancing a crime?'" She spoke about the confusion in her daughter's eyes. "It is a question I don't know how to answer."
Her daughter's life had changed, she said, when she heard that a 19-year-old woman named Maedeh Hojabri had become the target of the Iran's Islamist "morality" police. Her crime? Posting video clips of herself dancing on popular worldwide social media sites, like Instagram. The consequences for an act like that are severe. As has happened to other young women who posted video clips of themselves dancing, Hojabri was arrested, jailed without due process and without an opportunity to defend herself, and publicly shamed with a televised confessionof her "crime."
Hojabri's dancing videos on Instagram made her a popular figure on Instagram in Iran, and gained her hundreds of thousands of followers on the social media platform. Imagine, if she were living in the West, how she would be treated. She would likely have been considered talented, have had opportunities thrown at her, been invited on popular shows and be sponsored for radio and television programs. But in a sharia-governed state such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, authorities consider people like Hojabri disgraced criminals. The irony is that it is many of the extremist leaders of her country -- a state sponsor of terrorism -- who should be regarded as criminals. These are the men who view Hojabri and others like her -- who simply wish to spread joy -- as an intolerable danger to their country. Cheerfulness and dancing can make a difference in the grim lives of a people faced with economic struggles, political unrest, censorship and general hardship. In Iran, however, these simple acts of sunlight are repaid with intimidation, sharia courts and imprisonment. The results are too often forced confessions, which the Islamist Republic of Iran airs both to validate their concerns and to threaten anyone who might consider dancing themselves after watching these videos. This brings us back to the question of the 10-year-old girl: "Why can't I dance? Why is dancing a crime?" As difficult as it may be to imagine how dancing could lead to imprisonment, it is far more difficult for a child just becoming aware of the world around her, who now fears that she could be swept up by the Islamist morality police, just for expressing joy. What is it about dancing that so concerns and frightens many Islamic religious leaders? Why is there such an emphasis by Islamist groups on brainwashing girls into believing that dancing is an unforgivable sin? It may be partly an attempt to suppress the sexual desire that dancing or watching dancing can arouse, and partly about the wish to control, confine and subjugate women on the pretext of keeping them "pure" and ostensibly free of sexual desire. Controlling a woman's body has always been a core pillar of sharia law in Iran. Also, as the imposition of sharia law in Iran has shown, Islamist laws prioritize the monitoring and controlling of every aspect of every citizen's day-to-day and private life. This level of supervision and punishment seems intended to create an atmosphere of fear throughout society: people are always aware that they are being watched. In addition, for radical and extremist Muslims, anything that can labeled as "fun" is forbidden. Not just for religious reasons, but more importantly for political reasons. For fundamentalist Islamic leaders, people who engage in fun activities, such as dancing and hosting parties, become less fearful. As a result, less fearful people are more likely to cross the boundaries set by the sharia state and rebel against the state. This is viewed as a threat to the power that Islamist leaders hold over their people. Furthermore, from the perspectives of extremist Muslims, if a woman is allowed to do what she desires, she may start speaking up for her rights, risk "impurity," gain financial independence, and be emboldened to reject the status of a subservient and second-class citizen given to her by the religious authorities at her birth. But as might be expected, such an imposition of sharia law also creates resistance, especially among women and girls seeking, as so many of us do, freedom. That is why, after girls like Maedeh Hojabri are arrested, courageous women begin joining the same cause by posting their own dancing videos, imitating Hojabri's dances. The teachings of sharia law should be watched carefully in mosques, schools, and throughout society. To people in the West, it may seem impossible for dancing to become a crime. But as sharia laws get imposed, before you know it, any innocent act of "fun" can suddenly become a crime. For now, the 10-year-old girl can only hope for a time when she is free to dance, while her mother must continue to search for answers. In most of the world, girls may leap, spin and shout with joy -- but still for many girls, the slightest twirl is regarded as a crime. Who will the morality police come for next? Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated scholar, businessman, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu
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Saturday, August 18, 2018
This Is What Happens When Religious Ideologues Run A Country
Friday, August 17, 2018
What A Terror! German Law Fails Again!
Yazidi Sex Slave Escapes to Germany, Then Meets Her ‘Owner’ Who Germans Let in Too
Yazidi Sex Slave Escapes to Germany, Then Meets Her ‘Owner’ Who Germans Let in Too
In the novel “Marathon Man,” a Nazi war criminal walking through a Jewish section in New York is recognized by an elderly man as one of his Nazi concentration camp captors from Germany during the war.
Before the wanted war criminal could be exposed, he managed to escape while the crowd was distracted by a woman hit by a car.
Something similar happened to a 15-year-old Yazidi girl when she recognized her abuser and former captor in Germany.
Except unlike the Nazi criminal, he didn’t flee the scene when he was recognized by his victim.
In 2014, Ashwaq was captured by the Islamic State group and sold as a sex slave to one of the terrorist group’s members.
Ashwaq was in captivity for 10 months before managing to escape back to Kurdistan.
She eventually moved to Germany, which she thought was a safe haven from her sick abuser.
She was wrong.
After living in the country for three years, she was approached by her captor.
Do you think the U.S. needs to have strict immigration policy?
Ashwaq explained what happened to basnews.
The man, who identified himself as Abu Humam, told her, “Yes, I know you and you know me. And I know how long you’ve been living here,” Ashwaq recounted.
“I know that you live with your mother and your brother,” he continued.
He then repeated her address twice.
Ashwaq immediately went to police for help — but with no success.
“The police told me that he is also a refugee, just like me, and that they could not do anything about it. They just gave me a phone number that I could contact in case Abu Humam ever stopped me. After this response, I decided to return to Kurdistan and never go back to Germany,” Ashwaq said, according to basnews.
Her story shows that despite all the accusations of racism hurled against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, we must know who is coming into our country– for the good of everyone, including actual refugees like Ashwaq.
German polices have allowed terrorists to be protected when classified as refugees.
How are vulnerable people like Ashwaq supposed to be kept safe in a country that is supposedly a safe haven when the country also allows in perpetrators of terror and abuse?
Americans should take a cue from Ashwaq’s frightening tale and continue to push strong immigration policy that insists on knowing exactly who is coming into our country.
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African Americans Who Vote For Democrats Are Voting Against Their Own Best Interests
WHO ARE THE REAL RACISTS?
Exclusive: Joseph Farah lays blame for shocking level of black deaths at Dems' door
image: https://www.wnd.com/files/2016/09/Joseph-Farah_avatar.jpg
What if you were told that 61 percent of African-American deaths in the U.S. were the result of abortions?
It’s also the leading cause of death among all Americans – assuming you believe unborn babies are actually people and not just globs of unviable tissue mass.
issued Aug. 2 by researchers at the University of North Carolina brings us the shocking news, which I bet you didn’t see reported in the New York Times, the Washington Post or hear on CNN or any other news network.
Induced abortion is the leading cause of death in the United States and accounts for a disturbing 61 percent of deaths of African-Americans, according to researchers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
In 2009, the last year in which all pertinent information was available, abortions claimed the lives of 1.152 million unborn babies. By comparison, that’s almost twice as many killed by heart disease of cancer that year.
But back to the racial component for a moment.
Which is the political party that permits no dissent on abortion among its candidates? Isn’t it the same party that defended slavery and Jim Crow policies in the South? Isn’t it the same party that fought integration and voter rights laws?
Do you see a pattern here? If you don’t, I strongly urge you to see Dinesh D’Souza’s new movie, “Death of a Nation,” in theaters across the country. It’s a shocking exposé of the Democratic Party and its extremist allies that will curl your hair – especially when you think it’s possible this party could reclaim control of the House and Senate this November.
A leading black pastor is rightly calling the latest abortion numbers a matter of “black genocide.” How else could one characterize them? That’s what eugenics proponent Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and an inspiration to Adolf Hitler, had in mind when she began promoting abortion. Sanger is still a heroine today to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and nearly all prominent Democratic Party officials. She’s considered virtually a saint.
I believe most Americans don’t consider the true ugliness of the Democratic Party for one simple reason: The reality of the ugliness is too great to believe. Most Americans are too decent to consider that anyone really thinks abortion is like a sacrament – even though radical feminists and Democratic Party activists see it just that way.
I’ve tested this theory out on people I know and found it to be true.
But think about it. Which issue is more important to Democratic activists than abortion? Name one. No, not even “climate change.” Not even raising taxes.
So, what is the obsession all about? I know for most people, it’s simply that they have been inculcated with propaganda and fear-mongering. But others know. They understand the real reasons. There’s no way they could be so consistent throughout their history, following the same agenda over generations, with different rationales.nd Out More >
The Democratic Party – the party of slavery, the party of the Ku Klux Klan, the party if Jim Crow, the party of segregation – is now the party of abortions that have extinguished the lives of more black Americans than any disease or other cause of death over the last 45 years.
Is that a coincidence?
Is it a demonic conspiracy?
Or, are they still the racists they were 150 years ago, simply having changed their cover story?
Maybe I’m just too upset after learning this staggering statistic – 61 percent of African-American deaths caused by abortions. It’s probably as devastating to the African-American community as anything since slavery itself.
Read more at https://www.wnd.com/2018/08/who-are-the-real-racists/#p56IU2lrodZVJwu7.99