Abuse

Over the next few months, I will get back to developing the health section on the site.  One major change is to address men's health concerns.  I want to develop pages not simply on men's health issues in general, but also address women's abuse of men and male responses to child abuse.  As I develop that part of the site more, I will be putting together professional-looking pamphlets on these topics that will be available as pdfs for anyone who wants to use them.  Simply download them, take them to your local copy place, fold them in thirds and distribute them in your community.  A few colleagues and friends are going to be helping me with this project.  I'll announce their names as each pamphlet comes out.

To my mind, gender justice must address both women's and men's concerns and needs (in straight and glbtq conexts) if we are to make any long-lasting progress.  Justice (`adl) means to put things in their proper places.  We can only put things in their proper places if we come to understand the haqq of a thing; in other words, all of its rights and obligations, all of its properties and characteristics so that all things may be given their due.  To be "just," then, is to give everything its due.  Insha'Allah, the site will be able to contribute to justice in this way.

Debra Mubashshir Majeed discusses marital rape and where we go from here following the responses to her pamphlet on Marital Rape she published here and used in a discussion on the topic at her mosque.

Debra Mubashshir Majeed writes,

I have read the responses to my initial posting in June with great interest. Since the taleem mentioned above, it has become increasingly obvious
that "we" -- practicing Muslims and those who study our religion,
rituals, and lived realities -- have much work to do on this very important issue. I cannot begin to tell you the depth of ignorance that is taught and shared as revelatory truth. Too many Muslim women arise before dawn each day to make salat and to live in contexts that confirm their sense of inferiority and marginalization. Popular interpretations of Islam suggest that men are the maintainers of women, and some of these women experience that very "maintenance" as domination, as control, and as abuse.