Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born former Dutch member of Parliament now living in the United States, urges European governments to deal with their Muslim immigrant problem by promoting the education of Muslim women. Below are a few excerpts from a recent article:
For a while now I have been asserting that the most effective way for European Union governments to deal with their Muslim minorities is to empower the Muslim women living within their borders. The best tool for empowering these women is education. Yet the education systems of some European Union countries are going through a crisis of neglect, particularly with regard to immigrant children. We are paying the price of mixing education with ideology. However, let me stick to the important subject of freeing women from the shackles of superstitious belief and tribal custom.
The biggest obstacle that hinders Muslim women from leading dignified, free lives is violence--physical, mental, and sexual--committed by their close families. . . . [Hirsi Ali gives examples]
European policy-makers have not yet understood the huge potential of liberating Muslim women. They are squandering the single best opportunity they have to make Muslim integration a success within one generation. Morally, governments need to eradicate violence against women in Europe. This would make clear to fundamentalists that Europeans take their constitutions seriously. Now, most abusers simply think that Western rhetoric about the equality of men and women is cowardly and hypocritical, since Western governments tolerate the abuse of millions of Muslim women when they're told it's in the name of freedom of religion. . . .
Why are European leaders so slow to appreciate the great role Muslim women can play in a successful integration of immigrants in the European Union? Some blame can be attributed to the passivity of universities and non-governmental organisations in addressing immigrant women's rights. The academic community unanimously condemns violence against women, whether it is committed by family or the state, but it has been negligent in investigating and providing the necessary legal framework and data to help policy-makers make women's rights a priority.
Andrew Strattaford posted a briefer portion of this article on the Corner blog. His comment?
Well said. On the other hand, here's what the government of Tony Blair (fearless freedom fighter, Neocon idol, champion of the West, you know how it goes) is up to (via the Times): "The Government dropped plans to make forced marriage illegal in June, after the Muslim Council of Britain cautioned that it could be "another way to stigmatise our communities"... Appalling. Cowardly. Typical.