Women must take a larger role in Muslim societies. For many good reasons of culture, location on the planet, and stages of development, women have been disenfranchised in many parts of the Muslim World. As I understand it, this is not dictated by true Islam, but it has been forged into the religion as it exists in some countries today. The whining and wetting of their sisters in the West cannot help Muslim women. Women in the West have, with great sacrifice, taken back their role in society, especially over the past 150 years. I do not deny that winning rights and freedoms, such as our women enjoy in the United States, can only come from sacrifice. But, it is a truth that no one can make a change of this magnitude from outside. The change must come from within.
How does a conflict like Iraq get solved? How did the conflict in Ireland get solved, though it festered for more than 400 years? How do feuds, like the apocryphal American example of the Hatfields and McCoys get resolved? They get resolved when the community decides that it will live in peace. As long as people are carrying AK47s, and condoning violence, as long as it happens to the other group, there will be no end. After the first year, there is no “even” in a feud, because no one knows what “even” is. No one can tally the losses on either side, and say that there can be an end, because “we are even.” The members of each society must simply decide that they will raise their children in peace, and settle their differences through peaceful means. Only when that happens will there be an end to Iraq. It sounds stupidly simplistic, but at the base, it is so.
I have joked that many parts of the Middle East represent the unfortunate results of a several millennia experiment on what happens when you have testosterone uncivilized by estrogen. The wonderful thing about women is that every family started with at least one, and most households have at least one, even today. And, even in Iraq, if Muslim women accept that the sacrifice for gaining their rights must be their’s, and begin insisting that there be peace, it will be so. Women have their ways!
To those men who claim that women are the weaker sex, and must be protected, I say, “Why don’t you try to have a baby, brother, and we’ll see who’s the strongest? Why don’t you try living with you, in the ways you require, and we’ll understand which is the strongest sex?” The way these societies have developed, from an evolutionary point of view, is understandable. There is no need to be embarrassed about that. But the way to avoid the title of this book, is to recognize that it is time to evolve further.