[Lady Sidhe]

Well, I have to say that I don't automatically discount this. Arab countries have a history of maltreating women, and it seems to me that the woman who talks about her arrival in Canada felt that she was escaping that kind of treatmen-- only to find that it followed her. She can't be the only one who feels that way.

I come down on the side of the petitioners; not for feminist reasons, but for reasons of individual freedom. The Arab world treats its women very badly, from sexual mutilation to murder. I have to support any woman who escapes from that situation into what she believes will be a better life.

Think--if she were happy in that situation, why would she leave? There's a thread that gets into why women stay with abusive men, and people applaud the women when they leave; but when these women leave an abusive culture, then we find "apologists" who give reasons why we shouldn't hold the culture responsible.

I'm not saying that the Muslim religion is BAD--but the way the Arab countries are ruled (by nutcase fundamentalist) is the reality, regardless of what the actual religion says. Just like christianity isn't BAD, but if we let the nutcase fundamentalists run the country, imagine what would happen. Bye-bye freedom, especially for women.

The point is, there are those women who don't want to be controlled by that law. They escaped their countries so that they wouldn't be. I'm not going to make allowances for the Arab world's treatment of women. It's just plain wrong, and if these women want to be free of it, I say more power to them!


Sidhe