Muslim Women Prime Ministers

Submitted by Peggy Rapier (United States), Jul 23, 2003 at 11:54

I want to address Dr. Khan's use of a common misdirectional tactic used by Muslims when debating the status of women in Islam. He points to the election of four women prime ministers in Muslim countries and contrasts this with the record of the U.S and cites it as proof that Islam has actually been more successful in elevating women. What is never explained by these Islamic apologists is that all of these women were elected as stand-ins for a significant male relative who had died. These male relatives had been the chief political force behind their parties and upon their deaths, their appointed female heirs (since there were no viable male heirs) were elected as figure heads of the party. These women were not important political figures in their own right nor did they work their way up from the bottom of the political pit and true to the spirit of being figureheads for their political parties, they enjoyed almost no political power in their own right once elected. The most telling example being Benazir Bhutto's complete abject inablilty to stem rampant corruption during her term in office.

Dr. Khan is also guilty of equating the entire West with one particular aspect of it. In this case he cites the US as if it were the only country in the Christian West. He conveniently over looks the fact that the first women elected to high political office in all of workd history were in Western nations and that the first female prime minister of equal stature, influence and experience was Margaret Thatcher.

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