Often already, the subject of the sexual adversity of women in Islam has been reported, and such was the declation 46 percent of Egyptian women that they have been daily harassed by lascivious touches, calls or exhibitionism, and often in public areas. 62 percent of Egyptian men have admitted to touching women in a sexual manner, even those women who are properly attired according to Islam. However, in the case that women wear snug clothing, even most of the female participants opined, “they deserve to be harassed.”

A further progression is the constant abuse of children. Islamic religious leaders admit on the Internet to their sexual inclinations toward children and relate just how they act on these inclinations. Islamic “Brothers in the Faith” admit to rapes of their younger sisters and brothers. Female child care workers even admit to sexually harassing the children entrusted to them.

But this is all happening only in the Middle East, in Islamic heartlands, and not among us! Or maybe…

Let’s look at this realistically, now! We will refer to “Trapped in the Unspeakable (German: “Gefangen im Unaussprechlichen” in Süddeutsche Zeitung, 13 November 2008),” the title of a noteworthy article from Cathrin Kahlweit, and one of the few articles really worth reading that happened to show up in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a romping place for hare-brained/naive quality journalists. Although not quite as fresh as the morning dew according to the standards of our jet-set media society, it is unfortunately (!) still quite up-to-date. We see this illustrated further by the great quotes in the “‘Honor’ murders” article from one of our fellow citizens who has a relevant background. The foundation for all this discussion applies effectively to all areas of Islam: the dominance of the man, the isolation of the woman, and the repression of children.

That which Cathrin Kahlweit has the sense to report is enough to raise one’s blood pressure through the ceiling. She gives us a sneak peek into the everyday life of a General Practice Physician, Selmin Kundrun (for her protection, the name has been changed), an established immigrant of Turkish origin. In her practice in the run-down shopping zone of a big city suburb, she comes to face daily with the consequences of successful Islamic socialization, And truly in such a way that at closing time the doctor “is overcome with a tough and stifling exhaustion.”

For each evening Selmin Kudrun, with a weary spirit, counts all the wounds and scars she has seen and relives the psychological and physical suffering her patients bring into her practice. The basis for her concern? “More than 50 percent of turkish women that come to me for treatment,” the general practitioner says, “have experienced rape, and almost every child as well.”

Kundrun is a crown witness for a phenomenon that is hardly talked about: cruelty and abuse in Turkish families in Germany. All over there is sexual abuse and innerfamilial violence; these crimes are not limited to a single culture or ethnic group. In Germany alone there are at least 80,000 children under the age of 14 who are victims of sexual assault; some 150,000 women each year are victims of some kind of abuse, and this count does not even include rapes within wedlock. Nonetheless, the public consciousness of this problem is immense, there are hundreds of advertisements offering support; countless court proceedings in the past year against suspected sexual abuse in places where beforehand this didn’t happen. Selmin Kudrun knows, however, that things are different in the Turkish-Muslim culture: whatever happens within the family is taboo — and great woe to the one who dares to touch on that subject.

The accounts of the gruesome acts that Selmin Kundrun has in store are hard to stomach. And to spread this negative slice of life from this parallel world that exists in Germany also comes with great difficulty. She finds out whether the frequency of occurrences is high or low even, though this is not critical to her observations. What is critical, though, is the doubt behind the silence protected by family honor, for “the family’s honor stands above everything, it is more important than the suffering of the victim.” Bruises, choke marks, hidden under clothing, laid bare for the very first time when the women undress before the eyes of the doctor. This is everyday medicine: ever and again Kundrun hears from women who put vaseline on themselves so that the welts from the beatings don’t show so easily.

Kudrun’s absolute horror, however, is that these are wives who are confined and raped and abused daughters. She tells of a girl in whose mouth a sexual ailment has settled — given to her by her brother, and of a five-year-old girl whose anus has torn because she had been anally abused in order to protect the hymen (the virginal skin). The Muslims call this “gate number two”: anal sex is performed to protect virginity; and men practice this type of sex in order to guarantee that a young girl remains untouched until the wedding night.

Since she has all too often seen the bruises and welts when she asks her patients to raise the skirt or take off the veil off, the doctor — herself young, pretty and temperamental — a while ago set up a “violence” consultation with her patients. The experiment lasted exactly one day. On the second day, the father of a Muslim girl who had sought consultation with her stood in the practice with a gas pistol in his hand. Kundrun seldom ever presses charges even though she has seen much violence for which the perpetrators belong behind bars. If she would file charges from her observations, her declarations would be in the public record of the court — and the perpetrator’s attorney would have her name. “I have already been threatened quite often. I won’t risk that anymore,” she said.

For this reason, Selmin Kudrun is not her real name; even where she lives cannot be disclosed. We can know only this much, that she is a general practitioner, Turkish born, and has grown up in Germany. Her patients: primarily Turkish men and women. They are intimidated young women who have been brought straight from Anatolia to marry foreign men; naturalised and self-reliant with a college-prep diploma (Abitur), eyeliner and a short skirt; mothers clothed in black; hooded grandmothers who can barely speak German and proudly push their grands into the waiting room; young men in Adidas outfits, Turkish students with German girlfriends — Selmin Kundin sees as many as 100 patients daily. They come because they can trust this fellow citizen that understands them. Selmin Kundun sees, treats, helps — and understands less and less.

She is furious — every day, every hour. She herself was 17 when her father wanted to marry her. She ran away. She studied medicine and settled down. “What awaited me was not clear to me,” she said, “this self-evident course from which cruelty and abuse are derived. Of mothers who endure all and cover up for their husbands, who offer up their children. As long as the cover is not blown. Otherwise, everybody freaks out.”

Just this morning her first patient was a young Kurdish girl who had been brought to the hospital after her wedding night. Diagnosis: torn vagina. She was treated and sent home. A few hours later the girl suffered from a circulatory collapse. The family brought her to the Madame Doctor at the practice. “A tear in the vagina is caused by violent practice; it doesn’t just simply happen. But none of the doctors at the hospital ever asked, the young newlywed remained silent, and the family resisted. What shall I do? I treat her — and send her home.”

How can girls who apparently have finally arrived in this society “find nothing wrong” when their father beats them with a belt or a rod? How can they say: “He can do that, he’s my father”? How, she asks further, can it be that a 25-year-old imported bride whose husband sits in jail, yet is held in confinement by the family of the husband and routinely abused by his brothers? “When this woman was brought to me after four years of abuse, her anus was so torn up that she had become incontinent. She said: ‘I thought they were allowed to do that.’”

No, Ali, Ömer and Mahmoud, you are not allowed to do that. And that is why somebody is bringing your human rights violations to light. That is why this Blog exists.

(Guest contribution from David S., Translation by “anders denken”)

Often already, the subject of the sexual adversity of women in Islam has been reported, and such was the declation 46 percent of Egyptian women that they have been daily harassed by lascivious touches, calls or exhibitionism, and often in public areas. 62 percent of Egyptian men have admitted to touching women in a ...

PI, 19. Jan 2010 |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | post a comment    
Kategorie: Germany, Human Rights, Islam is peace™;

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