A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power

by Jimmy Carter

  We next visited Namibia (with a 23 percent infection rate), Angola (8 percent), and Nigeria (5.8 percent). President Olusegun Obasanjo brought representatives from all thirty-two Nigerian states to Abuja, where we had a discussion about the incidence of AIDS in different regions. When Bill and I visited with commercial sex workers, one group in the ghetto area of Mabushi, who were especially young and beautiful, told us they demanded that their clients use condoms. Some reported being offered five times their standard rate for “naked sex.” Few of the other five thousand sex workers took any precautions against AIDS.

  On Saturday afternoon President Obasanjo informed me that the next day there would be a Baptist religious service in the presidential chapel and that I was scheduled to deliver a sermon—about AIDS! I gave a lot of thought to the subject that night and decided that the best approach was to make it easy and acceptable for both men and women to report their infection by minimizing the stigma involved. I tried to explain to the large and emotional congregation how Jesus would address the problem of illicit sex, contagion, and suffering. I quoted texts about his attitude toward Mary Magdalene (who was cured of seven sins), the Samaritan woman at the well (with five lovers), and the woman caught in adultery and sentenced to be stoned to death. I said that all these actions showed his love and forgiveness and that Matthew 25’s “unto the least of these” put the responsibility on all of us to reach out to the afflicted with forgiveness and love. President Obasanjo complimented me on my choice of biblical references and said that the congregation responded well.

  We made a last-minute decision to stop in Bangui, Central African Republic, one of the most isolated and poverty-stricken countries in the world. We visited their only AIDS clinic, and it was a heartrending experience. There was a line of 267 people with AIDS, mostly mothers holding emaciated babies, but there was no medicine available. They were waiting for the daily allowance of a morsel of food. When the women were no longer able to walk, they were moved to the nearby hospital to die. Ninety percent of the hospital beds were filled with these patients. There was a young Japanese woman running the clinic, whose dedication reminded us of Mother Teresa, and Bill promised the Gates Foundation would provide special help to her and her patients.

  In Kenya, President Daniel arap Moi was deeply involved in the AIDS issue and able to report a recent decrease in the national infection rate to 13 percent, although 20 percent of the citizens of Nairobi were infected. He joined us in a large public discussion on HIV/AIDS, where we heard vivid testimony from AIDS victims, commercial sex workers, AIDS orphans, students, workers, employers, and officials in the nation’s AIDS programs.

  We knew at that time that 35 percent of the citizens of Botswana were HIV-positive, and later the Gates Foundation joined with Merck & Co., a major producer of antiretroviral medicines, to concentrate on Botswana, with an emphasis on both prevention and treatment, to set an example for the rest of Africa.

  With increased financial assistance from the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the U.S. government program promoted by President George W. Bush, improved education programs, and support from President Mbeki’s successors and other political leaders, there has been dramatic progress in Africa. Eight times as many people are now receiving antiretroviral treatment, deaths from AIDS have been reduced by one-third, and new HIV infections are 25 percent lower than in 2002.

  One of the setbacks in Africa has been in Uganda, which had a superb anti-AIDS program when we were on this trip. By using the standard “ABC” program (abstinence, be faithful, and condoms) the HIV/AIDS rate had dropped from more than 15 percent to 6 percent and was continuing its decline. In addition to teaching the ABC approach in schools, the Ugandan government conducted an aggressive media campaign using print, billboards, radio, and television. However, shortly after our trip, the president’s wife was convinced by conservative Christian leaders in America to restrict the use of condoms, and the government shifted to promoting abstinence as the sole means of controlling the spread of AIDS. The result has been a lack of further progress in reducing the rates of death and new cases. Human Rights Watch has commented that the change in policy “leave[s] Uganda’s children at risk of HIV,” which is disputed, of course, by some of the faith-based groups. A report by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS on Uganda in 2012 stated, “The number of newly infected people per year has increased by over 50 percent, from 99,000 in 2001 to 150,000 in 2011.”

  Most transmission of AIDS in Africa is through heterosexual activity. Women are less able to protect themselves from unwanted sex, and are most willing to implement the restraints of abstinence and the use of condoms. Except for professional sex workers, women are also less likely than men to transmit HIV/AIDS into a previously healthy home. Pregnant women are also eager, if infected, to protect their babies with antiretroviral medication. Protection of women from rape and providing them with preventive instruction and treatment should be priorities in the war against AIDS.

  13 | SPOUSE ABUSE

  A very difficult Christian text for battered women is Matthew 5:39, “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” This text is invoked to convince battered women it is “Christian” to just take abuse, and it is a very difficult text for them. But theologian Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers, shows us the real meaning of that text in Jesus’ time was nonviolent resistance. Jesus rejected the two common ways of responding to being treated violently, either violent resistance or passive acceptance. Instead, Jesus advocated a third way, that is, an assertive but nonviolent response when understood in the context of how Romans treated Jews in ancient Israel. A woman who is being beaten can choose the third way of active, but nonviolent resistance, by going to a battered women’s shelter. That was the real meaning of Jesus’ teaching.

  REV. DR. SUSAN BROOKS THISTLETHWAITE, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AND FORMER PRESIDENT, CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

  The World Health Organization reported in 2013 that more than a third of all women are victims of physical or sexual violence and that the vast majority are attacked or abused by their husbands or boyfriends. To some degree, this situation is perpetuated by local custom or helpless acquiescence by the abused women. About a third of countries do not have any laws against domestic violence, and many wives consider it mandatory and proper to submit themselves to their husbands for punishment. A recent UNICEF survey among women ages fifteen to forty-nine revealed that 90 percent of wives in Afghanistan and Jordan, 87 percent in Mali, 86 percent in Guinea and Timor-Leste, 81 percent in Laos, and 80 percent in Central African Republic believe that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife under certain circumstances.

  At some time in their lives, one-fourth of all American women are victims of domestic violence. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that while 3,200 servicemen were killed in battle between 2000 and 2006, there were 10,600 domestic homicides in the United States; 85 percent of these victims were women. Since reports of such crimes by local police are discretionary, these data are an underestimation. The usual way of preventing these crimes has been to send battered women to protective shelters, but this has been only partially effective and imposes punishment on the victim instead of the attacker, especially when women have to leave children behind or take them into extended hiding.

  A New Yorker magazine article by Rachel Louise Snyder in July 2013 describes a new approach that was initiated in Massachusetts in 2005, designed to prevent domestic homicide by using existing legal means to anticipate when it might happen. The most persistent predictor of these crimes was a prior incident of physical abuse: half of the female murder victims had earlier sought protection from the police. Although poverty of the family did not indicate likely violence, chronic unemployment of the husband was significant. Legal restraining orders on the abuser’s movements had often been violated, but the combination of a “dangerousness” assessment and a court-ordered GPS locator on the abuser pro
ved to be remarkably effective. Since the new program was put into effect there has not been a homicide in the test area and none of the offenders monitored by GPS has committed an act of domestic violence. In the most recent report, only 5 percent have had to go into a shelter for protection, while 90 percent would have done so before the new system was established. Thirty-three states have introduced or already passed laws to permit the use of the GPS restraint in domestic violence cases, and more than five thousand people from thirty states have been trained to implement this surprisingly inexpensive system.

  Another rapidly expanding approach to reducing extreme cases of spouse abuse was described in Bloomberg Businessweek in September 2013: letting women in the developing world obtain a divorce from an abusive husband. The divorce rate has almost tripled since 1980 in Mexico, and there has been more than a fivefold increase in China, Iran, Thailand, and South Korea. Analysts attribute this increased freedom of women to make decisions with the implementation of the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Simply put, many abused wives have been able to obtain a legal right to leave a troubled marriage permanently. Major challenges still remain, as rape within marriage is not a crime in 127 countries.

  Ending violence against women requires advocacy to blossom into engaged global support by both leaders and community members. Each of us will be held accountable by God to take a stand against all forms of injustice in both private and public spheres. Preventive domestic violence education and training of religious leaders and communities must be institutionalized through sermons, premarital counseling, marital seminars, awareness campaigns, signed declarations, resource development, research, and survivor programs and services. We human beings all want the same thing—love and peace. Collectively we can create a world where we put into practice the universal principle of wanting for others what we want for ourselves—to best sustain peaceful families, communities, and nations.

  IMAM MOHAMED MAGID, PRESIDENT, ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA, AND MAHA B. ALKHATEEB, CODIRECTOR OF PR AND RESEARCH, PEACEFUL FAMILIES PROJECT

  We have all heard about the extreme derogation of women and girls in Afghanistan in regions controlled by the Taliban, and I have been involved personally in one perhaps illustrative case. Even when a girl is able to obtain a good education and escape a forced marriage at an early age, she is still not free to shape the rest of her life in a culture that supports male domination.

  One of my best friends is Mashuq Askerzada, a former Muslim army officer from Afghanistan, who came to nearby Fort Benning, Georgia, for advanced military training after an earlier education at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England. When Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, Mashuq decided to remain in America, married and had a family, and became a high school teacher. He attended my Bible class in Plains and became a Christian, and his family moved to our town to live. They are members of our church, and Mashuq teaches when I’m not there. (Some regular church members have been heard to say that they’re glad when I’m away.)

  Mashuq retained close contact with his relatives in Afghanistan and was especially proud of a young relative named Khatera. She had completed high school and two years of college and was preparing to become a teacher in one of the few institutes girls were permitted to attend. The family was relatively affluent and influential, and were greatly embarrassed and distressed early in 2007 when her father was arrested and falsely charged by the local judge with involvement in the misdeeds of his former business partners.

  Two months later Khatera answered the telephone one day in their home and was surprised when the caller identified himself as the judge, who informed her that he had total power over her father and then violated sensitive cultural norms by saying he had heard that she was very beautiful and also well educated. She expressed her dismay and said she would hand the telephone to her mother, who had received an earlier demand from the judge for a payment of $10,000 for her husband’s freedom and had already paid him $4,000. The judge told Khatera that if she informed her mother of his call, her father would never be released and it was very likely that her seventeen-year-old brother would be killed. He added that he would guarantee the family’s safety and the father’s freedom if Khatera would marry him. He told her he was a young bachelor and would provide her with a good life.

  Her mother found her weeping in her room, but she decided not to tell anyone about the threats and promises. Later that week two trucks loaded with armed militia came to the house and surrounded it. The judge’s sister entered and repeated her brother’s offer to Khatera’s mother, who was shocked and angry. In the meantime, in order to protect her family, the young woman had decided to accept the offer of marriage.

  Three days later the judge arrived, accompanied by a mullah who read the proper religious words in the presence of the mother. Then the judge was permitted to approach Khatera, who was completely veiled. She saw that he was at least twenty-five years older than he had led her to expect. On the wedding night the husband brandished a large knife and said he would cut her into bits if she was not found to be a virgin.

  Khatera bled as expected and was informed the next day that her father had been released from prison. That was when she met the judge’s two other wives, one of whom was put in charge of her. When Khatera’s mother learned of his former marriages, she berated the judge, after which he beat her daughter severely and repeatedly, warning her never again to share any information with her family. She was put on starvation rations and was soon notified by the other wives that their husband was searching for a fourth. Although Khatera did not complain, her mother was aware of her plight and told her that the judge had put her father back in prison. Khatera learned that she was up for sale when she was forced to unveil herself and greet two strange men, whom the judge identified as his “friends.” A daughter of the judge later told her that she had heard them bargaining about the price to be paid. A few weeks later Khatera’s mother induced the judge to permit her daughter to attend a wedding for another member of their family. Khatera was accompanied by members of the judge’s militia and was taken back to her husband’s home after the ceremony. Her mother appealed to the local governor and other officials, but they all sided with the judge, who accused the mother of trying to kidnap her daughter.

  This was when Mashuq informed me about his family’s problems. Some of his acquaintances in Afghanistan appealed to a high official who was from the same community. There was a temporary stalemate, and Khatera was escorted to a United Nations office in Kundu. When the judge went there with ten of his militia and threatened to burn down the office, the terrified staff members called a distant relative of the Askerzadas who was living nearby and who took Khatera to a UN office in the capital city, Kabul. I first interceded by telephone to outline the history of the case to the U.S. ambassador and offered to call the White House and the UN secretary-general. Khatera was transferred to a women’s shelter in a secret location, which she later described as a prison.

  I knew Burhanuddin Rabbani, who had served as president of Afghanistan for a brief time late in 2001, and he and I were able to obtain some influential help in Jalalabad, the judge’s hometown. I wanted Khatera to come to America, but she was still officially married and there was no way we could overcome the multiple legal impediments. Although he and Khatera never saw each other again, her husband was induced to make a public declaration in the presence of officials that he was divorcing her and pledge never again to harm her or her family. He was suspended from his duties and later was shot in a Taliban attack and lost both legs. (President Rabbani was killed in 2011 in a suicide bombing.)

  Khatera’s journey to a normal life began when she resumed teaching in a girls’ school in Afghanistan for two years and served as principal for a year. But then her school was bombed in a Taliban attack. Threatened that she would be cut to pieces if she returned to work, Khatera moved with her mother and youngest brother to Tajikistan. At that poin
t Mashuq’s son, William, realized that the only way to cut through most of the bureaucracy was to marry Khatera. He went to Tajikistan to meet her and, to his surprise, they fell deeply in love. William returned to America to file a petition for his fiancée to join him. I helped expedite the visa process, and after a few months Khatera was reunited with William and joined her relatives in Plains. Khatera and William were married and now have a handsome young son named for his father.

  The significance of this story is that the drama of a beautiful and intelligent young woman would have had an entirely different ending if her family had not been able to depend on a former president of the United States and a former president of Afghanistan—and her cousin—for help. Few other women have such resources.

  The need to secure women’s rights, as a notion that is both Islamic and Afghan, is imperative in order for Afghanistan to be able to safeguard women’s rights in the long term, particularly as security is transferred to domestic forces. In this traditional society where Islam shapes culture, traditions, and customs, there is no better way to raise the sensitive topic of women’s rights than through community-level religious leaders themselves. Although we can help to facilitate these conversations, it is the Imams who share the message of women’s rights according to Islam in a direct but non-threatening manner to a wider population—something that needs to happen more often.

  PALWASHA KAKAR, DIRECTOR OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS, THE ASIA FOUNDATION