Final PRIDE Edition

Welcome to the latest Dissent Dispatch!

Dive into this week's Unbelief Brief as we explore the controversy of a human milk bank and uncover two starkly opposing views on the hijab.

Our Persecution Tracker Update shines a light on the latest developments in Pakistan.

And to celebrate the culmination of PRIDE month, a member of the ex-Muslim community shares their Pride journey.

The Unbelief Brief

Pakistan’s first human milk bank, which opened only a month ago, is closing its doors. The reason: religious objections, of course. The shuttering may be temporary if religious authorities ultimately deem its existence acceptable. The Sindh Institute of Child Health and Neonatology (SICHN), where the milk bank was opened, issued a statement saying it was made after the fatwa of a government body ordered that changes be made to comply with Islamic regulations. Widespread “religious backlash” also occurred on social media. The problem stems, as is common, from the 1,400-year-old religion’s superstitions and their incompatibility with contemporary medical science. As Arab News explains:

“In general, Islam makes the practice tricky. The opposition centers on a tenet called milk kinship, which states that a parent-child bond is formed when a woman gives milk to a baby who isn’t biologically related to her. 

To avoid future incestuous marriages between so-called milk siblings, the tenet says, the foster relationship must be clearly delineated. Since milk bank donors are typically anonymous and the donations are often combined, the practice is rejected in most of the Muslim world.”

On the topic of religion’s dysfunction in matters relating to women: new information is emerging regarding the Taliban’s recent crackdown on hijab offenses, which took place late last year and early this year. Numerous women and girls who were arrested and detained for improper adherence to Islamic clothing regulations have alleged that they were subject to sexual assault and violence while in custody. There is no reasonable doubt that the Taliban are capable of such behavior. In ultra-conservative theocratic systems, rules of sexual morality seem never to apply to men if they are punishing women for some greater infraction: hence a system where rape is considered just punishment for a woman who fails to cover every strand of hair on her head.

Tajikistan, another Muslim-majority country, is taking the opposite stance on the hijab matter. In spite of its religious makeup, it  banned the hijab entirely. The reasoning behind this otherwise mystifying choice is connected to “president-for-life” Emomali Rahmon’s stated desire to promote the country’s “original” cultural character and to combat extremism. But the choice to completely ban a garment that holds significance for many, however misogynistic its roots, is itself an extreme act that far oversteps the bounds of ensuring a secular and free society. It creates, in fact, the opposite of freedom: the inverse of the mandatory hijab laws to which authoritarian Muslim-majority countries subject their citizens. Euronews writes more about it here.

Persecution Tracker Updates

In Pakistan: a man who was accused of desecrating a Qur’an was murdered by an angry mob, who also torched a police station in their furor. Read more here.

From the Community

This week we share a PRIDE story from one of our community members. 

My nickname is Abd Kosmik and I am a queer ex-Muslim from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I grew up in a small village in a turbulent household with a wonderful and kindhearted mother and a violent extremist father. As a child, I attended a tiny public school before transferring to a religious school to begin the process of memorizing the Qur’an. It was during this period that I became aware of small, but not insignificant, contradictions in the Qur’an. This included the claim that no human acts against Allah's will while simultaneously threatening non-believers with eternal torture in hell. Over the years, I shared my grief over losing my faith with a few close friends who, unfortunately, only sought to harass me for my doubts. The internet became my only source of refuge to express my true thoughts and feelings about leaving Islam.

After coming to terms with my sexuality as a young adult, I realized I could not stay in my home country for fear of reprisals. Thankfully, through hard work and determination, I was granted a full scholarship to a university in the United States and am able to live my life free from the threat of harm. After graduating with my degree, I made a point to speak to as many LGBTQIA+ individuals as I could to learn more about their unique journeys. These experiences helped me realize that Abrahamic religions are antithetical to science and human rights, especially for queer individuals, minorities, and women. Today, I am grateful to have escaped the religious trauma of my upbringing and for the ability to live my life free from persecution in a secular country. With the help of therapy, I am addressing the abuse I suffered as a result of my sexual identity and try to give back to my community through volunteering at a local LGBTQ community center. Today, the only ‘god’ I worship is reason, rationality and science!

Thanks for joining us for another volume of Dissent Dispatch!

Until next week,

The Team at Ex-Muslims of North America

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