Freedom is an illusion for many Muslim women - Britain is letting them down

A Malaysian womanhas been sentenced to caning for drinking beer, an offence according to Sharia law. Does that statement shock you? I suspect not. How about this one: she has now requested that Amnesty International stop asking the Malaysian authorities not to cane her, saying she is ready to face the penalty for her “offence”.

Part of the problem with Western attitudes towards Muslim women is that their submission to Islam is often thought of as a subjugation: the women, many Westerners think, are forced by mean Muslim men to behave in a certain way. But it’s a wildly naive idea. When you begin to analyse the beliefs of Muslim women – and listen to them – you find that they are often just as devoted to their religion as the husbands, brothers and fathers who surround them. Sometimes more so: an Iranian girl who visited Tehran just before the elections told me that it’s the female members of the Basij militia who are the most officious – if they spot you with your shawl revealing too much hair, you’re in deep trouble.

But the problem escalates. Once you recognise that Muslim women are, on average, as devout as Muslim men – and, in the case of the Malaysian model, will accept punishments meted out to them under Sharia law – is it then wrong to criticise them and their beliefs? This is one of the many flaws of multiculturalism. It’s OK, multiculturalists might have to concede, for a Malaysian model to be caned for drinking beer, as those are the religious laws which she has chosen to submit to; it’s a personal decision, leave her alone.

A BBC Radio 4 documentary on Muslim women recently spoke to Munira Mirza, Boris Johnson’s “culture tzar”. Here’s what she had to say about the perception of Muslim women in Britain:

The truth is, however, that the Malaysian woman is a victim. And so are Muslim women all over the world (read, for example, Dean Nelson on female voters in Afghanistan). Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno has chosen to be caned. But should Amnesty International stop protesting about her punishment because she has asked them to? Of course they shouldn’t. Amnesty has to accept that it is universally wrong to cane a woman (for drinking beer or for anything else), and stand by its position despite what the victim says. On a broader level - and especially in Britain - we must apply this idea to the Muslim practices which, according to British values, we consider unacceptable. When we allow Muslim women to choose cut-off and submissive lives, we are letting them down.