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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6281406
A Catalan-based author of Moroccan origin is facing heat from both Muslim NGOs and the Spanish left for critical comments she made about the status of women in Islam after a speech given at the start of a Barcelona cultural fair.
Najat El Hachmi, a Moroccan-born novelist earned the ire of multiple Islamic organisations for remarks highlighting patriarchal attitudes within Spain’s 2,3 million strong Muslim community during a prestigious inaugural speech at Barcelona’s Festes de la Mercè late last month.
“Are you uncomfortable if I explain to you that there are girls in this city who cannot learn anything or go hiking?” proclaimed El Hachmi from a podium in city hall as she gave the festival’s traditional opening speech in front of the city’s mayor and other officials.
Muy valiente Najat El Hachmi explicando cómo viven muchas moras en Cataluña bajo el control absoluto del Islam, ejercido por sus familiares y vecinos. Necesitamos muchísimas más voces como ella para remover conciencias. Bravo. pic.twitter.com/d4a4PlxX7e — Yeray (@YerayMellado) September 23, 2023An accomplished author and journalist, El Hachmi moved to Spain at age seven before having a successful academic and literary career with novels that focus on her dual identity and native Morocco. Her 2008 novel L’últim patriarca (The Last Patriarch) earned literary acclaim for challenging misogynist attitudes faced by women in Morocco. She had previously voiced her opposition to the wearing of Islamic face veils within Spanish schools.
Three Islamic organisations have signed an open letter to the city’s socialist mayor Jaume Collboni asking for the author to be taken to task for her comments about Islam, labelling El Hachmi as ‘Islamophobic.’
Left-wing groups had already tried to deplatform El Hachmi before she made the oration due to her previous statements on transgender legislation. The author also referenced the rise of “identity fundamentalism” within the Islamic community since the 1980s and the plight of cousin marriage in her Barcelona speech.
Approximately 8.1% of Catalonia is Muslim, primarily consisting of first- and second-generation Pakistanis and Moroccans. In 2017, 14 people perished in an Islamist attack on Barcelona’s primary thoroughfare Las Ramblas.
Prominent figures in the region’s literary scene and even the nationalist party VOX have rallied to El Hachmi’s defence as many fear that the incident could be the start of Spain’s very own clash between free speech and Islam.
The question of criticism of Islam has been topical of late in Europe propelled by rioting in Sweden over the burning of the Koran with the incident sparking a diplomatic spat with the Islamic world and Stockholm led by Turkey.
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Yeah I don’t think a site called “European Conservative” is where anyone should be getting their facts from…
ad hominem
Actually, no. The publisher has a bias against ‘leftist groups’ and very low interest in atheism, although the publisher is very skilled at combining racist tendencies with transphobia by thinly veiling it under atheist differential feminism.
Yeah and then they casually throw in news about Sweden’s Easter Riots like the whole thing is connected… As if mosque leaders writing an open letter is somehow a slipper slope to violence soon.
Yes, Muslims did riot, and yes it was a vulnerable area where a convicted racist and right wing populist (Paludan) had been burning Qurans against the recommendation and desire of the police force to aggitate people who already suffer from poverty and lack of opportunity and feel unwelcome in Sweden. They were wrong to riot. He was wrong to be inciting hate and violence on purpose. I blame both. If Paludan gave two fucks about Sweden or Denmark he would instead be trying to help Muslims integrate. Agitating people, making them hate their own lives, that never leads to anywhere.
I think both book-burning and rejected-rioting have a right to exist, because no speech is sacred and riots are sometimes one of the only forms of resisting hate, but both (in this context) have the similar problem of undemocratic visions (fascism, theocracy) once gathered enough power.
But what if the riots become violent? I think that’s what is a turnoff for a lot of people who feel unable to support the rioting part.
Personally, I prefer to think about how to resolve the issue and not who is at fault. These people felt agitated enough to riot. Whether this is morally right or wrong is something we can put aside for a second to ask, “Why and how would a person have this reaction?” I don’t find it surprising when a lot more immigrants and asylum seekers in Sweden are reporting racism, lack of support, and inability to work jobs they are qualified for.
One example: Women not getting jobs because they were headscarves is still a problem in Europe… it doesn’t help to say, “Headscarves are inherently oppressive and Islam is a sexist religion” because that won’t get these ladies jobs nor will it help them take off the headscarf either if they genuinely don’t want to wear it.
Hip-hop-a-potamus.
It’s not an ad hominem to point out a source as being a bad source.
You can’t just say whatever you want, point to anyone who agrees with you, and claim you are correct because you have “a source.”
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Feel free to post a non politically biased source for this story.
If the story can’t be freed from political bias, then it’s not really a story, isn’t it?
I remember everyone posting about how everything is political
That’s ridiculous.
Quranic verse says that a free man could not be killed for killing a woman or a slave.
Quran 2:178: يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْقِصَاصُ فِى ٱلْقَتْلَى ۖ ٱلْحُرُّ بِٱلْحُرِّ وَٱلْعَبْدُ بِٱلْعَبْدِ وَٱلْأُنثَىٰ بِٱلْأُنثَىٰ ۚ O ye who believe! Retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the murdered; the freeman for the freeman, and the slave for the slave, and the female for the female.Another example for why you should read past the headline.
The headline is fucking misleading.
Five paragraphs in until you get one sentence why the left doesn’t like her and it has nothing to do with Islam.
The sentence: Left-wing groups had already tried to deplatform El Hachmi before she made the oration due to her previous statements on transgender legislation.
I’m always surprised that the left seems to align themselves in support of Islam when a lot of their views are opposite of what the left stands for.
Didn’t they deplatform her for being a TERF?
I suspected as much but it was hard to find any sources in English about her except this article.
That being said, I tried to find out what she said during her lectures and it seems like pretty normal and balanced criticism of Islam, especially since she has that background.
I would really like to see (since this article reads like an extended ‘alternative news’ site) which NGOs exactly had a problem with her and why.
Yes they did, it is litteraly straight up written in the article, but the title makes it look like the left is defending islam.
Yeah, the right likes to claim that for some reason /:
