Relish XXX

From the NY Times.

Of course, there is a call from the Muslim community to cut her head off.

"There needs to be much more open discussion of these issues in Europe and in the wider Islamic world. Theo Van Gogh was later executed in the street in Amsterdam.


As she begins to pray, the woman looks heavily veiled, showing her eyes only, but her
long black chador turns out to be transparent. Beneath it, painted on her chest and
stomach, are verses from the Koran.

More women appear. A bride is dressed in white lace, but her back is exposed. The
Koranic verse that says a man may take his woman in any manner, time or place
ordained by God is written on her skin.

The images roll on, now showing a woman lying on the ground, her back and legs marked
by red traces of a whip. The Koranic verses on her wounded flesh say that those guilty of
adultery or sex outside marriage shall be punished with 100 lashes. There are chilling
sounds of a cracking whip; there is the haunting beauty of the Arabic calligraphy and soft
music.

These are scenes from "Submission," a 10-minute film shown on Dutch prime time
television, written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born refugee, now a member of the Dutch
Parliament. Since the English-language film was shown in late August, it has been at the
center of a national uproar, which is exactly what the author wanted.

Ms. Hirsi Ali, 34, who grew up as a Muslim but has abandoned her faith, said her purpose
was not to give offense but to draw attention to what she contends is widespread but
hidden violence against Muslim women, even those living in Europe.

She turned to the power of images, she said, to focus attention on abuse, incest, forced
marriages and the suicides of young immigrant women. Despite her writing and speaking
on the subject for several years, she said she felt that the subject remained a public
taboo. "Muslims deny it," she said, "and many Dutch are afraid of taking it on, of causing
religious tension, of being called racists."

The stories of the four women in the film are composites, she says. Critics have called
them simplistic, even caricatures. But the images fired up a new debate in the Netherlands
on how to modernize or adapt Islam as it expands across Europe.

The film has brought new death threats against her. She already has two round-the-clock
government bodyguards.

In this nation of 16 million people, a million of them Muslim immigrants or their
descendants, Ms. Hirsi Ali is part of a small but growing group of women who say they
want to spread the message that the Muslim faith can be practiced without what she
calls "savage Medieval customs" like genital cutting, beatings or the confinement of
women to their homes. Some of those advocates contend that modernization of Islam
must come from women, particularly European Muslim women.

The film and the photographs taken from it have appeared in Dutch newspapers,
magazines and television shows, drawing an outpouring of both praise and outrage.


"Of course it's a political pamphlet, that's undeniable," said Theo van Gogh, who directed
the film and insisted that he does not see why many Muslims are so shocked. He said he
was deliberately cautious, adding that if he had really wanted to shock, the film would
have been different.

It opens with a prayer, and then the narrator tells stories of four women who ask for
God's help to lighten their suffering. According to the narrative, one was forced to marry a
man she hates, one was raped and made pregnant by her uncle, one was whipped after
she had sexual relations with her boyfriend and one was repeatedly beaten by her
husband. The women feel abandoned by God, despite their devotion to him.

As a close-up of a battered and bruised face appears, the narrator says: "Oh Allah , most
high. You say that men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because you have
given one more strength than the other. Yet I feel at least once a week the strength of my
husband's fist on my face."

The woman who was raped, says she has always turned to "you Allah, covering myself as
you wish it. And now that I pray for salvation, you remain silent as the grave I long for."


Critics argue that it is not the spoken text, but the writing of Koranic verses on the
women's flesh makes the film blasphemous. "There's nothing wrong with what is said, this
is reality," said Loubna Berrada, whose family is Moroccan and who is an advocate for
women's rights. "But the nudity is wrong. It's too confrontational."

But then, she went on to say, talking has not changed anything. It's the whole system, in
which women participate, that must change. "The women pass on the oppression to their
daughters; they educate their sons," Ms. Berrada said.

The avalanche of published letters and articles reacting to the film includes one from
Fadoua Bouali, a nurse in an Amsterdam hospital who said she had been shocked by the
number of fearful young Muslim women who have surgery to conceal the fact that they
are not virgins.

"Already men on their wedding days are getting a virgin, stitched up by Jewish, Christian
or atheist hands," she told the magazine De Tijd. "Is that what they want?"

Carla Rus, a Dutch psychiatrist, said she had worked for 20 years with abused women in
shelters, where more than half were Muslims. "Suicide attempts among foreign young
women are five time higher than among local women," she said, citing studies.

While the debate goes on, so do the attacks on Ms. Hirsi Ali. A rap song, played on some
local radio stations, calls for her death. Chat rooms and e-mail messages announce death
threats. The police in Rotterdam have just arrested a young Moroccan man whom they
charged with sending a death threat to Ms. Hirsi Ali.

She says she intends to continue her campaign.She recently demanded in Parliament that
the minister of interior order the police to review their definition of murder in cases
involving young women. She contends that at least a dozen of the annual killings of
Muslim girls in the Netherlands are revenge killings by brothers, fathers or relatives. The
police record them as family conflicts, she said.

"Police say they want to avoid stigmatizing a group," said Ms. Hirsi Ali. "I say, we have to
know the truth."

In addition to the film, Ms. Hirsi Ali has published two books of essays on the plight of
Muslim women, "The Son Factory" and "The Cage of Virgins."

Her next project is another short film: "Submission - Part Two." She said it will feature the
men's point of view. "

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