Will women ever be judged equally with men?

“A 20-year-old woman divorcee accused of committing adultery in Somalia has been stoned to death by Islamists in front of a crowd of about 200 people.”—is an excerpt from BBC online Africa News published on the November 19th. Apparently, the 20 year-old woman had an affair with an unmarried 29 year-old man who in return was given 100 lashes at the same venue. According to the Islamic Shariah law, anyone who has ever been married, including a divorcee who has an affair is liable to be found guilty of adultery, punishable by stoning to death. I am a respecter of Religions of all sort and the rules that come along with them, But there is something not so right about the above article. Remember it is still the same law that allows a man to have a maximum of 4 wives. My long time friend Aisha Ahmed always complains about the Sharia law and thinks that it doesn’t favour women. Shockingly she once told me that divorce is not allowed unless the husband agrees to it. Does that literally mean that your husband could be chopping off a single finger from your hand on a daily basis but you are not allowed to go anywhere? This is really sick. The funniest part of this whole joke is that if he changes his mind within three months, he can take his wife back and what’s more, he can do this up to three times. Aisha laments that the law that she has known since she was a little girl also states that a woman is worth only half a man. When she inherits something, she gets only half of what her brother gets. In a court case, her testimony is only worth half that of a man. The 20 year-old woman in Somalia who most probably was a divorcee as a result of domestic violence, infidelity or even marital rape died just because she had most likely consensual sex with an unfortunately unmarried man who is nine years older than she was. Of course the man would not have died since in this male dominated world of ours, like I always say even when it takes two to tangle; women are the ones who go home branded as “prostitutes.” Absurd as it may sound; I have been reading articles in the daily where authors are advocating for polygamy. Someone wrote and said that, had polygamy been allowed in Uganda, the late General James Kazini would not have died at the, “careless hands of one of his many informal relationships.” Has polygamy really stopped Muslim women from being oppressed? I am surprised that in this day and era, at this time when everyone is trying fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS, someone can actually advocate for polygamy. One might argue that, when these relationships are formalized, men might stop from sleeping around. But again what guarantee is there that they will do so? I hear Jacob Zuma is admired for giving legal and public recognition to his multiple families. Well and good. But remember this did not stop him from sleeping around with an HIV positive woman. Or may be its true that he actually thinks and believes that, the shower he took after that sorry incident would reduce his risk of being infected and it really worked? Hilarious. karuthum@gmail.com