Sharia courts Bill will prevent women suffering

A Bill which will curb the power of Sharia courts deserves support because citizens have a “responsibility” to protect women from “unnecessary suffering”, a lawyer writing for The Independent website has said.
Charlotte Rachael Proudman said in the Independent’s Comment section, that Baroness Cox’s Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill should be backed.
It had its second reading in the House of Lords last week.
The aim of the Bill is to ensure women are treated fairly by applying the nation’s anti-discrimination laws to quasi-legal systems such as Sharia courts.

Plight

Miss Proudman highlighted the plight of many Muslim women who are unaware they are married according to religious law, but not national law. This means they have no legal protections.
She also highlighted the case of one lady who said a Sharia court pressurised her to drop police charges against her husband after he stabbed her, saying it was a matter to be dealt with “in our courts.”
In Baroness Cox’s Bill, any person who falsely claims to have the power to make legally binding decisions in Britain will be guilty of a criminal offence.

Responsibility

Miss Proudman said: “We cannot allow Baroness Cox to go it alone when we, as citizens of Britain, have a responsibility to ensure that women living in this country are protected from unnecessary suffering, by our laws.”
She added that our support of the Bill will mean more women are prevented from “falling prey to the patriarchal rulings of such courts”.

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Wife beaten in East End exorcism pleads with judge not to jail husband

A woman badly beaten in an exorcism by her family who thought she was ‘possessed’ by demons urged a judge to spare her disabled husband from jail.

Asma Hussain, 50, was tied to a bed and beaten with a walking stick.

Her husband Ahmed, 60, brought in a Muslim imam and encouraged him to hit her harder.
Holy water was also thrown on her during the eight-hour ordeal at their home at Ames House in Mace Street, Bethnal Green, watched by her son Mohammed Kayes Hussain and son-in-law Mohammed Aziz.
“They thought Asma was possessed by a demon,” prosecutor Babtunde Alabi told Snaresbrook crown court.

“She was tied to the bed while the imam prayed and started hitting her with her husband’s walking stick to beat the demon out.”

But Mrs Hussain was unwilling to give evidence in court and continued pushing her husband in his wheelchair throughout the eight-day trial.

She made an impassioned plea to the judge to be merciful and said in a statement: “I have no one else to rely on. Sending him to prison means it is me who will be punished—it would be the end of my life.”
Mrs Hussain had been suffering from stress due to caring for her husband, which the family interpreted as being possessed.

But Judge Neil Sanders told them: “She was vulnerable and had been acting strangely—but the assistance required was medical.”

Hussain, his son and son-in-law were all convicted by a jury of ABH, but cleared of false imprisonment on the judge’s direction.

Hussain was spared jail and instead was given a year’s supervised and a 12-month sentence suspended for two years.

But Kayes Hussain, 28, from Harpley Square, Aldgate, was jailed for 12 months, while Aziz, 21, from Farthing Fields, Shadwell, got nine months.

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'Everyone thinks this is somewhere in the Middle East' .

 Everyone thinks this is somewhere in the Middle East' .

 The Guardians reporter Sarah Phillips. 

Try;s to do a story on Shia mosques , but I think even she had to give up.

 I shot this at a Shia mosque in east London.

 I spent a few days observing what the girls do at breaktime. What was noticeable was that they don't play. They stood around looking lost, ( I think she means Brainwashed )as if they don't know what to do. Or they don't know what to do with the rigid education imposed on them at such an early age.

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