Islamic cleric Mala Mazhar Khurasani (C) at a court in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, January 27, 2020. Photo: NRT/SM
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Kurdish muslim cleric Mala Mazhar Khurasani appeared in court in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan capital city, on Monday to answer a lawsuit over his incendiary comments about women.
Mala Mazhar Khurasani was sued by a coalition of organizations that advocate for women’s rights in August 2018 after calling women “dinosaurs” during a television appearance in June of that year. He has also advocated for polygamy on a number of occasions.
The lawsuit is part of a broader campaign by civil society activists to stand up to sexism in Iraqi Kurdistan region, which they say is being perpetuated when figures like Mala Mazhar are able to use the media to demean women with impunity.
They also plan to file additional lawsuits against other figures, including other mullahs, who use sexist language in their messaging, according to NRT Digital Media reporter Herish Qadir.
On Monday, several dozen people showed up outside the courthouse to support Mala Mazhar.
“We are here to defend religion,” one of his supporters said. “If the mullahs don’t exist, our lives will be destroyed.”
“A string of unjust complaints are being filed against me. Today I very happily appeared before the judge. I put forth and explained what I have been calling for,” Khorasani told reporters outside the courthouse following Monday’s hearing.
“They said I was sued over encouraging polygamy. I am saying it time and again that as a preacher I will proudly support and call for polygamy until I die. I have proudly explained and analyzed to our people the Quran verses and sura.”
“The holy Quran has in the best way offered the solution for social issues, as divorce among married couples is on the rise in Kurdistan.”
“But the plaintiffs derailed the trial, accusing me of insulting women by calling them dinosaurs,” Khorasani added.
It is better to allow men to take many wives as this will stop them committing adultery, he claimed.
“I am thanking all the young people here and Islamic scholars who have come not to support men, but the words of God,” he added.
The Quran’s Sura An-Nisa (The Women) states: “Marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if ye fear that ye cannot do justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands possess.”
In 2008, the Kurdistan Region parliament amended the Personal Status Law of 1959 making it obligatory for a husband to obtain the consent of his first wife before marrying a second. The Iraqi parliament has not passed a similar amendment.
A growing number of men from the Kurdistan Region have since made secret trips to nearby towns and cities such as Kirkuk, Mosul, and Sheikhan to marry a second, third, or fourth wife under Iraqi jurisdiction.
“As the protectors of women’s right, we have brought Mala Mazhar Khorasani to court over cursing, insulting, and disrespecting women from his TV channel Srusht,” Bahar Munzir, head of campaign organization Stand Against Disrespecting Women, told reporters outside the courthouse.
The government and parliament share part of the blame for failing to stand up to the “preachers and clerics insulting women”, she said.
“The Erbil court must not take this case as that of a few women and organizations insulted by Mala Mazhar, but the whole women of Kurdistan,” Munzir added.
Choman Hardi, a university professor and revered poet, is among the activists who brought the lawsuit against Khorasani.
“We will not let the conservative and dark seekers insult us,” Hardi said in a Facebook post last week, claiming Khorasani “regularly disrespects us and our organizations.”
The court heard initial motions, where the defendant appeared in a cage as is standard procedure. It then went into recess, with the hearing due to resume on February 6, 2020.
In December 2019 a fatwa issued by Iraqi Kurdistan Region Islamic body decreed unaccompanied women should not take taxis driven by male drivers they don’t know.
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