Nigerian women riot over 'indecent' bikes ban

[Thom Little]

Fights broke out in the northern Nigerian city of Kano this week after women defied a ban under Islamic law forbidding men and women to travel together on "indecent" public transport.

The violence broke out after religious marshals tried to stop women riding the motorcycle taxis that zip through the city centre and to persuade them to use "approved" vehicles instead.

More than 9,000 policemen or religious marshals patrolled the streets to implement the ban, which came into force this week. In one incident, six people were wounded in clashes between motorbike-taxi riders and the police after a woman was ordered to dismount from a vehicle.

The Kano state authorities argue that the motorcycle taxis are indecent and contravene the teachings of Islam as they oblige the female passenger to sit close to the male driver. When the decision to bring in the ban was made in July, a Muslim cleric, Ibrahim Kaliel, told taxi drivers: "You have no excuse to carry a woman who is neither your wife nor your mother on a motorcycle. The Holy Prophet Muhammad says that you should obey your leaders in all circumstances." The authorities have introduced 100 special buses and 500 three-wheeled motorbikes, inscribed with the words A daidai ta sahu (social reorientation), which put greater distance between passenger and driver. But women argue there are not enough of these "approved" vehicles to meet their needs. The motorbike drivers also say they will lose out financially, as women pay more generously than men.



http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article333626.ece

[rodeodance]

1. "religious marshals"--- geech!!

[rodeodance]

2. (social reorientation),--but once the Jennie is out of the bottle it is

hard to put back in. People will resist this 'social reorientation'---

....The authorities have introduced 100 special buses and 500 three-wheeled motorbikes, inscribed with the words A daidai ta sahu (social reorientation), which put greater distance between passenger and driver. But women argue there are not enough of these "approved" vehicles to meet their needs. The motorbike drivers also say they will lose out financially, as women pay more generously than men.

[China_cat]

5. Coming to a country near you.

Soon.

[Cobalt Violet]

6. Yup. I think they're already here.

The "war on chirstmas" crowd.

[0007]

7. Isn't Falwell and Robertson and that other guy, who's last

name starts with a "D" religious marshals?

[WhiteTara]

13. look for them in a town near you soon

unless of course, we are successful in stopping the Amerikan Taliban from turning our country into shiria too. Overturning RvW will be their first step. Stop Alito!

[pretzel4gore]

3. ahh, the 'solution' imposes a burden on others, not the god seekers!

why do religious folk always find solutions to problems that require 'others' to make sacrifices that they then enforce? isn't that inherently rotten, corrupt, or maybe indeed 'evil' even in terms of routine social interaction among neighbors and acquaintances much less strangers? i'd betcha these guys' sets o balls it is! :)
in fact, most religion warns precisely against this type of boor (see pat robertson, known thief/advocate of murder)

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Ahhhhh....... but the missionaries meant well..... really they did. Too

bad not one of them had a crystal ball to let them see where they were taking much of the world.

[dusmcj]

8. someone donate 1000 sex toys to the religious police

they need to relax

[ck4829]

9. Go Nigerian Women

I hear they have been leading the assault against the Theocrats over there.

:applause:
:woohoo:

[WinkyDink]

10. Obedience?

"The Holy Prophet Muhammad says that you should obey your leaders in all circumstances."

Not good, not good at all, if this is a precept.

[DELUSIONAL]

11. ALL ding a ling fundamentalist religions exist to CONTROL women

of this I am firmly convinced.

Also in the news -- a teacher at a girl's school was murdered by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

I don't know of a single fundamentalist religion that doesn't hate women. The US fundies want to control women -- their male ministers love to sermonize about how women are the downfall of men.

Might be something about the "fragile" male syndrome -- do ya think? These fundie males can't take responsibility for their own behavior and they blame someone or a group of someones -- which turns out to be females.

Because an individual is born female -- she must forever be subservient to the "superior" males -- superior?? why the hell do the jerk males need to invent ways to "control" women if they are so superior??

Dumb ass fundamentalist males --

And then we have bushie who runs to his mommies to protect him from the big bad world -- meanwhile he is doing his best to put women in their "place".

Fundamentalism is a form of mental illness -- I am firmly convinced.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. You're onto something there

The fundamentalist forms of all religions that I know about are full of fear of women, because the leaders know that sexuality is a powerful force and that it can distract men from doing what the leaders want them to do.

I once heard that the Taliban recruited their troops from among boys who had been orphaned in the war against the Soviets and raised them in all-male environments. Sometimes they barely remembered their mothers and sisters, so they grew up with no female influence at all.

But eventually, along comes puberty, and you're faced with a gang of horny adolescents who are fascinated by those mysterious creatures they've seen mostly from a distance.

How do you keep them "on task"? You convince them that women are a source of evil and corruption and need to be repressed lest they "tempt" men away from leading a "pure" life.

The Catholic Church did that during the Middle Ages, when their monasteries were full of monks who had not entered voluntarily but had been either orphaned or abandoned there in childhood by parents who didn't want them. The Buddhist monasteries in medieval Japan also served as dumping grounds for unwanted or orphaned boys, and the Japanese Buddhists of that period also taught that women were evil.

Funny thing, that.

[raysr]

14. Religion

all bullshit!

[daleo]

15. Riding a motorcycle means women must have their legs apart

Most religions cannot bear that thought, unless it is to produce more adherents of the faith.