The Real War on Women: Between Jill Abramson and Meriam Ibrahim

On the one hand, the media world is in an uproar over recently fired New York Times editor Jill Abramson, and whether sexism, and gender inequality in pay may have had a role in her being let go.

On the other hand, there is Meriam Yehya Ibrahim. Meriam is 27, and pregnant and a Sudanese court has sentenced her to die for her faith. Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother, Meriam is considered under shariah, Islamic law, a Muslim, despite that her father left the family when she was only 6, and she was raised in her mother’s faith. As a result she has been convicted of the capital crime of apostasy and sentenced to die. Her marriage to her Christian husband has been annulled, and she’s faces the additional punishment of one hundred lashes for the crime of “adultery”, for being with her own husband. Her lawyers have filed an appeal. She remains in prison, together with her 20-month old son Martin.

Her husband, Daniel Wani an American citizen, says that the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, “closed the door”, and refused to provide assistance. The U.S. has since issued a joint statement together with Britain and the Netherlands, accusing Khartoum of violating the 2005 Interim Constitution and international human rights norms, writing,

“We call upon the Government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion, including one’s right to change one’s faith or beliefs, a right which is enshrined in international human rights law as well as in Sudan’s own 2005 Interim Constitution.”

The best U.S. State Department seems capable of is a hollow cry of “hypocrisy”,similar to the ones currently lambasting the New York Times for ignoring its own agenda on pay equality. As if the New York Times, and the war crime-indicted regime of Omar Bashir are equally responsive to shaming over their failure to uphold progressive values.

Yet to examine the facts, Sudan may be barbaric, but they aren’t hypocritical.

The 2005 Interim Constitution enshrines Sharia law for Sudan saying,

“Nationally enacted legislation having effect only in respect of the Northern states of the Sudan shall have as its sources of legislation Islamic Sharia and the consensus of the people.”

And as a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Sudan is beholden to the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, meaning that it recognizes only those international human rights that are in accordance with the shariah.

Death for apostasy and floggings for adultery are enshrined in Sudan’s public laws. These are facts that our Department of State refuses to assign any value to, merely pretending that human rights and international law are understood universally, whether by shariah-adherent Sudan, or the New York Times.

It’s an ignorance for which we have paid mightily, as evidenced by the inclusion, at U.S. insistence, of shariah supremacy clauses in the constitutions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the subsequent unraveling of efforts to establish stable, Pro-U.S. governments there.

It’s the same ignorance that tries to isolate the behavior of Boko Haram, as it engages in its shariah-compliant jihad against Christians, and Muslims it considers apostates, in Nigeria. And while the kidnapping and forced conversion of the Chibok girls has caught world attention under the hashtag #Bringbackourgirls, the same activity has taken place under Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and against the Copts in Egypt, and in Sudan, and been met with silence.

It’s an ignorance for which Meriam Yehya Ibrahim may pay with her life.