An open letter to President Obama
Dear Mr. President, the Bow Was Wrong.
Today I watched the news about the establishment of Sharia laws in Afghanistan and the demonstrations by Afghani women against the barbaric laws of Islam which makes one member of the society subjugated and enslaved to the other. Like you I grew up Muslim, unlike you I was a woman, and it is as a woman that I would like to tell you why the bow to the Saudi King and the Olive Branch to the Islamic world is wrong. Why would you bow to a man who is the custodian of such horrible and outdated laws? Why should a man have the right to rape his wife? Why should a woman have to require her husband’s, father’s, son’s or even her grandson’s permission to leave her house as it is customary in Saudi Arabia? Why shouldn’t women in Saudi Arabia be able to drive a car, go to work, run for office or be elected or even vote? Why should a woman’s life worth, testimony and inheritance be half of her male counter part? A law in all Islamic countries. Why would you, the representative of the free world bow to the leader and custodian of a religion that allows men to beat, maim and even kill their female siblings for crimes such as falling in love? Haven't you heard about honor killings? I am sure you have seen the horrific news real of the seventeen year old girl being held down by her brother and slashed by a Talib. Why are you appeasing Muslims and why do you say that we have no animosity to Islam. Why not? What part of Sharia law you admire? The age of maturity for female, which is 9 years of age? The law that women have to be totally subjugated to their male relatives? Or the law that makes father or his family the custodian of young children in the case of death or divorce with no visitation rights for the mother? Or do you honor the law that allows men to have four permanent wives, or honor killing, or the law that women have to be wrapped in fifty yards of fabric when in presence of their male counter part? Is Secretary Clinton going to wear an abaya, a chador or a burka when she meets with her counter parts in the Islamic world? What was there to honor with the king of Saudi Arabia? Weren’t Saudi Arabia and Pakistan the only two countries that recognized Talibans as the legitimate government of Afghanistan? Weren’t the Talibans nurtured, helped and protected by the king of Saudi Arabia? Isn't Saudi Royal family the major contributor to the Muslim Brotherhood? I am just so baffled so are millions of women in the Islamic world. Thousands of women commit suicide every year in the Islamic world due to the Sharia laws. One such woman was my sister, Dr. Homa Darabi, who self-immolated on February 21st. 1994 in Tehran protesting the inhumane treatment of women under the Sharia laws. She was an American citizen and her story is published in the book, Rage Against the Veil, prometheus, 1999. Yes Mr. President, your bow to this dictator was and is an offense to all the women who cherish freedom and long for it in the Islamic world. This is not the change we voted for. Mr. President, we must help the Islamic world to have their renaissance. We must make them to leave the 7th century and enter into the 21st. Koran must be rewritten. Sharia laws must be banned and freedom and democracy must be our goal in these forsaken places known as Islamic countries. We must help Muslim women to find life, liberty and the pursuit of their happiness not to bow to the Islamic dictators. Now this would be a change I could believe in. I worked very hard to get you elected as my president and leader and to see you bow to such dictator as king of Saudi Arabia is an offense to me and my dead sister, Dr. Homa Darabi, the well kown Iranian Pediatrician, Child and Adolescent Psychaitrist. Parvin Darabi
Co-author, Rage Against the Veil
President
Dr. Homa Darabi Foundation
http://www.homa.org/ | 
