Opinion

Not very long ago the World Economic Forum published a report on gender equality ranking 135 nations in closing the equality-gap between men and women. The report was for the academic year 2011. Not surprisingly, the Scandinavian countries once again occupied the top positions. The nation at the very top was Iceland, followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden.

The most surprising aspect of the report was that a Third World country, Philippines, occupied the 8 th position, higher than most of the developed nations. It ranked just above the Third World country of Lesotho, an African nation known for its political openness.

Pakistan, the country admired for its nuclear achievement, was in the 133 rd position, third from the absolute bottom. In fact, the three of the bottom-most countries were all Muslim nations. The country at the stark bottom was Yemen, very much in the news recently owing to, incredibly, the Nobel Peace Prize given to a woman.

It ought not to surprise anyone that 18 of the 26 countries in the bottom 20 percent were Muslim states. Despite Qur’anic mandate that men and women must be treated with equality the fact is that most Muslims continue to treat females shabbily.

The Muslim leaders, particularly the mullahs, fondly argue by citing verses from the Qur’an that Islam is for equality between men and women but in reality they keep the women oppressed. Public beatings of women are not unusual, whether in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.

Just a few years ago one such beating was publicly administered in Swat, Pakistan, and videotaped by an observer. Much to the dismay of Pakistan it was shown around the world. The global community was aghast and Pakistan promised to make amends.

Pakistan was expected to appoint women in positions of power. Besides some policewomen and pilots the only woman that has caught the public eye is the Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar. She appeared on CNN’s Global Public Square and was sharply questioned by the pro-Indian host, Fareed Zakariya. She was charming, personable and articulate to the point that the host wanted her to be on the defensive. He cited Saudi Arabia as a country whose blasphemy law was troublesome, she countered that Iceland was another country with similar law. Zakariya’s intent to put down the Muslims backfired.

In the gender report the big countries of United States and Canada, both highly diverse and populous, placed in the top 20 occupying the 17 th and 18 th positions. Owing to their cultural and political diversity they could not be as successful as the Scandinavian nations.

No Muslim country appeared in one of the top 20 positions and none is likely to do so for a very long time. The former colony of Soviet Union, known today as Kyrgystan Republic, occupied the 44th position. It was surprising to see a Muslim country ranked so high.

Much of it has to be attributed to the Soviet colonization for the past 70 years during which Moscow compelled that females be educated. It further forced the Republic to appoint women in positions of power both in party hierarchy and state bureaucracy. Today, close to half of the members of the parliament are women and slightly less in the top bureaucratic positions. The K-12 education is completely in the hands of women while most jobs in medicine, scientific research, engineering and higher education are held by women. No Muslim country has come close to matching this distribution.

Quite to the contrary in Muslim countries Qur’an is interpreted in such a way as to deny opportunities to women. In Saudi Arabia even driving is denied to women. Around the world most Muslims live in a medieval national culture as the modern world based on scientific and technological progress passes them by.