Twitter might have gone a little overboard on Monday when it tried to start a hashtag trending called #MuslimWomensDay. The hashtag backfired quickly when users tagged onto the hashtag and brought attention to things like 'the proper way to beat your wife', a video clip where a muslim elder describes the proper way to beat your wife citing things like 'you may not break her teeth, or poke her in the eyes'. Another user tweeted 'Is this a joke? Is this a day without getting slapped, whipped or stoned by her father, brother, uncles or cousins?' The hashtag quickly became a place for heated discussion and many of the tweets brought valid points to the seeming oxymoron of a hashtag.
The Muslim culture is the last one to put value on a woman's rights. Celebrating the Muslim culture in a way that makes women appear like they should be thankful for this treatment was a huge mistake for Twitter. Another Twitter user posted a photo from the middle eastern country of Qatar. The photo was of a bulletin intended for tourists and it read 'If you are in Qatar, you are one of us.. Help us preserve Qatar's culture and values, please dress modestly in public places by covering from shoulders to knees'. A more extreme example of the way that woman treated in Muslim nations comes from Syria where a father stoned his own daughter to death for having sex with a man outside of wedlock. Isis militants took advantage of the situation and used it as propaganda to serve as a warning to other woman and the horrifying event was filmed uploaded to the internet.
Honor killings such as this are not uncommon and occur far more often than most would like to admit. So I think Twitter has lost this one and Muslim woman day is in the very least, too hot of a topic to be boiled down to a hashtag. I think most would agree it simply shouldn't be celebrated and more so it should be eradicated. No women should be treated this way, nor man for that matter. Sheriah law simply doesn't teach a way of treating your fellow humans, as no doubt some twitter employees found out today.
Sources: http://silenceisconsent.net/twitter-creates-muslimwomensday-hashtag-backfires-face/ http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/sickening-isis-video-shows-moment-4475785
