For the last few years we've heard the many politicians on the right and far-right, in state governments and our federal government, talking about creating laws to prevent the establishment of Sharia Law in the U.S. On Monday, June 31st, 2014, our Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, began the process of creating American Christian Sharia Law.
Follow me past the Apricot tinted Kos IUD (guaranteed to be the best IUD you ever use or your money back!)...
One of the main tenets of Sharia Law relegates women to lower status with no control over their own bodies and lives. They are second class citizens, unable to vote, hold office, own land or property, or have any control or say concerning their children. They can be killed by their husbands, their families, their husband's families, and by any man deciding they have done something worthy of death. Basically, they have no rights at all and live in constant fear, which is exactly how men in countries that impose Sharia Law want them to be.
Up until this past Monday women in this country were very close to having the same civil rights as men. I say close because there are several issues that hold women back in this country (pay discrepancies, the subjugation of women in media, the ignoring of the rape culture present in this country, etc.) Suffice it to say, compared to countries that impose Sharia-like Laws to control women, we were VERY close to complete equality. On Monday, that all changed.
I woke up Monday morning to find out I had been demoted to second class citizenship in my own country. By my own government. Without my consent. I awoke to find several bricks from the pedestal holding my copy of the Bill of Rights were missing. I awoke to find out my government had given someone a "religious right" to control my life. That this so called religious right is not the religion I practice makes it even harder for me to accept and more angry than I can express.
I awoke on Tuesday to find that this same "religious right" was now being used to try to force my government to allow discrimination against lesbians, bisexuals, gays, transexuals, transgendered people, and anyone who is born with gender identity issues. On top of the shock of that was the news that the Supreme court had not only made the statement that all birth control was covered under their ruling but that now doctors of women in companies that decided to use that "religious right" to deny them basic health care would no longer even be able to talk to them about birth control.
The shock of it all before my first cup of coffee had me in a daze for several minutes. As it gradually sank in I began to cry. I thought of my stepdaughter, my nieces, my sister who has lupus and relies on birth control because another pregnancy would kill her, all my women friends, and then all women. The tears flowed for quite a while as the enormity of this pandora's box became more and more apparent to me.
As I pulled myself together I thought about what the last few years has brought us from the rulings of SCOTUS. The loosening of labor laws, the "humanization of corporations", the repeal of important sections of the Voting Rights Act, the gutting of campaign finance laws, the slow evisceration of unions, and now, the deliberate subjugation of women by their bosses.
With the "religious right" now in control of women's reproductive rights and demanding that our government allow them to openly discriminate against one minority group, how long will it be before they want to begin discriminating against all minorities? How long before the "religious right" decides that only those who believe exactly as they do should be allowed to live?
How long before the US is a country run by the rules of American Christian Sharia Law?