Violent Language - Misogyny's License by Shahla Khan Salter, Director of Universal Muslims

Universal Muslim's Director, Shahla Khan Salter, talked about "Violent Language - Misogyny's License" at the Ottawa Peace Festival. Check it out and share the link at the 23 minute mark:

...An excerpt:

"We must refuse to accommodate politely and stay silent.

The words – we must take them back.

And we must educate on how, why and what they mean and their implications.

We must use them in a manner that does not oppress women. Female dogs are bitches not women.

We must boldly and politely confront people who don’t get it.

When they use words that describe our private parts to express hatred and cowardice we must educate them that the most private parts of our bodies are beautiful, tough and sacred, that we are not the sum of our parts and that abusive language shapes and holds attitudes that allow injustice.

We must vote in elections for those who fight oppression.

We must destroy myths. We must march in slut-walk and include women from all backgrounds. After all, rapists rape women in burkas too. Isn’t that the point?

We must remember that oppression does not discriminate even though there are places in the world where we have even less freedom and where it is far more dangerous for women and girls to work, to go to school, to travel.

And that brave feminists and human rights defenders in other parts of the world are not helped by our bigotry but only marginalized further.

And if we pray, in every temple, every mosque, every church and every place of worship of any faith, where there exists a history of the sacred feminine (and it does exist in most if not all faiths) we pray to Her or Him, regardless of Her or His Name and interpret religious texts to include and empower The Feminine inside all of us.

As a Muslim, I pray:

Allah. She is One.
She is Eternal.
She begets not.
Nor is She begotten.
And there is none equal
Unto Her.

Ameen."

The views of the other panelists do not reflect the views of Universalist Muslims, our leadership/affiliates/partners/friends. Any comments in relation to the other panelists must be directed to Dialogue with Diversity, the organizer of the panel.