Muslim Women, Vitamin D and Osteomalacia

In the global debate regarding the dress codes for Muslim women, one important factor is often overlooked: The fact that depriving a human being from live-giving sunlight and air represents physical torture. Indeed, this form of torture has been used for centuries in prisons.

It has long been known that the average human being requires a certain amount of sunshine on a daily basis in order to be healthy. Under the right circumstances sunlight creates vitamin D in the oils on the skin, which is then absorbed into the bloodstream and helps generate health throughout the entire body, largely serving to assist calcium in bone formation.

It has also been understood for many years that purdah--the custom of sequestering women from men, forcing them to remain indoors and to cover up the bulk of their skin--creates a serious disease called osteomalacia or "bad bones." Writing decades ago, famed nutritionist Adele Davis stated:

"Osteomalacia. This disease--its name literally means bad bones--results primarily from a severe vitamin-D deficiency. Arabian and Indian women who keep themselves heavily veiled frequently develop such painful backs that they can scarcely rise; and they suffer multiple spontaneous fractures and have extremely rarefied bones, all of which clears up dramatically when vitamin D is given them." (Davis, Let's Get Well, p. 256.)

In her classic work Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit (140), Davis also states:

"Sir Robert McCarrison, the great English physician, wrote of osteomalacia in India among the Mohammedan women observing the custom of purdah. These women veil their faces at adolescence and rarely go outside their homes."

In this same regard, in Deficient Sunlight in the Aetiology of Osteomalacia in Muslim Women, Dr. OP Kapoor states:

"...in most of the Sunni Muslim women (who form majority of the Muslims), in spite of high intake of calcium, osteomalacia is often seen. There are two reasons for this:

"1. Use of burkha which prevents sunlight reaching the skin.

"2. Living indoors - most of the Muslim women specially those staying in the Muslim localities, do not move out of the house and thus are not exposed to the sun and often develop osteomalacia."

As we now know, vitamin D is necessary for a variety of other metabolic processes in a healthy individual. Moreover, sunlight has other positive effects besides vitamin-D production. For one, it is necessary for the production of the hormone melatonin through the eyes. Thus, Muslim women who wear the full burkha* are deprived of this health-bestowing chemical as well, which is necessary for proper sleep and, consequently, mental health. Also, merely taking vitamin D or melatonin supplements would not make up for other potential health benefits associated with adequate exposure to sunlight, and supplements are not the best choice for optimal health in any event.

In addition to developing bone and other problems from a lack of vitamin D and melatonin, covered women are deprived of fresh air on their skin, which is the body's largest organ. Hence, the skin is not given the opportunity to breathe adequately. Furthermore, the color of choice in covering up women because of "religious" purposes is often black and sometimes blue, undoubtedly creating much sweltering and heat stroke in the very hot regions in which this clothing is traditionally worn.

While the emotional, mental and spiritual problems with forcing a woman to veil herself may be increasingly clear, the grossly under-explored factor in the burkha/niqab debate is the toll on women's physical health. The bottom line is that veiling women and depriving them of life-giving sunlight and air represents physical torture - especially in heat-absorbing dark colors - on a mass scale. How many women are suffering horrendous health problems, exacerbated by being forced to give birth repeatedly, because of this oppressive custom? In the veiling of women, then, we are looking at a serious and appalling health crisis affecting millions worldwide.

* There are many forms of oppressive dress for women within the Islamic world, compelling us to learn these terms:

burqa/burkha/burka
niqab
chador
sitar
hijab
abaya
jilbab

So obsessive is this women-oppression that there are reputedly over 100 terms for bagging females.

See also:

Women in hijabs 'need sunlight or risk illness'
Women's Rights in Islam

France: "No Woman Enslavement Allowed"

The government of France has just established a vitally important precedent in the battle against the Islamization of the planet. Citing "insufficient assimilation," France has denied citizenship to a Moroccan woman who is "totally submissive" to her husband and male relatives, and who is forced to dress in a full Islamic veil, i.e., a burqa/burkha, chador or abaya.

Of course, we can expect to hear from those who believe that women should have the "right" to dress and live in this inhumane and oppressive manner. These "liberal" cries appear to be based entirely on the blatant bigotry which supposes that anything done in the name of religion - no matter how vile - is just peachy keen. If, however, a Western, non-Muslim woman were living in a totally submissive state and forced to cover herself from head to toe not in the name of religion, would not the same people be yelling for intervention, to help this woman free herself of her abusive husband and this patent imprisonment? The woman in this current story would be freed and sent to a domestic violence shelter, with protection from the law against her husband - if she were not imprisoned by so-called religious ideology.

What truly "religious" ideology is based on the mistreatment and enslavement of women? How can there possibly be any good, decent and merciful god behind such egregious abuse of human rights? Millions of women around the world are suffering horribly because of manmade cults seemingly designed specifically for the purpose of enslaving them - yet, where is the outcry from the "bleeding heart" segment of society? "Religion" is not an excuse and should never have been an excuse for the abuse of women and the denial of basic human rights. If one is truly a "bleeding heart" one will feel the pain of these women in their daily enslavement in the name of Islam - and one will demand an end to it NOW, no "ifs," "ands" or "buts" about it. This enslavement of women is EVIL, period.

Fortunately, France has finally grown a backbone and made this moral decision that could open the door to ending this vile abuse in the name of God. No god who demands abusing women is worthy of the name or of any sort of worship. No ideology that believes women to be inferior or mere sexual objects in need of being enslaved and covered up should be deemed a "religion" and be given special status. Any such ideology must either change or die.

"All the 'bleeding heart' multicultists who do not demand an end to the severe, worldwide abuse of women, regardless of the fact that it is done in the name of religion and God, are part of the problem."

These "leftist" individuals are in effect and indecently aiding and abetting these vicious, ongoing crimes against humanity. Let us hope that such characters do not succeed in overturning this ruling in France, as they are attempting to do, some of them quite likely at the behest of and financed by Muslim organizations who thrive on enslaving women. In reality, France should take this act a step further and deny or revoke the citizenship of this woman's husband and male relatives, and boot them out of the country. The victim should then be allowed to live in France with her children, provided she obtains counseling and is freed from her psychological and spiritual enslavement.

By taking this powerful step against the abuse of women in their country, France is leading the way in containing the virulent anti-woman sickness that is spreading throughout the world. All civilized countries must follow suit - and they must then put pressure on the uncivilized, backward nations to do likewise, or there will be no acceptance into the global family of humankind. No woman anywhere on the planet should be abused and enslaved in this manner, period. To invoke religion and God as excuses for this wanton evil represents the height of savagery and depravity.

France rejects Muslim woman over radical practice of Islam

· Expert says Moroccan lives 'almost as a recluse'
· Case reopens debate about freedom of religion

France has denied citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wears a burqa on the grounds that her "radical" practice of Islam is incompatible with basic French values such as equality of the sexes.

The case yesterday reopened the debate about Islam in France, and how the secular republic reconciles itself with the freedom of religion guaranteed by the French constitution.

The woman, known as Faiza M, is 32, married to a French national and lives east of Paris. She has lived in France since 2000, speaks good French and has three children born in France. Social services reports said she lived in "total submission" to her husband. Her application for French nationality was rejected in 2005 on the grounds of "insufficient assimilation" into France. She appealed, invoking the French constitutional right to religious freedom and saying that she had never sought to challenge the fundamental values of France. But last month the Council of State, France's highest administrative body, upheld the ruling.

"She has adopted a radical practice of her religion, incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes," it said.

"Is the burqa incompatible with French citizenship?" asked Le Monde, which broke the story. The paper said it was the first time the level of a person's personal religious practice had been used to rule on their capacity be to assimilated into France.

The legal expert who reported to the Council of State said the woman's interviews with social services revealed that "she lives almost as a recluse, isolated from French society".

The report said: "She has no idea about the secular state or the right to vote. She lives in total submission to her male relatives. She seems to find this normal and the idea of challenging it has never crossed her mind."

The woman had said she was not veiled when she lived in Morocco and had worn the burqa since arriving in France at the request of her husband. She said she wore it more from habit than conviction....

France is home to nearly 5 million Muslims, roughly half of whom are French citizens. Criteria taken into account for granting French citizenship includes "assimilation", which normally focuses on how well the candidate speaks French. In the past nationality was denied to Muslims who were known to have links with extremists or who had publicly advocated radicalism, but that was not the case of Faiza M.

The ruling comes weeks after a controversy prompted by a court annulment of the marriage of two Muslims because the husband said the wife was not a virgin as she had claimed to be.

France's ban on headscarves and other religious symbols in state schools in 2004 sparked a heated debate over freedom and equality within the secular republic. The French government adheres to the theory that all French citizens are equal before the republic, and religion or ethnic background are matters for the private sphere. In practice, rights groups say, society is plagued by discrimination.

The president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has stressed the importance of "integration" into French life. Part of his heightened controls on immigrants is a new law to make foreigners who want to join their families sit an exam on French language and values before leaving their countries.

"Too Sexy for My Burkha": Muslim Oppression of Women

Be prepared to be saddened, sickened and infuriated.

To all you women, are you prepared for a world in which roving gangs of thugs are waiting to rape you because you aren't dressed like this?

Men, is this the world you would like to live in, where you will never see another woman's hair, legs or even arms, except your own wife's?

Child rape in Sweden has increased significantly with Muslim immigration - do you wish to see this happen the world over?

BOYCOTT NIKE FOR STARTERS.