The hell?
From NYTimes.com:
A German judge has stirred a storm of protest here by citing the Koran in turning down a German Muslim woman’s request for a fast-track divorce on the ground that her husband beat her.
Her husband is abusing her, she wants out and away from this guy fast, a complete cut. But wait! The Koran can tell us something here. OH! I bet this will be good.
...the judge, Christa Datz-Winter, said that the couple came from a Moroccan cultural milieu, in which she said it was common for husbands to beat their wives. The Koran, she wrote, sanctions such physical abuse.
WHAT! Some cultural milieu supports smacking women around, so Germany will stand up for it? WHAT! What about German law? This is happening in your jurisdiction. It isn't some story of diplomats gone bad. It is people who immigrated and accepted your legal system. And seeing as this guy grew up beating women and being told he was right, he gets to continue? WHAT!
News of the ruling brought swift and sharp condemnation from politicians, legal experts, and Muslim leaders in Germany, many of whom said they were confounded that a German judge would put 7th-century Islamic religious teaching ahead of modern German law in deciding a case involving domestic violence.
Well it should get people ticked. Because putting outdated, backwards religious and cultural positions in your argument for ruling is idioctic and unconsciounable. Just as lame and troubling as an American judge putting scripture into his argument. Quoting a witty line is one thing, but basing arguments on them is another thing entitly.
The woman’s lawyer, Barbara Becker-Rojczyk, said she decided to publicize the ruling, which was issued in January, after the court refused her request for a new judge. On Wednesday, the court in Frankfurt abruptly removed Judge Datz-Winter from the case, saying it could not justify her reasoning.
“It was terrible for my client,” Ms. Becker-Rojczyk said of the ruling. “This man beat her seriously from the beginning of their marriage. After they separated, he called her and threatened to kill her.”
He's threatening murder, and the judge is trying to look to the Koran for answers. Thankfully the system did step in. It is a relief, you can only try and imagine what this woman was going through. She us a Germany citizen, of Moroccan descent. She gets married, only to flee her husband to the steps of a court that began quoting the Koran at her. It sounds like a nightmare.
Let's look at the events again.
The 26-year-old woman in this case, whose name has not been disclosed, was not so fortunate. Born in Germany to a Moroccan family, the woman was married in Morocco in 2001, according to her lawyer, Ms. Becker-Rojczyk. The couple settled in Germany and had two children.
In May 2006, the police were summoned to the couple’s home after a particularly violent incident. At that time, Judge Datz-Winter ordered the husband to move out and stay at least 50 meters (164 feet) away from the home. In the months that followed, her lawyer said, the man threatened to kill his wife.
Terrified, the woman filed for divorce in October, and requested that it be granted without waiting for the usual year of separation, since her husband’s threats and beatings constituted an “unreasonable hardship,” the requirement for waiving the delay.
“We worried that he might think he had the right to kill her because she is still his wife,” Ms. Becker-Rojczyk said.
...
In January, the judge turned down the wife’s request for a speedy divorce, saying that the husband’s behavior was not an unreasonable hardship because they were both Moroccan. “In this cultural background,” she wrote, “it is not unusual that the husband uses physical punishment against the wife.”
...
In a statement defending her ruling, Judge Datz-Winter noted that she had ordered the man to move out and had imposed a restraining order on him. But she also cited the verse in the Koran that speaks of a husband’s prerogatives in disciplining his wife. And she suggested that the wife’s Western lifestyle would give her husband grounds to claim that his honor had been compromised.
The woman, her lawyer said, does not wear a headscarf. She has been a German citizen for eight years.
Judge Datz-Winter declined to comment for this article. But a spokesman for the court, Bernhard Olp, said the judge did not intend to suggest that violence in a marriage is acceptable or that the Koran supersedes German law. “The ruling is not justifiable, but the judge herself cannot explain it at this moment,” he said.
Judge Datz-Winter narrowly avoided being killed 10 years ago in a case involving a man and woman whose relationship had come apart. The man emptied a gun in her courtroom — killing his former partner and wounding her lawyer. The judge survived by diving under her desk.
German newspapers have speculated that the ordeal may have affected her judgment in this case, a suggestion that the court spokesman denied.
A new judge will be assigned to the case, but Ms. Becker-Rojczyk said her client would probably nonetheless have to wait until May for her divorce, since the paperwork for a fast-track divorce would take several months in any event.
Her Nightmare continues.
For some, the greatest damage done by this episode is to other Muslim women suffering from domestic abuse. Many are already afraid of going to court against their spouses. There have been a string of so-called honor killings here, in which Turkish Muslim men have murdered women.
“For Muslim men, this is like putting oil on water, that a German judge thinks it is O.K. for them to hit their wives,” said Michaela Sulaika Kaiser, the head of a group that counsels Muslim women.
So what do we learn here. We have a judge looks to be pushing cultural acceptance down peoples throats, they beat people, it's there way. BAD! But then we have the nation's leader, who is trying to shove Christ down a continent's throat. BAD! To extremes. Both are BAD. Neither is making things better for people.
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