Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood denounces UN document on women’s rights as anti-Islam
Women protesters in Tahrir Square, taken on the anniversary of the revolution’s beginning, January 25, 2012. While some worry about what the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist groups wins mean for women’s rights in Egypt, women remain a presence in Tahrir Square.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday issued a statement on their Facebook page vilifying a draft United Nations document defending women against violence and establishing key rights.
In an Arabic statement, the Muslim Brotherhood said (via a GoogleTranslate) that the UN document includes items that "collide with the principles of Islam and its basic unanimous elements of [the] Quran."
According to the powerful Islamic group, the party of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, the UN document would "destroy Islamic ethics, and seek to demolish the institution of the family," the Brotherhood said, describing it as tantamount to an "intellectual and cultural invasion."
Meanwhile, at the UN, delegates are currently coming to the end of their yearly two-week Commission on the Status of Women event.
Their final document, which is still in draft form, is expected to be endorsed at a closing UN meeting later this week, said the Associated Press.
Presumably aware of the timing, the Brotherhood pressured other Islamic nations to join them in rejecting the document, accusing the UN of trying to protect illicit sexual behavior and push for abortion, among other things, according to AP.