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When Muslim men die and pass to Islamic Paradise (Heaven), they expect to enter a utopian dimension where wine, milk and honey flows, fruit-trees flourish and rivers gush forth with the purist water.

Here, they plan to be greeted by 72 young virgins of "perpetual freshness" (houris) who will lead them into palaces loaded with luxurious thrones surrounded by gold, silver and jewel plated furnishings.- a holy place where believers reclined on jeweled couches surrounded by the finest silks can experience unlimited erotic sexual pleasures.

Islamic scholar Yusuf Ali described the virgins as "the companionship of Beauty and Grace - one of the highest pleasures of life. In the higher life it takes a higher form...The pronoun in Arabic is in the feminine gender. It is made clear that these maidens for heavenly society will be of special creation,-of virginal purity, grace, and beauty, inspiring and inspired by love, with the question of time and age eliminated."

The virgins, according to another Islamic commentator are "creations of God, intelligent yet soulless and created to serve the believer who goes to Paradise. They are created for the purpose of serving the believer, and as such, they don't exactly have free will. They are described as pure, beautiful, dark eyed, lustrous, virgin, and more perfect than any human on earth. Imagine the woman of your dreams."

Quranic commentator Al-Suyuti (died 1505 ) explained more graphically that Muslim men in Paradise experience non-ending arousals and that ever time they have sex with one of the angelic maidens, they find her body reconstituted as "virgin."

"The sensation that you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint," Al-Suyuti explained. " Each chosen one [Muslim] will marry seventy houris, besides the women he married on earth, and all (will be appetizing)."

Islam's Prophet Muhammad was heard saying about Islamic Heaven: 'The smallest reward for the people of paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyyah [a Damascus suburb] to Sana'a [Yemen]."

To assure Muslim men that they will be able to fully enjoy their heavenly rewards, Muhammad said, "A man in paradise shall be given virility equal to that of one hundred men."

Islamic law and moral guidance for all of Islam is mostly based on the life of Muhammad and his Quranic revelations, his life as a conquering warrior and his sayings, acts, approvals or disapprovals. He was born 570 years after the death of Jesus Christ.

Muslims say that the Archangel Gabriel manifested himself to Muhammad where he was secluded in a cave to pray.

Gabriel, according to Islamic teachings, instructed the terrified Muhammad that he had been chosen as a messenger of God to "recite, repeat and proclaim" revelations from God. For nearly 23 years, Muhammad supposedly received "Divine" instructions

As soon as Muhammad would receive a divine revelation and repeat it back to his followers, it became Islamic tradition or law. Muhammad recited a revelation declaring that Christ was not the Son of God another instructing Muslims that it was their heavenly duty to fight and kill Christians and Jews where ever they could be found.

For centuries Muslim men have followed Muhammad's specific "revelation" instructions on how and when to fight, loot, pillage, plunder, rape, torture and murder in order to further the interests of Islam and their own personal wealth in the form of "plunder."

Muslim women were and still are restricted to the role of wife, who is a source of comfort for her husband and mother for his children. This because Muhammad was heard to say "men are the protectors and maintainers of women because Allah has given one more strength than the other, and because they support them from their means" and "stay quietly in your houses, and make not a dazzling display of yourselves like that of the former times of ignorance. (Surah Ahzab:33)

When a Moslem female turns 7 years old, she is segregated from all males in and out of her extended family. From then on, no males including her father, grandfather, uncles, brothers, cousins are allowed to be present at her birthday parties or at any ceremony celebrating her accomplishments.

At 9 years old, she must begin adhering to Islamic laws because she is considered an adult and eligible for marriage. Muhammad contracted for his wife Aisha, when she was 7 (he was 51) and consummated the marriage when she was 9.

Aisha, was the second of 11 wives and an unknown number of concubines and female slaves who Muhammad collected during his life, which span from 570 AD until 632 AD.

When a Muslim woman steps from her house into the public, her body must be covered from head to toe with no skin showing (hijab).

This law, according to Islamic tradition, is a result of Muhammad becoming upset one day when he noticed several of his wives flirting with men who were visiting him. Muhammad ordered the women to retire behind a dividing curtain when speaking to the men. It was that order by Muhammad which caused the Islamic obligation of hijab. The term comes from the Arabic word "hijaba," which means to hide from view.

If a Muslim women gets sick, she is required to be treated by female doctors. If none are available, she must be examined through some sort of divider or go without treatment.

Like Muslim men, Muslim women must kneel facing Mecca and pray five times a day and fast one month out of a year. Women are required to pray at home in many Islamic countries because females are not allowed in mosques. Among the countries which allow women in mosques, the women are banished to basement rooms or other segregated spaces.

Muslim leaders explain that for Islamic prayers to be "valid" and "accepted by Allah," the prayer must be offered with a complete presence of the heart, harmony of the inner self and uninterrupted concentration.

They say women performing the Muslim prayer movements of standing upright, sitting, bending and prostrating is inappropriate because it distracts men from their prayers. For justification, Muslim leaders point to the Islamic tradition which states " . . . and whoever prays behind a woman imam should repeat his prayers even if the time slot for that specific prayer has passed."

Muhammad was once heard saying: "from among my followers there will be some who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments, to be lawful. Allah will destroy them during the night and will let mountains fall on them. He will transform the rest into monkeys and pigs and they will remain so till the Day of Doom" (Hadith, Volume 7, Book 69, Number 494v).

As a result, Muslim women are ordered not to wear silk (fashionable cloths) or bright colors, play musical instruments, dance, wear make-up, date, have sex outside of marriage, play sports, watch men play (even on television), etc. If they get caught doing so, depending on the Islamic country, they will be arrested and beaten.

Women living under Islamic laws are not allowed to work, travel, go to college, join organizations, or visit friends and relatives without the permission of their father or husband.

They can be legally jailed or executed for violations of Islamic laws, depending on the seriousness the infraction.

Quranic verse 24:31 warns Muslim women not to make eye contact or allow any part of their skin or jewelry to be seen by strangers, "and tell the believing women to lower their gaze and protect themselves from illegal sexual acts, and not show off their adornment [to all men] and boys]." As a result of this verse, if an adult girl (9 years and older) is raped by an adult man, she will be considered at fault because she was careless and provoked the attack. Her parents will be expected to severely punish or kill her for dishonoring her family.

If a woman is taken political prisoner, and condemned to death, Islamic law prevents her from being executed as long as she is a virgin because Muslim leaders believe virgins go to heaven. But, according to those same leaders, women involved in politics are "ungodly creatures" who do not deserve to go to heaven. To insure that an "ungodly virgin" does not enter heaven, the woman's captors will treat her as a concubine making it legal for her to be systematically raped.

Islamic justification for raping woman prisoners can be found because Muhammad gave permission for Muslim warriors to rape enemy prisoners "except those (captives and slaves) whom your hands possess. Thus has Allah ordained for you….." Surah 4:24. The key words for the Islamic legal code are "whom your hands possess" and "thus Allah has ordained for you."

Muslim Quranic (bible) verse 4:34 instructs Muslim men to "admonish" and "beat" their wives if they become "rebellious" and that "men are the managers of the affairs of women because Allah has preferred men over women and women were expended of their Rights."

In an Islamic court of law, it takes the testimony of two women to override the testimony of one man. Justification for this legal tradition is found in Quran 2:282.

Muslim women are not allowed equal right to their inheritance (Quran 4:11-12) because they are only worth half of a man's share. In most Islamic countries, women are not allowed to vote and are certainly not allowed to be elected to public office.

According to Islam, most women are inherently evil and their ultimate destiny is Hell fire. Muhammad explained about one of his visions, ". . . I stood at the gate of the Fire [Hell] and saw that the majority of those who entered it were women."

When a women asked Muhammad why there were more women in Hell than men, he replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you."

When the woman asked what was deficient in a woman's intelligence and religion, Muhammad answered, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man? This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses? This is the deficiency in her religion."

Because Muhammad said, "marry such women as seem good to you, two, three, four; but if you fear you will not be equitable, then only one, or what your right hands own; so it is likelier you will not be partial," polygamy is legal in Islam. A man may marry "four Permanent" and as many "Provisional" or temporary wives as he desires.

Because Muhammad said, "your women are a tillage for you; so come unto your tillage as you wish," Islam assumes not only that women are worth less than men, but that they are property who must unquestionable meet all her husband's sexual desires. If she refuses, he has the legal right under Islamic law to deny her food, shelter, and all of life's necessities.

A Muslim woman does not have the right to choose who she wants to marry. She is not permitted to divorce her husband unless she can prove he is impotent or that he does not have sex with her "at least one night in every forty nights" and if he has not provided her with a minimum standard of living. In both cases, the woman would need another witness, because Muhammad said a women's testimony counts only "half of a man's."

If a Muslim women protests any of her treatment, she is reminded that "her husband can divorce her simply by repeating "I divorce you" three times and that her prayers and devotions will not be accepted by God and curses of heaven and earth will fall upon her" if she continues to rebel.

Since Muhammad's time, Muslim women have been made to fear the Hell Fire consequences of disobeying husbands and fathers, but what can the loyal and obedient women expect to find for herself in paradise?

Because Paradise, is described in largely male terms, the exact nature of an equivalent reward for women remains unclear. Married women, who pass the purity test will be reunited with their husbands and children. A woman who married more than once would have to choose which husband she would prefer to join her in the after-life. She, however, remains reserved for her husbands, if one chooses to keep her.

Men who married more than once will remain free to keep all their wives while having the privilege of being attended to by 72 pure, beautiful, dark eyed, lustrous angelic maidens, whose bodies continuously reclaims as "virgins."

Muslim scholars say that Muslim women in Paradise are also rebuilt young and beautiful with perpetual virginity, but that there is no Quranic promise of virgins for women.

Although Muhammad was heard promising that "round about them will serve boys of perpetual freshness: if thou seest them, thou wouldst think them scattered pearls," Muslim scholars are emphatic that the pretty virgin boys in Paradise are not there for the women.

"I am a Moslem woman. I have no face. I have no identity . . . Islam believes and promotes only one relationship between male and female and that is the relation of lust . . . I have no explanation on why God denied me everything and made men in charge of me, if there is a God. I don't believe there ever was one."-- Dr. Parvin Darabi, a rehabilitated Muslim woman, author and activist.