Anyone who thinks I’ve spent the last 40 years of my life learning how to properly apply makeup and avoid bad-hair days, only to end up donning that hideous black thing at the command of some foreign guy with a severe case of Male-Chauvinist-Pig syndrome, is in for a fight.

Give me death before burkas!

Before the current high-tech, news-around-the-world-in-the-blink-of-an-eye age, I doubt many Americans would even know how the proverbial other half of the planet lives; but now we do. We can read about it every day, 24/7. We have pictures, videos yet. Even in some of the most repressive regimes on earth, some brave soul with a laptop, internet access and a cell phone/camera/camcorder manages to get the word out, and blast it around the globe instantaneously.

And in my opinion, the ultimate oppression of our age, no matter how one cares to cut it, slice it, dice it, whatever, is hands-down the subjugation of females – from birth to the grave – in places ruled by this cockamamie Sharia law. Liberals may be scared to call a spade a spade, but I’m not.

So, I’ll say it again, Give me death before burkas!

In what is just the latest outrageous example of Islamic lunacy, a nineteen year old Saudi woman was gang-raped and then sentenced last month to 200 lashes plus a jail sentence. Talk about blaming the victim. Well, all I can say is peace and blessings be upon her! In my book, a gang-rape victim deserves a whole heck of lot more peace and blessings than the Prophet, who continues to inspire such barbarism in the name of his religion.

In 2002, again in Saudi Arabia, a mob of very “religious” followers of the Prophet surrounded a girls’ school that was engulfed in raging flames, and refused to permit firefighters to save the young girls, or even to permit the ones that could to flee the building. The little girls’ crime? They had removed their head-to-toe coverings because they were schooled among only females. Because of their uncovered state, they were sentenced by the men to death by burning. Peace and blessings be upon those innocent little girls too!

When news leaked out that women were routinely having their fingers amputated in Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, for the crime of wearing nail polish, I personally could not have cared less whether a single, plotting world-class terrorist could be found in the entire country. The government that did this deserved defeat.

Germany, now home to roughly 2 million Turkish Muslim immigrants, is dealing with a wave of honor killings carried out against women by male relatives. And what are the "crimes" these women have committed? They range anywhere from "living like a German" to being seen in the company of a man to whom they are not married. Personally I think the big "A" on one's dress would more than suffice to get across the message. But these women are being gunned down in broad daylight by brothers, fathers and cousins. Peace and blessings be upon these women too!

These Muslim atrocities are cropping up closer to home as well. In 2002, an Ethiopian Muslim immigrant was convicted on cruelty-to-children charges right here in Atlanta, for personally conducting female genital mutilation (FGM) on his 2 year-old daughter. This father used a pair of scissors to excise his own daughter’s clitoris. Female genital mutilation was originally called “female circumcision,” but even the WHO rejected that moniker, because unlike male circumcision’s beneficial effects, females are actually mutilated and many contract severe, permanent maladies as a result.

The type of FGM specifically practiced and taught by the Prophet is the milder form, and limits mutilation to the removal of the clitoris. On the other hand, other forms practiced by Mohammed’s followers today are so grotesque and cause so much permanent damage, that only a truly monstrous God could possibly condone them.

Whenever I see a woman wearing one of those hideous symbols of oppression -- the burka -- I just wonder how many beating scars or bruises or disfigurements she is covering. I don’t blame her for being brainwashed into submission, or even for identifying with her oppressors. She is, in my view, to be pitied, not scorned.

A friend of mine, a Secret Service Agent, spent a year in Saudi Arabia with his family, securing the American Embassy there. One day while his wife and daughters were out shopping, they were rudely accosted by the dress police, wildly shouted at in Arabic, and threatened with public caning for some innocent dress infraction. As they frantically tried to push escaping hair back in place, and make certain the hideous black things were still covering every inch, the male authorities laughed and screamed alternatively, while holding their beating sticks above the cowering heads of the women. When my friends told me of the incident several years later, they were still traumatized.

Last year, I met a French woman in our Church, who gave me even more insight into Sharia Law. Her story needs to be heeded by every American woman.

Michelle (not her real name) was born in France in 1970, to a Muslim couple who had recently emigrated from Iran. Her father was a university professor, and neither of her parents were particularly religious. Wanting their daughter to have the best education, they enrolled her in a Catholic school, where she converted to Christianity at the age of 16. This was evidently fine with her parents, but they were still sufficiently old-school to insist that she enter an arranged marriage at age 18. Michelle consented, she said, because they offered her no real option and she was afraid to be on her own at eighteen.

Michelle’s chosen husband was also a child of first-generation immigrants from the Middle East. He was already a medical doctor and 15 years older than she. According to Michelle, once the marriage took place, her entire life changed radically. Her husband was far more “religious” than her family had been, and immediately insisted upon complete subservience, traditional dress (yes, the dreaded black thing!), and began to beat her for the slightest infraction against his authority.

When she confided in her parents, she says they were saddened but refused to interfere because even they respected the authority of her husband under Islam. Feeling helpless, she submitted, tried to please him and bore him two sons. Her husband then proceeded to indoctrinate the sons into his warped view of women.

One year before we met, Michelle had finally summoned the courage to flee with her sons, she says, in the dark of night with only the clothes on their backs. Even allowing for exaggerations, Michelle’s story should be a warning to all who would give even an inch to this evil fanaticism.

When I queried Michelle as to why she did not report the abuse to French authorities, she insisted that once inside the Muslim community, there is no such thing as civil authority. The Muslim men, she maintained, rule with an iron fist, and threaten violent retribution to any woman who tries to go above them to outside authorities. This isn’t just one evil husband we’re talking about; it’s an entire communal structure of oppression.

Down to the nuts and bolts then, I must make this observation. If a Jewish or Christian man beats his wife, or otherwise abuses her, he does so against his religion, and his worship community. When a Muslim man does likewise, he does so in full obedience to the Prophet himself. It’s in the Koran. (There is enough woman-bashing fodder in the Koran for many future columns, but one of the specific admonitions to men to beat their wives is 4:34)

"Good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them." For any modern soul who doesn't understand the word, "scourge," it means to whip or lash. And people wonder where these barbarians get their crazy ideas. They are in the Koran.

As an American woman, blessed by God and the Constitution, that is all I need to know about Islam. People may worship whoever or whatever they please, and as long as they don't try to blow me up or force me into submission, peace and blessings be upon them.

But if they try force to impose their cockamamie beliefs, then give me death before burkas!

This article appeared American Thinker website. Kyle-Anne Shiver welcomes your comments at kyleanneshiver@yahoo.com