Weird Afghan law

[Almo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8204207.stm

I try really hard to be open-minded about other's cultures. But this... This law really makes the lawmakers there look like they're genuinely backward.

Am I missing something here? Because there used to be a requirement that the wife give sex every four days minimum is this somehow and improvement in some weird way?

This is really baffling to me.

 

[Darat]

It's certainly barbaric, but then the country has had barbaric/backward governments (what there has been of it) for a long time so I'm not surprised there is stuff crap like this making it through.

 

[Darth Rotor]

It's certainly barbaric, but then the country has had barbaric/backward governments (what there has been of it) for a long time so I'm not surprised there is stuff crap like this making it through.

Who says the person in that pic is a woman?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8204207.stm

As to the law, it has a bizarre outcome if you extend it.

Let us say I am married to a woman who is a bit plumper than when I married here. Posit that I have a desire that she lose some weight, but we still roll in the hay as was our former custom. Let us say we are at odds at some point, and she refuses to have sex. So she gets the starvation treatment. She loses weight. I start to find her more attractive, not less so. I really want to have a go now. She refuses. More starvation. Eventually, a nearly dead, once beautiful lady is looking like a Buchenwald inmate, I probably ain't interested anymore, and I still ain't gettin' any. No more food, eventually death by starvation.

All over a roll in the hay.

DR

 

[Fnord]

Islam is a male-dominated culture. Thus, male interests are the focus of the laws. Sex, revenge, violence, and laws that say a man may kill his daughter if he even suspects that her virtue has been compromised seem to be what Islam is all about.

 

[Almo]

Islam is a male-dominated culture. Thus, male interests are the focus of the laws. Sex, revenge, violence, and laws that say a man may kill his daughter if he even suspects that her virtue has been compromised seem to be what Islam is all about.

What bugs me most about Islam is that it tends toward theocracy. Next is its treatment of women in the more fundamentalist circles. I have them in that order because the second can get imposed on non-Moslems in the case of the first.

I would genuinely worry if the country I live in started to develop an Islamic majority since I would figure that something like Sharia law wouldn't be far behind.

Yes, the Christian weirdoes want to enforce theocracy as well in the US, but they don't seem to be as successful at it as the fundamentalist Muslims. There seems to be more history in Christianity for allowing the government to operate seperately from the church.

 

[Fishstick]

Islam is a male-dominated culture. Thus, male interests are the focus of the laws. Sex, revenge, violence, and laws that say a man may kill his daughter if he even suspects that her virtue has been compromised seem to be what Islam is all about.

Good thing christianity has none of those things.

 

[Fnord]

Good thing Christianity has none of those things.

It does. Fortunately for the rest of America, Christianity is fragmented to a far greater degree than Islam. Churches have split over whether or not there shall be gay or women pastors/priests, baptism of "illegitimate" children, or even whether or not praise and worship music shall be accompanied or acapella (voices only - sp?).

There is no one Christian authority in America, just as there is no one "official" Christian church in America. America itself is a secular culture, or at least a more inclusive and tolerant one than Islam.

My fear is that eventually, if enough people see a monolithic Islam as the only viable solution to the social ills that plague this country, more Islamic influence will be seen in the schools, courts, and governments.

 

[Whiplash]

Good thing christianity has none of those things.

No one says that they don't. But the desire to equivicate Chistianity with Islam really bothers me. Islam today is where Christianity was hundereds of years ago. At least in terms of how they practice and enforce their religious beliefs. They are not comparable. Maybe during the crusades. Not today.

That's not to say Christianty is faultless or perfect. Far from it. But I don't understand why when Islam comes up, some people just knee jerkishly turn it into a Christianity discussion. It's what fuels the idea that some people really just hate Christianity. They can't stop complaining about it for five minutes, even when the subject was something worse.

 

[Lonewulf]

Whiplash: Does this include the "Nizari" group of Muslims? Quite a few million Muslims in that group, including I believe the third most economically powerful man in India...

 

[Fnord]

[opinion]

When religion controls the government, the Rule of Law becomes more punitive than corrective, more disabling than enabling, and more autocratic than democratic. So much for the followers of a merciful God...

[/opinion]

Added later:

Newsweek has an article that expounds on the idea that American religion is becoming less "Christian" and more "Hindu" or Hindu-like. Moslems and Hindus don't seem to get along on their own turf, so can we really expect Islamic and American cultures to continue to co-exist in (relative) peace?

Link: We Are All Hindus Now

The Rig Veda, the most ancient Hindu scripture, says this: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another, yoga practice is a third. None is better than any other; all are equal. The most traditional, conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."

 

[Whiplash]

Whiplash: Does this include the "Nizari" group of Muslims? Quite a few million Muslims in that group, including I believe the third most economically powerful man in India...

I admit, I don't know. I was generalizing a bit. But not without merit, considering the news we get all the time of things like this topic.. Or earlier today when I was waiting at the Doc's office, they had CNN on, and a report about horrific violence against homosexuals in Iran. And other tales of people getting hands cut off, genital mutilation. Etc, etc.

I'm sure there are many more civilized Muslims. I should not have painted with a wide brush. I apologize.

 

[Madalch]

Clearly, Afghani fundamentalists consider marriage to be a form of prostitution- the wife shags the husband in return for being provided for.

 

[Lonewulf]

I admit, I don't know. I was generalizing a bit. But not without merit, considering the news we get all the time of things like this topic.. Or earlier today when I was waiting at the Doc's office, they had CNN on, and a report about horrific violence against homosexuals in Iran. People getting hands cut off, genital mutilation. Etc, etc.

I'm sure there are many more civilized Muslims. I should not have painted with a wide brush. I apologize.

No, I don't blame you for doing it. It's common enough; and I do respect you for being honest about it.



I just amuse myself pointing that out whenever I hear any kind of generalization, just to get people thinking about it. Also, because I find the Nizari to be just plain cool.

A brief summary of the Nizari from wikipedia:

The Shī‘a Imami Ismā‘īlī Tariqah also referred to as the Ismā‘īlī or Nizārī (Arabic: النزاريون‎ an-Nizāriyyūn), are a path (tariqah) of Shī‘a Islām, emphasizing social justice, pluralism, and human reason within the framework of the mystical tradition of Islam. The Nizari are the second largest of branch of Shia Islam and form the majority of the Ismā‘īlī (Arabic: اسماعیلیه‎). There are an estimated 12 to 15 million Nizari Ismā‘īlī residing in more than 25 countries and territories.

The "cool" part is this:

The Nizāriyyah are the spiritual descendants of the Fatimid Caliphate and the subsequent "Assassins" of Alamūt under Dā‘ī Hassan aṣ-Ṣabbaḥ ((c. 1034-1124)).[1]

Also, yeah, we get a lot of news out of places like Iran, Sudan, and Afghanistan, but the news is pretty quiet on the less interesting majority-Muslim countries, like Tunisia.

This is mostly my problem with the overall generalization about Islam. It's not Islam that's the problem, it's those that reject a secular, pluralistic society, and further those that embrace tenets of faith that are harmful to other human beings... and not all Muslims do this, nor are they alone on this point.

Anyways, as I do not think that the Nizari have any real standing in Afghanistan, I apologize for being off topic.

 

[Fnord]

Clearly, Afghani fundamentalists consider marriage to be a form of prostitution- the wife shags the husband in return for being provided for.

Well, here in America, some women do it for cash, some do it for dinner and a movie, while some others will settle for nothing less than a faerie-cake wedding and a half-carat diamond in a platinum setting.

 

[Sideroxylon]

A big hello from the secular Republic of Turkey with its majority Muslim population (sans sharia law).

 

[Madalch]

Well, here in America, some women do it for cash, some do it for dinner and a movie, while some others will settle for nothing less than a faerie-cake wedding and a half-carat diamond in a platinum setting.

Most of the women I've dated were happy to do it out of love and affection. Or simple desire.

 

[Lonewulf]

I always did like the stereotype that only men really care about sex. Hence the whole "putting him on the couch" cliche.

 

[The Painter]

and a half-carat diamond in a platinum setting.

Half carat? Wow you are a cheap son of a bitch.

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8204207.stm

I try really hard to be open-minded about other's cultures. But this... This law really makes the lawmakers there look like they're genuinely backward.

Am I missing something here? Because there used to be a requirement that the wife give sex every four days minimum is this somehow and improvement in some weird way?

This is really baffling to me.

A law says a husband can essentially rape his wife...it's considered outrageous even in Afghanistan...so the law changes- now he's not allowed to rape her, he's allowed to starve her!

Check that. Now he's allowed to starve her and rape her.

Really weird compromise. Now he's not allowed to grab her and force her into bed, he's allowed to refuse her food until she has sex. And this is an improvement.

What does that look like? "Hey, honey, here's an eggroll. Now do you have a headache?"

 

[Lonewulf]

A law says a husband can essentially rape his wife...it's considered outrageous even in Afghanistan...so the law changes- now he's not allowed to rape her, he's allowed to starve her!

Check that. Now he's allowed to starve her and rape her.

Really weird compromise. Now he's not allowed to grab her and force her into bed, he's allowed to refuse her food until she has sex. And this is an improvement.

What does that look like? "Hey, honey, here's an eggroll. Now do you have a headache?"

I bet that it will cause just as much outrage as the previous law.