All things Middle East related

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

Just used my brain. The article stated:



thats about 1,333 cases of violence against women and girls reported per year. Doesnt that seem shockingly small to you? even on a purely annectodal level, when you think about similar crimes here?

However, since you wanted some substaiting evidence, about 2.3MM people are raped or assaulted by their current or former partner each year. 3-4MM women are beaten or assaulted by their husbands, male lovers, or exboyfriends.
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...estic_violence

Now, I would imagine there would be some overlap between those two statistics, so lets go on the low end and say that equates to about 4MM cases of violent domestic abuse against women in the US per year.

you have 4,000,000 violent assaults against women per year in the US compared to 1,333 reported cases in Afghanistan. Now, before you the data is skewed due to the US having a much larger population, consider that the US has about 300 million people and Afghanistan has about 30 million (10 times more). So even if you multiplied the Afghan statistics by 10 to correlate the numbers, you'd have 13,333 attacks in Afghanistan to 4,000,000 in the US.

Granted, women are more likely to report crime here than in some of the more "backwater" areas of Afghanistan, but you cant argue with the numbers.

Also, interesting reading is this this UN report on violence against women:

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demograph...st%20women.pdf

The first statement in the report is that violence against women is universal. Neither the US or Afghanistan is on one of the charts shown, but surprisingly, Australia was the 4th most violent country surveyed, with over 50% of women experiencing physical violence in their lives.


Ultimately, my point is this: People get so outraged at these crimes against women in these other countries, but they dont share the same outrage when it happens here. In my opinion, its partly racism. "Its the middle east. Theyre muslim, so theyre so much worse over there." Bull crap. The truth of the matter is, violence against women is so common here (and in pretty much every other country in the "western" world) that we're immune to it. But people are only outraged when we see our "enemies" doing the same things. Its hypocritical and its shameful.

Probably because it does not get reported because nothing will be done. Women can actually cause themself more problems if they report abuse. Also in the US what we call abuse is very broad. If I grab my wife to get her attention (not something I'd do) and left a mark what so ever its called an assult. In the middle east they would laugh at you.

[BigHairedAristocrat]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Probably because it does not get reported because nothing will be done. Women can actually cause themself more problems if they report abuse. Also in the US what we call abuse is very broad. If I grab my wife to get her attention (not something I'd do) and left a mark what so ever its called an assult. In the middle east they would laugh at you.

Abuse is not widely reported here either. Abuse of women is a global epidemic, men will justify it by religion, their upbringing, stress at their jobs, whatever. The excuses are different, but the underlying fact is that there are assholes everywhere. Abuse of women is just as prevalent here as it is everywhere else.

I commend you for treating your wife well. You would be surprised to know hundreds of thousands of American men don't. I'm not trying to defend a demonic religion. My only point in all my posts is that the average afghan Islamic man is no more of an asshole than half the men in any of our neighborhoods. There are extreme afghan Islamic men that are horrific assholes. And there are extreme white male Christian men who are also horrific assholes. Abuse of women us a global problem that transcends race, religion, and nationality. It's not fair to judge a society by a couple of assholes. If we did that, then we'd all be assholes. Judging an entire group of people, based on th actions of a minority, isn't right, it's morally abhorrent and goes against everything we should stand for as citizens.

[RedskinRat]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

Judging an entire group of people, based on th actions of a minority, isn't right, it's morally abhorrent and goes against everything we should stand for as citizens.

That's where you are wrong. It's not a minority.

We all agree that treating anyone in a dehumanizing way everyone is worse off. Religion has built in excuses for abhorrent behavior.

[BigHairedAristocrat]

Originally Posted by RedskinRat

That's where you are wrong. It's not a minority.

We all agree that treating anyone in a dehumanizing way everyone is worse off. Religion has built in excuses for abhorrent behavior.

Dont get me started on religion. For thousands of years, assholes have used religion to justify all sorts of horrible things. The Catholic Church and Islam have more blood on their hands than any other organizations/governments in the history of mankind. Anyone with a brain who beleives in a benevolent God of some sort could easily recognize that he/she/it would abhor both organizations. Anway, back on topic.

Where I think you are wrong is in your belief that the majority of Muslims condone the sort of behavior we've been talking about in this thread. They dont. Just like the majority of Christians in this country dont condone waving "god hates fags" flags and soldiers funerals. The fact is, the majority of Muslims in the world view the extremists who torture women the same way the majority of Christians view the Westboro Baptist church. That said, i think its obvious that those muslim extremists are even more heinous than the WBC.

On a side note, Moslem is an offensive, perjorative term for Muslims. In Arabic, "Muslim" means "one who gives himself to God." "Moslem" means "one who is evil and unjust." Its a big difference, so most Muslims would take issue with being called "Moslems."

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

Dont get me started on religion. For thousands of years, assholes have used religion to justify all sorts of horrible things. The Catholic Church and Islam have more blood on their hands than any other organizations/governments in the history of mankind. Anyone with a brain who beleives in a benevolent God of some sort could easily recognize that he/she/it would abhor both organizations. Anway, back on topic.

Where I think you are wrong is in your belief that the majority of Muslims condone the sort of behavior we've been talking about in this thread. They dont. Just like the majority of Christians in this country dont condone waving "god hates fags" flags and soldiers funerals. The fact is, the majority of Muslims in the world view the extremists who torture women the same way the majority of Christians view the Westboro Baptist church. That said, i think its obvious that those muslim extremists are even more heinous than the WBC.

On a side note, Moslem is an offensive, perjorative term for Muslims. In Arabic, "Muslim" means "one who gives himself to God." "Moslem" means "one who is evil and unjust." Its a big difference, so most Muslims would take issue with being called "Moslems."

interesting link on the difference from George Mason University
http://hnn.us/articles/524.html