What is thereabout Islam, particularly in African nations, that makes male followers so insensitive

[Bobbieo]

What is there about Islam, particularly in the African nations, that makes male followers so insensitive

to the welfare of their women The Arizona Republic has an article today about the African country of Mauritania and how its men idealize obsesity in women. which is supposedly a status of a family’s wealth. The article states many of these women are force fed as children - gavage, a borrowed French word from the practice of fattening geese for foie gras.

One woman was only four when her family began to force her to drink 14 gallons of camel’s milk a day and when she vomited, she was beaten. If she refused to drink, her fingers were bent back until they touched her hand. “My mother thinks she made me beautiful , but she made me sick.” The woman suffers from heart disease and diabetes.

According to Seif I’Islam, curator of a library of ancient Islamic manuscripts. “A man’s
goal is to marry a woman that fills his house. She needs to decorate it like an armoire or TV set.” One woman was told, by her husband, that if she loses a lot of weight he will divorce her. “I want to be able to grab her love handles.”

I find this so hard to believe that a country can be so abusive to its women. I’m sure that several DUers will brand me as a racist or an anti-Muslim religious fanatic. I’m neither, I’m an agnostic. I’m also a descendent of a matriarchal Indian nation whose women are the titleholders to the land.

I will never understand man’s inhumanity to its womenfolk.

[Ecumenist]

1. BobbieO as a descendant of Africans...

It's NOT Islam, it CULTURE! This has nothing to do with Islam. It has everything to do with Culture and in fact, there ae many cultures across the globe that beautify fat in women in places like Polynesia, Micronesia, many cultures in Asia AND South America. Inmany regions of the Russian region of Europe, women are thought to be better if they have weight on them. IN the American south, this is not unusual either. So, it's not just Mauritania or Africa, Islam or any other belief system. It's an ancient cultural phenomenon.

[mzteris]

exactly.

Bustles, bobs, Twiggy, Falsies, Colored contacts, Pierced ears - and now pierced just about anything/where!! The things we've always done to try and make ourselves attractive.

[jwirr]

7. You forgot the damn bra.

[mzteris]

11. I mentioned in my other post downthread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=229&topic_id=7013&mesg_id=7016

[rodeodance]

6. goes way back to the fertiliy goddesses

[Bobbieo]

8. Thank you Ecumenist - I studied ethnology in college but we never got to that part

of their cultures - that was in the 60s and we apparently were not as enlightened as we thought we were. I do remember footbinding in China which was the extent of female abuse.

[John Q. Citizen]

12. Fat men also in the Pacific Islands. the fatter the more status.

And you are correct that it has nothing to do with Islam. People overlay their culture onto their religion and it comes out quite different.

[Nobody]

19. It's a function of display of wealth

The societies that don't have it easy to obtain food value obesity. Europe in the Middle Ages was the same. If food is expensive, time consuming to get enough, being overweight becomes a status symbol.

Nowadays, at least in America, cheap, easy to get food is full of calories and has little or no nutritional value, thus you see a lot of obese poor people and thin rich people who can afford the low-calorie, high-nutrition foods. Is it a surprise that thin is in?

Also, consider the work we now do. Back in the Middle Ages and in non-industrialized nations today, much of the labor is strenuous and physical. Here in America, we sit at desks for the most part.

Both extremes are unhealthy. Forcefeeding can lead to death from the stomach stretching too much. Eating too little can lead to starvation and malnutrition.

[ellenfl]

2. in a word . . . power. eom

[mzteris]

3. I think you're missing something

it's neither the religion, nor the 'male' solely responsible.

It's the culture. Force feeding your kid to make them fat because that culture thinks them attractive is probably "no more insensitive" than anorexic/bulimic women in America.

Or the bound feet of Chinese women from only a couple of generations ago.

Or the rings around the necks of that other tribe.

Or the girdles, bras, stocking, makeup, hair spray, tight little high heel shoes that pinch the hell out of your toes and is EXTREMELY bad for your knees, ankles, and backs.

Yet we do it.

[crikkett]

13. I never ever ever wear heels like you describe

if I intend to stand upright in them.

What's the problem, again?

[Bobbieo]

14. Why is it always the women who are abused in these cultures

Aneorxia is not pushed on anyone in this country. It is a decision made by the individual butI suppose some would call it caused by peer pressure. Body piercing is common to both sexes.

[hobbit709]

4. Two problems

1. Extremely patriarchial religion
2. Extremely patriarchial society.
Combine the two and you get this kind of crap.

[sam sarrha]

17. this is only one of the several elements i find that Posione the jar.. reguarding islam

[jwirr]

5. This story only touches the tip of the iceberg. My son-in-law was

sent to Turkey at the beginning of all this bull and when he got home he said he would never fight for these countries because of how they treat their women. He had learned that when a man commits a crime he can send his wife to jail in his place and then due to the polygamy practiced by many Muslims he can just get himself another wife.

A friend from Nigeria also told that many of the women would get some sexually transmitted disease because of polygamy. Men were not expected to be faithful - in fact just the opposite.

Now I suspect that not all Muslims live this way but enough do to allow these two stories to be seen by eye witnesses.

[John Q. Citizen]

9. Women are the niggers of the world, according to John and Yoko in their song,

Islam has many protections written in for women, such as the right to divorce, the right to inherit property, the right to own businesses, and more.

That doesn't mean that people will follow that part of the Koran. If you compare the Koran to the bible, women make out much better in the Koran, in terms of human rights.

We are slaughtering hundreds of thousands of men women and children in Iraq, and yet our leaders overwhelmingly claim to be Christians. Christ is reported as saying, "turn the other cheek," a rich man has as much chance of passing through the gates of Heaven as a camel has of passing through the eye of a needle, etc.


Go figure

[theoldman]

10. In the US Muslim men treat their wives as good or better than

Christian men. To me this is an example of American culture. I think we make a big mistake in blaming Islam for cultures that treat women worse than animals.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. What's your source for that?

I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand, but it's something I would want to see some statistics on before accepting.

Is it still the case if you compare Muslims and Christians within a given state?

[sam sarrha]

15. find the documentary ..'Behind the Veil'

[Warpy]

16. Islam?

Check out the rape statistics, and realize only 1 in 10 ever get reported.

Check out the number of women's shelters compared to the number of animal shelters.

Check out the unreasonable body standards and how women who don't adhere to them are treated. Check out women's feet after they've had to suffer through years of wearing high heels due to cultural expectations in dress. It's not pretty.

Check out what happens to most working women when they've had too many birthdays.

Hell, check out women's pay compared to men's.

Just don't blame Islam. Christendom 1200 years ago was hellish for women. Islam gave women rights that their Christian sisters wouldn't see for another 1100 years.

Islam has slid back into the tribal customs that Mohammad tried to overturn, while women in many Christian countries, especially the ones with a mixes socialist-capitalist economy, have made real progress.

Both worlds have a very, very long way to go, however.