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DMB
March 9, 2004, 07:19 AM
I found this article (http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/2472) about women in Iran very moving. I do sometimes wonder if there is something about islam that makes so many muslim men hate women.

Extreme religion always seems to end up in surreality:
One of Nafisi's students rewrote Austen's famous opening lines to Pride and Prejudice. "It is a truth universally acknowledged," she said, "that a Muslim man, regardless of his fortune, must be in want of a nine-year-old virgin wife."

Adult women's sexuality was to be hidden, yet Khomeini was prepared to countenance sex with female children. And with animals. In her memoir, Nafisi recalls one of her students studying Khomeini's writings in which he considered the problem of whether a man could eat the meat of a chicken he'd had sex with. He could not, Khomeini declared, but his neighbour two doors down could. "My father would rather I read this than Austen?" the student asked sardonically.

Jobar
March 9, 2004, 11:41 PM
Hi, DMB. :)

I must admit that I don't know the stance of Islam and the Koran on homosexuality. I've read that there are Muslim societies which accept male homosexual liasons as preferable to male-female sex outside of marriage. Is this so?

Yahzi
March 10, 2004, 04:24 AM
Originally posted by DMB
I I do sometimes wonder if there is something about islam that makes so many muslim men hate women.
There is... it's called "religion."

Go read Christian writings on women before the Enlightenment. I doubt you'll be able to tell the difference.

Hyndis
March 10, 2004, 04:28 AM
Originally posted by Jobar
Hi, DMB. :)

I must admit that I don't know the stance of Islam and the Koran on homosexuality. I've read that there are Muslim societies which accept male homosexual liasons as preferable to male-female sex outside of marriage. Is this so?

I'm not all that familiar with customs in the middle east, but I know they are very harsh to gays. Egypt is notorious for rounding up, arresting, and even torturing people who are suspected of being gay, and I'm pretty sure the Saudis also have a similar playbook.

I'm under the impression that Iran is actually more "western" than other Muslim countries, despite its official theocracy for the government, which is rather despised in the country by the average person, but I don't know what, if any differences are in that country.

But its bad to be gay and be in a fundamentalist Muslim country. Or a fundamentalist Christian country. Infact, just staying away from all fundamentalists seems like a good idea.

DMB
March 10, 2004, 05:03 AM
My understanding is that homosexuality is frowned upon and is punished in a number of islamic countries, sometimes by torture. OTOH, there is a long tradition of accepting certain kinds of liaisons between men and boys.

Mughal
March 18, 2004, 09:20 PM
The Quran and the status of women (http://www.muslimsandislamic.faithweb.com/photo3.html)



Islamic punishments for crimes (http://www.faithfreedom.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=87)

sharon45
March 19, 2004, 12:22 AM
Many religions contain a hatred of people in general. So much of christianity is about the 'evil' people being well deserving of eternal punishment and the 'good' people still being not all that worthy of reward, but given anyway because of 'god's great mercy'.