Friday, December 03, 2004

Where's the Outrage?

Alright National Organization of Women, if you can pull yourselves away from writing essays on how all sex is rape, maybe it’s time for you to step forward and be heard on this from NewsMax.com:

'A survey reported Wednesday by the London Guardian found that women in Egypt, for instance, are regularly beaten by their husbands - and accept that form of torture as a fact of life under Islamic law.
The survey - sponsored by the Egyptian government - found that one woman in three had been tortured at some point by her husband, the Guardian said. "Of those women, 45 percent had been beaten at least once in the past year and 17 percent had been beaten three or more times during the same period."
1. The widespread torture is tolerated under the Shari'a (Islamic law), the Guardian said. The same system permits the abuse and even murder of Muslim women in countries throughout the Middle East.
Reports the Guardian:
"Violent husbands can generally avoid prosecution on religious grounds, because the Egyptian penal code excludes acts committed 'in good faith, pursuant to a right determined by virtue of the Shari'a.'
“Egyptian law also allows men - literally - to get away with murder," the paper said. "If a husband kills his wife in the act of committing adultery, it's only a misdemeanor but if a wife kills her husband for the same reason, then of course that's murder."
But even short of murder, torture of Muslim women is so widespread that it's become an ingrained part of the culture in many Muslim countries.
"Shocking as this may seem, most Egyptian women regard beating as a normal and more or less acceptable part of life," the Guardian said. "Almost 86 percent of the women surveyed thought husbands were justified in hitting their wives sometimes, and a large majority said a refusal to have sex was sufficient grounds for beating."
Egyptian women aged 20-29 told the government survey that spousal torture in the form of beating was acceptable for a range of other domestic "offenses."
70 percent said a beating was justified for "talking back" to a husband.
65 percent thought a beating was warranted if they were caught talking to another man.
42 percent said spending too much money justified a beating.
26 percent said merely burning the dinner could warrant the same kind of physical abuse.'

Makes Abu Ghraib look like small potatoes, huh?