Wife beating is now legal in the UAE.

[Mimssy]

If a man ever hits me, I'm breaking something of his. I'm not a subordinate and I'm not to be punished or disciplined like some animal that chewed up a couch. If there's a problem, words are to be used rather than force. I will have no one rule over me nor will I try to rule over my partner; they're my partner, not my lesser. I can't be okay with a law that gives authority over one gender to another. I can only imagine how ugly it would have been if a woman had hit her husband and son.

 

[Lordpils]

First, what culture are "We" apart of?

That's irrelevant. All that matters is, judging by most comments in this thread, that 'our' culture is better than The Islams[footnote]Or, in actuality: The culture of the people of the UAE, which is rooted in Islamic thought, but not necessarily one and the same.[/footnote]

Second, what's wrong with it?

From latent discrimination against minorities to physical violence against minorities to the hypergreed of hypercapitalists to the growing divergence of wealth to multicultural tensions, I can think of quite a few that need intellectual imput now spend on self-righteous buttclapping.

Third, my high-horse is higher than yours... and it's prettier too.

But mine is pink, and has a horn on its head, and is called Bubbles.

I won't disagree with you that my culture (as well as any other americans) is fucked up, but allowing people to abuse their wives is just as fucked up. It's perfectly legitimate to critisize the culture of others and I will don't tell me I'm on a high horse for calling bullshit on another persons culture. I'm willing to question the fucked up aspects of this culture, but for the purpose of the conversation this is fucked up I don't care whos culture it is.
To continue the joke my horse is black and has fiery hooves and breathes fire.
Edit: I don't know how to remove the citation.

 

[Veylon]

Differant countries make their own laws, if you dont agree with them then you can leave, fairly simple really.....unless you're a prisoner...but i digress. Leave for greener pastures if you like.

Actually, in many Muslim countries women don't have identities outside of their families. No picture ID, no passport, no right to travel without the permission of their father or husband. I don't know about the UAE, but in Saudi it's even forbidden for women to drive. Leaving isn't easy physically or even psychologically when you have to abandon everyone and anything you know and be disowned.

 

[Serenegoose]

Not a surprise to me, and yet another reason why I will never ever go to that part of the world. Simply hearing about it disgusts me, and stuff like this only reinforces it. All my Anthropology classes in college may have gone on about "cultural relativism" and all that, but allowing "physical discipline" under law is not justified in my book. Those people can live in their medieval culture. I'll stay in America.

This. Except the 'stay in america' bit, what with me not living there.

 

[Caliostro]

Women of the UAE: Your men are retarded and most likely sexually incompetent. Leave them and come to the rest of the world.

I'd give them about a week before they were begging you to come back, changing any laws necessary.

That's taken way out of context.

The original ruling was that a man is allowed to discipline his family members, so long as he doesn't actually harm them.

Which actually means..... Drum roll please!

...Seriously... mincing words...

 

[NotSoNimble]

Beating means something different than leaving visible marks?

I think the OP made a rather misleading jump here.

 

[ilspooner]

Um, it isn't all that bad. Just as long as there are no marks, you are allowed to do it. I don't really see the problem.

 

[manaman]

Shows how smart they are, seriously I have never heard of a beating that didn't leave a mark. Even a light slapping would leave something for a day or two. Heck I find bruises on me that I never felt how they happened.

Wow, I'm sorry you are so frail, but the rest of the human race can take a bit more of a beating then that.

Do you mean to insinuate that you have witnessed every other member of the human race take a beating? If you have, did you videotape it? I desperately want to see that now that I think of it.

No, I mean to imply that the person I quoted is exaggerating. If a light slap was enough to leave a mark for days everyone would be walking about with bruises and marks all over themselves. Especially on the hands, shins, and arms, you take hard blows to those areas all the time without realizing it, banged on the counter, bumped into doors, tables, chairs, etc.

I guess you are in a select few of people. Everybody I know has gotten bruises that they never felt happen.

I even asked a doctor once, I was told it is quite common.

Some parts of the body are more sensitive, and yes people can bruise themselves without realizing it at time time, as a constant steady pressure on a small area can cause a bruise without the quick sharp pain of a blow, and most people associate only a blow with creating a bruise.

good luck dishing out an effective beating without leaving a mark.

Shows you've never had cops phonebook you.

Never been phonebook'ed, but they did break my jaw and two ribs.

That, however, does tend to leave a mark or two... whereas phonebooking doesn't start leaving marks until they're approaching 'internal injuries' territory.

Yes it does. I may have deserved a little of the beating, but not the broken bones.

Yes, let's get on our high horses and rejoice in the obvious and universal superiority of our culture.

A silly ruling, but it is their ruling.

Now, while we are seated on our steeds of pretend superiority, let's ride off into the sunset and look at the obvious wrongs our own fucking culture needs righted, shall we?

I can ride into the sunset on that high horse all I want. Understanding cultural differences and condoning them are two separate things. You think I shouldn't feel moral superiority over a tribe that still practices cannibalism and raids other tribes for ceremonial meals? It is just a cultural difference right?

 

[Funkysandwich]

Not a surprise to me, and yet another reason why I will never ever go to that part of the world. Simply hearing about it disgusts me, and stuff like this only reinforces it. All my Anthropology classes in college may have gone on about "cultural relativism" and all that, but allowing "physical discipline" under law is not justified in my book. Those people can live in their medieval culture. I'll stay in America.

Yep. Every single country except your beloved America is backward and wrong, and to even think of leaving would be a terrible mistake. There is no finer place on the planet to live besides America, and nothing can ever be gained by venturing outside its borders.

 

[just ban me]

um yeah, if a woman tries to leave the countries they get killed so that isn't always an option

 

[Dogstile]

So they've ruled that you can't hit someone hard enough to hurt them, but a tap on the top of the head is fine.

I still disagree, but that is taken way out of context.

I can ride into the sunset on that high horse all I want. Understanding cultural differences and condoning them are two separate things. You think I shouldn't feel moral superiority over a tribe that still practices cannibalism and raids other tribes for ceremonial meals? It is just a cultural difference right?

... I actually see nothing wrong with that.

 

[Dogstile]

double post

 

[s0m3th1ng]

It also says children who have reached "adulthood" ? approximately puberty ? cannot be struck.

So it's O.K. to beat the shit our of a child but not a young-adult? What kind of fucked religious whack-job reasoning is that?

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Oh hey, another country to conquer and destroy...
As long as a country is backwards, and allows anyone to harm anyone else (Outside of self defence, but then, the attacker should never attack in the first place), that country is my enemy.
Welcome to the list, UAE. You're trying to be modern, yet embracing a violent past.
I can't be my own enemy for for conquering and destroying them, because I am not a country, or supported by any country :3

 

[Firia]

We can disagree with it, because it's culturally foreign to us. I STRONGLY don't agree with it either. Here in the Americas, we're at a point, culturally, where women are considered equal beings with men (a topic for another thread as to why this is or is not the case in instances of job advancement, wages, etc). We see something like this, and it's gobsmackining how utterly backwards it appears. How brutal and inhuman. But as a culture, that part of the world believes that women are lesser beings, and if discipline is needed, it can be doled out.

Just be happy that there is such a stipulation as "no marks." Otherwise, it could go back to days where women were marred. It'll happen still, I'm sure. But now there's a legal guideline to help stem the tide, as it were.

 

[JenSeven]

Oh man, I love threads like this, being an atheist myself.

Let's look at Christianity, since I know a few things about that, and not much about Muslims, but I'm sure someone can fill me in on that later on in this thread.

Let's see what the bible allows a Christian to do:

They can stone people working on the sabbath.
They can stone disobedient children.
They can sell their wives into slavery (or was that their daughters?).

I'll leave it at that since they are much worse than a beating, and until someone more informed than me comes along and can name the bible passages those came from.

 

[manaman]

Not a surprise to me, and yet another reason why I will never ever go to that part of the world. Simply hearing about it disgusts me, and stuff like this only reinforces it. All my Anthropology classes in college may have gone on about "cultural relativism" and all that, but allowing "physical discipline" under law is not justified in my book. Those people can live in their medieval culture. I'll stay in America.

Yep. Every single country except your beloved America is backward and wrong, and to even think of leaving would be a terrible mistake. There is no finer place on the planet to live besides America, and nothing can ever be gained by venturing outside its borders.

How in the world did you read that out of what she said? That chip on your shoulder must be weighing you down something fierce.

Um, it isn't all that bad. Just as long as there are no marks, you are allowed to do it. I don't really see the problem.

Make no mistake there is still a problem with a culture that does not treat women as equals. Children are one thing as children need to be cared for in a way an adult does not, but a women should be an equal partner in a relationship.

This isn't as bad as the OP makes it seem, but it's not something I see no problem with.

 

[manaman]

Oh man, I love threads like this, being an atheist myself.

Let's look at Christianity, since I know a few things about that, and not much about Muslims, but I'm sure someone can fill me in on that later on in this thread.

Let's see what the bible allows a Christian to do:

They can stone people working on the sabbath.
They can stone disobedient children.
They can sell their wives into slavery (or was that their daughters?).

I'll leave it at that since they are much worse than a beating, and until someone more informed than me comes along and can name the bible passages those came from.

You have your information screwed up. There are laws in the bible that are the word of god, there are laws that apply to priests, and there are laws that there the laws of the land at the time. The laws that applied to priests where far more restrictive then the laws that applied to the common people, and nobody except the crazy fundamentalist Christians (same as there are extremists for any group) believe that the common laws of the day should still apply.

 

[Steppin Razor]

Oh look, a country that's a bit of a shithole doing shitty things. How unexpected this turn of events is...

Oh man, I love threads like this, being an atheist myself.

Let's look at Christianity, since I know a few things about that, and not much about Muslims, but I'm sure someone can fill me in on that later on in this thread.

Let's see what the bible allows a Christian to do:

They can stone people working on the sabbath.
They can stone disobedient children.
They can sell their wives into slavery (or was that their daughters?).

I'll leave it at that since they are much worse than a beating, and until someone more informed than me comes along and can name the bible passages those came from.

Hello fellow atheist. Pull your head out of your arse and make a proper argument rather than using ancient Bible passages that are no longer relevant. Christian dominated countries, such as the US and UK, have laws against stoning and slavery.

Oh hey, another country to conquer and destroy...
As long as a country is backwards, and allows anyone to harm anyone else (Outside of self defence, but then, the attacker should never attack in the first place), that country is my enemy.
Welcome to the list, UAE. You're trying to be modern, yet embracing a violent past.
I can't be my own enemy for for conquering and destroying them, because I am not a country, or supported by any country :3

Conquering and destroying? Do we really have to resort to conquering? I mean, I'm perfectly fine and have no qualms with just nuking half these places off the face of the Earth.

 

[Scde2]

Not a surprise to me, and yet another reason why I will never ever go to that part of the world. Simply hearing about it disgusts me, and stuff like this only reinforces it. All my Anthropology classes in college may have gone on about "cultural relativism" and all that, but allowing "physical discipline" under law is not justified in my book. Those people can live in their medieval culture. I'll stay in America.

Yep. Every single country except your beloved America is backward and wrong, and to even think of leaving would be a terrible mistake. There is no finer place on the planet to live besides America, and nothing can ever be gained by venturing outside its borders.

For fucks sake.

How the hell did you get that from Yureina's post?

I will never ever go to that part of the world

Because that obviously implies the whole world.