Iraq to lower the ‘age of consent’ for girls to nine

Do you believe Islamic and western countries have equitable rights for women and girls?

Can you say more about where you would choose to live or bring up a dd

I didn't cover myself in India and never have.

I wouldn't be in an orthodox or devout Catholic community so that wouldn't apply.

I don’t really think this is a Islamic issue. I think that some men, not all men but certainly enough of them, are abusive predators. They find their ways into positions of authority and use it as a shield against their own transgressions and enable the abuse of others. We see it everywhere police, charitable organisations (aid workers trading food for sex?), religious institutions, Hollywood, Harrods.

None of it is acceptable. Should we condemn each and every ingress against womens and girls rights, absolutely. My issue is not with Islam in Afghanistan or Iraq it’s with the men who are imposing their own “interpretations” which infringes on the rights and freedoms of women and girls and enables abuse.

There are plenty of Muslims who would disagree with hardline sharia law. The arguement shouldn’t be about religion. It’s those of us who think woman and girls should have autonomy, be respected and their voices heard against those who don’t . Regardless of religion or race.

As in many non-Islamic countries also - Orthodox communities, devout Catholic communities, India.

@LurkingFromTheShadows Exactly. How they can even refer to it as "consent" astounds me. How can any girl of nine give her consent to this? It sickens me. Who does these vile men think they are? Fills me with rage.

I think legally and politically they have full rights. Culturally most definitely not, although nor does the UK tbh as far as reporting sexual assault goes.

I think most Western countries are relieved to see Israel taking down Hamas leaders which is why they are doing zero to stop the genocide in Gaza.

I question Tunisia. My stepdaughter was assaulted by her boyfriend while on holiday there. She reported it to local police and was taken aside and asked whether she really wanted to report this as assault, because the likelihood was that as a western woman she didn’t realise that the authorities would take her boyfriends’ word as the truth rather than listen to her, as a female. They would also scrutinise her account of what happened in terms of her own ‘contributing behaviour’ and other factors including how she was dressed at the time of the assault. Needless to say she didn’t report. Just got the first flight home.

I say this genuinely but please explain how Islam gave them women's rights. I'm really not being argumentative as someone married to a Muslim and so are our DC. But I've been told this many times and still none the wiser as to how as nobody who said it could elaborate substantially. I think I was merely told once, "They keep their name."

According to the Internet

Sudan & Lebanon have the lowest ages for marriage

However, I believe that some countries marry their daughters once they reach puberty.

I work in Iraq at a university and asked one of my female students about this earlier.... and yes she is educated, has a Masters and is a professional working woman and mother of 2...or 3. She said that it was only a proposal at this stage and most Iraqis are against it.
Unfortunately like everywhere in the world there will always be those who come up with the most ill thought of ideas.

That is harrowing. Just as bad if not worse for boys.

There are still cultural expectations about covering yourself in Indonesia.

What exactly do you agree with her on? She has a lot of views.

Neither are a lot of Western countries where women have 'full' equal rights.

Yes they are.

there is a saying amongst Muslim feminists, Islam gave women rights and Muslims (men) took them away.

I notice Indonesia and Tunisia are not on that list?

I dont believe any religion confers autonomy on women which is why I am agnostic/atheist/irreligious
They were all devised by men, after all.

Just two examples of Islamic countries where women have equal rights under law:

Indonesia - the largest Islamic country in terms of population the world is women have equal rights legally.

Tunisia - an Islamic country where women have equal rights.

Like any country, patriarchy and cultural practices occur.

According to the following link, there are only 14 countries in the world where women have FULL equal rights.

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/03/only-14-countries-have-full-equal-rights-for-women/

Most countries fall short - Islamic or otherwise.

In its purest form Islam confers massive respect and a great deal of autonomy upon women, but of course that doesn't suit some

I've never seen that side of Islam although I've read that it exists. Are Muslims free to practice a form of Islam where women have complete autonomy?

"Massive respect" doesn't really mean anything tbh.

International law says you can’t hold civilian hostages yet over a hundred are still being held including babies. It also says you can’t use humans as shields but Hamas builds tunnels and stores weapons under schools and hospitals . If Hamas surrender and give up the hostages the killing stops instantly so it’s in their hands. If it was your child or grandchild being held after the rest of the family was slaughtered wouldn’t you want your government to do all it takes to save them???

We can't just talk about America. Yes it's important because it's the most powerful country economically and military. Yes American cultural output dominates and has done since the 40s. But there are other countries, other things happening. It's not as if the American election has been underreported in UK media.

Islam seems particularly dictatorial and cruel to women

Only because of what some culturess have done to it, @Brananan

In its purest form Islam confers massive respect and a great deal of autonomy upon women, but of course that doesn't suit some, so they twist and corrupt what's actually a beautiful faith to suit their own ends and hope to cloak what they're doing with the inevitable shrieks of "Islamophobia/racism"

Happily there's a great deal of work done within muslim communities to combat this kind of thing, but as usual the bad guys shout loudest and because too many useful idiots enable them the better news gets drowned out

This is abhorrent and needs to be stopped.