To wonder why the mainstream media is not reporting the massive anti-regime protests in Iran?

It was indeed vile what some 'Western feminists' said about Oct 7. I don't know what's happened : don't women realise male-led 'anticolonial struggles' often tend to be terroristic and misogynistic?

On a much less bad level, it's like left wing women who sympathised with the IRA. Who would have enforced the misogynistic harsh Catholic norms on N. Ireland if they'd won.

Some left wing Jewish women (usually not very religious but still close to Judaism culturally) in the US esp seem to have suicidal empathy on this. I used to read US lesbian magazines & several have recently gone crazy not just on trans issues but on Israel. Criticise Likud, fine. But I've read articles, in such magazines (with several Jewish women on the editorial board), arguing that Oct 7 rapes & murders didn't happen or were not that severe. In the comments, the people speaking up were non Jewish women, some Jewish women who couldn't understand what was happening with the editors & some Arab & Muslim women who had escaped from theocratic fundamentalist regimes and were astonished at what was being written.

This is however the kind of context good, serious journalism should be giving. If all the news can do is tell us something is happening somewhere, we might as well just get it on Twitter or some other internet platform. Where institutions like the BBC earned their credibility was giving the background in a neutral way that allowed the viewer to make their own informed assessments of what was happening. Rather than the current approach of withholding information they think might lead people to make assessments they don't approve of.

Are the BBC just too clueless and not aware themselves, even their Middle East experts? Is it, as a pp said, about supporting people they see as supporters of Palestine, or not supporting people they see as anti-Islam? Is it about not wanting to reveal the shit Venezuela gets up to?

I wish the Iranians success. Not so sure about re-establishing the Peacock Throne though.

No-one is being bombed, hopefully. Why were the Gazans killed? Did they by any chance breach the ceasefire? And if Hamas reported it I wouldn't trust it as far as I could throw it.

Some did, along the lines that it was women who carried FGM out and it was part of their culture - a bit 'if women do it it's ok'ism, I think.

No. Consumation of a marriage once a girl reached puberty was normal at that time in the Middle East and was not considered improper (bear in mind that the age of consent in the UK was 12 until as recently as the 1880s). It is that he raped the widow of a man he had executed after defeating him in battle. That's what I object to.

It's possible to criticise the Netanyahu government's war tactics, at least partially and still affirm that what happened on Oct 7 was genocidal barbarity.

I agree that genocide was not committed against the Palestinians though. Words have meanings, and if it gets used for every terrible civilian-heavy conflict with questionable ethics at several points, then Hiroshima & Dresden would be genocides too.

I know. But for some reason some people still believe genocide happened in Gaza. It didn't, it happened on 7th Oct 23 - and that was dismissed by many western feminists as 'okay' or at least understandable because it was resistance. I think if you put such a scenario in a novel it would be considered unbelievable - because it is.

The latter. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.

I also grew up listening to the BBC. I barely recognise it nowadays.

When did the shooting more or less stop? 14 Gazans including 5 kids killed today. Hey ho.

Didn't a lot of Western feminists oppose FGM from early on? I wasn't aware many defended it on those grounds of culture?

BBC Persian is really good.

I cannot fathom why western feminists aren't supporting Iranian women. It may be because veiling is 'cultural' and western feminists have a bad record on anything so labelled e.g. FGM. It may also be because Iranian women do not seem oppressed in the right way - there is some support for Afghan women but not much there, either. Strange.

Of course it was lies! Hamas are pure evil..

That hasn't always been true. Jews like Maimonides lived peacefully in the Spanish Nasrid empire, one was even the vizier.

The Ottomans did make Christians and Jews live as dhimmis, but they lived in peace generally until the terrible events of WW1.

The Mughals were sometimes horrible to Hindus & Sikhs (Aurangazeb for one) but others were tolerant.

The real issue are the Salafi/Wahhabi/Deobandi fundamentalists who sprung up in the 18th century & caused today's problems.

Looking at what happened once the shooting more or less stopped most of what Hamas put out was lies. Mind, a terrorist group feeds on collateral damage as it enhances their own image as the 'good guys'.

You mean re Aisha allegedly being nine when the marriage was consummated?

Muhammad was clearly far from the ideal person Muslims want him to be, but Aisha being nine has always seemed dubious to me.

All his (many 🙄) other wives were adults, his first wife was older. Paedophiles tend to show a preference for a particular age group, even if they also have an adult spouse for whatever reason. I disagree with a lot of apologetics for Muhammad but on the issue of Aisha's age I do think the argument that it was later exaggerated for theological reasons has weight.

Yes, the Guardian has reported a lot, and those others.

What I find weird is people who damn the MSM as a whole forget we have a goodly number of right-wing papers too (DM, Express, Telegraph, Times etc). So when they complain about MSM, they implicitly mean 'left wing MSM'.

It frustrates me as we do have serious media issues but sometimes it strikes me that people who used to only read left wing media feel there is a 'lack of MSM reporting' when they then start on other news sources after being alerted to an issue, like trans issues eg. When actually the issue is not a 'MSM lack of reporting' but a lack of reporting on an issue from papers from one side of the political spectrum, which happens on both sides.

The solution is of course to read papers from both sides. Ideally everyone would report on everything, but this isn't an ideal world.

No. How can it be a race? It's a religion. One of the hassles I have with Islam is the idea that we are all born Muslims and some of us have deviated and need to be pulled back into the faith i.e. the destruction of any religion except Islam. (It's not my greatest hassle, that's that the founder was an unrepentant rapist.)

It is disgusting people are ignoring it, esp 'feminists'. The Guardian has had some good coverage so left wing media is entirely not ignoring women rebelling against misogyny. The BBC is a different matter..

May I ask if you grew up under a Salafi/Wahhabi regime? I understand totally if you'd rather not give more detail.

Sky have reported it. I think the BBC as well.

I am so sorry you feel this way. You are right, we should stand up for women. I will always try to.

I have heard several reports on the Beeb. It's not correct to say they aren't reporting. Ive also read reports in Times, Telegraph FT and Guardian. There are a lot of social media posts claiming that MSM isn't reporting but they are incorrect.

I was taught ‘hair,’ but to be honest it’s splitting them.

To me, the frightening thing is the received wisdom that men’s sexual impulses are the responsibility of pubescent girls onward.

I cannot fathom why western feminists aren’t lauding en masse their Iranian sisters. Well, actually I can and it is a disgrace.