To think that it's a bit stupid to make breastfeeding compulsory?

[puntasticusername]

I mean, really, WTAF?

Breastfeeding made compulsory by UAE

Though I do have to grudgingly admire Lenore Skenazy for coming up with the phrase "sucking the choice out of parenting" to describe these sorts of initiatives.

So men can sue their wives? A delightful example of something that should be all about freedom being turned into an opportunity for men to control women's bodies.

Not surprising given the attitude to women in these countries. I assume the wet nurses will be low paid foreign maids separated from their own babies.

I'm in with what you might term a lactavist crowd, and there has been an uproar about this.

In the end it has nothing to do with breastfeeding, and everything to do with controlling women. This is sexism through and through.

If it happened here I wouldn't have had my children. It's outrageous to tell women what they can and can't do with their bodies ( within reason)

I was going to say UABU, but for 2 years? I presume that mothers in the UAE don't work then, as you would struggle to fit being a nurse, for example, with night shifts, around 2 years of feeding.

Good grief.

It's a characteristically mad piece of legislation, which (like several other short-term UAE laws I can think of from when we lived there ) will almost certainly be rescinded in due course.

Honestly, this is what happens in a dictatorship with a cosmetic National Assembly to make it look slightly more democratic. Sheikh Mo or the king gets up one day huffing about the appalling obesity rates in the UAE (40% of population and rising) and someone suggests this as a solution, and it gets run with...

Ignoring the breathtaking misogyny of this legislation for a moment: I'm intrigued to know just how this "husband sues wife" business works. I expect that the majority of couples will pool their financial resources, so how will a husband gain anything by suing his wife, and given that couples are required to financially support each other, what will the wife have to lose? (Other than her respect for her husband)

UAE is the high Nazi state of sexism.

(thank Germaine Greer for that comment)

They have lots of insane, religion based legislation which impacts negatively on the lives of women.

PeterParker - actually breastfeeding to 2 years is perfectly possible for most women who work, once they get past the first 6 months. It's not like breastfeeding a newborn.

Should add - most Muslim women I know who are devout want to breastfeed for a minimum of 2 years, because the Koran suggests that this is what they should do.

Thank god we live in a country where there is a separation between church and state.

Peterparker I went back to work when dd was 11 months. Bf her until she was 2.3. It's doable.

But a shocking piece of legislation.

Then again, this is a country that executes people for adultery.

What if you can't breast feed?

In theory, I don't think it's that bad an idea because I agree that all babies deserve to be breast fed, but there are too many problems with the reality of it to be a good idea.

For starters, not all babies want to feed for that long, mine certainly didn't!

Good god, how awful. Never mind what if you can't breastfeed, what if you simply don't want to?

But they only get 45 calendar days' maternity leave in the UAE, so peterparker has a point.

It amazes me that Western people, especially Western women, choose to live in these countries.

I don't think this has anything to do with "the breastfeeding movement" Miaow - it's about how a deeply misogynistic state views women's bodies.

"Dismayed there isn't more of an outcry against it - but then I guess people are too scared of doing ANYTHING that might be seen as questioning the breastfeeding movement really."

This law will have absolutely NOTHING to do with the 'breastfeeding movement'. It will have everything to do with a religious court (made up predominantly middle aged men who know fuck all about breastfeeding) deciding to create a piece of secular legislation on the basis of a religious edict.

Nobody is 'scared' of questioning the breastfeeding movement, because the breastfeeding movement worldwide has no real power, precious little money and very little success in persuading most women to breastfeed for more than a few weeks. The vast majority of those involved in this movement who have any influence at all at a policy level are actually health professionals - doctors and epidemiologists - not shadowy pressure groups.

knew someone was going to come on to this thread bleating about how awful lactivists are

Miaow that's out of order - this isn't a 'breastfeeding movement' issue. This is pure and simply sexism at its worst. As well the worst kind of cultural imperialism - because you can bet all those wet nurses won't be UAE citizens.

"What if you can't breast feed?"

Allayh has decided that its time for your newborn to enter baby paradise."

Yay, another Muslim bashing, Arab bashing thread. For fucks sake who gives a shit?

I'd imagine the women being forced by law to breastfeed for two years may well give a shit.

I really do give a shit about this Theo. And I don't see it as Muslim or Arab bashing, it's not Muslims or Arabs who are doing this, it is a political and ruling male elite who are concerned with stripping women of their rights to bodily autonomy.

What do you mean who gives a shit? It's nothing to do with Muslim-bashing. It's everything to do with controlling women