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

[Waitingforfriday75]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/iraq-poised-to-lower-the-age-of-consent-for-girls-to-nine/

Posted here as it gets the most traffic. This is by far the worst news I’ve heard all year. Imagine at the age you were meant to start secondary school instead being forced to marry and have sex with an older man. Completely disgusting!!!

I have a 9 year old daughter who has 2 years left of primary school. I am grateful that we do not live in a society that thinks this is ok. There is no consent it is just legalising child abused for the pleasure of dirty old paedophile men. Women have less value than cattle in such societies.

And people say feminism isn't needed anymore.

Yeah, the Israeli army is treating Palestinian women and girls real well right now, huh?

Plenty of women and girls have been leaving. I know I've worked with them. But yes men are coming too. But will be subject to our laws at least

Those poor children 😢😢

That poster was quoting fact about the issues facing women in Muslim countries. Facts which have been all over the news - the most recent of which were reports that the Taliban have pretty much banned women from uttering a sound in public and decreed that women shouldn’t hear other womens’ voices. Quoting fact isn’t racist. Shouting ‘racist’ in place of cogent argument just shuts down the debate.

@MissyB1 it's not racist to state that women in Muslim-ruled countries are denied equal rights with men. It's a fact.

The rights of women in Iraq under Baathist (Saddam's rule) were far better. Saddam was mostly a secular ruler.

Western interference ( inc war) in these countries - Iraq, Syria, Iran have led to a rise in Islamic populism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WomeninIraq

Do these men not care about their daughters?

By daughters you mean their property?

If feeling desperate for the plight of female children in Iraq and blaming the Islamic regime in that country is racist, then I am happy to be racist in this instance.

This is abhorrent and needs to be stopped.

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

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.

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???

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.

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.

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.

I notice Indonesia and Tunisia are not on that list?

Yes they are.

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

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

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

There are still cultural expectations about covering yourself in Indonesia.

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

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.

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.