Domestic abuse in Arab world

by Elsewhere 8 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Elsewhere

  What is interesting is when I did a search on the Aljazeera news web site for her name (Rania al-Baz) absolutly nothing was found.

  
  
  

  Article matches for Rania al-Baz on Aljazeera.net Results are sorted by date. Results 0-0 of 0 No document found Results 0-0 of 0

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3631743.stm

  Saudi presenter shows beaten face

  A TV presenter who says she was beaten by her husband has allowed newspapers to show pictures of her swollen face to highlight domestic abuse.

  Rania al-Baz said her husband, Mohammed al-Fallatta, beat her so hard earlier this week that he broke her nose and fractured her face in 13 places.

  She is recovering in hospital. Police are looking for Mr Fallatta, an unemployed singer.

  Reuters news agency says he faces charges of attempted murder.

  Ms Baz's mother told Saudi media that Mr Fallatta beat her daughter regularly.

  I want to use what happened to me to draw attention to the plight of women in Saudi Arabia
  Rania al-Baz

  This time, the mother is quoted as saying, he became infuriated when Ms Baz answered the telephone.

  After beating her, Mr Fallatta took her to hospital and fled, her mother reportedly added.

  "I want to use what happened to me to draw attention to the plight of women in Saudi Arabia," Ms Baz said.

  Every morning for the past six years, Ms Baz has been the smiling face of a family programme on Saudi television. She is well-known and loved in the kingdom.

  The BBC's correspondent Kim Ghattas says this is probably the first time ever that a case of domestic violence has received media coverage in Saudi Arabia.

  It is a deeply conservative society, where Islamic Sharia law is strictly enforced and where honour and appearances are hugely important.

  The presence of problems such as domestic violence, rape, paedophilia or Aids is often simply not acknowledged our correspondent adds.

  'Husband's right'

  "It is considered a husband's rights that his wife should obey him," Abeer Mishkhas, of the Saudi English-language newspaper Arab News, told BBC News Online.

  "This can involve coercion or violence, and we know that the majority of cases of this kind go unreported and unnoticed."

  More and more Saudi women go to civil courts to request divorces on grounds of violence, Ms Mishkhas says.

  But they are still not allowed to vote, drive, own a business or travel without permission from a male guardian.

  Story from BBC NEWS:
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3631743.stm
• 

  ColdRedRain

  I hope this does highlight the way that women are being treated in that backwards part of the world.

  But on a different note, this vaugely is better than JW culture. These women have a right to divorce and remarry on account of spousal abuse, while JW's aren't allowed to do so without getting DF'ed.
• 

  True North

  If you searched on the official JW site for anything regarding physically abused JW women who had been asked by elders -- to whom they had turned for help -- "What have you been doing to cause your husband's behavior?" or "Are you being submissive enough?", how much info would you find? Of course, maybe these sorts of things have never happened...

  I wonder if most religions -- as they have been practiced, not just as they have been preached -- have helped or hurt women. Sometimes it seems to me that the position of women in today's world may be best in some of its least religious segments.
• 

  BeautifulGarbage

  But on a different note, this vaugely is better than JW culture. These women have a right to divorce and remarry on account of spousal abuse, while JW's aren't allowed to do so without getting DF'ed.

  However, the caveat being that a woman in a conservative Muslim country, that is granted a divorce (and it ain't easy, folks), loses all custody of her children. In marriage, the children BELONG to the Father. So, the choice is, be beaten, or lose your children. Even most American women would probably choose to be beaten if it meant completely losing her children.

  Thank the gods the WTS doesn't have control over that.

  Unfortunately, what we, the west, consider to be "spousal abuse" is considered a man's right and a normal part of marriage by many muslims.
• 

  blacksheep

  In marriage, the children BELONG to the Father. So, the choice is, be beaten, or lose your children. Even most American women would probably choose to be beaten if it meant completely losing her children.

  Yes, very good point. I recall seeing a BBC documentary on this. It still haunts me how the mother was begging to keep at least one of her children--the father, and the courts said no. What a choice: stay and endure beatings or lose your children.
• 

  Realist

  ok now i will cause an outrage but a woman does not completely lose her children after a divorce (at least not in egypt...maybe in saudi arabia). the children stay with the father he has the costudy. but they are free to visit their mother. its pretty much the reverse situation to what is going on in the west.
• 

  BeautifulGarbage

  ok now i will cause an outrage but a woman does not completely lose her children after a divorce (at least not in egypt...maybe in saudi arabia). the children stay with the father he has the costudy. but they are free to visit their mother. its pretty much the reverse situation to what is going on in the west.

  Not to worry, no outrage here. That, perhaps, is true in Eygpt. It's absolutely not true in Iran and Saudi Arabia. However, notice how the custody, in Eygpt, still goes to the Father, automatically. They are free to visit? That's a good thing. But, what about making parenting and childraising decisions? That would be up to the decretion of the Father on whether or not Mom would be able to even participate. The kids are his property, after all. I suppose when, how often, and where would be up to the Father. I don't think that the west, though, should get up on their progressive moral high horse. It wasn't that awful long ago that women were considered chattle, couldn't own property, or vote, on this side of the planet. Quite frankly, the main item that eliminates subjection is money. It was when women could keep, and make money, and own property, is when it changed. In other words, western women were able to flip the financial middle finger. And so when Muslim, and other poor women, are able to do that, their plight will change.
• 

  Realist

  beautiful,

  quite possible that it is worse in saudi arabia and iran!

  i just know the situation in egypt from a female friend whose parents are divorced and who nevertheless regularly saw her mother.
• 

  blacksheep

  the children stay with the father he has the costudy. but they are free to visit their mother. its pretty much the reverse situation to what is going on in the west.

  Actually, what's more common in the US today is that both parents share custody and share in parenting decisions.