Discriminatory Laws
An article in yesterday’s Jordan Times about discriminatory laws against women got me to thinking. With due respect and credit to all concerned, there are several major areas that must be addressed or whatever progress is made to correct legislation will be too little.
First is polygamy. The fact that it is lawful for men to take more than one wife is certainly discriminatory against women. It is a sword over a woman’s neck forcing her to submit to male control. If she is under threat that her husband is able to take another wife, she has little, if any, reasonable emotional or financial security.
Second is inheritance. The fact that a wife will inherit only one eighth of her husband’s assets is completely antiquated and unfair.
Third is honor crimes. The fact that a woman can be murdered for disobedience, suspicion of ‘sexual’ activity, or any other misdemeanor that would never stand up as a criminal charge in a court of law, is disgusting. Any one using ‘honor crime’ as a reason for murder should be prepared to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In Jordan, the fact that the family of the victim can forgive the killer, thus reducing his prison term to about three months, is incredible. No one can ‘forgive’ a crime or the perpetrator of a crime except the victim, and in this case, she is dead! To do otherwise is to say that the woman was the property of another, a thing.
Unless Jordan addresses these laws and traditions as discriminating against women and abolishes them, all other changes will be hollow.
ASH
First is polygamy. The fact that it is lawful for men to take more than one wife is certainly discriminatory against women. It is a sword over a woman’s neck forcing her to submit to male control. If she is under threat that her husband is able to take another wife, she has little, if any, reasonable emotional or financial security.
Second is inheritance. The fact that a wife will inherit only one eighth of her husband’s assets is completely antiquated and unfair.
Third is honor crimes. The fact that a woman can be murdered for disobedience, suspicion of ‘sexual’ activity, or any other misdemeanor that would never stand up as a criminal charge in a court of law, is disgusting. Any one using ‘honor crime’ as a reason for murder should be prepared to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In Jordan, the fact that the family of the victim can forgive the killer, thus reducing his prison term to about three months, is incredible. No one can ‘forgive’ a crime or the perpetrator of a crime except the victim, and in this case, she is dead! To do otherwise is to say that the woman was the property of another, a thing.
Unless Jordan addresses these laws and traditions as discriminating against women and abolishes them, all other changes will be hollow.
ASH
posted by joladies at Tuesday, January 16, 2007
7 Comments:
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I can't agree more on the honour crimes,, But I fully disagree about inheritance laws and multiple wives for men, for both of them are not laws that were put by Man, they are both laws from the religion. The problem is that we don't adhere to our religious laws. In Islam, a man can take another wife in certain cases.. the problem is that in our scociety we only take that part that we like, so all men get married because they allowed to, but too little think of the cases in which they are allowed to do so, some are not even aware that there are conditions for it. So people who can't abide by Gods laws, won't definatley abide by our own ones.
Islam is a religion that protects women rights more than any other law.. And since we are a Muslim country, then at least we should follow the religion's laws.
im afraid you're forgetting something here,the first two are not laws nor traditions,these are the rules of islam which Jordan - as a muslim country - must obey.
and of course,no-one knows whats best for humans more than the one who created them,God.
I'm not quite sure that Islam is a religion that protects women's rights more than any other religion because either majority of Muslims practice it wrong and women end up discriminated or the religion does not give us our due rights.
It is only natural for cultures and society to evolve and therefore what made sense hundreds of years ago probably does not apply much now.
I am equal to my brother. We both work hard to earn our livlihoods, we have exact same responsibilities at home and at work and we are both equally loved by our family. Therefore, why should he get a bigger share of our inheritence?
And so what if there are conditions for men to be able to marry more than one woman? Women too should then have the luxury of marrying more than one man and have the same conditions applied to her too.
That's equality.
Thanks for the thoughtful and informative comments to my posting. I believe that any law in any land should come under scrutiny and be changed if it is a bad or unfair law. Individuals may strive to live by God's laws but nations are not able to do so. If they had been, the world wouldn't be in the shape that it is in now.
ASH
To be honest, i know that Jordan is an islamic country and therefor follows the islamic law, however, that does not mena it is right. Its a well known fact that most if not all islamic countries are considered developping for that sole reason.
I cannot believe the inequiality between the two sexes, why am i allowed to marry four wives? well that isn't very common, but what is common is the inheritence issue. A big question i have is why christians in jordan dont follow all islamic rules such as marrying marrying more than one wife but still follow the islamic inheritence law. There must be some real christian sexist assholes playing with the law...
you either follow all the laws or non...
It is unfair, Jordan, the islamic world. I am a man and you really dont believe how much i hate the being in jordan for that reason. Maybe i'm wrong, maybe my family is wrong, but when has equiality and a lack of predjudice ever been wrong.
I dont say that silam is wrong, i just say that islam was right in the past, when the prophet came, women didn;t work and life was different and to control everything he had to make rules based on that era. However, currently the rules are not adequate.
I don't know how a country can have a religion. Jordan is a country, with more than 90% muslim citizens. The citizens believe in Islam, but since the country is not a living thing, it can't have a religion...Am I making sense? A country should only have laws and legislations. Religion should not take the place of the law. If you go against religion, you're accountable to God, or the great power you believe in, but if you break the law, you're accountable to society!
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