following a disturbing title (Bride-Snatching Involved in Half of All Marriages in Kyrgyzstan) on liveleak, i came across this video:
note the shaming guilt placed on the kidnapped wives and the ambivalent, entitled attitudes of the men interviewed for this video.
i can't believe this practice, called ala kachuu, goes on so regularly(or even at all.) also disturbing is the fact that the authorities officially state that wife-snatching is illegal, but that no one ever prosecutes. and of course the abducted women are considered unclean, impure, or tainted by muslim standards, and will be shunned by their families and society if fleeing their captors, especially once the marriage is consummated, aka rape, occurs. how's that for a horribly textbook description of double victimization? thank gods there are people like the woman in the video fighting for the victims' rights.
it's inconceivable that they have to teach students that stealing your bride is wrong, but i'm glad they're at least acknowledging that there's a problem with viewing women as chattel.
this practice of wife snatching is becoming more popular since the fall of the USSR, as the liberation of the area has caused many groups to harken back to ancient customs and traditions.
hiding behind cultural relativism in this case is a load of bs to me. kidnapping is a crime, no matter to which gods you do or do not pray. your religion does not entitle you to rape, demean, and abuse others.
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3 comments:
The thing that most people miss is that it doesn't have anything to do with religion. Just like violent homophobes don't actually have anything to do with Christianity, it's just what certain psychopaths use to hide behind. This isn't an issue of religion, it's an issue of misogyny and violence. Accepting the rhetoric that this is about religion is really only going to make things worse.
http://thecurvature.com
so true cara. though people use religion as a medium for their crimes, it's not intrinsic to core beliefs and principles. habit for the sake of habit does not justify despicable hateful actions.
Unfortunately Islam does give permission to muslim men to steal, rape, and treat women how ever they think a woman should be treated with no regard for her feelings or wishes. The Koran Surah 2 verse 223 says "your wives are your field: go in therefore, to your field as ye will." Surah 4:34 says "Men are superior to women on account of the qualities with which Allah hath gifted the one above the other." Surah 2:228 says "And it is for the women to act as they (their husbands) act by them, in all fairness;but the men are a step above them." Surah 5:6 even goes as far as to say that touching a woman makes a woman unclean. There are just a few of the many verses in the koran that give men supreme rights over women.
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