UKC

There's a petition aimed at pressuring Jordan into scrapping their law which forces women to marry their rapists.

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/jordan_marry_rapist_law_loc/?aZmsWbb

Even if you don't think it'll do any good. with the mental health consequences of being raped including depression, intense anger, PTSD, and suicide attempts, please take 5 seconds out of your day to sign this.

Being forced to marry one's rapist, can only be a living hell made worse...

In reply to Timmd:

I saw a movie on Netflix called "Sandstorm " that depicted marriage in the Bedouin culture. Essentially, a husband was picked for a girl and she couldn't even see him before. The wedding had two separate ceremonies, at the end of the bride's she went to sit in the bedroom. At the end of the groom's, he gets cheered on by his mates into the bedroom and walks in to meet his virgin bride and then I can only assume consummate the marriage. That looked pretty much like rape to me, as standard procedure for every marriage. The only difference between the circumstances you are referring to is that the rape happens before the marriage.

I'm not trying to throw in some whataboutism and I guess we can dislike both at the same time, but it seems like a drop in the bucket when every marriage seems to start with a rape.
If anyone else has more knowledge on this subject and I've got it all wrong, I'd love to hear about it.

In reply to Timmd:

I once, er, dated a Palestinian woman on a few successive business trips to Jordan. Only recently have I begun to understand why she was so nervous, how naive I was and how lucky not to get my balls chopped off or worse.

In reply to Jimbocz:
It just about doing something, or anything, really. The world is full of shit, and this petition is aimed at trying to do something about how things are in Jordan - this particular bit of shit. Somebody I know is affected as in my OP, I've gone from thinking being raped must be awful, to seeing how devastating it can be if help isn't given for the trauma.

If we can stop things become too intellectual and relative, and sign the petition, that would be appreciated.

It might do nothing at all, but it takes seconds to sign. It can damage people and it's very sad.

In reply to Timmd:
A bump, just for the disliker.

In reply to Timmd:
It says that they just scrapped that law, no more loophole. Don't know what part the petition played but well done

In reply to trouserburp:

Great.

In reply to Timmd:
Well said. Despite the opinion of the bizarre dislike, I was on my way to sign the petition but I guess it's not necessary.

In reply to Timmd:

Tells me all I need to know about the evil of islam, that any religion led nation could ever, even in medieval times uphold such a law beggars belief. That it should still exist on any statute in 21st century is gob smacking.

In reply to cragtaff:


It seems a little harsh to single Islam out here. After all, Deuteronomy 22:28-29, read literally, requires the same thing. Better to say that a literal interpretation of any religious text is a terrible foundation for a state.

In reply to Jack B:

You can say what you like, but comparing the modern day implementation of sharia with something written in Deuteronomy several thousands of years ago and ignored ever since is not reasonable. It amounts to condoning it in my book. The entire world left the medieval days behind, islam hasn't.

In reply to cragtaff:

I'm certainly not condoning it, do not accuse me of that. Forced marriage and rape are terrible crimes, doubly so when combined. What I am saying is that it is not as simple as "blame Islam". To try and make that clearer, here's an example of a religious but non-Islamic case where a child seems to have been forced to marry her rapist:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/11-year-old-girl-forced-to...

That's a well reported case, because it happened in the USA and the victim eventually wrote a book about it. Probably there are less well reported cases in other areas. And although not directly equivalent, the resistance to criminalising marital rape in Uganda and much of Africa is deeply rooted in interpretations of Christian teachings.

So I stick by my argument. It is not the close combination of Islam and the state which causes this, it's the close combination of literally interpreted religion and the state. These rape/marriage laws (Jordan was not alone in this) exist because the respective states are strongly religious, not because the religion is Islam. IMO we are quite fortunate that for historical reasons involving power struggles between the church and crown, most of the west in which we live has a good separation of church and state (de facto even if not de jure).

In reply to Timmd:

The problem goes a a little deeper than whats on the surface. If the victim doesn't marry the rapist then she can be out cast by her family and subject to honour killing. For "protection" the state will then incarcerate the lady in conditions worse than jail for a very long time. There is a lot more to be fixed. It's more than just religion it's cultural tribal and societal.