Foxnews.com “reports” on a sickening author and cleric who was broadcast on Saudi and Kuwaiti television giving advice to men on how and when to physically abuse their wives; he references how to assault a child as well.
The first sentence of the article reads: “Move over, Dr. Phil, there’s a new relationship expert in town.”
Then the segment is described. An example: “‘Woman, it has gone too far. I can’t bear it anymore,’ he tells the men to tell their wives. ‘If he beats her, the beatings must be light and must not make her face ugly.'”
The article’s last sentence: “Take that, Match.com!”
I don’t even know where to start with this–this man and his repugnant advice, or the news outlet who sees a flippancy to this story. Hideous all around.
yuck. so sad to say that I’m not shocked by the “news” source.
Fox News. That says it all.
You’re both so right. I don’t know why I was even surprised. Ugh.
what’s even more interesting is the author’s lack of opinion. i would hope that an enlightened journalist would write this article slanted against the advice to “beat them.” but there simply isn’t an authorial opinion….except for “take that match.com” which, to be honest, baffles me.
i don’t get the reference. is match.com known for matching up women with men who beat them? do they write little advice articles on how to properly “lightly beat” your future wife?
serahrose–I know what you mean. From the beginning “Dr. Phil, there’s a new relationship expert in town,” the only feel I could get from the author was that he/she was chuckling their way through it. It grossed me out.
Yes, it’s sickening but not surprising. It’s an “interpretation” of Islamic law formulated in the ninth century and therefore based on justice within the societal norms at the time. The thing for us in a global world is that we know about one another. Although the attitude expressed is awful, it will carry more weight than simply saying wife beating is horrendous and wrong which is what we would consider reasonable. That would be too radical and ignored. So as a way of minimizing harm, perhaps a step-by-step approach is necessary, and this may be part of that.
Artemis2–Thanks for your comment and your perspective on this. It’s clear to me that if you had been the author of that piece for Fox News, we would have gotten an article with history and context, and it would certainly have been something to spark meaningful discussion and debate. It’s all the more unfortunate that the person who did write this article decided to do nothing but be flippant. (Dr. Phil and Match.com? What on earth?)
It’s all the more interesting to me because Fox News is so often characterized as being pro-war in Iraq. It may be the same old wartime tradition of trying to dehumanize another group of people, in this case, people from the Middle East. And that’s unforgivable. I sincerely doubt that if a man from the United States was saying these things on television in the US, it would be acceptable for one of our top “news sources” to seem to be joking around about it.