Originally Posted by
Clare Prop
Some people can justify anything.
From Human Rights Watch: Qatar’s personal status law discriminates against women in marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. The law provides that women can only marry if a male guardian approves of the marriage; men have a unilateral right to divorce while requiring women to apply to the courts for divorce on limited grounds; and a wife is responsible for looking after the household and obeying her husband. Under inheritance provisions, female siblings receive half the amount their brothers get.
The penal code does not criminalize domestic violence or marital rape
Sounds pretty sexist and barbaric to me.
I am not sure anyone has justified anything on this thread?
That which you quote above is a function of Qatar law being based on Sharia law, the same is true of a few tens of countries around the world (UAE & Pakistan being two notable others). Undoubtedly Sharia law is sexist - there is no doubt about that. But it does not follow that
Arabs are sexist, indeed I would argue society in many Arab countries is far ahead of the rather traditionalist stance of the law. This is usually the case - law lags society by decades or even centuries - the Australia Act being passed as recently as 1985, is a good example of this. Also, it was only relatively recently that martial rape became considered a crime in the UK, and most US States, so it is unfair to consider Qatar to be an outlier in this regard.
I expect that, over time, Arab countries will gradually liberalise their laws and societies and that women will achieve parity with men. We should not forget how relatively recently (and, indeed, incompletely) this is the case in the "West". But regarding the case at hand, I continue to advocate that we consider the facts, and leave aside any prejudices towards Arabs, which can only lead us to invalid conclusions.