[UWSL]There's this myth that only women are oppressed in muslim countries and men are privileged. we all know the myth that male privilege exists in the western world or that men were privileged during history which are not true. well this isn't true for muslim nations either.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]Here's some information:[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Afghanistan[/UWSL]
[UWSL]Afghanistan gets labeled the worst country on Earth for women but it isn't anything better for men either.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Trafficking[/UWSL]
[UWSL]Well here's a fun fact: [/UWSL]
boys are more likely in Afghanistan to be trafficked than girls[UWSL]. They can be subjected to sexual trafficking, forced labor or being sent off as a soldier (a loophole due to the country's absence of conscription). For example, boys often age 13 and under often were sexually trafficked into Bacha Bazi or "boy play", which was a custom where young boys were forced into entertainment where they danced or sang sexually as male entertainers for adult men and were raped repeatedly by their captors and his friends. At least 50 percent of sexual exploitation in Afghanistan was bacha bazi, and it often crossed lines into forced labor. Boys age 13 and under were most likely to be sexually exploited, and because Afghan girls were banned from sexual work and entertainment because they were seen as child-bearers and homemakers, [/UWSL]
Afghan boys were picked as a substitute for sexual gratification[UWSL], being seen as a substitute for women. As a result, the people raping them saw them as a fake woman and didn't consider themselves gay for raping them. Taliban opposed Bacha Bazi but American-backed Afghan leaders practiced it and American forces ignored it. This led to support towards Taliban from families of victims and others opposed to the practice. The boys were made to dress in feminine attire and were released as soon as they grew beards. Many powerful Afghan men supported the practice because they believed women are for children and boys are for sexual gratification.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]Boys are more likely to be trafficked in Afghanistan than girls, as mentioned above, and often forced into forced labor or being a soldier, with young men ages 14-18 often being forced as soldiers or forced labor. Many soldiers were forced to become suicide bombers and young men put in forced labor worked in mines, worked in the streets or assistant truck driving.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Crime victimization and abuse[/UWSL]
Physical abuse and corporal punishment is common for Afghan kids[UWSL]. Except for baseline, boys were more likely than girls to experience physical punishment at home. Boys were also more likely than girls to experience peer violence victimization. Boys also scored higher than girls on depression, but often admittedly scored slightly higher on hope. Schools and teachers also inflicted corporal punishment and violence, particularly on boys. 100% of boy schools and only 20% of girl schools involved physical punishment from teachers. The same study found high rates of sexual abuse, including rape, of boys at schools, often by male teachers and older boys.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]When it comes to physical abuse, mothers often can be aggressors. In a [/UWSL]
study[UWSL], 71.8% of married women admitted to physically abusing their children, and a little less than half said their partner also did so, which means many times their partner, presumably a husband, did [/UWSL][UWSL]not[/UWSL][UWSL] do so. [/UWSL]
In a study of physical abuse of children in Afghanistan[UWSL], men were more likely to believe boys got more physically disciplined, possibly due to probably experiencing it themselves or due to boys being perceived as potentially troublemakers. Women believed girls were beaten more, and women reported higher levels of violence directed towards girls because men might be unaware of violence mothers inflict on girls in the house.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Murder/homicide[/UWSL]
[UWSL]In Afghanistan, [/UWSL]
87% of homicide victims are men[UWSL]. [/UWSL]
In fact[UWSL], Afghan men and boys were killed all the time and American media only focused on the women and children, portraying Afghan men as sexist oppressors, but these men are usually victims instead. Due to media portraying Afghan men as evil misogynistic terrorists, the American military killed many male Afghan civilians and assumed they were terrorists. The media used feminist language (even the right-wing media did this) to portray women there as damsels in distress in need to help but not due to care for the women there, but to influence Americans into supporting the war against Afghanistan. America's war created so many political and economic issues, it made Afghanistan even more dangerous and violent for women and even for men. In fact, the US military only helped solely women who claimed to be harmed by Taliban, so many women lied and said the Taliban hurt them to get US aid from the US military. Most American soldiers, just like their political leaders or generals, did not distinguish between Afghan male civilians and Taliban fighters, and thus killed many male civilians. They often were unlawfully imprisoned, tortured and killed by the US military despite being civilians. Often mistaken as security threats instead of civilians, these men were killed either by the US military or by Taliban. According to the [/UWSL][UWSL]Bureau of Investigative Journalism[/UWSL][UWSL], between January 2004 and February 2020, the US conducted at least 13,072 drone attacks in Afghanistan, killing 4126 to 10,076 people. 300 to 909 of those killed are believed to have been civilians. It's impossible to know how many were really civilians, because the US did everything to obscure this number. As the New York Times [/UWSL]
explained[UWSL] in 2012, for example, the Obama administration counted “all military-age males [killed] in a strike zone as combatants … unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.” “Counterterrorism officials,” the Times article went on to say, “insist this approach is one of simple logic: people in an area of known terrorist activity, or found with a top Qaeda operative, are probably up to no good.” Thus, many Afghan men who were civilians were killed by being guilty by association. They lived in Afghanistan in areas the US attacked, being labeled as automatically terrorists by default.[/UWSL]
In fact[UWSL], the media emphasizes women and children in Afghanistan who are wounded or killed, when adult men are the most likely to have been killed. In Afghanistan, of all civilian casualties, 32% were women and 14% were children. This means 54% were men. Men were the most likely to be casualties, more so than women and more so than children. Not to mention some these children are presumably boys. The media emphasizes exclusively the women and children who are killed.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Taliban's treatment of boys[/UWSL]
Taliban have turned so many young boys into soldiers[UWSL]. Boys as young as 6 are indoctrinated, and by age 13, learned how to use firearms. By their teenage years they were required to fight. The US-backed Afghan government and pro-government forces also recruited and used young boys. Taliban also used these boys to carry out suicides and other violent attacks, recruiting them through deception, promises of money or other incentives, or even threats. Taliban and other armed forces used young boys many times to carry out suicide bombings because they thought they could manipulate them more easily and might be less suspicious than adults. The US-backed former Afghan government and other pro-government forces also recruited young boys as recruitment and using them to fight. [/UWSL]
Taliban used many young boys even as young as age 7 as suicide bombers[UWSL], telling them lies like they would survive the bombing themselves if they were an amulet with Quran verses on it. Boys as young as 11 were also recruited by Taliban to carry out activities like smuggling weapons across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, planting explosive devices, and armed combat. There were even 5 year olds used to plant bombs in south Afghanistan.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]Another thing people must realize about Afghanistan is that women didn't lack rights in Afghanistan before Taliban took over. Look up pre-Taliban Afghanistan and women didn't need to wear veils and they were much more liberated and dressed in Western clothes and often had prestigious jobs. It was like America. Honestly if the CIA didn't give weapons to Islamic fundamentalist warriors in Afghanistan during the Afghan-Soviet War in the 80s, Taliban would've never taken over. That's how osama bin laden got his weapons. The CIA gave the mujahideen guerillas weapons which helped them fight off Soviets and they saved Afghanistan but these guerillas turned Afghanistan into another war zone. Then, the Taliban told Afghans that they would stop the war zones and offered an alternative, which many Afghans thought would liberate and save Afghanistan. They then recruited many people deceptively to increase the number of Taliban members, and this helped Taliban take over. A year after taking over, Taliban then began to become oppressive, which citizens didn't expect. If it wasn't for the CIA, the mujahideen wouldn't have taken over and thus Taliban wouldn't have been able to offer an alternative to citizens and take over. The CIA indirectly created Taliban. The CIA also are why Osama bin Laden managed to get weapons.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Iran[/UWSL]
[UWSL]Iran didn't make women dress a certain way or do anything particularly oppressive until 1979 when the Islamic Revolution happened. Before that, Iran was a secular monarchy and it wasn't different from the Western world. Women back then had more rights than women today in Iran. If it wasn't for the 1953 CIA assassination of their prime minister, King Shah wouldn't have had such a firm rule over Iran, which eventually led to Iranians having a fit about him and overthrowing him, creating modern Iran. The CIA's actions eventually led to modern Iran happening. But men in Iran have it just as bad as women in Iran. [/UWSL]
This article[UWSL] should give a lot of information so read this article too. Boys in Iran are disproportionately raped or homeless, men are drafted, 81.9% of murder victims are men (see citation above for Afghan murder victims too which is where I got this from), and men are economically oppressed too. The media only shows what women go through. There's much more details about men's oppression in Iran. They aren't a patriarchy. They oppress everyone, just like America.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Syria and Iraq (ISIS)[/UWSL]
[UWSL]The media always talks about how ISIS oppress women, but they hurt men all the time. If you look at Syria, so many men are killed, including by ISIS.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Murder[/UWSL]
Since March 2011, when the Syrian civil war began all the way up to now, 228,647 Syrian civilians have been killed[UWSL]. 79.4% of them were men (181,540 men), 6.96% were women (15,925 women), and 13% were children (29,741 children). Many of these children probably are boys. This means women were the least likely to be killed and usually men are killed. In fact, of all the 5,043 civilians ISIS killed, 68.65% were men, 11.64% were women, and 19% were children. Of the 200,367 civilians killed by Syrian government forces, 82.24% were men, 11.45% were children, and 5.96% were women. This means it's typically men being killed there. [/UWSL]
Within their first year following the 2014 declaration of Caliphate[UWSL], ISIS had already killed 1,362 civilians, including 9 children and 19 women. This means 97.94% were men.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Sexual assault[/UWSL]
Many times the media shows women being made as sexual slaves by ISIS. What they don't show is that many men face sexual abuse/rape in this region too[UWSL]. They often were held as prisoners and raped, gang raped, or sexually tortured with these men ranging from age 10 to age 80. They also might get jobs due to poverty while being sexually blackmailed or forced to do sexual favors in countries of asylum to be paid money. In asylum countries, boys might be molested by older youth and others. [/UWSL]
This sexual abuse of men and boys is done by ISIS, other non-state armed groups, or even the Syrian government[UWSL]. LGBT men were particularly at risk, but it happened to men regardless of sexuality, including straight, cisgender men. A woman for [/UWSL][UWSL]The Guardian[/UWSL][UWSL], a newspaper who are pro-feminist, [/UWSL]
even said[UWSL] she initially thought this was rare but interview many refugees from that region and all of them, including all the women, told her that they knew many men who were raped or sexually tortured, and of all men detained in prisons, the female refugees estimated 30 to 40% of the detained men were sexually abused. Armed groups even conducted raids on homes and raped both men and women. When fleeing, boys were promised food or money by older boys but were instead molested. [/UWSL]
Syrian men are just as often sexually assaulted or tortured as Syrian women[UWSL].[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Yemen[/UWSL]
Even in Yemen, men and boys are often sexually abused, raped or sexually tortured in detention centers[UWSL]. [/UWSL]
In 2020, about 62% of civilian casualties killed were men, but this article emphasizes women and children[UWSL]. [/UWSL]
Even in Yemen, men and boys are raped during conflict, and this is a problem that happens in conflicts worldwide, including in any other nation[UWSL]. This problem even happened in Libya in the 2011 revolution. Even in yemen, boys as young as age 8 are raped by often militias aligned with the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition. Psychologists treating former underage soldiers forced to fight for Houthis, an Islamist armed group in Yemen, found that 50 to 60% of them were sexually abused by their superiors.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Saudi Arabia[/UWSL]
[UWSL]Even Saudi Arabia has their fair share of oppression of men. [/UWSL]
When it comes to trafficking victims[UWSL], they only give shelter to female domestic workers and nobody else. Only Riyadh had a place for male domestic workers. Men and women from other employment sectors were unprotected. People like to complain about how women are not allowed to walk out or go on an airplane without a male guardian but [/UWSL]
young men weren't allowed in malls unless with a female relative in Saudi Arabia[UWSL]. [/UWSL]
In fact, evidence shows that women in Saudi Arabia are more likely than men to be happy[UWSL]. Saudi Arabia is more happy than most countries. People there might think people in the Western world treat women poorly, and that not allowing women to do certain things is protecting them. It's called benevolent sexism rather than misogyny (or hostile sexism). The way America views Saudi Arabia is how they view America, but the people there don't necessarily agree with the government laws. [/UWSL]
In Saudi Arabia, virtually everyone who is executed is male[UWSL], and there's many kinds of capital crimes there, and two-thirds of homicide victims are men (citation above). [/UWSL]
In 2013[UWSL], Saudi Arabia banned domestic violence by men against women, but ONLY men committing domestic abuse against women. Women doing this to men wasn't even banned. So much for patriarchy. [/UWSL]
In fact, in 2013[UWSL], most Saudi Arabian women opposed the right to drive and they believed it would lead to sexual harassment, men betraying them, and other problems. They believed it was horrible America would allow women to drive and thought it led to women being harmed or unsafe from predators, and believed this was an imitation of America. They instead believe America allowing women to drive is oppression. They believing being prohibited from driving was a privilege. In fact, this is similar to how long ago, many women often didn't want the right to vote because they believe suffrage was harmful to women by allowing them into the dangerous world of politics and considered the lack of right to vote a privilege or luckiness. [/UWSL]
In fact[UWSL], Afghanistan didn't allow anyone to vote until 2004 where everyone including women could vote. Although women couldn't vote in Saudi Arabia until 2015, men couldn't until 2005, just ten years prior.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Domestic violence[/UWSL]
There's surprisingly high rates of domestic abuse against men in the Arab countries, where way more men than women are victims of DV[UWSL]. There are more male victims than female victims of domestic violence in Yemen (70% vs 19%) Libya (66% vs 17%) Tunisia (52% vs 32%) Palestine (51% vs 18%) Iraq (49% vs 17%) Jordan (48% vs 11%) Sudan (41% vs 25%) Algeria (34% vs 16%). There are more female victims of domestic violence than male victims in Morocco (35% vs 29%) Egypt (43% vs 26%) and Lebanon (56 vs 18%). Typically people there get help by contacting relatives instead of police for dealing with domestic abuse. They don't often contact police unless they're in Lebanon.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Americans underestimate people's support for women's rights in these countries[/UWSL]
[UWSL]People in these countries aren't as conservative as their governments might be. [/UWSL]
Among men in Egypt[UWSL], men can have conservative attitudes towards women but even men. Although 53.4% said sometimes there are times where a woman deserves to be beaten, this doesn't mean they think this is always or frequently true and they might make special circumstances. They also could be thinking this only about wives instead of other women. [/UWSL]
Many wife beaters frowned upon hitting a woman but believe their wife was an exception by simply being a wife[UWSL]. These Egyptian men still had conservative attitudes about men, most believed men and women both should not have friends of opposite gender, and most of them (80%) believed that boys are responsibile for the behavior of their sisters, even if they're younger than their sister. This means they believe the boy should be held responsible for something the sister did. Many views in the data do show you that Egyptian men have conservative attitudes towards women, but people who have conservative attitudes about what women should do or their jobs don't feel this way due to hatred of women, but due to social norms/gender roles which they still believe about men, too. Although only 55% of Egyptian men were willing to work with a female boss, 74% support equal salaries for men and women in the same position, and 86% were willing to work with female colleagues at the same level. 77% believed women with the same qualifications can do as good a job as men. 71.7% supported women as members of parliaments/assemblies, 58.9% supported women as government ministers, 93.4% supported women's suffrage, and 71.1% supported women as NGOs. Admittedly only 45% believed in laws banning domestic violence including marital rape, but that's because there's ones who thought sometimes women deserved to be beaten but it's unknown if they think it's ok under all circumstances. It's unknown however if they approve of marital rape PER SE. 58% think more should be done to achieve gender equality but 70% believe it exists already. 52% believe equality is not part of Egyptian culture. 94% believe men who fail to pay maintenence should be penalized. Women were far more likely to spank (79% of women and 41% of men) or hit their children (44% of women and 11% of men). Some of the men admitted to having slapped or pushed their wife before and some women experienced it but most did not experience in the past year. Relatively low percentages outright beat them, and even lower percentages did so in the past year. Hardly any threatened them with a weapon. 64% of Egyptian men and 60% of Egyptian women believed woman should marry her rapist, but 72% of men and 67% of women disagreed with the idea that rapists should not be prosecuted if he rapes a woman then marries her. Only just 16% of men believed a woman is obliged to have sex whenever the husband wants if he provides financially, compared to 33% of women thinking this. Nonetheless, 80% of men and 73% of women believe a woman should be able to refuse to have sex with her husband when she doesn't want to. Only a third of men and women believed men who commit honor killings should not be punished, so many think they should be punished, but 62% of men and 49% of women believe the woman usually deserved it. Although many men in Egypt admitted to street harassment, it was usually merely ogling instead of catcalls.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]According to [/UWSL]
Gallup[UWSL] in 2007 (and the results could be different these days), 67% of Saudi men believed men and women should have equal rights, 55% believed they should be able to drive, 75% believed women should be allowed to have any job they are qualified for outside home, 52% believed women should have leadership positions in the cabinet and national council, 83% said women should keep all earnings from jobs for themselves and that husbands should support them and the household in full, and 88% believe in divorce, the child's financial support should be full responsibility of the father even if the mom has custody. Iranians had similar attitudes too, and most Iranians supported women's right to drive, including most Iranian men.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Dress codes[/UWSL]
[UWSL]People complain about how women are required to wear a veil, but this is only true in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and some of Afghanistan. It wasn't always true in these countries. Besides, in many countries they aren't required to wear anything and in any other country besides these 3 they aren't required to wear a veil but it is widespread. but only Saudi Arabia requires BURQAS. In Iran you still them wear normal clothes, just a mere hijab and they still show some of their hair.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]But men have a dress code too. [/UWSL]
In Iran[UWSL], men can't wear shorts or western hairstyles, and men who wear "feminine" clothes might get stripped or beaten. [/UWSL]
Men have to cover knees, and cannot wear sleeveless shirts without stigmatization[UWSL]. [/UWSL]
In Saudi Arabia[UWSL], men aren't required to wear thobes as tourists but must cover legs and shoulders. They must avoid skinny jeans, shorts or sleeveless shirts. [/UWSL]
In fact[UWSL], in Iran, up until maybe the 2000s, men were required to wear long-sleeved shirts before they could wear short-sleeved. [/UWSL]
In Iraq[UWSL], for example, barbers were killed by militias for giving "un-Islamic" haircuts or shaving beards. These Islamic militants tried to stop beardless men in Iraq. One Iraqi fled and said he was beaten up as onlookers cheered for lacking enough facial hair and wearing traditional clothes instead of a t-shirt and jeans or bright clothes or clothes with English writings. [/UWSL]
Taliban[UWSL] also set restrictions on men saying they will be fired from government unless they have beards and wear certain clothes. [/UWSL]
Taliban even will severely punish any man without a beard and stop male drivers to check if he has a beard or not[UWSL].[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
Conclusion[/UWSL]
[UWSL]It's a myth that men are privileged in Muslim nations. Men and women are both oppressed there. The media just focuses on when women are but ignores men's problems there. Religion can be seen as sexist towards both men and women. But if people want gender equality they can't act like men were never privileged throughout history but then make a special exception for Muslim countries due to an anti-Islam bias. In fact, [/UWSL]
the roots of sexism toward women in the Arab World go back to Ottoman empire problems, which is caused by western europe. It wasn't caused by Islam. Islam didn't cause sexism toward women in these countries. These countries weren't even always like this and pre-Islamic Arabia was actually WORSE for women until Muhammad came. It wasn't until the past couple centuries (and couple decades in some countries when it all changed) Dress codes in these countries used to be more diverse and vary until recent times[UWSL]. If people want gender equality they cannot act like feminists when it comes to Muslim nations. I've seen even MRA's act like feminists when it comes to muslim countries.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]No, the Quran doesn't say you can beat your wife. It says if she persistently behaves badly you can lightly spank her like what people do to children but it does NOT say you can beat her black and blue. If you do, you are punished in Islam and if you fatally beat her, you're executed. No, Saudi Arabia doesn't represent Islam. They're Wahhabis, which didn't exist until the 1700s or something. There's a dress code in Islam too, and men have to wear certain clothes covering their body and the Prophet even told men not to ogle women no matter what she dresses like and taught men self-control. That's another definition of hijab. Hijab also is a spiritual thing instead of just some headscarf for women. Men's hijabs exist too, it's the long clothes covering the legs and arms and shoulders and their self-control to avoid ogling women when it comes to what a man's hijab is. No, raping a woman isn't allowed in Islam. In fact, circumstantial evidence is allowed for proving rape in Islam and Muhammad did not punish victims and executed rapists. You don't near 4 witnesses for rape, you need 4 witnesses for ADULTERY. Stop believing what the media says about Islam, and most Middle Eastern governments don't represent true Islam.[/UWSL]
[UWSL]
@Robtical pin?[/UWSL]
