Showing posts with label Saudi Arabia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saudi Arabia. Show all posts

Friday, March 15, 2019

Ongoing controversies about same sex marriage

Relatively recent stories, about the Methodist world and the Arab world remind us that there remains considerable active repugnance to same sex marriage.

From the Washington Post:

Reeling from contentious LGBT vote, some Methodists pledge to fight while others mull leaving

"Dumbarton United Methodist Church is the oldest United Methodist congregation in Washington, D.C., dating almost 200 years before the United Methodist denomination was created — even before the United States was created.

"On Wednesday, when the church’s minister, the Rev. Mary Kay Totty, traveled back to Washington from a groundbreaking meeting in St. Louis, where the denomination decided to uphold its opposition to same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy, she said she thought that centuries-old history might be at a breaking point.

“To think of not being Methodist,” she said, then stopped, unable to complete the sentence. Dumbarton voted to affirm gay worshipers more than 30 years ago, and the church has performed 20 same-sex marriages since 2010, breaking the rules of the denomination every time. Now such actions will be met with much harsher penalties."
**************
(The NY Times reports that there were some voting irregularities:
Improper Voting Discovered at Methodist Vote on Gay Clergy)

**************
And from the Guardian:

Luxembourg PM takes Arab leaders to task on gay rights at summit
Xavier Bettel says his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some countries

"Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, has confronted Arab leaders over the repression of gay rights, telling them his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some of their countries.
...
"Bettel, the first EU leader to be married to a same-sex partner, had planned to make the intervention before arriving at the summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, which was the first gathering between the EU and Arab League.

"Homosexuality is punishable by death under sharia law in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. Other countries in the region prohibit same-sex acts, including Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Syria, Kuwait and some of the United Arab Emirates.
...
"Bettel’s point is underscored by the treatment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Egypt, the country that hosted the summit.

"Homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt, but LGBT people are frequently detained on euphemistic charges such as “debauchery”. After the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, came to power in a coup in 2013, he “appeared to embrace persecution of gays and trans people as a political strategy” according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
...
"The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, defended the bloc’s decision to hold the summit. “If I only talked to flawless democrats, then I would end my week already by Tuesday,” he said."

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Repugnance watch: Pokemon in Saudi Arabia

Reuters has the story:
Top Saudi clerical body renews fatwa against Pokemon

"The General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars said it had revived a 2001 decree against a Pokemon card game in response to queries from believers.

The Council argued that the mutations of the creatures in the game, who are given specific powers, amounted to blasphemy by promoting the theory of natural evolution.

"It is shocking that the word 'evolution' has been much on the tongues of children," the fatwa read.

It also said the game contained other elements prohibited by Islamic law, including "polytheism against God by multiplying the number of deities, and gambling, which God has forbidden in the Quran and likened to wine and idols".

The fatwa added that symbols used in the game promoted Japan's Shinto religion, Christianity, Freemasonry and "global Zionism".

In conservative Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's two holiest sites, cinemas are banned and women's sports are discouraged as promoting sin."

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Repugnant transactions in Saudi

The NY Times has an interesting story on Saudi Arabia: A Saudi Morals Enforcer Called for a More Liberal Islam. Then the Death Threats Began.

Some of the story focuses on repugnant transactions:

"Their embrace of technology runs counter to the history of Wahhabi clerics rejecting nearly everything new as a threat to the religion. Formerly banned items include the telegraph, the radio, the camera, soccer, girls’ education and televisions, whose introduction in the 1960s caused outrage."
...
"The government has sought to control the flow of religious opinions with official fatwa institutions. But state-sanctioned fatwas have provoked laughter, too, like the fatwa calling spending money on Pokemon products “cooperation in sin and transgression.
While the government seeks to get more women into the work force, the state fatwa organization preaches on the “danger of women joining men in the workplace,” which it calls “the reason behind the destruction of societies.”
And there are fatwas that arm extremists with religious justification. There is one fatwa, still available in English on a government website and signed by the previous grand mufti, that states, “Whoever refuses to follow the straight path deserves to be killed or enslaved in order to establish justice, maintain security and peace and safeguard lives, honor and property.”
It goes on: “Slavery in Islam is like a purifying machine or sauna in which those who are captured enter to wash off their dirt and then they come out clean, pure and safe, from another door.”

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Chess playing as a repugnant transaction in Saudi Arabia

The NY Times has the story: Saudi Arabia’s Top Cleric Forbids Chess, but Players Maneuver

"Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has declared the playing of chess “forbidden,” calling it a waste of time and money that creates hatred between players.

"In a fatwa, or religious decree, issued in response to a question from a caller to a Saudi television show, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh said that the game was “the work of Satan,” like alcohol and gambling, despite its long history in the Middle East. Chess is played across the Arab world.
...
"It was unclear when the fatwa by the grand mufti was issued, but it appeared to garner attention online in the run-up to a chess tournament scheduled for Friday in Mecca. The chess association said it planned to go ahead with the tournament regardless of the fatwa."


Saturday, April 5, 2014

List of baby names banned in Saudi Arabia (includes Alice and Elaine)

Saudi isn't the first country to find some names repugnant...as I recall, there is a Napoleonic list of French names that are ok, with some presumption that names not on the list are not.  But naming your baby in Saudi Arabia might now be a repugnant transaction:

List of names banned in Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia bans 50 baby names--List includes foreign names; those that ‘contradict culture and religion’


Malaak (angel)
Abdul Aati
Abdul Naser
Abdul Musleh
Nabi (prophet)
Nabiyya (female prophet)
Amir (prince)
Sumuw (highness)
Al Mamlaka (the kingdom)
Malika (queen)
Mamlaka (kingdom)
Tabarak (blessed)
Nardeen
Maya
Linda
Randa
Basmala (utterance of the name of God)
Taline
Aram
Nareej
Rital
Alice
Sandy
Rama (Hindu god)
Maline
Elaine
Inar
Maliktina
Lareen
Kibrial
Lauren
Binyamin (Arabic for Benjamin)
Naris
Yara
Sitav
Loland
Tilaj
Barrah
Abdul Nabi
Abdul Rasool
Jibreel (angel Gabriel)
Abdul Mu’een
Abrar
Iman
Bayan
Baseel
Wireelam

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Women protest Saudi driving ban, in small numbers

The WSJ has the story: Women Accelerate Challenge to Saudi Driving Ban

"Three Saudi women drove cars on Saturday in an ongoing challenge of the world's last official ban on women driving, activists and female drivers in the kingdom said.
Security forces in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah pulled over one female driver there within minutes of her taking the wheel, a passenger in the woman's car said. In the eastern city of Khobar, another woman drove at length Saturday without being stopped. A third drove Saturday evening in the capital, Riyadh, and also wasn't detained, activists said.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are officially forbidden from driving."
**************
It must be difficult to get a lot of Saudi women drivers to protest the driving ban, since there can't be a lot of Saudi women drivers. Most if not all of the women protesters at this and similar demonstrations must have learned to drive outside of Saudi Arabia, i.e. in places where it is legal for them to drive.  Perhaps women who want to protest the driving ban should find another way...e.g. many more women would be able to participate in a protest that involved blocking traffic by lying down in the road, which would resemble protests that have attracted attention to causes in other countries.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Saudi comedians mock the ban on women drivers with a video song


The NY Times has the story

"Their video, a play on the Bob Marley classic “No Woman, No Cry,” has gone viral, receiving more than 6.5 million views on YouTube since it was posted on Saturday. The catchy a cappella tune mocks the country’s restrictions, as well as the assertion by one Saudi cleric that driving would harm women’s ovaries."

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Repugnant transaction watch: Saudi women drivers

The NY Times has the latest on a demonstration by Saudi women who wish to be allowed to drive in the Kingdom, and the reaction it has drawn: Saudi Women Rise Up, Quietly, and Slide Into the Driver’s Seat

"The public call for women nationwide to drive on Saturday was the latest push in a decades-old effort by a small group of activists to exercise what they see as a fundamental human right. Saudi Arabia, a hereditary monarchy, is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive."

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Organ donation and Islam: Saudi scholar registers as organ donor

In Iran there's a monetary market for kidneys, but elsewhere in the Islamic world (and elsewhere) some have questions about organ transplantation of any sort. In Saudi Arabia, a top religious scholar has signed up as an organ donor, to make his position clear.


EDDAH: ARAB NEWS
Sunday 10 March 2013
Last Update 9 March 2013 11:55 pm
Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mutlaq, member of the Board of Senior Ulema and Royal Court Adviser, has signed up as an organ donor in a move to end the debate over organ donation permissibility in Islam.
Al-Mutlaq attended a symposium on organ donation organized by the Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. Currently, three to four organ transplant operations are conducted daily.
Kidney donations from non-relatives increased by 10 percent, which resulted in 73 more donation cases last year, while liver transplants increased by the same percentage, roughly equivalent to 30 more operations, said Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, supervisor general of the Prince Fahad bin Salman Charity Association for Renal Failure Patients Care (Kellana) who attended the event.
Prince Abdulaziz said that in the last 30 years, more than 7,000 people had kidney transplants and more than 1,000 had liver transplants. There were 94 reported lung transplants, 228 heart transplants, 663 cornea transplants and 19 pancreas transplant operations in the same period.
Sheikh Saleh bin Humaid, member of the Board of Senior Ulemas and imam of the Grand Mosque, said that organ donation permissibility is decided in terms of Shariah, although it is crucial to be sure that the prospective donor is pronounced brain dead, which is an issue that still needs more research.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Sorcery as a repugnant transaction--and a capital crime

The Saudi's seriously don't like sorcery: Saudi Woman Beheaded for 'Witchcraft'


"A Saudi woman was beheaded after being convicted of practicing "witchcraft and sorcery," according to the Saudi Interior Ministry, at least the second such execution for sorcery this year.

"The woman, Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar, was executed in the northern Saudi province of al-Jawf on Monday.

"A source close to the Saudi religious police told Arab newspaper al Hayat that authorities who searched Nassar's home found a book about witchcraft, 35 veils and glass bottles full of "an unknown liquid used for sorcery" among her possessions. According to reports, authorities said Nassar claimed to be a healer and would sell a veil and three bottles for 1500 riyals, or about $400.
...

Luther said that a charge of sorcery is often used by the Saudi government as a smokescreen under which they punish people for exercising freedom of speech.

"Nassar was not the first person to be executed for alleged witchcraft by the Saudi government this year. In September, a Sudanese man was publicly decapitated with a sword in the city of Medina after he was found guilty of the same crime."

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Driving and voting while female in Saudi Arabia

Find the repugnant transaction in this story...


Saudi woman to be lashed for defying driving ban

"A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the country's ban on female drivers.
...
"The sentence comes two days after the Saudi leader King Abdullah announced women would be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015."


Update: Saudi king revokes woman's lashing sentence
""Thank God, the lashing of Sheima is cancelled. Thanks to our beloved King," said Princess Amira al-Taweel, wife of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, on her twitter account."

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Beauty can make for a repugnant transaction...

At least some Saudi women seem to be objecting to a transaction that might be agreeable to the other parties involved: Saudi women object to import of Moroccan maids as too beautiful

"Women in Saudi Arabia have innundated the government with complaints over plans to import Moroccan women as housemaids. The reason: Moroccan women are just too beautiful and may lure the Saudi husbands away.
...
"The ban on maids from Indonesia and the Philippines hit Saudi households hard, causing many to resort to hiring illegal maids over Ramadan. The Saudis are reliant on foreign workers to perform their household tasks for them and very few Saudi women will work in such menial positions despite high unemployment, as they would be looked down on by other Saudis.

"The ban came into effect following the two countries attempts to introduce regulations for the work conditions of their nationals. Trade Arabia said both countries demanded better working conditions for their employees. Saudi walked away from the negotiations abruptly and decided to look for domestic employees from countries not as concerned about imposing regulations to protect their workers. It also became clear that lower rates of pay could be offered to other nationals. "
********

See also Maid from Morocco? No thanks, say Saudi wives

HT: Nageeb Ali

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Child marriage

Child marriage by very young children is under discussion again in Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal reports. Part of the issue is just how young should count as young: Cleric Fights Saudi Bid to Ban Child Marriages

"RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—A senior Saudi cleric issued a religious ruling to allow fathers to arrange marriages for their daughters "even if they are in the cradle," setting up a confrontation between government reformers and influential conservative clergy.

"Sheik Saleh al-Fawzan, one of the country's most important clerics, issued the ruling after the Justice Ministry said this month it would act to regulate marriages between prepubescent girls and men in the Islamic kingdom.
...
"The fatwa marks the second time in a year that religious authorities have knocked back a government initiative to move forward on social issues involving women.

"Last year, King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz al-Saud pushed for higher female employment, suggesting that women ought to be allowed to work as supermarket cashiers, only for the job to be ruled off-limits to the gender by the Grand Mufti, the country's highest religious leader.

"In the conservative Islamic kingdom, women aren't allowed to drive and can't work, travel abroad or undergo surgery without the permission of a male relative.
...
"Saudi media reported that the Justice Ministry would push ahead with setting a minimum age for marriage, despite the fatwa. The ministry couldn't be reached to comment for this article.

"In recent months, a spate of stories about young Saudi girls being forced by their fathers to marry middle-age men for lavish dowries or other personal gains has prompted editorials in local media denouncing the practice and calling for change.

"In April, the English-language Arab News reported that a court granted a 12-year-old girl a rare divorce from her 80-year-old husband, who had paid her father a dowry of 85,000 Saudi riyals, or $23,000.
...
""Scholars have agreed that it was permissible for fathers to marry off their young daughters, even if they are in the cradle," Sheik Fawzan wrote in his fatwa. "But it isn't permissible for their husbands to have sex with them unless they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the men."

"He cited the example of the prophet's wife Aisha, who he said was wed at the age of six, but didn't have sex until she was nine.

"Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti said in 2009 that it was acceptable for girls aged 10 and above to marry."

Friday, July 29, 2011

Can new science universities flourish in Saudi Arabia? In Egypt? In China?

I've written before about the difficulties of breaking into the top ranks of universities, and so it will be very interesting to watch what becomes of well funded attempts to create first rate technical institutes that will concentrate on subjects which shouldn't be religiously or politically controversial.

There's a well-funded attempt in Saudi Arabia, and also a post-revolution proposal for something similar in Egypt, although a pre-revolution attempt at a new technical university appears to be running into trouble. And finally there's China, which seems much more likely to succeed.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed reports on Saudia and Egypt:

 Saudi Arabia's $10-Billion Experiment Is Ready for Results

A Promising Egyptian Research University Gets Tangled in Post-Revolutionary Politics

Here's the Saudi story:

"King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is an anomaly many times over: a spectacular campus in the middle of nowhere; an international, co-ed institution in a gender-segregated society; and an aspiring world-class research graduate university created virtually overnight.

"Kaust, as it is known, also faces a unique challenge. It must convince the world that through a combination of wealth and vision, it can flourish in one of the most restrictive countries in the world. Many here believe that the next year will be a critical one in its development.
...
"King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's absolute ruler, donated the university's $10-billion endowment in the hope that Kaust will make his country "a player in global science," says Kaust's president, Choon Fong Shih, who formerly headed the National University of Singapore.
...
"The university is organized around nine research centers, which focus, for example, on advanced membranes and porous materials, plant-stress genomics, and solar and photovoltaics engineering. The work of all these centers feeds into three fields key to Saudi Arabia's future: solar energy, water desalination, and drought-resistant crops.
...
"Yet while the university has been able to attract established senior academics ready for another challenge before retirement, as well as promising young faculty taking what they hope will be a career-making gamble, it remains difficult to lure tenured professors in the middle of their careers (especially since Kaust, in line with Saudi Arabia's labor laws, can offer five-year rolling contracts but not tenure).
...
"The university has also made every effort to attract a bright cohort of international students. Admission comes with free housing, insurance and a yearly round-trip ticket home; students receive $20,000 to $30,000 stipends.
...
"The institution is particularly concerned with attracting Saudi students since one of its main goals is to create a new scientific elite for the country. Saudi students make up between 15 and 20 percent of about 300 students now at Kaust. The university plans to eventually enroll 2,000 graduate and 1,000 postdoctoral students.

"The number of Saudi students with the required English and science skills is limited, and Kaust must compete for them with international universities. And it must teach some of those skills itself."
...
"Several Saudi observers expressed doubts about the university's future, saying there is no guarantee that whoever succeeds the 87-year-old King Abdullah will share his vision for it."
***********

That last line brings us right into the story about the Egyptian university:

"When Nile University opened four years ago, it offered something unusual in Egyptian higher education. In a country with weak research infrastructure, the small private nonprofit engaged students and professors in applied research in high-demand fields, such as information technology and construction engineering. Over time, it has developed global partnerships and international support.

"But today the university finds itself in the cross hairs of post-revolutionary politics. The government has repossessed its soon-to-be new campus. Uncertain about the institution's fate, many corporate and philanthropic backers have stopped their donations.

"A high-placed government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the state was "rectifying" the improper allocation of public land and funds to a private university. Supporters say the university is a target because it was supported, and is thus now tainted, by the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak.
********


The story goes on to say that there's a new, post-revolutionary plan for a technological university in Egypt.

"Mr. Zewail, the Egyptian-American Nobel laureate, says he was contacted by Egyptian government officials shortly after the revolution and asked to revive his 10-year-old proposal for a city of science and technology that will combine a university, research centers, and a technology park. In a few months, Mr. Zewail has raised over $100-million in donations. The university that will be part of the planned city will have a different, more ambitious mission than Nile's. "It will be a national project," says Mr. Zewail, "not a private university. But I do feel very strongly we should help students and first-rate researchers" from the troubled university, he says, by absorbing as many of them as possible."
********

In China, there are also political restrictions on universities, but there shouldn't be any problem finding technically well qualified and motivated students, although there may be other cultural barriers to overcome (aside from political ones). Here's a Chronicle story on that:

News Analysis: China Looks to Western Partners to Reshape Its Universities

"Last year the University of Nottingham, which runs the oldest foreign branch campus in China, was approached by government officials from Shanghai asking if it would consider opening another location, this one 140 miles north of its undergraduate campus in Ningbo.

"The project would involve a substantial donation by a wealthy Chinese philanthropist, along with a host of government perks, including enough land to support an enrollment of 4,000. In return, Shanghai municipal officials hoped Nottingham would build a research-oriented campus in Pudong, Shanghai's major development zone. There, graduate students and professors could work on such subjects as drug development, stem-cell research, and regenerative medicine.
...
"Through speeches and policy papers, the Ministry of Education has made clear in recent years that it is unhappy with the widespread use of rote learning and narrowly defined academic programs at its universities. Last year it came out with a 10-year plan for educational reform that outlined what it viewed as the system's deficiencies.

"With China's booming and increasingly modern economy as a backdrop, the plan proposed to introduce Western-style critical thinking and interdisciplinary work into the college curriculum, and expose students to other Western concepts, such as experiential learning and professional training. The government also wants to introduce more programs taught in English."

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Misc. repugnant transactions

What is it about mercenaries? Deane-Peter Baker explores the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights view on the repugnance of mercenaries:  Are mercenaries just warriors?

"In its most recent annual session, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed resolution A/HRC/15/L.31, which addresses “The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination”. In the resolution, the UNHRC declares itself, among other things, to be “Extremely alarmed and concerned about recent mercenary activities in developing countries in various parts of the world, in particular in areas of conflict, and the threat they pose to the integrity and respect of the constitutional order of the affected countries.”
...
"Consider first the title of the mercenary resolution. It’s directed against “The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination.” That certainly sounds like something to be concerned about. After all, violating human rights and the self-determination of peoples is undoubtedly a bad thing. But, on reflection, it seems somewhat odd for the resolution to be focused on mercenaries. To see why this is so, consider another, fictional, UNHRC resolution directed against “The use of boxcutters as a means of hijacking passenger aircraft in order to crash them into buildings and commit mass murder and violate state sovereignty.” If I were to read the title of such a UNHRC resolution my first instinct would undoubtedly be that this is something I’d want to support. But then it would be very odd indeed if the resolution turned out to be all about the evils of boxcutters. That would seem to miss the point, to say the least.

"Perhaps, however, we might imagine from its title that the point of the mercenary resolution is to delineate inappropriate uses of mercenary forces (violating human rights, impeding peoples’ self-determination) from legitimate uses of mercenaries. If that were so, then focusing the resolution on mercenaries would make some sense. It turns out, however, that this is not the case. As we read on further we find the UNHRC expressing itself to be “Convinced that, notwithstanding the way in which mercenaries or mercenary-related activities are used or the form they take to acquire a semblance of legitimacy, they are a threat to peace, security and the self-determination of peoples and an obstacle to the enjoyment of human rights by peoples.” So, then, no matter how they are used and no matter what form they take, mercenaries are nonetheless a threat to peace, security, the self-determination of peoples, and human rights."
********

"win a baby" game draws fire
"A controversial IVF lottery will launch in Britain this month giving prospective parents the chance to win thousands of pounds toward expensive fertility treatments in top clinics.

"The scheme, which the media have dubbed "win a baby," has already run into trouble on ethical grounds with critics calling it inappropriate and demeaning to human reproduction.

"Britain's Gambling Commission has granted a license to fertility charity, To Hatch, to run the game from July 30.

"Every month, winners can scoop 25,000 pounds' ($40,175) worth of tailor-made treatments at one of the UK's top five fertility clinics for the price of a 20 pound ticket bought online. The tickets may eventually be sold in newsagents.

"The lottery is open to single, gay and elderly players as well as heterosexual couples struggling to start a family.

"If standard IVF fails, individuals can be offered reproductive surgery, donor eggs and sperm or a surrogate birth, the charity says, though the winner will only be able to choose one treatment."
...
"Britain's fertility regulator, The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said using IVF as a prize was "wrong and entirely inappropriate."
...
"The Gambling Commission said it had noted reaction to the scheme but said it had no regulatory powers to intervene and that any decision to revoke a license would be a government one.

"This particular example, perhaps, has thrown up some questions which may need looking at and whether that is by us or the government I don't know," a spokesman said.

"There has been concern expressed about this, but from our perspective it's a pretty straightforward granting of a license application for a lottery operator."

(HT Dean Jens, who sent the link to me in an email whose subject line was "gambling and IVF -- a repugnance twofer!"
*********

Susanne Lundin in Lund University, an ethnologist, writes about illegal kidney black markets: The Great Organ Bazaar .
"Trade in humans and their bodies is not a new phenomenon, but today’s businesses are historically unique, because they require advanced biomedicine, as well as ideas and values that enhance the trade in organs. Western medicine starts from the view that human illness and death are failures to be combated. It is within this conceptual climate – the dream of the regenerative body – that transplantation technology develops and demand for biological replacement parts grows.
"One of the more obvious manifes­tations of treating the human body as a resource to be mined is the hospital waiting list, used in many countries. "
*******

A compromise that both sides find repugnant: In Rhode Island, Chafee makes same-sex civil unions legal

"Governor Lincoln Chafee signed a bill into law yesterday that allows gay couples in Rhode Island to enter into civil unions, acknowledging that it was an imperfect piece of legislation but a “step forward’’ toward full marriage rights. Chafee said the bill fails to give homosexual couples the full marriage rights given to heterosexual couples and that he was concerned that an exemption given to religious groups was too broad. But he added that the legislation “brings tangible rights and benefits to thousands of Rhode Islanders.’’ The General Assembly voted Wednesday to approve civil unions. Gay rights groups urged Chafee to veto the measure, saying it continued discrimination against gays. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence denounced the Assembly vote."
*********

Saudi women defy ban to take driver's seat: Several women drive around in kingdom in open defiance of rule that prohibits them from driving.
"Women who had driving licences obtained abroad were urged to run their errands themselves without relying on male drivers."
******



Some believe a rabbit's place is cuddling on the sofa, not stewing with garlic and shallots on the stove. Agriculture laws should reflect that, bunny advocates said.
"Raising rabbits for food is not 'green,' it's not eco-friendly. It only adds to animal suffering," said Marcy Schaaf, director of Save a Bunny, a Mill Valley nonprofit. "Rabbits are sentient beings, just like dogs and cats. In our culture, they're companion animals."
Companion animals already have Oakland's shelter busting at the seams, Webb said. The shelter barely has staff to care for the 7,000 animals a year that filter through. Animal control officers are already swamped with animal abuse cases, including cock-fighting and other livestock-related infractions, she said.
Some think Oakland should go one step further and discourage residents not just from slaughtering rabbits but from eating them.
************




Friday, April 2, 2010

Fortune-telling is repugnant in Saudi Arabia (and a capital crime)

This headline caught my eye this morning: Lebanese Not to Be Beheaded Friday for Witchcraft

"A Lebanese man condemned to death for witchcraft by a Saudi court will not be beheaded Friday as had been expected, his lawyer said.
Attorney May al-Khansa said Lebanon's justice minister told her that her client, Ali Sibat, will not be executed in Saudi Arabia on Friday -- the day executions are typically carried out in the kingdom after noon prayers.
She said it is still unclear whether the beheading had been waived or only postponed. "
...
"Sibat, a 49-year-old father of five, made predictions on an Arab satellite TV channel from his home in Beirut.
He was arrested by the Saudi religious police during his pilgrimage to the holy city of Medina in May 2008 and sentenced to death last November for witchcraft.
The Saudi justice system, which is based on Islamic law, does not clearly define the charge of witchcraft.
Sibat is one of scores of people reported arrested every year in the kingdom for practicing sorcery, witchcraft, black magic and fortunetelling. The deeply religious authorities in Saudi consider these practices polytheism. "

(Presumably the ability of fortune tellers to predict the future is imperfect, since otherwise Mr Sibat might have skipped this trip.)

Update 4/24/10: "But fraud, while a crime, is not punishable by death, said Mr. AlGasim, the retired judge. Only actual sorcery is a crime.
“You have to differentiate between acts that cheat or deceive people for money, which deserve to be punished, and dealing with magic,” he said. “There is no mechanism to prove it, and any confession is open to doubt, especially if someone confesses in prison.” "

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Repugnant transactions concerning brides

From the sale of child brides in Saudi Arabia to the difficulty of enforcing the laws against Suttee (self-immolation on the husband's funeral pyre) in India, marriage is a fertile area of contention about practices that many find repugnant even in cases that the parties themselves may not.

In Saudi Ariabia, a small victory for social liberals in the contest with social and religious conservatives over whether sales of children into marriage are a repugnant transaction: Victory for Saudi girl, 8, sold by her father to a 50-year-old man
"The girl, who has not been named and who has been living with her mother in the city of Onaiza, was given to the older man in marriage by her father to pay off a debt." ...

"The case has reopened the debate in Saudi Arabia on whether a minimum age for marriage should be introduced. After the first two petitions failed, the Saudi newspaper columnist Amal al-Zahid wrote: “The trafficking of child brides — a most reactionary practice that takes us back to the days of concubines [and] slave girls” should be outlawed. She added that the country was incurring “behavioural abnormalities and problems of which only Allah knows”.
Human rights groups in Saudi Arabia and abroad have condemned the practice of child marriages. "
...
"Some attempts are being made to strengthen women’s rights. The Justice Ministry is reported to be considering reforms to impose a minimum age for marriage and to end abuses of the system by fathers of girls.
In February King Abdullah appointed Norah al-Fayez as the Deputy Minister for Women’s Education, the first woman minister in the kingdom. It has also signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Despite such efforts, many traditionalists in positions of influence in government and religious life are becoming more strict in their observance of Islamic law. The country’s highest religious authority, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Shaikh, has said that it is not against Islamic law to marry girls under the age of 15."

In India, suttee has been illegal since the 1800's, but in some Indian communities it continues to be thought of as a source of honor, and it has been difficult to entirely eradicate, in part because some instances seem to be voluntary decisions by the wives.

Like the sale of child brides in Saudia, the prospect that some of these instances may not be voluntary casts them in a different light, and changes the debate from one that might resemble the controversies involving assisted suicide to the more straightforward debates about human trafficking and murder. But the discussion is complicated by the fact that, in both Saudi Arabia and India, there is a not insubstantial community that finds such transactions appropriate.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Markets for (viewing) bodies

Among the oldest repugnant transactions are those that involve dealing with the dead. In the early 1800's, British medical schools illegally purchased cadavers for anatomy classes from grave robbers called "resurrection men," because the only cadavers legally available for dissection were the bodies of executed murderers. (The Harvard Medical School is in Boston rather than Cambridge, I understand, because of an arrangement offered by the city of Boston to supply unclaimed cadavers.) But those constraints have been relaxed over time, and in my 2007 paper Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets, I used as an example the "Bodyworlds" museum shows that tour the world, allowing museum goers to see cadavers (posed as if engaged in lifetime activities) in detail previously available only to medical students (and here is an essay on the value of that experience to medical students: Dead Body of Knowledge).

But while the laws governing the trade in corpses have been relaxed, there remain considerable feelings of repugnance about desecrating corpses, and these museum shows have also aroused opposition. The latest news is that such a show is planned as a travelling exhibit in Israel. Judaism has strong norms about respect for the dead, and it seems likely that there will be considerable controversy: Controversial 'Body Worlds' exhibit based on preserved human bodies scheduled to arrive in Israel next month. Various religious body gearing up for battle against show, arguing it violates the dignity of the dead .

(Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Middle East, the tensions between secular and religious, ancient and modern, is of a very different sort:
Hardline Saudi Clerics Urge TV Ban on Women, Music.
" ''No Saudi women should appear on TV, no matter what the reason,'' the statement said. ''No images of women should appear in Saudi newspapers and magazines.'' ")

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Marriage market in Saudi Arabia: age of marriage

Many markets unravel, that is, transactions tend to become earlier and earlier. One example is marriage markets, in which betrothals can sometimes be very early indeed, particularly in polygenous cultures. The NY Times reports that Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric was quoted Wednesday as saying it is permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry .

"Al Sheikh's comments come at a time when Saudi human rights groups have been pushing the government to put an end to marriages involving the very young and to define a minimum age for marriage. ...
"On Sunday, the government-run Human Rights Commission condemned marriages of minor girls, saying such marriages are an ''inhumane violation'' and rob children of their rights.
The commission's statement followed a ruling by a court in Oneiza in central Saudi Arabia last month that dismissed a divorce petition by the mother of an eight-year-old girl whose father married her off to a man in his 50s....
"Activists say the girls are given away in return for hefty dowries or as a result of long-standing custom in which a father promises his infant daughters and sons to cousins out of a belief that marriage will protect them from illicit relationships."

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Market for professors

A report from Boston College's Center for International Higher Education says that Saudi Arabia has the highest academic salaries, and China the lowest. (I suspect that this may not reflect the qualities of the universities that will emerge in those two very different places...)