Comments on: Comments on 13291

Post number 13291

louie — Thu, 20 Dec 2001 22:42:31 -0800

Singapore bans divorce via SMS. I think what weirds me out most about this is that apparently it's still legal in Dubai... and not infrequent.

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Thu, 20 Dec 2001 23:01:50 -0800

Yeah, louie, it's really strange when a culture completely different from ours exemplifies itself in a story like this. I have two points.... 1) This is hard for me to swallow as a "feminist" male. I hate stuff like this, when males have the dominant role in a marraige, which i see as a mutual ordeal, and the ability to end it on such minor grounds. 2) Yet, for most "Americans", Singapore is still probably a place where people have Yaks in their rice fields. I'm sure this will blow some minds, sadly enough not for the inherent absurdity, but for the fact that people there have advanced cell phones. Pitiful, i say. Pitiful.

By: RobertLoch

RobertLoch — Thu, 20 Dec 2001 23:33:06 -0800

'it's still legal in Dubai' Still, look on the birght side; you can have a really good laugh if you get hold of your mates phone. Louie, I'm going to 'weird' you out some more. Did you know that it is illegal, and I mean illegal, for a married women to refuse sex. The thinking behind that stems back to the great man, Moh, who wanted to prevent women from using sex to get what they want. Those who think that there should be parity in that between the sexes, I'd remind you of Frazier comment on the subject, 'Men can't use sex to get what they want, sex is what they want.' Moving on, did you also know that muslim men are allowed to engage legally in temporary marriages. These can be 1 hour long, 6 months, whatever. A contract is drawn up, stating the exact length of the marriage, and what the women will receive at the end. That can be nothing. This was introduced to get around the fact that infidelity was/is a crime punishable by death, and that Moh thought that men needed an out. Say for instance they was traveling, or a wife got ill, or she got old, etc. and the man didn't want to take on another wife. Obviously the same does not apply for women, and quite right too.

By: riffola

riffola — Fri, 21 Dec 2001 01:20:41 -0800

In some Muslim sects, repeating the word Talak three times constitutes a divorce.

By: louie

louie — Fri, 21 Dec 2001 06:09:33 -0800

It wasn't so much the implied lack of respect for women that I found off (I'd have to be living in a cave not to know about that); it was the technological means. Asimov's notion of a race of people without contact between them was always (I thought) the most ridiculous and farfetched notion of his (even moreso than psychohistory); this is another little display of how wrong I am about that.

By: bingo

bingo — Fri, 21 Dec 2001 10:19:53 -0800

RobertLoch: Did you know that it is illegal, and I mean illegal, for a married women to refuse sex Illegal for them to refuse sex to their husbands, or any man who goes up to them on the street? And what are the requirements for becoming a citizen? ;)