Allow me to play devil's advocate, here.
Perhaps this is a step in the right direction. It's well known that the men in that region will not hesitate to beat the living shit out of his wife, because it's his only real method of coercion.
Now, introduce to him a way to penalize his wife that does not end with her being helplessly beaten within an inch of her life, and not only that, but make it so that she has a window of time to comply with it instead of having it be "right now or I pound your face in you whore of a goat".
Barbaric? Absolutely, but is it less severe than the husband believing that his only method of coercion is beating her to death? It certainly is.
One might argue that this only diversifies the ways that men will be allowed to torment their wives, and while this will undoubtedly be the case in some households, it also introduces a less-horrible way to many men who do not see themselves as having any other choice. I'm sure that not all husbands in the region are a bunch of cruel slave-drivers that will look for any excuse to abuse their spouses, and that the only reason that they engage in such abuse is because of societal stigma.
A man who goes easy on his "infidel" wife would no doubt fear being ostracized as a, well, a whore-enabler, if you will. Introduce to those men a government-given method for dealing with such problems (one that is less severe than beating/killing her), and I'm sure that many will feel alleviated of the pressure to do horrible things to their wives. They will feel like they are given the ability to take the easy way out on the social stigma. Gradually, if you introduce less and less severe punishments, perhaps some semblance of equality would be within reach.
Just a thought.
Perhaps this is a step in the right direction. It's well known that the men in that region will not hesitate to beat the living shit out of his wife, because it's his only real method of coercion.
Now, introduce to him a way to penalize his wife that does not end with her being helplessly beaten within an inch of her life, and not only that, but make it so that she has a window of time to comply with it instead of having it be "right now or I pound your face in you whore of a goat".
Barbaric? Absolutely, but is it less severe than the husband believing that his only method of coercion is beating her to death? It certainly is.
One might argue that this only diversifies the ways that men will be allowed to torment their wives, and while this will undoubtedly be the case in some households, it also introduces a less-horrible way to many men who do not see themselves as having any other choice. I'm sure that not all husbands in the region are a bunch of cruel slave-drivers that will look for any excuse to abuse their spouses, and that the only reason that they engage in such abuse is because of societal stigma.
A man who goes easy on his "infidel" wife would no doubt fear being ostracized as a, well, a whore-enabler, if you will. Introduce to those men a government-given method for dealing with such problems (one that is less severe than beating/killing her), and I'm sure that many will feel alleviated of the pressure to do horrible things to their wives. They will feel like they are given the ability to take the easy way out on the social stigma. Gradually, if you introduce less and less severe punishments, perhaps some semblance of equality would be within reach.
Just a thought.
. People shouldn't starve their wives, that's just cold blooded, sucks enough that they had to get married.
