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Post by sisyphus on Mar 21, 2006 3:16:17 GMT -5
my brother was given this interesting assignment:
You are a United Nations Official and have been asked to review a request from a human rights group. In a developing country, there is a long-standing cultural practice of arranged marriages between older men and young girls of marrying age. Roughly half of all marriages in this country are currently of this type. The human rights group wants the UN to intervene and compel the government of this country to outlaw this practice. They believe that arranged marriages offend the civilized world’s conception of both liberty and the equality of the sexes. You’ve been asked to explore this case by writing a brief, 2-to-3 page essay on whether or not this practice violates any principle of either liberty, equality, or both that would give the UN moral justification to intervene. You will need to formulate a principle of liberty, equality, or both and apply it to this practice to see if there are grounds for UN intervention.
what do you think?
also, why is it so bad (i think it's awful) that nutty fundamentalist mormons take 10 year olds as wives and get away with it, living under the radar, yet it's not a big deal that 14 year olds are married off to old men in India?
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Post by luke on Mar 21, 2006 8:45:54 GMT -5
Well, you couldn't just "outlaw" a practice like that, it would be a disaster.
As for your second question, I really think the answer's simple. While the practice may be "wrong" in India, if some guy tells me or just about any other American in India that "you don't know what it's like", then he'd be right. The far East is such a foreign place that it's hard for a "general American/Western public" to wrap their heads around what goes on with some certain cultural practices "over there."
That Mormon shit, on the other hand, happens in the midst of our own country, and we know for a fact that it's completely bunk.
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Post by phil on Mar 21, 2006 9:01:36 GMT -5
You got to take into account the general cultural history of any country
before judging any social activities going on there ...
Education is always the key to change mentalities.
Get the Mormon kids into mainstream America
as soon as you can and you will see that polygamy
and arranged marriages shit disappearing within a generation ...
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Post by phil on Mar 21, 2006 9:38:25 GMT -5
And what about female genital mutilation in Africa ?
Young Indian women getting killed over too smal a dowry ?
"Family Honor"(what a joke!)killings in the Middle East ?
It's always the woman who's at the receiving end !!
I wonder why !!
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Post by sisyphus on Mar 28, 2006 0:39:51 GMT -5
mmhmmm. *poof*
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Post by kats on Mar 28, 2006 2:08:34 GMT -5
I'm groaning at the idea of a paper which argues that there should be intervention. Shuddering at the use of the 'civilised world' even more. Ergh.
While I completely applaud the work of human rights groups, there is a difference between intervening for genocide or rape, etc, and intervening based on the age of consent and marriage. I mean, simplistically, there is no one law governing the world, sovereignity, blah blah blah, but the age of consent and what age is deemed appropriate is ultimately determined by the country in which the individual lives. 16/14. In terms of arguing whether something is ethical or not, it must first be considered contextually. This is a cultural practice, etc. It would seem ludicrous if I don't know, Ethopia petitioned against England for allowing 16 year olds to have sex as its somehow immoral and contradicts human rights.
Was this "believe that arranged marriages offend the civilized world’s conception of both liberty and the equality of the sexes." the actual phrase in the assignment?
Intervention would be silly, this type of thing can only shift with long term cultural change.
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Post by sisyphus on Mar 28, 2006 2:14:29 GMT -5
indeed, kat. and yes, that was the actual phrase in the assignment... a tad leading, eh? (understatement of the year...) i'll clue you in to a subtle subtext: my brother is a devout mormon attending BYU, a university where devout mormons help to further brainwash each other.
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Post by kats on Mar 28, 2006 4:56:29 GMT -5
Jesus. Half attempted to report to relevant human rights organisations about the use of 'civilised cultures'. I really hate this whole idea of anybody outside of western liberal democracy being 'uncivilised'. Any lecturer at my uni who used such a phrase would be purged instantly. its so loaded with all this ideological conservatism.
Your brother is a devout mormon..wow. Is there a family background? Sorry for being intrusive. I have only known one mormon in my life, so slightly interested. Do they really believe in golden spectacles?
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Post by frag on Mar 28, 2006 5:37:24 GMT -5
"Mormon was the correct religion, sorry."
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Post by sisyphus on Mar 28, 2006 5:55:01 GMT -5
Jesus. Half attempted to report to relevant human rights organisations about the use of 'civilised cultures'. I really hate this whole idea of anybody outside of western liberal democracy being 'uncivilized'. Any lecturer at my uni who used such a phrase would be purged instantly. its so loaded with all this ideological conservatism. Your brother is a devout mormon..wow. Is there a family background? Sorry for being intrusive. I have only known one mormon in my life, so slightly interested. Do they really believe in golden spectacles? i agree...and same would have gone for my university...very loaded. yeah, there's definitely a family background. i'm the first black sheep for generations, actually. in fact, i even went on a mormon mission to the czech republic (a last attempt to suffocate my growing atheism, and it only ended up corroborating all my doubts...) anyway, that was years ago. as for golden spectacles....dunno about that, but the self-proclaimed prophet who began the mo-church claimed that he translated "holy writ" from golden plates by looking through holy spectacles included with the plates in a secret hiding spot in a hill.... other records say that he put his head in his hat. i'm sure all sorts of antics were performed for his various witnesses. who knows. |
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Post by sisyphus on Mar 28, 2006 6:02:02 GMT -5
some people are proud to be okies from muskogee, yo. lol.
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