Wasn't there recently some old aboriginal man who got almost no jail at all after anally penetrating a sixteen-year-old girl in a remote northern territory location?

The Court, an Australian Court! said that he should receive a punishment in his culture, effectively he's almost free.

Where's the justice for the victim in this.

Waleed

Thank you for your post on "White Ribbon Day".

But gosh, you moderates will do anything to shift the focus off Islam. You seem to use anything - any red herring that you can. Why didn't you continue on about the ways in which Islam treats women. Why didn't you speak about one the most barbaric domestic violence issues of all - female clitoridectomy!!

I was a victim of alcoholic bashing by a white Australian for 13 years. He finally ended up in Her Majesty's Hotel. I spent the next 7 years on my own, trying to learn how to be "normal". I thought that I met the right bloke. He was a high flying lawyer of Aboriginal heritage. I only coped with his mental abuse for 5 months.

Yes, it's everywhere! There is no excuse for pysical abuse - no matter what the religion or culture.

And to the last poster "Inner etc" - you are spot on!

Traditional Aboriginal culture may be no less barbaric than Islam - but at least they own this land and their culture. Let's deal with that as a priority.

Thanks
Kay

Waleed, a great article. I agree with most of it. At the same time I find myself cringing because of the total lack of acknowledgement that the stats for DV in this country show that overall men and women hit each other within the family at very similar rates. Women sustain serious injury at a higher rate, but not so much higher as to exclude serious injury to men from discussion.

We abuse our kids at similar rates for the proportion of time in care. The kind of phrasing you use paints the issue as a genderised one when in this country, and the US and Britian it is clearly not. I've posted some references to reliable proofs of parts of this before http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=3268#5220 .

The impression I've got is that those who refuse to accept this eventually get down to being unwilling to accept it because it does not sit with their experience or perceptions. Others won't accept it because it is really important for the man to be the strong one. As has been shown through history violence is more about a willingness to use it than raw strength.

What percentage of men are hit by a women during or after a relationship or sometime during their lives? Anybody really confident that the level of violence for most is massively different to that experienced by women or that the emotional turmoil and fear of where it will lead is a lot less than that experienced by women? OK I know some are confident of the above but I'm hoping others will think about this honestly.

Lets work to stamp out all forms of family violence and abuse regardless of the gender of the perpetrator or the gender of the victim. There may be reasons why in some cultures and cultural groupings the issue is more genderised than it is for most of the australian community - some of the stuff refered to in the opening section of the article but those factors are not the reality for most of the Australian community.

R0bert

It wasn't that long ago that domestic violence was known as 'violence against women'. Now the wheel has turned and there is a grudging acknowledgement that men can also be victims.

I live in a violent relationship. When my wife is on a binge she becomes abusive and violent. This can take many forms, the following are my wife's specialities:

Depriving me of sleep on work nights by yelling and screaming until three a.m. (She doesn't work).

Threatening to call the police and make false allegations against me. This is especially harmful as for the past eight years I have worked in jobs where an AVO, even if unfounded or withdrawn, would have lead to immediate dismissal.

I have had to wrestle knives out of her hands when she has tried to stab me, or to slash herself, whilst all the time being careful that she is not injured. She has threatened to destroy items of value to me. She has kicked, punched, bitten and scratched. I have been hit with a bottle and had my genitals attacked.

We are well known to the local constabulary, whom I have the greatest amount of admiration for. I am the one who has been offered the assistance of the Domestic Violence Liaison Officer.

The police have taken her away on occasion, she generally finishes up at a hospital and when she settles down I get a phone call to come and pick her up. That is, to bring home my own abuser. If I was to act in the way that she acted I would not go to hospital, I would be in a cell.

Whilst domestic violence is primarily perpetrated by men against women, that is not the sole form, for instance the frequency and type of violence in lesbian relationships approaches that of heterosexual relationships.

The person who is most likely to harm or kill a child is that child's mother.

I resent White Ribbon Day, mainly because it only calls an end to violence against women and children, implying by omission that violence against men is okay.

Wasn't there recently some old aboriginal man who got almost no jail at all after anally penetrating a sixteen-year-old girl in a remote northern territory location?
@Inner-Sydney based transsexual, indigent outcast progeny of merchant family.

Do you have to be so graphic about it.

This "un-Islamic" practice is just one more of the many very "Islamic" practices that denigrate women. As usual, Muslims want to generalize or ignore the issue.

Yes, everywhere, in every society, domestic violence is a problem. Most of all, however, it is an Islamic problem. There is no other group on earth that abuses women more than Islam does. Where Islam dominates women suffer (and other groups also, but that is another issue).

Female Genital Mutilation, beatings and abuse, rape, kidnappings, honor killings, poligamy, arranged marriages, forced marriages, child marriage, brutal servitude, denial of education, lack of freedoms and basic rights, inferior legal status, etc... The list goes on and on, and most of it comes directly from the Quran and Islam’s great prophet.

I won’t even bother to quote from the Quran and hadiths, or give references to Mohammed beating is own wife or to the disgusting things these said about women (Unless, of course, some Muslim has any doubts!).

Like so many writings by our Muslim friends here at OLO, this is just another superficial treatment of a very serious problem, without any real attempt to understand it or seek the source of the problem, as least as it relates to Muslims and Islam. It is the same treatment they give to the issues of terror and the oppression that is rampant in Islamic societies – They never ever ask “why”. Why?

Kactuzkid