Irfan,
Do you like men? Calling me “sweetie” and “honey” certainly puts you right outside Islamic law, does it not? Islam is even more disdainful and intolerant of homosexuality than I am.

Chris James is a female. I am a male, hence the “dearie”. A bit condescending and chauvinist, I admit. But then I have always been a bit of a chauvinistic male. Ask my wife.

You have often asked me ‘which’ Muslims I talk about. I ask, what sort of a Muslim are you? One asking for a fatwa by using such endearing terms to one of the same sex?

On Friday, Fatty Irbuckle suggested that Sayyid Qutb was just an "Egyptian journalist from the mid-twentieth century" and compared his influence to that of Andrew Bolt. That's a bit like saying that Adolf Hitler was just a guy with a moustache and suggesting that he had no more influence on world history than cricketer Merv Hughes ... who also had a moustache. Perhaps someone could feed Irbuckle the pages of Geraldine Brooks' "Nine Parts of Desire" so he could gain at least some understanding of the parlous position of women in the world's leading Islamic societies. Or does he want to keep up his pretence that what goes on in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia have got nothing to do with Islam and Muslims?

*Men still try to make women feel obligated to fulfil men’s sexual needs and this is best achieved by regulating women’s sexuality.*

It seems to me that the author is confusing the use of Sharia law,
(as claimed by the so called Allah), with what Bertina Arnt is
saying, which is quite different.

Never mind God, the question arises that if a woman marries a guy,
does she have any obligation to fulfill his sexual needs?

If the author thinks not, then why do these women bother to get
married in the first place? Why do they protest, if he wanders
elsewhere?

Or perhaps men should change their ideas and only go to work, to
provide resources to feed the family, when they happen to feel like
it.

What Arnt is suggesting is that if more women understood the world
just a little bit from a male perspective, that might not be a bad
thing. I happen to agree with her.

Pericles

You argue the point well.

I thought I'd have a go at reframing the discussion into something more constructive, but on further reflection - and seeing the further comments - I'd say you are correct.

Yabby

‘What Arnt is suggesting is that if more women understood the world just a little bit from a male perspective, that might not be a bad thing. I happen to agree with her.’

EXCUSE me??

Women live their ENTIRE lives from cradle to grave viewing the world from a male perspective – sexual and otherwise! Our history, our art, our social values, our morals, our media, our sport, our cinema, our literature, our surnames, and virtually anything else you care to mention, is skewed to the male viewpoint.

I have found overwhelmingly, through direct and indirect experience, that it’s men who are profoundly ignorant of female sexuality and eroticism. This is because men simply do not have the life experience of fitting themselves to women’s lives to that all-pervasive degree that women are conditioned to fit themselves to men’s lives.

Living one’s entire life in a society whose sexual norms are viewed through the male gaze, any woman would have to be a complete vegetable to remain ignorant of male sexuality. Women have little choice but to become well versed on men’s erotic fantasies via Hollywood, literature, art, pornography, and the thousands of ‘adult’ magazines that proliferate throughout suburban newsagents. By contrast, the culture actively encourages men to distance themselves from women’s romantic fantasy and eroticism via a well-worn repertoire of put downs and trivializations.

I often suspect that it’s this socially enforced male ignorance of the emotional, romantic, erotic world of women that is behind the sad statistic that more than 80% of marital separations are initiated by the wife.

"I often suspect that it’s this socially enforced male ignorance of the emotional, romantic, erotic world of women that is behind the sad statistic that more than 80% of marital separations are initiated by the wife."

Whew, more twists than a corkscrew to end up there!

For the next instalment could you explain how men are also responsible for the remaining 20% of divorces, because doubtless in your world they would be.

Surely you don't believe that any of that tripe is convincing for men or women?

No wonder young women run screaming from feminists.