Moutushi

Agreed @Buck Edwards, it's incredibly offensive to assume that of a rape victim, gosh this topic is tough for me to emotionally grapple with as a man who tries to advocate for women's rights in places where they need it, like in the middle east.

@Princess Arabia That's what I tried explaining to @Buck Edwards, that Islam is a major deterrent to men in the Middle East, I say this from first-hand experience of growing up there, as part of a Muslim cult. Marital rape, on the other hand, is, unfortunately, more common, and that is where men take out their aggression on women "who disobey them", Islam does to a certain extent encourage men to exercise their dominance on women they are married to, so that women stay in line, however, there's debate within Islamic sects about what degree of violence is permissible against women when they disobey their husband. I am not a Muslim and have major criticism of it, but having lived in the Middle East, I can see how Islam has served as a protection of women in public, but not so in the privacy of their homes with their Husbands/brothers/fathers

Yes, Egypt is notoriously known for high rates of sexual harassment against women, obviously this issue is worse in some middle eastern countries than others

@Buck Edwards I have to respectfully disagree with that. I have direct experience of living there and have lived in a number of middle eastern countries, and have studied this issue there, and have to say that rape is surprisingly uncommon there, despite the high degrees of sexual frustration that exists, however, marital rape is certainly an issue. Islam is a very strong deterrent against rape there, however, women are still sexually harassed there and stigmatized etc, even though the rape rate is less

@Leo Gura I'm from the Middle East and familiar with their religious/cultural norms, despite living the majority of my life in the US. In the middle east, it very much mostly requires getting married (mainly for religious reasons), which leaves many people sexually frustrated, but the rape incidents are significantly less there than they are in India, so I do see other factors unique to India causing the rape rate to be as tragically high as it is

I can see that being the case in many instances, however, in this particular case it was a mix of that and power/control/intimidation of a female doctor (the victim in this case), as she was threatening to expose corruption in the hospital she was working in

@Raze Agreed!

@Bobby_2021 Thanks for sharing that, great points that I agree with. What do you think about the points these women are sharing in the link below about how the death penalty is not as strong of a deterrent as people think it may be ?

@Bobby_2021 I'm curious to hear your reasoning behind that, and what alternative form of goverment would be better equipped to deal with this complex phenomenon ?

@Bandman It really is in many ways, and that is why I felt this complex issue needed a supercomputer mind like @Leo Gura to offer us possible solutions

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/13/india/kolkata-doctor-strike-trainee-rape-murder-intl-hnk/index.html @Leo Gura I've read your comments before on rape from a meta-perspective, and I appreciate the nuances that come with examining this complex phenomenon, including the cultural and religious factors amongst others that exist in India. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this tragic incident that occurred

@Leo Gura I see your point Leo, Trump mainly touts two major policies that he wants to implement again to improve the economy, just like he did in 2016, which is energy related polices on oil, and second cutting taxes (which mainly has benefited big corporations during his 2016 term). I'm curious why was the economy objectively doing better under Trump vs Biden, and do you feel that despite the many BS remarks that Trump spouts, that there is partially some truth to his points about how the economy was better under his presidential term compared to Biden's ?

I know this is likely unrelated to this topic of discussion, but since I mentioned love 3 times and self-honesty in my last post, I wanted to share this short video where Shia talks about the Love that his current wife practiced with him, he displays genuine self-honesty in this video, obviously not to the depth that Leo has shared with us, but still commendable nevertheless.

@Leo Gura @Bandman I can relate to you both. I also know what it is like to suffer from my own health problems (Daily pain and mobility issues from an L5/S1 Disc herniation at my current age of 33), and have sufferred from the traumatic experience of going through religious indoctrination in a muslim cult, that I am still healing from. On this journey, I've come to appreciate the Beauty of depth of not knowing that Leo just alluded to 15 minutes ago in the last post. Self honesty makes me often want to cry, not out of sadness necessarily, but out of love, love, love, and more love for all that is. What I personally found helpful, Is that I often remind myself even at the deepest moments of suffering that there are "others" around me who are sufferring, and that I love them, and care for them, and want them to be well <3

@Ishanga Yes indeed, Cheers to diving deeper!

Where I feel I am in life now, is in a non-judgmental place where I honestly don't hate anyone, for the most part outside of meeting my basic survival needs, I don't feel strongly driven towards any particular self biases. I just want to be left alone to observe, go through interactions with others, read when I feel called to read, and just simply experience and BE with everything around me, without taking action to alter it in any way that fosters my own survival so to speak. JUST DIVING DEEPER AND DEEPER EACH DAY INTO WHATEVER SHOWS UP IN MY DIRECT EXPERIENCE IS MY MAIN PURPOSE NOWADAYS

@Fadl I'm already in the midst of "bad things", had a diagnosis of a disc herniation recently at the young age of 30 and may need surgery for it. Got depression, anxiety and the whole mix as a result of it. If it wasn't for the spiritual practice that I've started 10 years ago thanks to Leo's first few videos about meditation, I'm certain I would be suffering far much more, and would not be as capable of holding my emotional composure and keeping my calm as I am now.

@gettoefl I agree, I'm curious what do you mean by non peace "keeping the dream madness going" ?

@puporing Ohh yep there's layers of depth to that feeling of "outsidedness"

In the context of everything happening here locally in the US and globally in the world, and how polarized people are in different regions of the world, I feel like an absolute outsider (with what I shared above) almost everywhere I go except here on this forum, where I feel there is a chance I could connect with someone who can relate to what I am sharing, which is the purpose of my post <3

@Leo Gura Found this discussion in line with your comment, I think Rudy Rochman has a balanced a relatively less biased Israeli position than other speakers out there. I obviously have major reservations and criticism of PBD's podcast and it's right wing leaning nature, and am certainly not promoting his channel by sharing this here.

@Merkabah Star Lol there's seriously a really good reason why I've had only 11 posts in, as I felt the choice of staying silent was the wise choice in many instances as there was a dramatic chance of chit chatter if I had posted a reply and ain't nobody got the time for that

@Leo Gura Thank you for frequently and relentlessly reminding folks on this platform to expand their horizon of understanding, along with calling them out on their self biases, among other important matters you do so damn often Leo to people's replies, that it makes me feel you should place an automated daily reminder that pops up by default once a day for any users of the platform to read, rather than you having to constantly have to remind folks of that, as I'm honestly feeling sick and tired of seeing you have to repeat the same reminders to people so damn much Leo!!

@Heaven I want to say that I feel we are on the same page, and that I would likely feel more biased towards choosing my family, like I feel many others are naturally predisposed to choose. However, I have to say that I would still feeeel saddened by that choice. Having said that, I do empathize with Jewish’s past, which is an emotionally heavy topic as I feel sadly about it, and how reality is still now with a good number thinking and behaving in an anti-semitic way. A good number of those people have been the voices that have criticized Israel for defending itself which resulted in the death of civilians. I do strongly want Israel to be safe and to prosper, I do want Israelis to defend themselves from all threats to their safety, and I do empathize with their predicament and how extremely challenging it is for them to be safe and prosper in the midst of all the threats it is recieving from Arab and non-Arab nations near it.