Hey everyone! So this popped up on my Facebook timeline yesterday. I was shocked. Since we have recently been discussing the roles between men and women in our class, I thought I’d share this example for certain (hopefully unpopular) opinions in American culture. To recap (and for those not in our class), we recently read about gender in Islamic family law and the middle east. A few things we learned included: 1) Age requirements for marriage are 16 for boys & 15 for girls in Jordan, can be under 14 in Iraq, 16 for boys and 15 for girls in Kuwait. BUT, judges of the court in these places may allow marriage under 18; 2) A husband must maintain his wife (provide clothes, food, housing, etc.) and in return the wife must obey the husband; 3) In many of those countries, husbands can divorce without justification, but a wife who wants a divorce needs to provide proof of physical or mental harm. So relating this back to the Facebook post-
I scratched out any personal information about this person, but I went to high school with them and they are 23 years old. This person is in college, so I am assuming (although I may be wrong), that most of the people in their class are around their age. I found it very hard to comprehend the fact that someone probably around my age has that mindset, especially in America. There aren’t strict marital laws here, as people are given the freedom to gauge the importance of marriage on their own terms. Although I think marriage is an important commitment, I think it is the right of all humans to step out of that commitment if it is detrimental to their well-being.
The comments were mainly positive towards the person who posted and negative towards the person they were speaking about, which is great, but is anyone else surprised by this encounter? How do we change the way people perceive these issues? Why is divorce rate even something valued by any one person in America? Could it be driven by religion?