Clipmarks | Deepti's 'marriage' clips

Marry or lose job, says Iran firm

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:17:57 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: In the same vein, the governor of the eastern province of North Khorasan ruled recently that only married people would be hired for official posts in the region

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Single workers at one of Iran's major state-owned companies have been told to marry by September or face being fired, Iranian newspapers have reported.

The Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Company employs thousands of people, mostly young men, on Iran's Gulf coast

Being married is a job requirement, a directive from the company is reported as saying

Correspondents say the ruling appears to be an attempt to reduce the number of prostitutes working in the area

Its directive, according to the Etemad newspaper, says that despite requests "some of our colleagues did not fulfil their commitments and are still single"

It continues: "As being married is one of the criteria of employment, we are announcing for the last time that all the female and male colleagues have until September 21 to go ahead with this important and moral religious duty."

Economic difficulties in Iran have led many people to postpone getting married, despite sexual relations being illegal outside marriage

Tags: iran, marriage, employees, job, directive

Singlism and Matrimania

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:33:39 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: I've noticed this, but wasn't aware there was a name to it.....interesting article; the author points out a few instances too

Clip Source: blogs.psychologytoday.com

One of the most tenacious myths about single people is that they are miserable and lonely, and suffer from ill-health and low self-esteem because, after all, they "don't have anyone." All that is pure nonsense - that's why I get to call these notions myths rather than realities

In many ways, though, it is understandable that people THINK singles are miserable. Singlism (the stereotyping and stigmatizing of people who are single) and matrimania (the over-the-top hyping of marriage and coupling) are the wallpaper of contemporary

life.

in its level of intensity, vitriol, and destructiveness, the discrimination faced by people who are single is not on a par with that faced by the targets of, say, racism or heterosexism

Unlike the better-known isms, however, singlism is often practiced without apology or even awareness

Also, although singlism is not likely to be as scathing as racism, the steady drip, drip, drip of it could drive single people over the edge

if they were not so amazingly resilient

Tags: discrimination, singles, marriage, people, society, couples

Los Angeles man wins right to use wife's last name

Tue, 06 May 2008 13:47:11 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: A subsequent lawsuit led to a new California state law guaranteeing the rights of both married couples and registered domestic partners to choose whichever last name they prefer on their marriage and driving licenses

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

All Michael Buday wanted to do was take the last name of his wife, Diana Bijon, when they married

But it took two years, a lawsuit alleging sex discrimination and a change in California law before he picked up his new drivers license in the name of Michael Bijon on Monday

He discovered it would take a $350 fee, court appearances, a public announcement and mounds of paperwork to make a change on his driving license that is routine for women who marry

After months of frustration, the Los Angeles computer programmer and his ER nurse wife Diana, 29, took their problem to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California

A double barrel name would have been no problem, nor would Diana and Michael deciding to each keep their birth names. But California and some 40 other U.S. states provided no place on the marriage license application, and driving license, for the groom to choose the bride's surname

"I am really, really proud of him. Not many men would do this," she said

Tags: husband, wife, surname, california

Yemeni Girl Demands Divorce

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:03:01 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: According to Saba News, a 2006 study revealed that 52.1 percent of Yemeni girls are forced into child marriage

Clip Source: www.feminist.org

Eight-year-old Nojoud Muhammed Nasser filed a lawsuit in Yemen against her father who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man. Nasser arrived to court by herself because no one in her family defended her against her abusive husband and father

Nasser told the Yemen Times, "My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage. I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, 'We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.' So this is what I have done."

"There are hundreds of [cases like] Nujoud who have been subjected to sexual abuse by mature men. The problem is that there is no law to punish the father who marries off the child, the sheikh who allows the marriage, or the husband who takes the child home to serve him as wife."

Tags: culture, religion, girl, child, marriage, abuse, divorce, yemen

New marriage law proposed for Muslim women in India

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:09:03 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: Controversial points of new nikahnama

--Triple talaq said in one go will not be acceptable
--Talaq to be spaced out over a period of 3 months
--Talaq not be allowed via phone or SMS
--New Nikahnama insists on free will for the girl in case of nikah
--Talaq cannot be given under the influence of alcohol
--Talaq given to pregnant woman should be considered illegal

Clip Source: www.gulfnews.com

The All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) has released the Shariat Nikahnama that they claim would give equal rights to both Muslim men and women

Women belonging to both the Shiite and Sunni sects, are demanding a revolutionary nikahnama that does away with contentious issue of triple talaq (divorce)

If the board has its way, a Muslim woman would be entitled to seek divorce if her husband was found having illicit relationship with another woman

The board has also rejected any divorce done through SMS, email, phone as well as video conferencing, besides rejecting divorce done on provocation

A Muslim woman can seek divorce if she is forced by her husband to indulge in unnatural sex. She can also seek divorce if her husband contracts Aids

The new nikahnama has 17-point guidelines for marriage under the sharia for bride and groom, while eight points on the divorce process

Tags: india, women, muslim, islam, sharia, rights, marriage, divorce, equality, law

First Women to Conduct Marriages in Egypt

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 04:14:37 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Clip Source: www.feminist.org

This week Amal Soliman became Egypt's first woman able to perform Muslim marriages. Soliman's appointment has generated controversy within Egypt's Muslim community, especially among Muslim men who insist that a woman should not hold the position of maazun, or marriage registrar. The BBC News reports that the court chose Solima over 10 male candidates due to her legal qualifications. Solima has a master's degree in law

Sheikh Fawsi Zafzaf, director of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, responded to Soliman's appointment stating, "There are no religious texts banning a Muslim woman from being a maazun. But when a woman is menstruating she must not enter a mosque or read Koranic verses and that will affect her job, so for that reason we say it is not advisable to have a woman maazun."

Solima focuses on the positive affects her gender can have on her job

Tags: egypt, woman, muslim, arab, islam, marriage, registrar, culture, religion

Celebrity tryst may change Korean adultery law

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:55:14 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: "The adultery law ... has degenerated into a means of revenge by the spouse, rather than a means of saving a marriage," the petition said

South Korea passed the adultery law in 1953 to protect women.

In its male-dominated society, women had little recourse against a husband who had an affair. Back then if a wife walked out of a marriage, she would often end up alone and penniless

Today, it is rare for people to be jailed but that has not stopped several thousand angry spouses from filing criminal complaints each year

Referring to the current divorce law, the petition said: "There has been no evidence of its contribution to protecting women, and its validity is questionable with the elevation of women's social and economic status."

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

A sensational love affair involving a South Korean starlet, her TV personality husband and her opera singer lover could lead the country to change laws that can send adulterers to jail

The lawyer for actress Ok So-ri brought a petition to the Constitutional Court this week asking it to overturn the current law that can land a person in jail for up to two years for having an extramarital affair

Ok and her husband Park Chul have been staples of the local gossip sheets for months with both holding news conferences where they exposed embarrassing details of a troubled marriage. Ok has admitted to the affair

Park filed a criminal adultery complaint against his wife and she was indicted in January on suspicion of illegally having an affair with the opera singer

Critics say the law is anachronistic, with some saying a better compromise might be to allow spouses just to sue for compensation in civil court

Tags: korea, divorce, adultery, jail, imprisonment, women, marriage

Afghan Reporter To Die For Insulting Islam

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:06:43 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

Afghanistan's upper house of parliament lauded the death sentence handed down against a local journalist who was found guilty of insulting Islam, an official said Wednesday.

The journalist, 23-year-old Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, was sentenced to death last week by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for distributing a report he printed off the Internet to journalism students at Balkh University.

The article asked why men can have four wives but women can't have multiple husbands.

The court in Mazar-i-Sharif found that the article humiliated Islam. Members of a clerical council also pushed for Kaambakhsh to be punished.

Kaambakhsh has appealed his conviction and the case will now go to an appeals court. President Hamid Karzai will have the final say in the matter.

Tags: islam, muslim, death penalty, afghanistan, internet, marriage

Yazidis: a secretive sect

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 05:29:02 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Clip Source: www.gulfnews.com

Yazidis are predominantly ethnic Kurds whose religion blends elements of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Small communities of Yazidis can be found in Syria, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia, but the majority of the estimated 100,000 believers live in Iraq

Yazidis worship an angel figure, Malak Ta'us, or Peacock Angel, who is considered to be the devil by some Muslims and Christians. Yazidis - who don't believe in hell or evil - deny that

Many Yazidi rituals center on Sheik Adi, a Sufi Arab who lived in northern Iraq in the 12th century and is considered the religion's chief saint. Pilgrims hold festivals near his tomb, north of Mosul

Many Yazidi traditions are shrouded in such secrecy that most have never been witnessed by outsiders

Yazidis regard marriage outside their faith as a sin punishable by ostracism or even death to restore lost honor

Tags: yazidis, secretive, sect, religion, culture, rituals

Muslim woman asked not to live with Hindu 'husband'

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 05:11:51 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Clip Source: www.gulfnews.com

Islamic authorities in Malaysia have freed a Muslim woman after detaining her for four months for marrying a Hindu, the couple's lawyer said yesterday.

The Selangor state Islamic authorities have, however, ordered the 25-year-old ethnic Indian woman to live separately from her husband, arguing that her year-old marriage was illegal under Islam.

In Malaysia, Muslims cannot marry non-Muslims. Her case is the latest strain in the social fabric of the multiracial nation, where many non-Muslims believe the authorities and the courts are allowing their rights to be trampled by the Muslim majority

Religious police had raided the couple's house in April and arrested her, arguing she was "illegally cohabiting" with a Hindu and for failing to produce any relevant marriage documents

Tags: muslim, malaysia, woman, husband, illegal, islam, religion, convert

Delay having baby and win honeymoon

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:23:37 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Clip Source: www.gulfnews.com

Authorities in western India are offering to pay for a second honeymoon for couples who delay the birth of their first child by two years in an attempt to control birth rates, a newspaper report said on Tuesday.

The offer, called the "Honeymoon Package", is being made by authorities in Satara district in the state of Maharashtra, the Times of India said.

Couples delaying the birth of their first child by two years would get a honeymoon package worth 5,000 rupees ($125) and around 7,500 rupees ($190) if they can hold off for three years, it said

Satara has a population of about 3 million. A recent survey found that the district registered about 25,000 marriages every year and 87 percent of the newly weds had a child in the first year of marriage.

Authorities hope that if 20 per cent of couples take up the offer, the birth of more than 4,000 babies could be delayed every year

Tags: india, maharashtra, marriage, child, population, birth, control

Questions to Unlock Intellectual Intimacy

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 03:33:43 GMT

clipped by: wurdzgurl

Clip Source: www.couplescompany.com

Questions to Unlock Intellectual Intimacy.

What is the biggest misconception people have about you?

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

What do you consider to be your greatest

accomplishment?

How do you define success?

Can you define your principles...what do you stand for and why?

Where do you stand on, (pick any hot topic from current events) and why is that your position?

Tags: relationships, marriage, dating, intimacy

Adultery on the rise in Malaysia

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:52:45 GMT

clipped by: Deepti

Clip Source: www.gulfnews.com

Malaysian women whose husbands have cheated on them are increasingly opting to have affairs of their own, while suspicious husbands are calling for more genetic tests on newborns, a newspaper said yesterday.

Marriage counsellors report a rise in the number of working women seeking professional help to sort out marriages troubled by affairs aimed at avenging themselves on cheating husbands or seeking solace from abusive spouses, the New Straits Times said.

"Most of them do it out of anger at being cheated by their husbands," Paul Jambunathan, a clinical psychology consultant at International Medical University said.

Others, fed up with abusive husbands, refused to remain silent. "Today women are aware of their rights," he said. "Some feel it is no longer taboo to leave adulterous husbands."

Tags: adultery, marriage, cheating, spouse, trend, malaysia

Irani Minister backs brief marriages to curb illicit sex

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 07:21:10 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: Sunni Muslims say it is illegal and akin to prostitution, but some Shiites scholars say it reflects the reality of human nature and provides for the rights and responsibilities of both the man and the woman

Sixty per cent of Iran's population is under 30 years of age and the average age of marriage has risen to 30 for men and 26 for women, according to unofficial estimates

Clip Source: www.gulfnews.com

Iran's interior minister faced criticism from women activists on Saturday after advocating the practice of temporary marriage as a way to meet the needs of
young people in the Islamic state, which bans extramarital sex.

Temporary marriage, or sigha, is an agreement between a manand a women to get married for a specified time, even for just afew days. It has long been practised by Shiite Muslims, who are dominant in Iran, even though it is unclear how common it is

A temporary marriage is easy to arrange. A couple will agree
on how long they will get married - it's usually anywhere from
a day to months - and on financial matters.

Couples often go to a Shiite cleric for approval of the
contract. The practice is believed to have pre-dated Islam among the tribes of the Arabian peninsula

Critics condemn 'sigha' as tantamount to prostitution, but clerics argue it is merely a more spiritual way of addressing basic human urges

Tags: iran, marriage, temporary, illicit, sex, women, men, islam, muslim

Women Primarily Contract HIV from Their Husbands, Study Finds

Sun, 13 May 2007 06:17:21 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: Studies conducted in Nigeria and New Guinea found that "looking for girls" -- even among married men -- is a socially ingrained phenomenon rooted in cultural anxieties about masculinity, and that it aggravates the existing risk of HIV transmission. "The result is that women are infected by their husbands...according to social convention...the only people with whom they are ever supposed to have sex," writes Dr. Hirsch. Similar studies underway in Uganda and Vietnam are expected to produce comparable results.

The study suggests reframing HIV prevention dialogue within the context of these socially sanctioned behaviors: In cultures where men's reputations are of the highest social importance, Hirsch recommends teaching men that it is their responsibility to protect their wives from infection.

Clip Source: www.feminist.org

Worldwide, marital sex is the leading cause of HIV infection in women, according to a new study by researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The study, published in the June 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, says that men's "inevitable" infidelity across most cultures is now the single greatest HIV risk for women. Moreover, the authors warn that current monogamy and abstinence-based prevention programs are ineffective because infidelity is so deeply culturally-ingrained

The study drew from more than six months of anthropological research in rural Mexico, New Guinea, and Southeastern Nigeria, where high rates of labor migration and cultural norms of masculinity contributed to men's infidelity. In Mexico, for instance, married men left home to seek work in the US or larger Mexican cities and often engaged in unsafe extramarital sex.

Tags: hiv, women, husbands, marriage, masculinity, culture, society, mexico, new guines, nigeria