Comments by "RiC David" (@RiC_David) on "'I'm Better off Dead' 11-Year Old Escapes Arranged Marriage (Video)" video.

Religion and tradition are intertwined - it's not true or realistic to say "if it weren't for this religious text, they'd never have had the idea" - the religious book didn't write itself, it was written by people with traditions. The tradition had to predate the religious text, the text didn't invent the concept. Many people speak as though religion is an alien entity - it's philosophy of the people recorded in text.
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"For any parents to do this are not parents at all. They are evil. I don't care if it is part of their culture, your soul and heart should tell you it is wrong" Yes! Evil is not a word I use (very complex concept, it's beside the point right now) but you're absolutely right - could culture and tradition bring me to hear this child's words, see the light of her soul, then kill and dispose of it like vermin? No, don't claim to still be human if you can do that.
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Damn right (sometimes its hard being a woman) - I'm not going to placate the oppressed men's brigade who want to tug at our heartstrings about the plights of men in our society without acknowledging that women *blatantly* have a shittier hand overall. Same for the white people who want to act as though it's worse being a white American than a black American. They don't want to hear how it's hard being a woman but they want everyone to hear how hard it is to be a man - give me a break.
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It's really not helping make the world a better place, or, to be frank, it's just spreading more ugliness and unhappiness. This happens quite frequently when somebody with a good heart leaves a well intentioned and virtuous comment and then their belittled for believing in prayer. I don't believe in prayer (in that sense, it's certainly effective on a personal level because it's a form of meditation/catharsis) either but of all the people to claw at, why target the nice ones?
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Ha! Amazing that people can be so blind isn't it? Islam, Islam, I told you Islam is worse than other religions....ah yes, centuries of child molestation and rape that continues to this day and is covered for and accepted by the church. These aren't Islamic evils or Christian evils, they're HUMAN evils. These are things human beings can do to one another if it's made possible by tradition or text. How will they be improved if we can't even see their true source?
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Paedophilia isn't an act - it isn't 'adults having sex with children'. Paedophilia is prepubescent children being attractive looking to a person. This is incredibly important to clarify because what often happens right now is people just say "fucking pedos we should kill them all" and misdirect murderous hatred towards people who haven't done anything to children and didn't choose their attractions any more than anybody else. This is the fault of a media that doesn't care who dies.
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What are you personally doing? When a person says "let's pray for them", it doesn't mean "let's do nothing but pray for them, be sure not to do anything else". Most people are not doing anything to change Yemeni cultural traditions, that includes myself and likely yourself, and if s/he wants to pray for them then she's still doing *no less* than you or I.
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I'm going to do a little "specu-lation" and consider why a person might be compelled to dislike it. They see somebody suffering a plight and hardship far worse than theirs - this irritates some (hence the racism deniers and oppressed men's brigade) and they see heart, passion, and strength that outshines their cold jaded misery. They know this beautiful spark of humanity will be supported and celebrated and they don't like 'the crowd' so they take the opposing position. Just "specu-lation".
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There is no defending or condemning - you are as responsible of finding a child attractive as anybody else is. For whatever reason some people find this hard to grasp but *nobody chooses what looks attractive to them*. What a person DOES choose is what they do in life. You mistakingly imagine that anybody to whom a child looks attractive likes the idea of raping a child, that they have a rapist's mentality. This is not remotely the case, I know this - this is not uninformed assumption.
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False.
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"you disgust me for defending it" How on Earth did I defend it? I didn't. If you want to claim I did then quote me - you perhaps expected to read that but that's not remotely what I wrote. What I said, which you can read above, is that "It's a thankfully outdated practise" as in it's a terrible thing to do but *all* of our ancestors did it. Therefore it's dishonest to single out Mohammed as though we don't all share that ancestral history. You'd have to hate every single person of that era.
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You're completely right. I really should stop being surprised at young teenagers expressing wisdom because it used to annoy me when I was 14 and most people expected me to be simple...but nicely done anyway - life experience is invaluable but age alone *does not* equate to wisdom, as you can tell by reading any online forum! No, other countries can't impose their laws/ethics and assisting asylum seeking children would be the most constructive move. I'm not sure if it would be legally possible--
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An idea isn't judged on its origins but on its morality - morality not as written by any text or as agreed by any arbitrary collection of locals but by the simple and solid 'do not cause harm to others or infringe on their freedom to live without harming others'. I think arranged marriage breaks that - nobody has a choice in the matter, they're a slave to tradition. Two consenting adults choosing to have a relationship is not immoral, them being the same sex doesn't break that basic morality.
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You don't know who you're speaking of. You're probably casually using that word to mean "people who have sex with children" - this is the failing of your media. Because of that, it's not clear who you're actually meaning but the chances are you'd still misdirect hate towards the wrong people anyway because "pedo" and "child molester" have wrongly become interchangeable. A person to whom children are attractive looking is NOT likely to support child sex slavery any more than the next man.
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Yeah I'd really concerned for her now - all life is precious, especially the life of a child, but for her valour and powerful spirit and inspirational beauty of soul we can't let news come in that she's been slaughtered for "bringing shame to her family". Her message and spirit cannot die - it is the essence of humanity, even if within most of us it's buried and lost, but it's so wrong for her the person to die. This is what happens when we lose empathy for other life.
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It's so foolish of people to say "Mohammed was a child molester!" (or even worse "paedophile" which doesn't have anything to do with sex with children - it means those to whom children are attractive looking, I can't overstate the difference) when THEIR ANCESTORS HAD SEX WITH CHILDREN TOO. It's a thankfully outdated practise in most parts of the world but this wasn't the case! There isn't a person here who doesn't have ancestors who married/had sex with what we'd today call children.
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Is there anything more tragic than a child taking their life and is there any greater failing of a society than to see this happen? I understand it's rooted in poverty and done for money for the rest of the family but selling your family to save your family doesn't excuse a thing. I already realised how terrible a thing this was but seeing and hearing it from her is hard to bear. A society that doesn't value its children isn't worthy of the name.
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Such a relief to see that she hadn't committed suicide - the title gave me that fear. Amazing child, amazing human being, this strong and beautiful soul is the human spirit; for all the dead-hearted coldness in the world, there's always beauty and virtue and it's stronger than any man who'd enslave a child could ever be. Traditional behaviour, established norms - create your own world based on true right and wrong, not what your country tells you is normal. So much power and Truth in this child
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They potentially are, they're just not being lived to their full destructive potential at this point in history. It all comes down to 'is a society willing to live by all of the ancient rules that allow for/encourage practises that are considered shocking today'. We could still be murdering non believers who fail to convert and keeping sex slaves in the name of Judaism or Christianity if we wanted.
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At least it was actually voted off this time! That's exactly the kind of thing that resonates with some people here - they defend those who take child (sex slave) brides, defend those who kill kids. If he hadn't have gone the "bullshit it's worse being a female" (during a story of female only sex slavery) I'd have addressed his "but they've giving the slave a nice prison!" argument. I'm thinking it may be better all round that these guys are just left to cry it out.
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She's alive. You made my heart sink there but no, she's alive -unless there's news that's come in to you that I can't find. She was saying that she's willing to die rather than be a slave Your talk of "get rid of every religion" is short sighted though. There is no separation between philosphy and religion -if we can discover methods of finding peace or the nature of existence then this can become religion. Religion is just what happens when a world philosophy outlives its author (see Buddhism)
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But we *do*. Take any ancient Greek philosopher! I don't hear people saying "You're all sickos for celebrating the ideas of Socrates - he raped boys!" It's being selectively focused on without acknowledging that this was standard practise back then, even though it's wrong. The concept of being a child moleser (*not* paedophile - a paedophile is not a child molester but somebody that finds them attractive) today is very different to being a regular person following ancient immoral customs.
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Okay so marry them off to boys who have just hit puberty then. You won't find somebody who questions social attitudes on sexuality more than me but that's just not a sound defence. It's not just that she's having sex, it's *arranged* - as in nothing resembling consent. What's more, she's being given over as property. I'm not a slave to unquestioned social norms, I am a slave to morality and reason though.
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Paedophilia is children (prepubescents) being attractive looking to a person, it is not any act - it is not 'adults having sex with children'. This is incredibly significant because one is a set of attractions in which nobody has any choice and which do not dictate a person's heart, character, or actions; the other is an immoral act. If the two are wrongly conflated then neither will ever be understood and thus the child molestation situation will not be improved.
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This should be know. It doesn't make it right - reality isn't like that (I'm not directing this at you) and we should rise past that simplistic black and white view of things, but it does give us insight into why something like this comes to be. Nothing will be solved or improved without being understood first, we have a natural tendency towards simple explanations/solutions but they don't help. I think we'd all like to help her, we can be united in that.
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I'm not educated enough when it comes to specific individuals but I know pederasty was common practise in that region yet this isn't levelled against historical figures of that era. While pederasty and child marriage are immoral practises, they were normal to people of that time - criticise the societies/cultures on a whole, sure, but to single out individuals and judge them by 2013 standards doesn't fit. It would take a worse person to do what he did today in modern society.
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But societies can and do throw out those practises and still carry on the religious faiths. While I wouldn't say religion has nothing to do with arranged child marriage, I wouldn't say it has everything either. I think many people are missing the source of this - the social practises of human beings. Eliminating religion in one day wouldn't remove the practise, religion just helps legitimise it. I think you make it too black and white when you say "[religion] has everything to do with it"
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--because if they're not protected by their country's law (as abused children are, say, here in England) then I don't know if a charitable organisation could essentially take custody of them. I suppose it could offer to pay whatever the family would have received from the groom (it seems it's typically done for money) and then legally transfer the child to an adoption agency. I'll contact some children's charities and see what the laws are. You have a fine heart and mind.
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